The Week

Happy Friday! Here's what I've been up to this week 😎

Monday

I spent most of Monday working on the latest Callie letter. Diving into her world for a few hours a week is one of my favourite things to do. It's a weird deja vu for me, because the deeper I get into the project, the more I discover it's more autobiographical than I realised. It's a little bit the story of my screenwriting life, yet at the same time exploring this gorgeous twenties world, so it's cathartic in so many ways.

Started a new handstands class in the evening, which I LOVED.

Tuesday

Today was a Stranger day. I'm almost half way through the third and final season of my Storytel Original, The Stranger. It is incredibly precious and satisfying to have had the opportunity to tell these characters' entire stories. I'm already starting to miss them and I've got five episodes to go!

Wednesday

Well today was utterly destroyed by a rowing machine! I've had the maddest saga attempting to buy a rowing machine. I first came up with the idea back around Christmas, and I found a good January sale deal. Unfortunately it was delivered when I had Covid, so I had to get the guys to leave it at the door, then I took about seven hours, stopping for small naps every few centimetres, to drag it into my spare room... where I proceeded to entirely forget it was there.

Until a few weeks ago, I embarked on a new health kick, remembered I meant to get into rowing, and THEN remembered I already had a rowing machine in my house. I got it out, spent an evening assembling it, then hopped on, all set to enter my new phase as a fit, rowing person.

Until ten minutes later, when it broke.

Next day, I phoned the company. They assured me it was still under guarantee so they would send a man out to repair it. Fab, said I. The man did not show up for ten days. When he finally arrived, he took one look at the rowing machine, announced he could not fix it, and went away again.

I phoned the company again and told them to take their machine back.

By now, I was into the idea of being a fit, rowing person, so I decided to purchase myself a second rowing machine. This time, I decided to pay for them to assemble it. I also paid for Express delivery.

I got an email the following day to say it was due for delivery... seven days later, which is a funny idea of Express, but fine.

Then I got a second email, telling me that the installation would be done up to ANOTHER week later, which was nuts.

I phoned the installation man, he said he might be able to come on the same day as delivery, but he needed to know what time the delivery would be. No probs, said I, I'm sure they'll be able to give me a window.

Phoned them up, they said they weren't sure and would phone me back. The next day I phoned them again. They said they weren't sure and would phone me back. The next day... well, you get the idea.

Finally making my peace with the fact it was not going to be installed on Wednesday, I cancelled that man and booked another man for Thursday. All week, they had been telling me that they couldn't tell me when on Wednesday it would arrive, but it would definitely arrive on Wednesday.

IT DID NOT ARRIVE ON WEDNESDAY.

I discovered this by phoning them to find out what was going on when I still hadn't received a delivery window by mid afternoon. 'Oh, it won't be coming at all,' said them. Breezily. Turns out, only half of it had made it as far as Glasgow.

I phoned them back and told them to keep their machine.

I have now purchased a THIRD rowing machine.

I shall keep you posted.

All that left me in the foulest mood, so I decided to head in for the last hour of my shift volunteering at my local hospital (part of the reason I'd been frustrated they couldn't give me any window for delivery). That turned out to be the best decision. I ended up doing the Charleston for the A&E waiting room, which put me in a much better mood.

Thursday

Another Stranger day. Bit slow going for no particular reason which was annoying, but I'm in plenty of time for the deadline so far, so not too stressful. Paddleboarding with my friend Lindsay was rained off so I wandered up to a local pub where I worked on the Fika Books world domination plans with a glass of wine.

Friday

Today I'm bashing on with Stranger this morning -- fingers crossed for a better day than yesterday! -- then it's off to the hospital again. May or may not Charleston, no promises. Finishing off the day with a delicious aerial yin yoga which I cannot wait for!

This weekend, I've got a pottery class and roller disco to look forward to, plus a GLORIOUS binge catch up of Love Island on Sunday evening. I APOLOGISE FOR NOTHING 😎