T+436 Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

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I had my flu jabs on Monday and apart from a slight residual tenderness on the top of my left arm ( swine flu jab ) I don't have any other effects from the jab. The first couple of hours after the jabs my right arm ( conventional flu jab) ached a bit but that passed off .

Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing and means I have not made any antibodies I am not sure but either way I will not be changing my behaviour in terms of contact with people who have colds , coughs etc.

Gareth had his jabs and had a more noticeable tenderness on his arms, to the point where he could not sleep on the one side ( swine flu again ) so hopefully he is fully protected.

Aside from that things are going ok and I'm down to 2.5mg prednisone steroid a day without any noticeable increase in tiredness or the GVHD coming back.

Just as well as I have needed my energy to make the time to finish writing the first draft of my novel.....

NaNoWriMo Winner

At just past 13:30 today I was officially verified by NaNoWriMo.org as a winner. The first draft of my novel is finished before the deadline of the 30th November and ended up at 50,214 words.

For that I get a nice certificate, the winners "web badge" shown above, the chance to buy a limited edition T shirt with the same design, (duly ordered) and a lovely warm glow inside.

I have to say I am feeling really proud of myself at the moment. It has been quite a challenge but I have been pleased with being able to do it and still maintain a relatively normal routine of work and household chores.

What's that? Oh you want to know where you can read the novel? Well at the moment it is in no fit state to be read by anyone. It is littered with typos and more than a few continuity errors so at the very least it needs a second draft just to remove those. I probably won't start that process until the New Year. I need to think about Christmas for now and a break from the text will also help so I can come back to it with a fresh perspective.

After that I'll see if I want to take it further and re-draft it more fully possibly with a view to vanity publishing it via a site like lulu.com , then you can all buy a copy ;o)

I will however probably post a chapter or two up online by way of a teaser and to say a feeble sort of thanks to everyone who has wished me well in my venture and cheered me on via twitter, facebook etc.

New iMac

As if in celebration of completing my novel my new iMac was delivered today and is currently warming up and acclimatising in the lounge.

My current computer is called Mini and so this new one will be christened Maxi as she is quite a size, but big is beautiful as you can see here http://img159.yfrog.com/i/6la.jpg/

I haven't told Mini yet that she is going to have a new home living at Gareth's mom's and I'll need to transfer my data over from Mini to Maxi.

Luckily I booked Monday 30th November off work which was either to allow for a frantic scramble to finish NaNoWriMo or for sorting out Maxi.

So that is my weekend taken care of. :o)

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