The Long Haul

Apologies...

Apologies, dear reader, for my absence. Life suddenly got very hectic. I have been doing so much work in the evenings I've not had time for my blog. Neither have I had a lot of heart as some of our financial plans were thwarted by unforeseen circumstances. Dur du-duuur! I see this blog as being about positivity, and need to be in a chipper frame of mind to write that way, hence I didn't write. However, plans are adjusted following our disappointment, so the mood lighting of this scene is a tad warmer and accompanied by some soft jazz. Chill... everything's gonna work out just fine...

Hello, hello?

 

Hello new follower, Bruce! Welcome.  I promise it's not always this chaotic round here. 

I am a Horror Writer. Welcome to my Darkplace...

Author... Dreamweaver...

What a couple of weeks I have had!  Over in writer/editor/science fiction land I have been working like crazy. A short  story has been finished and sent to my editor for publication a little later this year,  and I have been busy with BSFA Award stuff too. They will be announced next week. Editorial work has been taking up most of my time, though. I'm currently working on a memoir for a private commission at the moment which is very intensive, but the old East End character of the writer's voice shines through, so I'm thrilled to be helping with what will be a lovely and unique family heirloom. 

Over on the Northampton Science Fiction Writers Group blog, co-Chairman Ian Whates has summarised everything we've been up to in 2013. It already looks like this year is going to be even busier. Except I'm not getting married again. Apart from that, really, really busy.

One thing OH and I are getting up to this year is script-writing with comedian Tom Young, the purposes of which I will keep shush for now. Very excited about this project though. A clue... it's pretty geeky.

If Your Name's Not on the List, You Might Still Be Able to Get In, I'll Just Check...

I have also been bouncing again.  This time for Robin Ince, who this time came to NN with Jo Neary (who I performed with in the old Fishmarket a couple of years back),  George Egg and Grace Petrie. What a marvellous night! Robin was doing his Dirty Book Club - like the Bad Book Club, only more sexah.  My verdict: very, very funny - all of them. I  love Grace Petrie's songs, too; I have been listening to her for a while.  Also, I got to try maple bacon as cooked by George Egg. Egg does bacon pancakes very well. This might sound like I was so impressed with the acts I ended up staying for breakfast,  oo-er, but it was an act thing and I don't want to describe it in detail,  as you may very well go and see him do it,  which you should. 

Robin Ince: dressing like he means it.

I've Seen Bigger...

I have also been complaining. I'd like to say my complaints were always as successful as this one. You know about Mars' recent health-drive to save us calories? Well, they've improved the recipe and downsized their chocolate bars. Very worthy, and I can't argue with that. But I did take exception to paying for a load of air.

But I got an apology from them - their cutting machines had cut my bar too short they reckoned. And a sweet £2 voucher. Get in!

Scratting About

I also gained 25p in 'Found money' this week for my Sealed Pot Challenge. I put a quid's leftover change in 20p pieces into OH's much depleted Doctor Who DVD collection, and earned my first Quidco cashback. 69p. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

  

I Appear to Have Gone Bananas

 So, I left you on a bit of a cliffhanger.  What did I do with the rest of the bananas? 

Well,  I made chutney.  So you can breathe now.  Right after you've stopped spluttering.  Banana chutney? Yes indeed.  Very lush it is too. 

 

*Imagine here a picture of the actual chutney I haven't taken yet*

We're talking 8s and 9s here

 I used: 5 overripe bananas

1 wrinkly Golden Delicious

8 pitted chopped dates

1 red chilli (this was a yellow sticker buy)

3 really small onions from a  savers bag - one medium one would be equivalent

pinch salt

250ml white wine vinegar

100g soft brown sugar

1 tablespoon ground ginger

Really was as simple as frying the onions and spices, adding the fruit and vinegar, then the sugar, bubbling it away for a bit, then storing it in jars as you would jam. I sterilised my jars first, and added a greaseproof disc to the top of the chutney. This stops the metal tainting the chutney. Then, to properly seal, I boiled the closed jars in some water for a few minutes. A great way of using up fruit that's no good for eating as fruit anymore.

How Not to Be a Right 'Nana.

 

How are we all doing? Keeping up the resolutions? Good, good...

