things – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com author | illustrator | digital designer Wed, 01 Jan 2014 16:05:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://shepline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-shepline-white-on-green-square_512-32x32.jpg things – T E Shepherd https://shepline.com 32 32 On the seventh day of Christmas: a new chapter https://shepline.com/2014/01/01/on-the-seventh-day-of-christmas-a-new-chapter/ https://shepline.com/2014/01/01/on-the-seventh-day-of-christmas-a-new-chapter/#respond Wed, 01 Jan 2014 16:05:36 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=5925
  • And so we reach 2014, and what a wet and bedraggled 2014 it looks to be so far. We stayed up for the fireworks last night and a small finger of whisky to see in the New Year but that was it. Today has been one for hibernating by te artificial fire, for reading books recently recieved and for editing.
  • I’ve set my Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2014. After last year’s success I did consider upping my target to 40 but I my average based on a decade of prior figures is still more like 14 or 15 and I even last year I only managed 39… so I’m still going to push myself but have opted for a hopefully more achievable 30 books. Hopefully my time on the buses will help me with that.
  • Particularly at Christmas time I like to have two books on the go: a fiction and a non-fiction. At the moment I’m reading Alphabetical by Michael Rosen and The Girl Who Rained by Ali Shaw.
  • Just after Christmas Day I got my novel, Mr Tumnal, back from the editor. I had a bit of a look but then, but I’m having a proper look now. I’ve not really spoken much about new year’s resolutions because I don’t really make them. However I have ambitions. One would be to continue to read more (or at least as much as last year); another would be publish Mr Tumnal this year (maybe ahead of my birthday in May?); and a third would be to lose more weight, further reduce the tummy, and be healthier.
    • ]]>     https://shepline.com/2014/01/01/on-the-seventh-day-of-christmas-a-new-chapter/feed/ 0     On the fifth day of advent: a long day https://shepline.com/2013/12/05/on-the-fifth-day-of-advent-a-long-day/ https://shepline.com/2013/12/05/on-the-fifth-day-of-advent-a-long-day/#respond Thu, 05 Dec 2013 23:33:09 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=5895 Worked a 10-hour day today, thanks to Emma kindly dropping me off at work and then collecting me again at the end of the day. What it did mean though, is that instead of working my normal 8:30 to 4:30 hours, in order to fit in with Emma’s 8 till 5, I ended up at my desk from 7:30 to 5:30…

    Still, I feel a bit more confident about things now. My boss has been brilliant about my news and is supporting the idea that I should be able to work from home home more regularly to complement me getting the bus mostly. And I’ve resolved getting to band. Neil, our new conductor, lives, like our last two out near Northampton and is able to drop by and collect me on the way to band so that’s good.

    Something that I did find a bit much to deal with today was the bombshell news that my brilliant boss is not going to be my boss for much longer. Come February she’s leaving us for a new job elsewhere. For me, this is just at the point when I really glad that with things how they are, that I had a nice supportive boss. I really didn’t deal with that very well at all, and all but burst into tears in her office! Which was okay, because she is understanding like that.

     

    ]]>     https://shepline.com/2013/12/05/on-the-fifth-day-of-advent-a-long-day/feed/ 0     On the twentieth day of advent: not quite the day I had planned… https://shepline.com/2012/12/20/on-the-twentieth-day-of-advent-not-quite-the-day-i-had-planned/ https://shepline.com/2012/12/20/on-the-twentieth-day-of-advent-not-quite-the-day-i-had-planned/#respond Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:16:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=2365 For the first day of my Christmas holidays I had big plans. I feel a bit like I have failed. I’ve basically finished as all my shopping but one thing I do like doing is going into Oxford, close to the day itself, when it’s dark and cold and the twinkling lights are all festive and just enjoying that festive-feeling.

    So today the plan was to get up not too far off the normal schoolday time, do some productive jobs like cleaning up after 8 cats, feeding the hoards, and generally making the place nice. Then I would settle down to read lots or write lots (to Mr Tumnal), cook lunch for when Emma gets back from work, before heading out to Oxford in the late afternoon before being back in time for the Ocado order. That, as I say, was the plan.

    What actually happened was me going back to sleep until half nine and then me being incredibly slow about things until I had barely done the house-being-presentable stuff before Emma got home. Lunch was later than I had envisaged and the weather outside is looking anything but festive.

    We’re going to go into Oxford tomorrow afternoon for a bit of a wander.

    ]]>     https://shepline.com/2012/12/20/on-the-twentieth-day-of-advent-not-quite-the-day-i-had-planned/feed/ 0     Cold enough for snow https://shepline.com/2012/01/29/cold-enough-for-snow/ https://shepline.com/2012/01/29/cold-enough-for-snow/#respond Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:21:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=2001 It’s been an odd kind of day. It’s been a very cold, dull, grey day, the kind of day that dulls the sound of chickens squawking. Emma did the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, although there weren’t a hell of a lot of birds to count. It’s been a weird time of year – so much food around that they just aren’t coming to our garden restaurants.

