Writings and ramblings

Been a full on week, and mostly dancing related; Tuesday teaching kicked off again, as did the Wednesday night class I go to, followed by a meeting on Thursday and a very late night dem-ing and helping run a ceilidh at a local barracks on Friday.

So today have done little that is productive. Met up with a friend for coffee, and watch Red Road in the morning on LoveFilm instant. Initially had it on my list because Tony Curran is in it (oh man, he’s lovely to look at, and on a fraction less shallow scale, impressed me as Vincent van Gough in Doctor Who and King Stephen in Pillars of the Earth), but came away exceedingly impressed with Kate Dickie’s (who I knew I’d seen before but it took a net search to realise she is Lysa Arryn in Game of Thrones performance, and curious about director Andrea Arnold’s other films. Atmospheric, beautifully made and gripping (and just to show what a one-track mind I have, it also featured a very compelling sex scene, which I suspect one wasn’t meant to find hot, but, well…Tony Curran as I said.)

(Tangentially, I wonder what Arnold was trying to say with the many inclusions of random and not so random shots of dogs – I have my thoughts but that would give away the ending a bit much and it works better not knowing where it’s all going. Update: Interesting review (with spoilers) here that theorises not only on the dogs but the use of other animals in the film.)

But, now for some more sentences.

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Continued from here

Brendan reached out to Marc’s shoulder, brushing over his skin, frowning as his fingers found the scratches. “You’re hurt.”

Marc’s eyes fell to Brendan’s fingers on his shoulder. Holding the rifle and the lantern, Marc couldn’t touch him back. He shrugged. “Just scratches.”

“Still…”

Brendan’s gaze shifted up to the night sky. Marc followed it. In their hurry, they hadn’t noticed the moon, not quite full, hanging in a cloudless sky.

Brendan grinned. “Now there’s a thought.”

Continued here

Mirrored from jacquelinebrocker.esquinx.net.

We leaned in close, or bent our heads over the display cases, eyes as close as we could to the glass so see the detail of the art work. The small gallery was quiet, reverent, only disrupted when some other museum visitors crashed through the doors with only the Vermeer exhibition in mind. They soon left us, and the floral art of Redouté and his pupils, in peace.

The details of the flowers and leaves were lovely, and not just those – you could often see the tiny legs of the settling butterflies and lady birds. I enjoyed seeing not only his work but also his students – there was one piece called Sprays of lilac which was both precise and incredibly soft.

We did also go and see the Vermeer exhibition and the collection of treasures from the Hapsburg’s, both very interesting, but the Redouté has inspired me for a new short piece. Which is both frustrating but rewarding – assuming I can write it the way I’m currently envisioning it. Something with the delicacy of touch and how something so simple as that can be stunningly sexy. We’ll see.

Mirrored from jacquelinebrocker.esquinx.net.

It was a glorious morning as I set out for my work-related course today, and the sun has still decided to linger despite the few clouds that have set in. I went to a place just outside the town centre. Last I was there it started to snow on the way back, while today I happily noted the snowdrops and crocus in bloom or on the verge of doing so.

Why am I in such a good mood? Well, partly because the frantic month of February is behind me, but also because the weather and the season is exactly as it was when I arrived in the UK one year ago. From tomorrow I will have been here for a whole year. Wow.

I feel...settled now. Which is great. I spent last year figuring a few things out, how this new life was going to work, what I wanted to get out being in the UK, Cambridge in particular, what this 'actually being a writer rather than just wanting to write' thing meant. I'm still working through it all, and probably always will be - the constant need to assess and reassess one's life I suppose never goes away. But now I think I've found something of a place here, and I'm glad for that.

The Ball on Saturday night went extremely well. The club president did a great job in getting it all together and keeping us on track for the behind-the-scenes preparation, and the demo was really a lot of fun. I particularly liked seeing dancers who were, well...younger than the usual set of SCD people. ;) Next year it's on Oxford, which will be a good excuse for me to go over and see it, I think.

Yesterday I crawled out of bed and managed to get my writing done - catch up from the day before as well, and I do have to say the prose I got out was pretty garbled - some pretensions to coherency, but not much! It's probably because I'm getting into parts of the novel that I only have vague ideas about, so I think it's going to feel much more like Nanowrimo-esque writing for the next little while.

After that I trotted out for my first ladies' step dancing class which was an interesting challenge, requiring more concentration than I'm used to needing for dancing - at a regular SCD class I'm usually physically worrying about my footwork as opposed to which step, which direction. It was a lot of fun though, so I'll be heading back to it when I can.

So, March...what will this month, and indeed, this year, have install for me?

My housemate fixed up a bike that was lying about the back a few months ago. I was, however, terrified of getting on the damn thing, and kept putting off even just taking it out for a go on it. Thing with Cambridge is that you kind of need a bike as it is almost everyone's preferred method of transport (aforementioned housemate cycles 14 miles a day getting to and from work, for instance)

Happily, today I managed to take it out for a 'test run.' A bit shaky, but I'm very happy that I did it. Feels like I really accomplished something. Of late, I've felt that I have, quite perversely, been writing as an excuse to myself not to do a few housekeeping things, which includes responding to various personal emails and writing ones as well. The 'getting on the bloody bike' was included on this list, so hopefully this will signal the end of this slightly hermit-ish existence.

Additionally, I've done a number of things that I do want to post on, but I've been considering the best way to do it since a lot of time has happened since my last 'update' post (or any post in general, that is). Have decided that I should do it 'thematically' - one on writing, one on work, one on dancing, another on travels, etc. Hopefully over the new week I'll get those up, and with that I'll send out another mass email update. Though before that I should respond to the individual emails people were kind enough to send to me.

Much to do, much to do. But happily have a few days off before I'm back at work so I hope I can get some of that done satisfactorily.