(no subject)
Mar. 16th, 2011 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
endlessraritiesYesterday was Elbow night, so I had no time to blog...
Elbow aside, it was a peculiar day, right from the moment I pulled out of the driveway. Those readers who have been following this blog from the early days will recollect that I had a number of goals for 2010, which included getting my thesis published (at last) and various other things. One of the various other things was the unexpected publication (for the fourth time) of a short story I first penned way back in 1989. It won a competition, and it's probably been the most successful thing I've ever written. Which is a bit galling, considering I scribbled it out and edited it over a 24 hour period, and I've written a lot more since which means a whole lot more to me...
The story in question was a piece of speculative fiction set in Scotland in the near-ish future. Inspired by the deregulation of the bus industry, I envisaged a futuristic Glasgow based loosely on medieval or late prehistoric society, where political authority rested not in the hands of a warrior elite, but in a bus-driving elite. Yes, it sounds weird, but for some absurd reason, it worked.
One of the then MD's of those companies featured in the story liked it so much that he asked me if I'd be willing to let him reprint it in a forthcoming book he was writing. I agreed - the story's more than earned its keep in the last twenty years, so I was quite happy to let him include it. But it was a bit annoying when I found out last week that the book has now been published and that I wasn't invited to attend its launch a few weeks back.
This is the background to the Weird Co-incidence of the Day. As I was driving to work yesterday, I swung to a halt at the nearby road junction, and paused there while a bus drove past. Well, blow me down, but... What I'd assumed was just a normal, bog-standard bus was in fact painted in the livery of this long-defunct bus company which I'd featured in that story twenty odd years ago...
So I had a moment where I sat there thinking 'huh????' before I headed off to work. And once I got there, I endured the most horrible, unpleasant day, struggling on through a revolting snowstorm. I won't call it a blizzard, because that's too strong.
To add to my woes, I stumbled through the front door, cold, tired, hungry, and in a desperate rush to get to the Elbow gig, to discover that my consignment of Sweet Peas had arrived from Thomson & Morgan. This was comforting, because I've heard nothing from T & M and I wasn't sure that they'd processed my order (though the cheque had been cashed, which made me hopeful). But it meant I had to start the whole rigmarole of repotting etc., which will be taking up a lot of my time over the next ten days or so. Until it's time to plant them out, my house will be full of small peat-dwelling lodgers, and rapidly taking on the flavour of a greenhouse.
Roll on springtime!!!
Elbow aside, it was a peculiar day, right from the moment I pulled out of the driveway. Those readers who have been following this blog from the early days will recollect that I had a number of goals for 2010, which included getting my thesis published (at last) and various other things. One of the various other things was the unexpected publication (for the fourth time) of a short story I first penned way back in 1989. It won a competition, and it's probably been the most successful thing I've ever written. Which is a bit galling, considering I scribbled it out and edited it over a 24 hour period, and I've written a lot more since which means a whole lot more to me...
The story in question was a piece of speculative fiction set in Scotland in the near-ish future. Inspired by the deregulation of the bus industry, I envisaged a futuristic Glasgow based loosely on medieval or late prehistoric society, where political authority rested not in the hands of a warrior elite, but in a bus-driving elite. Yes, it sounds weird, but for some absurd reason, it worked.
One of the then MD's of those companies featured in the story liked it so much that he asked me if I'd be willing to let him reprint it in a forthcoming book he was writing. I agreed - the story's more than earned its keep in the last twenty years, so I was quite happy to let him include it. But it was a bit annoying when I found out last week that the book has now been published and that I wasn't invited to attend its launch a few weeks back.
This is the background to the Weird Co-incidence of the Day. As I was driving to work yesterday, I swung to a halt at the nearby road junction, and paused there while a bus drove past. Well, blow me down, but... What I'd assumed was just a normal, bog-standard bus was in fact painted in the livery of this long-defunct bus company which I'd featured in that story twenty odd years ago...
So I had a moment where I sat there thinking 'huh????' before I headed off to work. And once I got there, I endured the most horrible, unpleasant day, struggling on through a revolting snowstorm. I won't call it a blizzard, because that's too strong.
To add to my woes, I stumbled through the front door, cold, tired, hungry, and in a desperate rush to get to the Elbow gig, to discover that my consignment of Sweet Peas had arrived from Thomson & Morgan. This was comforting, because I've heard nothing from T & M and I wasn't sure that they'd processed my order (though the cheque had been cashed, which made me hopeful). But it meant I had to start the whole rigmarole of repotting etc., which will be taking up a lot of my time over the next ten days or so. Until it's time to plant them out, my house will be full of small peat-dwelling lodgers, and rapidly taking on the flavour of a greenhouse.
Roll on springtime!!!
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 09:28 pm (UTC)It's that time of the year when small peat-dwelling lodgers tend to take over so enjoy working with your sweetpeas! I adore them for they bring back memories of my grandmother who grew them every year without fail.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-16 10:06 pm (UTC)It's not my usual strain of sweet peas, but it looks like a good one.
My only problem is that when I buy 50 sweet peas, I want 50 sweet peas, not ten clumps of 5, so I undertake major root canal work and seperate them. They don't like it much, but they recover soon enough and I get good plants in the long run.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-17 11:52 am (UTC)I just love the phrase "small peat-dwelling lodgers"! I'm afraid my house must be a place of horror to plants because so many of them have died once in my clutches. :(