tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21722638237348288752008-07-17T07:09:04.278+08:00Mostly just life, with a little bit of writing thrown in for flavour.MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-21539044395370438832008-01-10T11:21:00.000+08:002008-01-10T11:26:02.775+08:00

I had a dream about the baby the other night. He was running around really fast and I said to hubby that he should not be that mobile so young. That's when I realised I had given birth to a rabbit. He was cute, a little brown-furred bunny. But unmistakably a rabbit. I can't believe I didn't notice earlier.

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-44714120720399973252008-01-09T06:34:00.000+08:002008-01-09T10:34:30.978+08:00

October 2007, huh? Almost 3 months without a peep. Thanks to those of you who checked up on me, but I'm fine. I think. What happened; number one, hubby knocked me up, the bugger. No seriously, we're thrilled to bits. It's late in life for me to be a mum, but I'm running with it. Unfortunately I didn't cope to well in the first trimester so a few things went for a slide. Friends included!

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-84809051425350212452007-10-20T08:22:00.000+08:002007-10-20T08:26:48.383+08:00

I picked up two movies the other day; Van Helsing and Vanity Fair. Vanity fair was everything you would expect of the adaptation of a literary masterpiece; completely depressing. Van Helsing. Well. I was expecting a rocking action film with elements of the traditional vampire movie. What I got was a farce. The dialogue was lame, the plot was lame, the characters were overdone and, yes,

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-54086635624703854902007-10-14T08:52:00.000+08:002007-10-14T08:55:23.359+08:00

It's nice to know that legendary authors also have trouble with stories that refuse to stick to the required length. Not that I'm comparing myself to Gaiman in any way, but it's nice to know pro authors have the same problems as amateurs like me. Makes me feel much better. So is expanding story your biggest problem, or do you have another writing bugbear to defeat?

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-47439098198851428662007-10-12T07:18:00.000+08:002007-10-12T07:26:23.042+08:00

This is the continuation of the last posted snippet. It's rough, I didn't have time to polish. But at least it's up here. ----------- The thunder of the transports startled me out of my stupor and I hunched automatically, before looking around. They flew in low, coming around from the sun side. For a moment I thought about staying where I was. They would find me during a routine sweep,

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-33330759051347295322007-10-10T07:06:00.000+08:002007-10-10T07:09:33.791+08:00

A tsunami of bunnies.

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-82969859752698236682007-10-02T06:06:00.000+08:002007-10-02T06:13:01.852+08:00

Before Mum rocked up for her holiday, Hubs and I had embarked upon a change of life. Daily cleaning, daily exercise and eating right. It was actually going quite well until the holiday put a solid stop to it. However, now that visitors and neck problems are a thing of the past, we are (trying) to get back into the routine. The eating is on track - remind me to post the recipe for Green Tea

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-24184521453691278232007-10-01T08:07:00.000+08:002007-10-01T08:09:50.038+08:00

Mum left us last Sunday, and had a good trip back. I however developed a pinched nerve in my neck which made my right arm pretty much unusable. I'm ok now, but that was not fun, not fun at all. I haven't been online much because I had to do everything left handed, and I'm really hopeless at steering the mouse with my left hand. Hugs to everyone and thanks for the hellos :)

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-8574962007331308392007-09-20T11:38:00.000+08:002007-09-20T11:42:30.539+08:00

Three days until my mother goes home. Three. Long. Days. I know I shouldn't feel like this, but the last 2 and a half weeks have been a real strain. We are completely different people. We don't talk. We have very little in common. In fact, I think the only thing that keeps us together is a mutual love of birds and gardening. Dear old Mumsy. Bless her cotton socks, she drives me crazy.

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-26408719830053487382007-09-14T08:39:00.000+08:002007-09-14T08:42:39.156+08:00

We're back, abut about to go again. The trip report is up at Dabbler, for those who are interested. The photo to the left was taken at 6am. It was 5 degrees celsius. We were standing at No 1 Windmill, waiting for the birds to come in for a morning drink. There was so much sky, you really felt like you could just leap off the earth, because there really is nothing between you and the stars.

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-43490590981334599652007-09-03T19:47:00.001+08:002007-09-03T19:52:02.618+08:00

What do you think, new internet fad? I am having a good week. Some excellent birding (to be posted to Dabbler soon), the quitting of a really boring and pointless subject and a really excellent glass of shiraz. Oh, and did I mention that I love my job? (That's a Pacific Black Duck, by the way.) Cheers!

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-63020082800148909692007-08-30T21:59:00.000+08:002007-08-31T09:01:05.166+08:00

I'm at the tail end of the lurgy, which is lovely. I swear I've gone through a forest-worth of tissues though. Tonight I finally sat down and created the birding blog that I had planned for so long. I also managed to get the brown honeyeater song to work, if you are interested in hearing it. I had a lot of fun doing the images and layout for the birding blog. I really should do something

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-54465079684336960292007-08-27T21:57:00.000+08:002007-08-27T22:01:06.650+08:00

Sorry I have been incommunicado. Have a noxious cold and feeling miserable, as you do when afflicted. Very excited though about the upcoming holiday. Will tell you more soon.

