Sentence a Day – November

Here we are at the end of another month. I think the two words that could have been used to describe November were messy and wet. Humidity was off the scale and much of the month was grey – as was my mood.

On a day job front, the interstate relocation I’ve been working on for most of the year finally happened so I found myself working on most of my scheduled days off and part of one of the weekends.

November is also NaNoWriMo – the month where I challenge myself to write 50,000 words. Plenty of days I struggled to get my brain out of corporate and into creative mode, and as the day job bled into days off, that was even more challenging. I got there, but with the busyness of the day job, it was much harder going than it usually is.

Anyways, without further palaver let’s close out the month – in a sentence (or more) a day.

1. Back to work after a couple of days off last week to move Sarah. There’s a ludicrous number of emails in my work inbox. It’s the first day of NaNoWriMo and began a new novel.

2. Melbourne Cup Day. These days I can’t be faffed with the race but it does mean that I can officially begin to look forward to Christmas.

3. Happy 13^th birthday to my constant companion, Kali aka Adventure Spaniel.

4. Happy publication day to me for The Little Café By The Lake, or the book I like to call Beach Rd. Paid a deposit for a Cunard cruise leaving Southampton next October. Positive thinking in action.

5. Friday, another day when I wasn’t meant to day job, but ended up working all morning with a correspondingly low word count.

6. Chiro followed by Yandina Markets. Made a French-style lentil and sausage dish for dinner and practised Pear Belle Helene for the book club bake later this month. Got most of the Christmas shopping done.

7. Made cinnamon rolls – thanks Donna for the recipe. Caught up on word count.

8. Rained all night and was still RAINING heavily enough that even I said we weren’t walking – and I enjoy a walk in the rain. More rain on and off during the day. With the Melbourne relocation at the end of this week, I’m working every day this week.

9. Take yesterday and repeat – except that we got a walk in.

10. Same again. Made the chicken, chorizo and tomato traybake from last week’s Local is Lovely newsletter. 

11. More rain, more grey, more humidity, and usual Thursday chaos. Took leftovers from last night and added beans. 

12. Day began with problems in one of the interstate sites and it pretty well went downhill from there. More rain, pool overflowed again. Melbourne relocation started tonight after close of business. Took the leftovers of the leftovers and dropped an egg into it for a working lunch.

13. Saturday. Rain has finally stopped. Lunch out with friends at The Savvy Squire in Mooloolaba.

14. Work calls for most of the day as equipment testing in the new office begins. In between, I made posh scones ie the Fortnum & Mason ones. There’s a bit of faffing and resting time with these, but it’s always worth it, and getting my hands into flour calms me down.

15. Monday. Blue and hot. Busy day sorting out day one in new site teething issues and beginning the make-good of the old site.

16. Take yesterday and repeat.

17. Some rain but managed to get Kali out for a walk at lunchtime. Picked my first few handfuls of beans and cherry tomatoes from the garden. There would have been more, but I ate them off the vine.

18. Busy day and no words written – that sort of day.

19. Friday – more rain and another scheduled day off that I worked through. My brain officially has no more room. Sarah is home for the weekend. Made orange and cinnamon biscuits.

20. Put the Christmas tree up, wrapped presents.

Grant made potato scones and pinwheels for the tree ceremony and I made Hainanese Chicken Rice for dinner.

21. Went back to Hervey Bay with Sarah and dropped in at the service centre to check out Matilda – the old mascot from the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games. I do love roadside “big” things and Matilda is the big kangaroo. So cheesey. Grant had his work Christmas party.

22. Hot, humid, slept badly. Busy day job day. Made salmon and slaw with a smoky sesame dressing.

23. Some great pics of the osprey this morning at Scarness jetty.

Bond clean done in the old unit. Made porcupine meatballs for the first time in about 20 years.

24. Over at the old unit for carpet cleaning and to finish putting everything back as it was. I’ll miss the view and the sea breeze.

So hot so sat in the ocean for a bit when I finished cleaning. Aaaah. Some rain about. Nailed today’s word target with red wine at The Dock.

25. Humidity off the scale, usual busy Thursday, some rain about, dinner with Deb.

26. Lots of overnight rain. Friday and book club baking day (Pear Belle Helene).

Put Sarah’s Christmas tree up.

27. Heavy overnight rain and the world’s biggest cane toad (it had to have been) was sitting outside my window making noises like a duck all night. Truly, I recorded it. Grant came up to Hervey Bay with the last of the furniture we’ve been storing for Sares. Brekky at Hervey Bay General Store, handed back the keys to the old rental. Some storms on the way home. Aaaah, air-conditioning.

28. Slept so well! First night in a week where I’ve had more than 5 hours of sleep. Hit my word count target and then did faff all for the rest of the day – except make shortbread with clove sugar.

29. More rain and a busy day in the office.

30. Take yesterday and repeat. Hit my 50,000 word target for the month.