Post-St. Patrick Festival

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It seems things slipped out of my control again! I haven’t posted for a while but I have a valid reason (other than recovering from my busy festival duty) I’m going to share with you in due course!

First of all I want to tell you, as promised, about our busy Paddy’s weekend. 

As I said in my last post, I’ve seen 22.090 people walking through my workplace’s door in only three days work! Something impressive!

But let’s have a look at the highlights of each day!

 

Saturday – 6.932 people

When I arrived in work it wasn’t that busy but I noticed the first odd thing of the day: a stag’s party group. There was a man dressed as an astronaut waiting in the queue. Later during the day we had several groups of leprechauns and a couple of super heroes.

In the early afternoon we began to manage the queue outside the door, but because the crowd came in waves, was perfectly manageable.

Later during the day I experienced the first display of degeneration in no particular order:

• One man tried to impress I’m not entirely sure whom, shouting just for fun;
• I heard a lady vomiting in the toilet next to my cubicle;
• Two Italian drunk lads came in almost at the end of the day swaying and barely standing. We had to refuse them the entrance;
• A man used the ladies because the gents were under cleaning!

 

By the end of the day the great way to relieve the stress was create a little choir. Standing still at entrance, waiting for latecomers, my teammates started singing and dancing.

 

Sunday – 6.446

As the day before I didn’t find the queue outside when I began my shift.

The two Italian lads we sent away the day before came back in disguise. One of them put on a pair of horrible green shamrock shaped glasses and the other one wore a hat with a green ribbon tied around it. The security man recognized them and it was mutual, but considering they could at least stand properly and talk like civilized people they were allowed in this time. 

Once again the queue outside started to form in the early afternoon but again easily managed.

To be extremely precise almost at closing time the admission area was deserted a part from two sets of customers. 

The first was a man shouting from behind my till to the small queue “Julietaaaaaa” several times with big annoyance of my tired brain and then disappearing for good a after a while. 

The second was a peculiar group. There was a lady leading a group of men dressed, as we acknowledged later, as elves. Since I’m very curious and the queue was empty, I decided to go and ask her if it was her birthday (something I thought possible as she was carrying a balloon). She said no and also that she convinced the others to dress as elves without no reason at all. I shook my hand with her, as I’ve never met such a leading kind of woman in my life. She also said that her elves could dance. Tired of the long day my colleagues and me encouraged them to dance for us!

They started to perform and to be honest they were very good. Only problem was that during the dancing one of them kicked another one in the face by mistake. The person who received the kick was unlucky enough to wear glasses and obtained a deep cut under his eye. 

I was worried and I felt slightly guilty as well since I agree with them to perform. Immediately I provided them with water and antiseptic wipes. I offered them the first aid room and to call one of the first aiders we have in the premises but they refused saying that they had a doctor with them. Very tired for the two days past and rushing over the first aid kit to recover the wipes I had this great outcome with one of my team leaders (because I want to be fair…being a human being I can do stupid things too!): 

TL: Hey Franny what are you doing?

F: I’m looking for antiseptic wipes

TL: Why?

F: One lad hurt himself and he’s kind of bleeding so I figured I need one of this.

TL: …

F: Oh they’re OK, they said they have a doctor, so I’m just getting this!

TL: Who’s the doctor?

F: One of the elves!

 

Face palm…yeah I know!

A part of that, everything was all right, a part from a nasty uneasy feeling that my back was going to be stuck!

 

Monday – 8.715

As expected I couldn’t move properly when I got up Monday morning. I had to have breakfast holding a hot water bottle on my injured back. I was hoping against hope that this wouldn’t hold me back, as I was going to face the busiest day of, not only the festival, but also of the whole year. 

Luckily I managed to feel better and I went to work almost in good condition. It was good enough I was on my feet again, because moving constantly I warmed up enough to avoid feeling pain. 

Although the previous two days we didn’t have much of a queue, finally we had a long, very long one on Monday. As expected it went from the entrance, down to the side of the building, around the corner up to the side gate. That’s what we called a queue outside. 

Of course we had as usual those who tried to sneak in and pay less and also a policeman who tried to sneaks badge for a student ID. I was annoyed by the fact itself, but maybe more since he was German, as they usually try to pass as the only one following the rules. No, lads, every country gets its load of stupid people, it’s useless try to categorize them. 

 

I have to admit that for the first year since I’ve been working there we were overstaffed, that’s probably why we didn’t feel the pressure and the queue was manageable.

So this is it. 22,090 people in three days as I said. That’s pretty massive!

I had the Tuesday off but I brought in my partner and my daughter anyway to have a look at the festival. Maya and me had matching shamrocks painted on our faces. I’m a silly person, I know!!! But until she’ll be too old to be ashamed, I’ll go for it!

I went back to work on Wednesday and it was pretty busy as well with almost five thousand people in, although I’m not sure about the exact number. 

This doesn’t justify entirely the absence from these pages, but I haven’t told you the whole story.

 I actually have great, huge, magnificent news, but I have to wait before I could share with you! 

After that you’ll understand why you hadn’t see me for a bit longer than the estimated post Paddy’s recovering time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 777 writing challenge

Since I’m still recovering from my weekend de fuego and I didn’t post anything at the beginning of the week, I was very happy to read the post on Lynette Noni’s blog about an interesting challenge. I guess it would suit me also because I was looking for an excuse to show you some of my work in progress.

I promise I’ll tell you more in the next post about Paddy’s festival, but I’ll just leave you here a hint. In the three days I was in work we had 22.090 people…yes no mistake in typing the number. You understand I’m still knackered!

Now, back to business, here you can find Lynette’s post. I found her piece very intriguing!