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-33641235156592339862007-08-23T06:53:00.000+08:002007-08-23T06:56:37.158+08:00

Thanks guys for your comments. I'll upload and see what happens. Brown Honeyeater Hmm. Well, it takes an age to download and half of it is missing, but at least you can hear a bit. I'll work on it.

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-31457152055394944922007-08-19T14:28:00.000+08:002007-08-19T14:46:07.881+08:00

I bought a new toy yesterday. A JNC Digital Recorder, for the purpose of recording birdsong. This morning I got out of bed at a ridiculous hour for a Sunday to go down to the nearest national park and test it out. The birds were in full cry and I had a lovely time getting recordings. They sounded very static-y when I played them back though, and I was really disappointed. However, when I

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-62608866493390377462007-08-16T19:40:00.001+08:002007-08-16T20:20:35.632+08:00

Inspiration hits and away we go. ---------------- There comes a point when you hurl, when there's nothing left to bring up. Your body keeps going though, trying to purge itself of whatever poison is inside. It's profoundly unsatisfying. Eventually you lie there, with vomit coating your tongue and vomit up your nose and vomit on your chin and you just shudder. That was the stage I was at

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-81798529972394096872007-08-14T20:36:00.000+08:002007-08-14T20:51:06.907+08:00

Two days into the new routine and we are sticking with it. Far to early to tell if it's going to be a stayer, but boy is the house clean. So, another meme. I like these question ones. 1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No. Mum just liked my name. I hate it. 2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Erm...can't remember. I think last year during depression episode. 3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-84342813067029768042007-08-12T09:08:00.001+08:002007-08-12T18:16:00.706+08:00

Yesterday we were supposed to go to a birthday party, at a farm about an hour north of Perth. We had written instructions that seemed reasonably simple; drive north until you reach Bindoon (yes, that's a real town), find the pub, turn left and drive for 3 kms. How easy is that? The first part went off without a hitch; we drove north and got to Bindoon. Unfortunately our instructions failed us

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-22495282596907283712007-08-11T09:49:00.000+08:002007-08-11T10:01:59.373+08:00

Thanks guys for your encouraging comments. I mean really thanks. You're right, it's just a change. A shuffle in my life that's directed my energies elsewhere. I can get through this. I will stop being a NOW person and sit back and just take it as it comes. No really, you can stop laughing now. What I need to do is get back to the organised person I used to be. The list-making,

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-19354468436179574742007-08-09T08:00:00.000+08:002007-08-09T08:08:31.854+08:00

It's confession time. I have been lax. I have not written a word in 2 weeks. I don't know why. I don't know what happened. I can't even pinpoint the when. But my writing switch is stuck on "off". I'm not even thinking about my stories. Nothing. No little character sketches in my head, no dialogue, no scenes, nothing. I don't even have any new ideas. And that has never happened in

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-88984222667242294802007-08-07T06:54:00.001+08:002007-08-07T07:02:18.810+08:00

We went up to Toodyay on the weekend (yes, that's a real town) to see the Avon Descent, which is about 400 mad canoeists going down the flooded Avon River in the middle of winter. Mad, the lot of them. We had a great look around though and I remembered to bring the camera for once! First photo is Noble Falls. Dry as a bone in summer, absolutely gushing in winter. This is the old mill at

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-2257715178226393092007-08-01T07:22:00.000+08:002007-08-01T07:27:39.310+08:00

You know, before I started this new job, this part-time job that I love and that apparently gives me all this free time, I used to post 6-8 times a week. Now I'm lucky to post twice. It's not that I have run out of things to say. It's just that I don't turn on the browser at work anymore, therefore I'm not tempted to blog. My days fly by just doing work. What an odd feeling. In progress

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-5064311408821583882007-07-30T19:20:00.000+08:002007-07-30T19:21:47.614+08:00

I found this on one of the blogs I frequent and had to share. Don't follow the link if you haven't finished HP:7. SPOILER ALERT! Last Stand

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-1004535851151923802007-07-27T18:25:00.000+08:002007-07-27T19:34:06.120+08:00

I can't believe it's Friday already. The week has just flown by. Nothing exciting, just good work and writing and just, you know, day to day. It's been a great week; I hope yours was great too. This weeks snippet is from Dead Sands, which I posted a couple of weeks ago. More of Starline and his father on the remains of their dead world. This is after they've crash landed, and are walking to

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2172263823734828875.post-13221518351363179612007-07-22T16:43:00.001+08:002007-07-22T16:56:38.251+08:00

All right. No more excuses. I'm as settled into the new routine as I'm ever going to be, so it's time to set some weekly goals. 1. Finish the story about the alien rescuing his father from prison. I'm about 1/3 of the way through, but plotted to the end. I just need to sit down and finish it. 2. Edit Wolf Winter and put it up somewhere for critique. 3. Start worldbuilding so I can turn

MerylFhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10255083486196598825noreply@blogger.com