HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY FARM…….is back!

Another week passed and 3Kg lighter. I have my manuscript divided into thirty chapters, madly delighted about that. I am ahead of schedule now. Baking is starting to pick up, as is the weather and my shoulder is almost back to normal. And I am beginning to believe I may actually crack a month in South Africa in May.

Doesn’t look like anything is happening in Kilsteague. All the frenzied activity has come to a halt since well before Christmas. Maybe the bank has repossessed it. I’ll definitely be going to that auction!

I set myself a target to finish one chapter a week of the second draft of my novel and despite a perfectly horrid week I actually managed to finish chapter one yesterday. Hugely pleased with myself. Especially since it has been my lifelong tendency to set impossible targets for myself and land up never finishing anything.

The weather has really got to me this year. Miserable, dark and depressing. And that’s only my state of mind!

Popping down happy pills as fast as I can get them and indulging myself in fantasies of holidays in Spain and South Africa.

This is what she said in July 2008, around the time she was bonking Kirk McCambley.

“Let’s look at it. Can you think of anything more vile than man and man or woman and woman and sexually abusing children?

Er….yes Mrs Robinson, actually we can.

What I say I base on biblical pronouncements, based on God’s word. I am amazed that people are surprised when I quote from scriptures. It shows the churches either aren’t preaching God’s word or are watering it down,”

Ohhhhhh, isn’t she just toooooooooooo precious?

Mrs Robinson added: “I cannot think of anything more sickening than a child being abused. It is comparable to the act of homosexuality. I think they are all comparable. I feel totally repulsed by both.”

Ahhh, Mrs Robinson, some of us feel utterly revolted by the thought of a 59 year old woman shagging a 19 year old boy, especially if that woman is you.

She then said that her comments were not made out of hate.

“I am trying to reach out to people. I try to reach out and love them. That is what Christ teaches us. He wants us to help all people and give them an opportunity. We all have the opportunity to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything I say is out of love. I am not hate-mongering. I cannot leave my Christian values hanging at the door when I go into politics.

Indeed.

“I am speaking out more now because we are getting it more and more rammed down our throats that the minority views are more important than the majority views. I am not trying to alienate anyone. Anyone can come to me with any problems. I do not turn anyone away.

Oh yes, Mrs Robinson, we know that now. Fifty thousand quid’s worth of problems was it? And I’ll throw in a bit of nookie too.

“I would never water down anything with the scriptures and I don’t think I should. I find it (the controversy over her comments) amazing, if not unexpected, as these days Christians are persecuted for their views but that will not stop me. There will be a judgement day and when I am judged I want to know that I did all I could to spread the word of God.”

Ah yes. Judgement day has indeed come. And now Mr Robinson is going to lose his job, too. And Mr Paisley? Well. Mr Paisley is probably on life support by now! I can only imagine the conversations going on at Maison Robinson this evening.

I can’t type any more I am laughing so much. What a shower of hypocrites.

I am surprised at how liberating it feels to be getting rid of all my stuff. That hadn’t been my intention when I left Higgledy Piggledy Farm. I had thought I might move in with mother for a few months whilst I considered my options, get rid of whatever was surplus to requirements and scale down the baking business to focus on finishing my novel. But then I got on a roll. The fever overtook me and before I knew it I was flogging everything I could lay my hands on. I discovered that nearly everything is surplus to requirements. Which left me with less and less to take care of. Which freed up my head. I sold the second range today and now I’m even going to sell the precious Aga, which Gillian bought for me in a fit of booze induced generosity! I might never bake again! Quelle horreure!

Bloody marvellous actually.

I spent the entire festive season flat on my back with severe muscle spasm in my back, compressed nerve, shooting pains down my arm and shoulder! Two trips to the physio and countless heavy duty painkillers later I am finally up and about, much improved but still annoyed by constant nagging pain in my arm and unable to sleep through the night.

I can also highly recommend pethidine tablets if you are ever forced to spend a day in bed in severe pain. They mightn’t take away the agony but the trip is marvellous!

I am ordered to remain horizontal as much as possible or ramrod straight in an armchair which has put paid to my usual habit of afternoon napping on the sofa. Most annoying.

The culmination of years of beating horses’ arses and pulling and dragging heavy weights around Higgledy Piggledy Farm, I guess.

It took my body about 4 months to realise that I was living at my mother’s and it no longer needed to keep going at the previous manic rate so it just decided to lie down!! I think it will turn out to have been a good thing since it is giving me LOADS of time to consider my future options instead of doing my usual hurtling thoughtlessly forward towards the next disaster! I am only now beginning to realise what a major life change I have made (again!).

Anyway, slowing down and doing as little as possible is my current aim.

It snowed in Tramore last night. Nothing dramatic, just a light sprinkling really. But enough to make the place look pretty without actually causing any great inconvenience to anyone. It remains bitterly cold and we are rather tired of it so the mother and I are planning to head to Torremolinos for a week in March, funds permitting. Hopefully the sale of one of my range cookers on Saturday will plump up the savings account a wee bit.

This morning, whilst defrosting the car, I found a blackbird tweeting piteously on the sidewalk, looking for food. I fed him some bread and he hopped up on the wall and fluffed himself up into  large round ball. He must have been freezing.

This morning Ricardo went to have his knackers modified. He will henceforth be known as Ricarn’tnow. We are to collect him at 6.15. He has lately taken to galloping across the kitchen roof every night, sending the Jack Russell into paroxysms of fury. I doubt he will be up for it tonight!