November motivation

Good morning, Reader,

I can't stay for long, I'm supposed to be writing a novel. On the one hand I'm wildly motivated and enthused, on the other I fear that I'm going to emerge from my cave at the end of November, covered in hair. I'm talking about a thick layer of stinking, matted hair! I'm having to wear noise cancelling headphones and ignore the children to try and meet my word count. It's making me even more insular than normal. I had to drag myself out for a fireworks display at the school last night and I felt quite fearful.

Another thing I'm supposed to be doing is cleaning, this is not something on the top of my list, I can tell you, but my house is mired in, what I like to think of as Bohemian squalor. I have this weird dichotomy between hating housework and resenting the fact that the bulk of it falls to me, and fearing germs. I can't afford a cleaner and a massive dose of liberal conscience would probably prevent me getting one even if I could afford it. So why hasn't anyone invented an affordable robot cleaner yet? I'm deadly serious here, why haven't they? Alexa, clean my house! I think I'd have a male robot cleaner called Sven. I'd program him to make me tea and ask me about my day, maybe we could have some light conversation about the works of Agatha Christie and the best places to go to for afternoon tea. I would talk to him for ages and say  “Stop me if I'm boring you.” And he'd say “Oh, you could never bore me, friend!” Perhaps I could program him to do the school run as well. Oops, I'm starting to get a bit of a crush on Sven.

Anyway, why am I rambling on in this manner? Am I just stopping by to say 'hi’ and keeping you from your day?

It occurs to me that I sometimes advocate things without actually doing them myself, for instance, exercise. I still do a lot of walking, that hasn't changed, but I've been told that it isn't enough (enough for who? Dunno, the health police I suppose). If I say that I'm going to do it here, on this blog, then it acts as a binding, legal contract. So, first off, yoga. I used to do it, quite enjoyed it, felt the benefit. And I'm going to start doing it again, at least 3 times a week.

If I don't stick to it I give you permission to take away my chocolate.

While we're here, I need to have written 50,000 words by the end of this month. NaNoWriMo. I started on the 1st November and have 16,000 words now, so am roughly on target, if I do my 1,666 words today. If I don't complete this task, you can have my beloved, illustrated copy of Pride and Prejudice.

So, we've entered into the contract now. If you like, we could do an exchange and I can come round to yours and kick you until you sign up for that skydiving course you've always been meaning to do. What do you say?

Go Ape: the most challenging thing I've done this year