In Between Worlds

Second day of the Chinese New Year is now officially over. Visited my side of the family today and caught up with my favorite cousin who came back from Scotland. Ate a lot. Talked a lot. The girls enjoyed themselves tremendously.

Came back to consume awesome chicken and abalone soup. More eating of popiah.

Now, winding down for the night.

I put up pictures on my writery blog: Enter The Water Dragon.

Likewise, the novella offer - I have extended it for an extended period. If you like Asian YA (young adult) SFF with a futuristic setting and flying alien pterosaurs, get it at Smashwords.

You noticed that I am posting at DW. LJ is on the fritz again.

( Read more... )

Dot celebrated her birthday on the 1st of August. We had seafood and the birthday girl giggled through the entire dinner, especially when it came to the cake (Barney!).

And happy Lammas to those who celebrate.

One story has been accepted by M-Brane SF.

My school may purchase my books and place them in the library. If the response is good, there may be a book signing (and sale). *checks if Mercury has gone direct*

Work-wise, I am bracing myself for another load of marking (second essay test for the kiddies). I leafed through my first class and winced.

Cub and Dot are beautiful girls. I look at them - they are growing up fast. They give me hugs so readily now... what happens when they become teens? Where did the time go?

Happy St Patrick's to those who celebrate!

Having the March break here (a week, mind). A backlog of marking, since I seem to get waylaid by something. Finally drafted the blog post for SF Signal though.

The girls are fine. Cub is enjoying her holiday. Dot is learning how to jump and knows a few words. They are both very precocious, well, sometimes I just want to pull my hair in frustration.

Working on some issues. Balance, equilibrium and learning how to let go. Some people can't change overnight.

Will write more once I get my thoughts settled.

And two more weeks to book release. EEEPPPP!

So, yes, the household is down with degrees of it. Baby is coughing and sniffling. I am coughing. The weekend has become one of cleaning up after baby.

At least, we got to go out and enjoy the (blistering) sunshine, if you ignore the coughing in the background.

I crave soup. Lots of it.

***

Regarding Wolf At The Door news: I posted this on Twitter recently. Do feel free to signal boost, pass the word around.

Dot came over to me and kissed me. All on her own. No prompt or whatever.

It made my day

It seems that my life is now a series of Excel files masquerading as schedules, proposals and lists. I have never liked Excel. Will never like it in the future. At the moment, I simply tolerate it, just as a wolf tolerates people staring at it.

Hell, I am a wolf. Wolf is chaffing much.

I haven't done much photography in the past few weeks... nay... months. Started doing some simple shots and they came up like crap. I have gone rusty.

Next week, work will ramp up a new notches. I am going to start revising the schedule once more.

Writing wise, I was able to put in some words into my urban fantasy work in progress. The wip is now 51k and counting. I am still worried as to how people would accept/like/hate/meh Book One (out next year).

Baby's fever subsided overnight. Cub's having examinations. It seems that the year is tumbling forward. Soon, it will be Samhain and then Yule.

I did the handover today, returning the stuff back to the school. I felt a weight off my shoulders and a certain sadness, because I did develop some degree of rapport with the kids.

My dad thought that the school had short-changed me and breached the contract.

But he's right: Nobody should treat me like garbage. I have rights too.

Maybe the word 'garbage' is too strong here. I am not expendable. I am not something to be discarded once I have reached the end of my usefulness. Too many times I have witnessed schools treating their staff like that... which is not right at all.

Granted that the main concern is for the students (or the school's overall performance), but teachers have rights too. Overworked, stressed and trying to balance the hideous workload with family life - teachers do not have easy lives. A lot of people say that the pay is good, but at the expense of mental and physical health?

Enough of my ranting. :P

I am keeping myself busy, throwing out resumes and looking after Cub and Dot. Writing my urban fantasy story, enjoying it. Living my life day by day. I am going to see an ENT specialist soon regarding my vertigo problem. I am going to get that thing fixed.

Many thanks to the words of encouragement from all of you!

So we had a long National Day weekend, ending today (which I would then turn in and wake up to Wednesday, to work).

National Day was spent at my folks'. My dad made his honeyed chicken wings, always a tradition in our household. My mom made curry and roti prata. The National Day Parade itself was oddly blase. Sure we had the usual fly-past and the soldiers marching in smart columns - but all the songs were re-hashed and the costumes were tacky. It felt as if the organizers had run out of ideas. It also struck me that the reason why we ran of ideas because we are still looking for that essential Singaporean identity, dammit.

Corrine May's song was folksy, very typical of her style. But so not a National Day song. Too introspective and not catchy enough. It would be nice, though, if she sings in a cosy bar with thoughtful listeners.

But the girls had fun.

I am still debating as to whether I should go for Worldcon. Either way, it's still very expensive. :(

Seventh Month and Ramadan start today

Dot turns ONE tomorrow. We embarked into a frenzy of cleaning the house, because both sets of grandparents will be coming over, together with a horde of relatives.

There will be feasting, merriment and laughter. Dot will probably get showered with presents and kisses. She will enjoy it, she being the social girl she is.

And it's Lammas. I count the blessings and are grateful for the harvest(s) in my life. I also let go of things that haunt me, the dry dessicated things. I throw them into the compost heap of my life, let them become rich, fertile once more.

Gardening update: I need to harvest the pomegranates. They are red now. I hope they are sweet too.