Sadie, the Cleaning Lady

This morning, in honour of a guest who'll be visiting for a few days, I'm the cleaning lady.

Hey, nice to know I'm a lady for a few hours, even if it does mean cleaning toilets and vacuuming.

So there I was, giving our bedroom a 'going over', as my nan would have said. I have one of those vacs that follow you around on a lead, sort of like a reluctant dog who every now and then refuses to move.

Under a window, I found a dead fly lying (not flying, duh!), so I whipped off the carpet attachment, sucked it up and slid the carpet beater bit back onto the stick. Yes, it gave a click. No, it didn't stay put. Instead, it slipped off while I was vacuuming under the bed. I'm sure you can picture what came next: me, lying on my tummy, reaching to retrieve it.

Sheesh, sometimes I think I should star in a reality comedy show.

However, apart from the satisfaction of a spruced-up house, I have now reclaimed a single, knee-high stocking and a paper grip. ;-)

Notebooks: Do you love 'em?

So I was chatting with a guy who used to be a neighbour when we lived back in Toronto. He lost his wife to breast cancer some years back and has now remarried. He's moved in with his new wife, but I heard that he hadn't sold his old house.

"You haven't got rid of all your stuff, then?" I asked.
"No."
"What about when you're gone? ."
"Oh," he answered. "My sons can deal with all that. They might as well have something to do."

This, to lead you in to what I was doing last night: going through old notebooks and, actually, a pile of new ones too.

The thing is, I'm starting a revision of one of my romantic comedies in hopes of getting it out in October, because yes, it's kind of a Halloween story. I thought perhaps I'd find the notebook I originally used for its writing and hoped there'd be some free pages so I could carry on. Unfortunately, not. Although many of my notebooks sport empty pages. Some of them only have a page or two written on. Some are full.

These last present a problem. Shall I simply leave them for some poor soul to go through after I've passed on? Or is it better to get rid of them now?

They're more like journals, which means they contain writings and poems that I haven't keyed into the computer. Once I've published a book I tend to throw out the notebooks. But it's still hard.

And -- confession time -- I'm kind of a collector of notebooks. I specially like the European ones from England, Italy and France. And I love a cover with a design to it, as well as bright, glossy colour. Maybe this is the reason why I'm unlikely to abandon writing by hand?

Cartoon characters

Wow! Well, if you're wondering what happened between Mothers' Day and now, I'd say... Summer! And it's been a glorious one. Lots of lovely weather, plenty of rain that often fell over night (just like in that Camelot song), so I've been enjoying the garden and generally being outdoors.

Anyhow, the other day I glimpsed a question in my sipping like a bee around the web. This was: What's your favourite cartoon character? For me, coming up with an answer is as impossible as being asked 'What's your favourite colour?'. Nevertheless cartoon characters started to pop into my mind shouting 'choose me! choose me!'. And I thought well, maybe Calvin and Hobbs, although they're two, and even though I only found them after coming to North America.

As a child I read voraciously, and that meant comics too. The name that comes to mind is Little Lulu, but really I'd pretty much dive into anything that came to hand. And I also remembered that there was a kind of tradition back in Olde England that we'd buy the latest Giles annual compilation every Christmas.

So maybe the complex answer is that favourite cartoon characters change with us as we grow older. Because (now here comes the confession!) the strip I'm most likely to smile at these days is 'Pickles'!!

You got a favourite to tell about?