    We had breakfast quite early for a Sunday but then got stuck into clearing out bureau and doing some long overdue filing. I carried on the filing later in the afternoon by finally – about 10 years later than planned – getting all the utility bills & c. into folders of their own kind, and organising them into the filing draw of my desk. 🙂

    ]]>     https://shepline.com/2012/01/29/cold-enough-for-snow/feed/ 0     On the eighth day of advent https://shepline.com/2009/12/08/on-the-eighth-day-of-advent/ https://shepline.com/2009/12/08/on-the-eighth-day-of-advent/#respond Tue, 08 Dec 2009 22:07:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/on-the-eighth-day-of-advent/ ~ I’ve now got a pile of Christmas letters, and a pile of Christmas cards, and list of names. All I have to do is put the three together, address, stamp and post, and I’m sorted. Sounds simple when you put it like that doesn’t it.

    ~ I learnt today of the identity of someone who doesn’t like The Time Traveller’ Wife. This is truly shocking news. Further more, I guess they won’t like Mr Tumnal either!

    ~ Just caught up with another episode of The Hairy Biker’s Food Tour of Building, this time from Gwynedd, and oh what a scrummily delicious trio of Welsh lamb recipe. I’m gonna have to try this someday!

    ]]>     https://shepline.com/2009/12/08/on-the-eighth-day-of-advent/feed/ 0     Wednesday work and creativity https://shepline.com/2007/02/07/wednesday-work-and-creativity/ https://shepline.com/2007/02/07/wednesday-work-and-creativity/#respond Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:14:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=1592 1. Today was quite busy at work, ploughing through the issues and the OnlineEarly batches to get as much live and sorted before I disappear off for a week. I did well, all things considering, and left things pretty much shipshape.

    2. Watched the season opener of Battlestar Galactica season two – boy do they know how to pull their punches. Pretty good stuff!

    3. Revised, again, chapter three of my novel, following some further critiques. Just stuck on three small dificult POV changes – not made any easier by them being damn fine paragraphs and character insights. I’ll get there in the end…

    ]]>     https://shepline.com/2007/02/07/wednesday-work-and-creativity/feed/ 0     Yesterday’s News https://shepline.com/2006/01/29/yesterdays-news/ https://shepline.com/2006/01/29/yesterdays-news/#comments Sun, 29 Jan 2006 12:55:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=1270 Despite the mild annoyance of broken digiboxes and middle-of-the-night-pukings, yesterday was actually a good day.

    In the morning, I headed off to Abingdon for a spot of swimming. I upped my lap total to 44 lengths in c. 50 minutes, swimming them in non-stop lenghts of 6, 4 (followed by a short rest due to stitch), 10, 12, and 12. I’ve never ever swum 10, let alone 12, lengths non-stop like that. I know it’s not much, but it’s a big achievement for me. Go me!!

    I finished up, with a trip to the supermarket to get lots of lovely food.

    Then in the afternoon, I headed off to the new Ikea in Milton Keynes (nice and near at only half an hour away) for bookends and shelving to cater for my growing library of books. Now I just have to get my drill and screws, and wall plugs and such out and put them up…

    ]]>     https://shepline.com/2006/01/29/yesterdays-news/feed/ 2     Whatever happened to…? https://shepline.com/2005/08/07/whatever-happened-to-2/ https://shepline.com/2005/08/07/whatever-happened-to-2/#comments Sun, 07 Aug 2005 22:57:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=1103 Where has Mr shepline been? I hear the question is on so many people’s lips and yet it is a question that has remained unspoken.

    I have been on holiday, as my recent series of Postcards from Romania. The full photo gallery is nearing completion, and of course the tales of my exploits are forthcoming in the Travelogues section of this site. Everythings been held up a bit because I have been wanting to create a whole new style for shepline.com…

    …I’m getting there. Currently it looks good in Firefox but I’m tinkering with it to get a similarly good result in ye olde Internet Explorer (one has to pander to these deprecated technologues… *grins*). A pre-release of what you can expect can be seen on my relevant links page.

    In other news, I have just enjoyed a very nice long weekend. My parents came up on Thursday evening and we went to see Oxford Shakespeare Company’s all male production of Macbeth at Wadham College. The same cast are also doing The Merry Wives of Windsor which leaves me feeling intrigued…

    On Friday, I bought a new car – well, a new second hand car – it’s a Peugeot 206, T for Thomas reg, and silver with power steering. I’ve never had such a modern car! I pick it up on Tuesday.

    See you on the flip side…

    ]]>     https://shepline.com/2005/08/07/whatever-happened-to-2/feed/ 2     Thinking about my day, today and yesterday https://shepline.com/2003/02/18/thinking-about-my-day-today-and-yesterday/ https://shepline.com/2003/02/18/thinking-about-my-day-today-and-yesterday/#respond Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:54:00 +0000 http://journal.shepline.com/?p=9 Came across the phrase Hugsa um daginn minn, í dag og í gær today from – originally from a lyric by Sigur Rós it is a great line and really sums up this journal … or at least I hope it will…

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