 

I have to say I am feeling pretty proud of myself so far...  firstly, I did the very first Parkrun of the year even though it was tipping it down with rain!! As a 'well done' I was allowed entry to a competition to win a place at the Virgin London Marathon. Maybe I'll do a marathon this year then? Or not... Oh Cripes; hope I don't actually win...

 

Then when I got in, I noticed OH had accidentally opened a letter for me from the bank. Apparently I'd gone over my overdraft limit and they were going to charge me £10. TEN SQUID! I was livid!

 

I have signed up for a text alert so I get notification if I am nearing my limit within £50 or so. I can then go into my account online and pay in money to my account before 3.30pm to make sure I don't get charged. On the day in question I got the alert because I was close to the limit. So I went online, made sure I wasn't actually over, and then checked again at various points through the day. So I knew darn well I hadn't been.

 

Most people would just shrug their shoulders and eat more chocolate at such news. But I work hard to earn every tenner and I'm not going to put up with a charge like that. I mean a tenner - that's a round!

 

I decided to call in at the bank in person and sort it out. If you are ever going to do this, you must remember the golden rules of (cuts both ways) customer service:

 

• Remember the person serving you is a human being; never be aggressive or rude. Keep your eyes friendly, your voice calm.
• Use phrases like, I understand why you have to say that, but; I appreciate your position on that particular issue, however. Basically, soften up before you say 'but'.
• They do have to be a gatekeeper and say no, but be persistent. And persistence shouldn't become aggressively persistent. If you reach an impasse, pause before going back to an earlier point.
• A good way of getting them to understand where you are coming from is to ask questions. "If these transactions were done overnight, shouldn't I have seen them on my statement in the day?"
• Don't argue about anything you know you are wrong about - you will trip up. They've seen it all and can spot chancers a mile off.
• Remember to say thank you - a lot. Thank them for checking the facts again, looking things up for you, and thank them after they have helped.

 

And, dear reader, you will be pleased to know after a bit of persistence, I got my money back. And then the same person was an absolute lovely and helped me bag up my post-Christmas piggy bank change so I could bank it.

 

It's worth noting that when you sign up to an overdraft facility it's at the bank's discretion. But they look at the long-term benefits of letting you have access to services like that (because they can make more money) and as long as you don't become a credit risk or a bit of a banking lemon, it does them more good to keep you on side. Hence, going into my branch  - often - works for me.

 

And then I ate the chocolate anyway.

 

So, week 1 of 2014 and I'm making the most of what I can get, which this week was bananas. I picked up a bag of 15 for 19p. Some of them were still good eaters, but there were a couple turning very brown, some black. This is the state people think chuck/banana cake, but we wanted to do something a bit different. I had a special request from OH, who doesn't really do breakfast, but wanted some energy bars to help fuel morning exercise. I adapted this recipe from one in an old, old Weightwatchers book to do the business:

 

Banana Energy Bars

 

Yes, they're full of sugar, so have limited claim to actually being 'healthy'. But they are full of all natural ingredients and you get slow release energy from the oats as well as fast release from the sugar.

 

Ingredients and facts:

 

 

• Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C, Gas mark 4. Line and grease your tray (about 17 x 25cm - I used a lasagna dish).

• In a saucepan, slowly melt together the 100g spread, 50g sugar and 50g honey. When it's all melted, set aside to cool down a bit.

• Sift 100g self-raising flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl, add the 125g oats, 50g sunflower seeds and 40g chopped dates.

• Mash the bananas together, mix in beaten egg. Add this to the flour mixture.

• Stir in the syrupy mixture.

 

• Pour into the baking tray/lasagna dish/whatever you have, and bake for 25 minutes or so. It should be firm to the touch and golden brown.

• Let it cool for a bit, then cut into 10 bars.

 



 

Of course, this didn't use many of the  bananas... tomorrow I will let you know what I did with the rest. Nothing rude... just another recipe thing.

 

In the meantime, listen to a creepy story read by creepy old me. It's live now on Pseudopod. I read The Violin Family by James Douglas, which won second place in the Escape Artist Forum's Flash Fiction Contest 2013.

Am I Becoming a Corporate Whore?

