Call Myself A Writer?

It has been a difficult week and I've hardly done any writing. I am so easily distracted by life and events that I get really cross with myself. I have very little self-discipline these days.

On Monday my husband had the day off and took me out for a pub lunch. I had wine. When we got back, we watched TV for the rest of the afternoon. So lazy!

On Tuesday I did a longish bike ride, then called on my ex-mother-in-law for a coffee and a chat. Then I had to make a trip to the florists to pay the bill and take in the cards for the family flowers ready for the funeral on Friday. In the afternoon I read several short stories and threw a tantrum when the bathroom fitter shouted, 'See you tomorrow!'. I had hoped he'd have finished so that I could get on with the big clearing up operation. I sulked, listened to some new CDs and drank wine. Oh dear.

On Wednesday I managed another bike ride. The bathroom fitter was late arriving, as his van broke down. I decided to start blitzing the kids' bedrooms and accomplished a massive amount. I managed to throw about 8 bags of rubbish into the skip and fill 6 ready for the charity shop. The bathroom was finally finished, so a cause for celebration. I didn't achieve anything vaguely writerly unless you count checking the Write Invite email to see my story 'came close' in last Saturday's competition. At least Nancy won Great British Bake Off.

The day got off to a bad start when I noticed my bike had a puncture. Not to be deterred, I took Megan's bike out, but my knees were up by my chin somewhere and it was too uncomfortable to ride further than round the block. I felt emotionally wobbly all day and burst into tears when my usual charity shop said they weren't taking any more donations for the time being. Thankfully, the lady in the Oxfam shop was incredibly grateful for the 6 bags of items from Megan's room. I then went to The Range to stock up on new bathroom accessories. At least that was the idea. They had very little in stock and I ended up with just a new bath mat and a new wine glass. I then forced myself to type up an old Write Invite entry with a view to tweaking it for one of the womags, except I didn't actually get round to the tweaking bit (call myself a writer!!). Nige and I managed to lug the solid pine chest of drawers down the stairs from Megan's room for the people who were collecting it. Isn't freecycle a wonderful thing? Nige attempted to mend my puncture.

So... Friday and the day of my ex-father-in-law, Ralph's funeral. Nige's puncture repair hadn't worked, but he did raise the seat on Megan's bike so that I was at least able to go for a therapeutic bike ride before getting ready for the funeral. I was very proud of my son who performed a couple of songs on his acoustic guitar as a tribute to his grandad. My nephew, Ryan read the most beautiful and fitting tribute entitled, Such a Lovely Man. It was so well written. Perfect. Lovely as it was to see family and friends, it was a very sad day (made me miss my late husband so much) and when I returned home from the wake, I was fit for nothing.

I did enter Write Invite last night, but wasn't feeling the love. I wasn't at all happy with my story, but I guess it can be reworked at a later date. That's what I love about Write Invite. It forces you to write for half an hour even if you're not remotely in the mood.

So..... onwards and upwards. I really need to get more writing done this week and tackle that mountain of housework.