Showing posts with label Should Have Been Me. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Should Have Been Me. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I've got worms!



It's okay, though ~ they're the good kind.


We recently purchased a wormery. I’d wanted one for ages, in much the same way that Carrie Bradshaw wanted Blahniks. Eco-consciousness is the new consumerism, perhaps?

I like to think I’m fairly ‘green’, although I think we probably all like to think that, just as we all like to think we’re good drivers. Or good lovers. But I do try: we recycle with a fervour (husband is almost evangelical about this ~ I contest that he negates the beneficial impact of recycling every single solitary recyclable item by leaving all the lights on when he goes out. At least they’re the energy efficient lightbulbs, though).

We washed at 30 degrees long before the adverts started urging us too, I only use the car once or twice a week, and then only if necessary, we buy organic locally produced veg and we don’t really keep up with technological advances, so we’re not junking a lot of electricals on an annual basis (thought this just as much to do with cash as conscience).

But back to the wormery: I love the idea of popping our food leftovers in there, rather than them going into the bin (and from there a landfill site). And the resultant ‘worm wee’ that you drain from the sump at the bottom is apparently magical in its effect on the garden. Which can only be a good thing, as lusher leafier plants must surely process more carbon dioxide.

I think I fancy myself as a bit of a Barbara Good (although I’m notably less pert of derrierre and disposition) and given the time and space to make it feasibly I’d love a veggie garden and some chickens. No such room in the garden or the timetable, unfortunately, so the wormies are the only livestock I’ll be cultivating in the foreseeable future.

I’m sure this wormery is some sort of metatphor: there’s cycles of nature and nutrients, putting something back in order to sustain our future, and so on, but I haven’t quite pinned it down, yet.

Yet despite a brace of gourmet meals (manky brown lettuce from the bottom of the fridge with a couple of tea bags for dessert on Saturday, some old baguette, more tea bags and some tops and tails of aubergines and broccoli stems yesterday ~ makes your mouth fair water, doesn’t it?) they don’t seem to be very wriggly or proactive. I fear the wormery may be a short-lived venture….. If anyone out there has any tips on perking up your wrigglies I’d muchly appreciate some advice.

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W.I.P still ticking along ~ must get round to doing some typing up, word-counting and meter-updating.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Ok, Deep breath, here goes: First page

A few months back Liz Fenwick wrote about the first page challenge. At the time I was far too much of a scaredy-bairn to post mine (although I tried plucking up the courage several times) and probably with good reason. That novel is in a semi-permanent staet of hibernation right now ~ it may have been the right book at the wrong time, perhaps, and maybe it will prove revivable at some point.

However, since then I have moved onto a new project which I'm far more motivated about, and I'm determined to do it justice. So, in a "c'mon, gels!" spirit of derring-do I tentatively present what is currently the opening page of "Should Have Been Me". Would you want to read on?




Should Have Been Me

It could have been me. No, not ‘could’. ‘Should’. It should have been me. Why not? It’s not that I’m bad looking, and I’ve certainly got the raw talent, if not the polish. I would have had an agent, one who was far-sighted enough to see the potential in me, take me under their wing and nurture that burgeoning ability, secure in the knowledge that once I got to the top they’d be raking it in. Because we’d remain friends, really close, ‘like sisters’, I’d say in interviews. I wouldn’t abandon them at the first sniff of fame and all of the fawning alternative offers that would bring with it.

No. I would remain true to my roots, close to the friends who knew me before I was someone. I’d be nice to the people I met on the way up (even though there was no real need; I certainly didn’t intend making my way back down). That would be one of the traits that would endear me ever more to the general public ~ that I was so ordinary. ‘Grounded’, they’d say, just like one of us, really, despite all the success. The girl next door with a little bit more.

Could have, should have been me. Why wasn’t it?

I’m Sonia Thompson, and you’ve never heard of me.