… and I have been all week. I haven’t been able to get to sleep at a reasonable hour (around midnight, for me) for about a week, nor did I manage to sleep in at the weekend, so I’m feeling washed out. My eyes are puffy and the skin around them has gone dark and tired-looking, and it’s got to that point in my life where I’ve started to use eye cream (insert shudder of horror).

On the plus side, I have at least read a lot this week - no point just lying there tossing and turning, is there? - and I’ve managed to finish my 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo a whole two days early (although I don’t think that’s got anything to do with my sleeping patterns or lack thereof). I’m pretty sure I’ll be up till midnight on Friday night though to squeeze out those last few words (I’m going to try and get 55,000 done this year), so I intend to stay in bed till at least midday on Saturday. It’s not like I have anything important to get up for, and maybe that will see me right.

… and specifically, South Africa beating Wales. Nothing new there, anyway. I don’t think we were totally horrendous, and there were some very good points, and South Africa are world champions after all.
Onwards and upwards with the new coach, Warren Gatland, I hope?
Amusingly - or maybe just confusingly - we had two Welsh players on the pitch at one point, both named Rhys Thomas and both in the front row (hooker and prop). This is why the Welsh habit of tagging names with occupations (such as Jones the Steam in Ivor the Engine) developed…

Also today, I am mostly … shopping and cooking

… and other such general Saturday chores. It’s the last Saturday of the month, which means the monthly farmers’ market. Some of the stalls weren’t there today, but I bought meat from my favourite butcher and some veg. We eat well on market weekends.

… about National Novel Writing Month. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one interviewed, as public speaking does make me nervous (sweaty palms and what not). I don’t remember tripping over my words though, which is generally good.

Only a week to go though; I’m currently just under 41,000 words so should make the deadline comfortably for my 50,000. I can’t see me actually finishing the story until well into December though, dammit.

… and wondering whether I’ll regret buying cream ones. But I finally, for the first time in my life, have curtains which match my duvet covers.
(And no, that’s not some sort of euphemism.)

Also today, I am mostly … not writing as much as I should

… for NaNoWriMo. It’s not that my writing is going all that badly, but the nice buffer that I’d built up over the past few weeks has now disappeared due to me not writing very much for a couple of days, so I need to at least be on track to hit 30,000 words tonight… A few sprints should do the trick.
My favourite line in my novel so far is: “You’ve got your own trousers, I hope?”

… on anything for more than about 10 minutes at a time. This is a recurrent problem for me, as evidenced by the fact that I haven’t posted in this blog for months, despite such excitement as visits from family and friends, the Rugby World Cup, a major work deadline, a wedding (not mine), finding a home for the stowaway kitten, Halloween, and the start of NaNoWriMo. Although that last is actually covered by my Sharp Words blog, so that’s alright then, obviously.

It’s been a busy time, that’s the best way to describe the days and weeks that have passed since I last posted here. Who knows? I might actually get myself back in the habit of posting here regularly again. Anything to procrastinate my novel-writing, after all…