I spent most of Easter weekend doing a final proof-reading of Roadrage. To avoid 'drifting away' because I know every phrase and textual quirk to the point of madness, I read the book out of sequence. I highly recommend this method if you're over-familiar with the text and you're not reading for sense alone but just looking for typos and things that go clunk. This was the fifth time the book has been proof-read, and the second time by me. I wish I could say I hadn't found anything to cause my eyebrows any agitation whatsoever - but hey, this is a hundred thousand word novel, not a flippin' haiku! I reckon novel writing could never be the preferred form for a total perfectionist because they'd never get to the point where they felt the work was ready for publication. However, to be fair to my dedicated team of generous helpers, the text of Roadrage (except for those little demons that managed to escape all of us - and there will be a few, I don't doubt!), it was pretty much a glitch-free-zone.
Easter Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. We rose fairly early and drove the thirty odd miles to Hastings. The main purpose was to visit Judy's eighty nine year old Mum who we like to see as regularly as possible and who we spent the early afternoon with. However first of all we attended Meeting for Worship at the Friends' Meeting House in Hastings. We aren't ourselves Quakers but we used to attend that meeting regularly when we lived in East Sussex. They are a friendly bunch of people and we have always felt at home with the Society's liberal views and greatly admire the high ethical values of its members. An hour spent mostly in silence is also very welcome. It's only when I consciously focus my thoughts on 'higher matters' that I realise how much extraneous 'babble' is generally going on inside my head.
After the meeting we parked the car on the West Hill and walked down to Hastings' Old Town and bought ourselves a bag of fish and chips at the Blue Dolphin Fish and Chip Shop. Lovely. We ate them huddled together in a shelter on the sea-front, out of the very worst of the fiercely cold wind along with some other plucky Britons, who, like our shivering selves, were determined not to be beaten by the weather. We couldn't help the odd reminiscence about Easter weekends past when the sun smiled down on us. At one point it was actually snowing!
Easter Sunday was the highlight of the weekend. We rose fairly early and drove the thirty odd miles to Hastings. The main purpose was to visit Judy's eighty nine year old Mum who we like to see as regularly as possible and who we spent the early afternoon with. However first of all we attended Meeting for Worship at the Friends' Meeting House in Hastings. We aren't ourselves Quakers but we used to attend that meeting regularly when we lived in East Sussex. They are a friendly bunch of people and we have always felt at home with the Society's liberal views and greatly admire the high ethical values of its members. An hour spent mostly in silence is also very welcome. It's only when I consciously focus my thoughts on 'higher matters' that I realise how much extraneous 'babble' is generally going on inside my head.
After the meeting we parked the car on the West Hill and walked down to Hastings' Old Town and bought ourselves a bag of fish and chips at the Blue Dolphin Fish and Chip Shop. Lovely. We ate them huddled together in a shelter on the sea-front, out of the very worst of the fiercely cold wind along with some other plucky Britons, who, like our shivering selves, were determined not to be beaten by the weather. We couldn't help the odd reminiscence about Easter weekends past when the sun smiled down on us. At one point it was actually snowing!
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