Writers block

Been in a bit of a quandary, blog-wise. Do I continue blogging, or should I start writing the book I’ve got an idea for? Had the occasional thought for a story but think I’ve found a good one that would really interest me to write.

I’m an avid reader, think I get that from my mum. Sometimes I can have a couple of books on the go at once and often get the feeling I could have written something better. I’ve just finished, ‘On Chesil Beach’ by Ian McEwan. First time I’ve read one of his books. The story line is a bit slow and you begin to wonder if it’s a worthwhile read, particularly when he heads off into a bit too much bodily detail, leaving little to the imagination. Thankfully it’s quite a short read at less than 200 pages so I managed to struggle through to the strong ending which certainly did make you think about lost opportunities. Still thought I could have written better.

I’ve also been looking at how frequently authors publish their books. Very often several years may elapse between one book and the next. That appeals to me, giving time to hone the text to perfection. Trouble is would I know when to put the thing down? I go over each blog posting several times before publishing to ensure there are no superfluous words and the text flows nicely. But strangely doing that for months with a story really appeals to me!

I’m going to give both a try… writing the book and posting to my blog, but the blog may be a bit more erratic than usual. Bear with me and I’ll let you have a signed copy of the masterpiece when it’s finished (assuming it doesn’t finish me off first!).

Worrying development on the allotments yesterday evening. Following the breakage of a window in my shed a few weeks ago two young lads have been seen on the allotments. All the usual type of juvenile stuff until yesterday evening… just before 18:00 I was getting ready to cycle home when I heard another plot holder some distance away shouting ‘Get off there. Go on, clear off’. I could see a couple of young boys climbing over things in one of the plots and they disappeared from view. Since I was at that point ready to go I kept my eyes open for them & caught up with them throwing stones from the piles of rubble in the allotment car park. They weren’t throwing at anything in particular & I stopped to watch them. Since I was still some way off they didn’t notice me for a few minutes. They were aged about 10 or 12 years, one below average height with fair or sandy coloured hair, the other average height with dark hair.

When the taller one did notice me he shouted ‘What are you looking at?’ I didn’t answer but started to move towards them to ask them what they were doing there. They trotted off, me following on my bike to encourage them to feel they were not wanted on the allotments. Got closer to them a few minutes later when I noticed the smaller lad had a knife, something like a six inch kitchen knife. When I shouted ‘What have you got there? the smaller boy ran off down a footpath, the taller stopped to turn around and shout ‘What do you want?’ I shouted that I could now identify them and they should stay well away from the allotments.

I’ve emailed our police contact about this, and I’m consulting the key members of our committee on how to communicate this to allotment holders since I know this will worry some of our more vulnerable plot holders.

Made a lot of progress on the allotment this week. Got quite a bit of digging done and planted out broad beans, onion sets and spring cabbage. The lettuce, tomatoes and sunflowers I’ve been raising at home, initially on a windowsill, have all done really well and are now in the allotment greenhouse. Just love it when the greenhouse is full of plants. Must start thinking about putting up the polytunnel/fruit cage.

Having now finished decorating the living room, and even getting round to replacing our bedroom curtains with something a bit more up to date and light blocking (to give me a chance of sleeping beyond 06:00 in summer) my thoughts have been turning more seriously to replacing our television equipment with the latest kit ready for the football world cup in June. Popped into Hephers in St Ives to discuss my list of requirements. Decided to buy from them… it’ll be a bit more expensive since they’re Sony dealers but they’ll do everything and the Sony quality is probably the best on the market.

As always it’s never simple… as I understand it…

• I can watch high definition (HD) BBC and ITV TV through the Freesat tuner in the television, preferred choice is the Sony KDL-40W5500 but including Freesat, but…
• I can’t record HD TV since all the manufacturers of DVD recorders (other than a Panasonic model) are waiting for HD Freeview coming out in this area in 2011, but the recorder will capture standard definition through its Freeview tuner and upscale to HD, preferred choice is the Sony RDR-HX995 recorder

Of course I really threw a spanner in the works when I mentioned I wanted to capture and record to DVD footage from my Samsung U10 HD flash camcorder. That records in MP4 file format, and I’d read on line in the DVD recorders user guide that it only accepts MP2 files. Much box opening and reading of guides in the shop before it was confirmed we had a problem Houston. Went through various alternatives to plugging the camcorder straight into the DVD recorder. Upshot is Mr Hepher is by coincidence on a Sony training course on Monday and he’ll ask the Sony trainer about the camcorder issue. At least I’ve learned the lessons of being an early adopter with my HD camcorder and, having considered going for the latest Sony TV, the Wi-Fi connected Sony KDL-40NX703, I decided to play safe with the current but just to be replaced range of Sony TV.