I'm having another creative night tonight as I'm currently making a present for someone. As it's a present, I can't say what it is - but it's looking cool as... I want it!

Part of the process has involved spraying things in the garden with plastikote... but I am feeling guilty as more should be done in the garden than just spraying things. Things got riotous during May here, and the lawn is only partially strimmed. I don't have a garden - I have a wasteland. And the shed window has fallen out. Ah well, at least I know what I'm doimg this weekend. Thanks for the DIY vouchers, wedding guest. They came in bloody useful very quickly.

I don't want to get too personal with this blog. Things could be easy and aren't. Harmony could rule... but I'm proud that I am in control, a plan is in place and my A-Z ticker now has a 2% dent in it. Woo!

I have to say, my usual favourite frugal/saving blogs and their commenters are making me feel a bit sad at the moment... changes in fortune... fallings out maybe? To me it seems some people have begun a journey with a certain set of goals, and maybe now they've achieved them and moved on to other goals,  they've adapted their principles slightly. Or haven't... Perhaps the experiences or ideas they are writing about no longer chime with the same set of people that their blog once did... but does it really matter? I don't think so.

If you want to talk about how people can change their principles, just look at me. I was a lifelong veggie until ths time last year. I just had bacon for my tea! All those Christmases my mom tried to find me something I could have instead of turkey and despaired at my fussy ethics, were they for nothing? I don't actually think so. Veggie me is still in there, somewhere...

And now I'm not only a meat-eating traitor, I'm also a corporate whore. This week I signed up to a Nectar card, even though Mark Thomas told us all to cut up our loyalty cards and I had jolly well done so. I even downloaded the toolbar to get points for searches, so the evil machine is gathering info on me as I type. It knows I was just researching glue! It doesn't know why, only that I did. But I get POINTS!

Double evil - I have subtly monetized this blog through Amazon Associates, which will probably earn me nothing at all. Caveat Clicky Browser Emptor. That is, if you go browsing Amazon after clicking a link from here and then buy something I get POINTS! (That's only the links going through to Amazon. Everything else is just a link. Hover your mouse over anything blue and underlined to see. It's up to you if you click and buy soething the other side... certainly I will not link any small press books to Amazon as I would rather encourage you to by direct so the publishers and writers can actually make some money themselves.Others I will. Message ends.)

Hopefully I've redeemed myself slightly by using a more ethical cashback site. That's ICE who work with ethical companies who try to limit their environmental impact. I use it to buy my usual bus card, and any train tickets that aren't heading in the direction of London or the South East from here. It's stuff I need to use, I get it cheap and with added POINTS!!! get money off the same in the future. It's a no-brainer.

I've just finished another book. London Falling by Paul Cornell. Loads of people seem to be reading this at the same time as me - great to see the book doing so well. I saw Paul last week at the British Science Fiction Association AGM and told him how I'd met people in the US reading this too.

I have to say, I absolutely loved this book, but... how can I put it? It's difficult when you know Paul - who is lovely, and kind, and nicely spoken - to imagine  him writing this.  I shall explain...

London Falling is a gritty police procedural, with a gritty supernatural edge to it. You've got Quill, with a bad temper and a drinking habit, in charge of a seemingly mundane undercover operation. He is looking after his UCs: Costain, who is half-in-love with a criminal lifestyle himself, poised to be the bad apple and go native, constantly coked up to the eyeballs; and Sefton, also UC, but hated by Costain and bullied by him for being gay. 

The team are trying to bring down Rob Toshack, a notorious gang lord, and Costain is on the verge of ruining the operation when he gets a sudden admission that means an arrest can take place. Toshack is taken into custody, but before evidence can be gathered by interview, Toshack suddenly dies in mysterious and violent circumstances.

Lisa Ross is added to the team; not a copper but a police analyst. On a trip to one of Toshack's houses to gather evidence, the four undergo a supernatural accident and are left vulnerable to the evil souls who think they rule London, but are now also empowered to do something about them. With wicked witches, football fixes, and child murder all thrown into the pot, a highly entertaining and well-written story is brewed. And with strong language throughout, you may raise an eyebrow like you would if you learned Hary Potter had grown up to be Danny Dyer. Very intelligent horror, and the first of a series. Good oh!