And here is the original post she was tagged in.

So basically according to the challenge you go to the 7^th page of your WIP and then you count seven lines down the page and you write in your post the next 7 lines. Last thing to do is to tag 7 blogger to do the same in their blogs.

Since I’m working on two different things I decided to offer you a bit of both. It’s kind of difficult to count the lines because I’m handwriting the both of them for the moment, so I’m going to count what I have in my notebooks!

First I’ll give you a glimpse of Hunter’s Journal, which is the working title of my urban fantasy set in Dublin and southern Italy and it will be the one I’ll use to try and pitch an editor. Just, please, consider that the character who’s writing here is very ignorant and almost illiterate!

 

“Welcome on your Aerlingus flight to Dublin” the radio voice told so laud it echoed all over. I couldn’t tell how.

“Dublin?” I asked under my breath.

“Oh, you woke up at last” a gentleman dressed in dark green sitting next to me said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My name’s Seamus and you’re coming with me”

“Sorry, there must be a mistake, I don’t even know you” I said. I started to shake at that stage.

“Well, I’m not surprised, you’re not supposed to” he said.

 

The second sample comes from the high fantasy that should become the fiction blog I’ll open one day! Hopefully someone will notice my story and won’t care about my English! I’m aware I need more practice and improvement.

 

Dan and me were never told who our ancestors were. Nobody had ever talked about our “abnormalities”.

Never.

I was the last one to leave the baby field, when it was so dark I couldn’t see my hands anymore.

I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t put my wings back in place.

I decided to detour and walk home the longer way, so I could sneak in my bedroom through the window.

The colour candle in the farer corner gave a feeble light.

It was only the first hour of the West.

 

 

So what do you think? See, the problem is that when I share a piece, I also become very needy for a feedback, hoping against hope that the piece doesn’t suck!

And despite being the weak ring of any chain, I really tried to tag seven blogger. The great problem is that their blogs were hacked, I guess or I don’t explain in another way, or deleted…I might have missed a passage!

So anyway who wants to join the club feel free to do so! Come back and tell me in the comments about your post. I love reading people’s stuff!

Have a great day you all!

St.Patrick festival!

And in a blink we’re in March again and, as every year since I’ve started working in my current working place, we’re looking forward to St.Patrick’s festival! This year will be four days and will be loads of fun! Numbers are rising so we’ll have many, many people more! Yeahhhh!

OK, this is the ideal comment, something I’d love to utter but my brain is in a different mood at the present:

St.Patrick’s festival is looming upon us… it’ll be four days of madness, I hope I’ll survive to tell the tale. I prepared some festival survival kits in order to feed the family since nobody is helping me this year!

Big lasagne tray!

Small lasagne tray and chicken made in different ways!

So if everything goes like I hope I’ll see you on this pages at the end of next week, otherwise has been a pleasure to meet you! Each and every one of you, my dear readers!

For a bit of entertaining I leave you the links to my old posts!!! Here, here, here and here you can read my past adventures! 

Oh, and Happy Paddy’s day!

What kind of reader I am!

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In the attempt to be coherent with my two previous posts, I believe this is the right time to write something about my reading habits.

I decided I want to make you laugh about the way I’ve been reading since, I think, forever!

A few weeks ago, during lunch time, I was reading “Gone” in the port cabin (a special niche, not always so quiet but at least more silent than the canteen and ideal to read or write during lunch breaks) and I was so concentrated that I realized only after a good while that I was commenting aloud.

To be precise, I was so absorbed in my reading, that when a friend of mine tapped my shoulder I kind of jumped…the scene I was on was very, very interesting and action packed and it was perfectly normal, at least for me, getting lost completely in the world of the FAYZ.

If you add to this episode, a test I’ve done lately, “which kind of reader are you?”, and if you want to take into account the fact I didn’t find the outcome satisfactory at all, I decided to rewrite the result I know I don’t need a test for!

I thought to tell you something about my habits, although probably I’ve mentioned something already, along with the rant about not having time enough to read and reading less than I wish.

I talk with books and when I find a good one, I’m absorbed completely into its pages.

The earliest memory of this….I don’t even know what it is…an issue? A problem? A funny characteristic?

Well, first memory is back to high school, when inside the Latin grammar book I opened one of Su Tong’s books. “Just a peek” I told myself. When my mum called me for dinner I had just finished the last page but my grammar book was still untouched!

Next coming to my mind is an episode belonging to one my university summer breaks and I remember I was reading “Jane Eyre” for English literature exam. I was on my parent’s house terrace and I was alone. The silence was absolute. Exactly in the middle of the scene where the mad wife, Bertha, comes down from the attic to ruin Jane’s dress, the phone rang and I screamed and panicked before I realized what was going on!

Since I’m not fully aware of the process behind this characteristic, I can’t recall every single episode and also I’m not entirely sure how I behave in general, so I asked my two best friends who were in the dormitory with me, back in university years.

They said I’ve always been hilarious to watch as I kept commenting aloud and accompanying everything with very theatrical gestures, cursing also the villains in any way I can think of.

I was told as well that the girl next room (as the walls in between rooms were very thin) used to ask me what was going on.

The other anecdote I remember belongs as well to my university years, in particular while staying in one of my best friends place. It was the ideal book lover background: cold and windy outside, crackling fire in the hearth and a huge squashy armchair…perfect. I don’t even remember what I was reading but I’m quite sure it was something for the comparative literature exam.

At some stage I just felt watched. When I peeked over the top of the book, I met my best friend’s mum’s eyes.

She was sitting in front of my armchair and leaning on the back of the sit looking at me. I realized she’d been doing for a while before I got distracted.

When I asked if everything was alright she said “Oh yes, you’re just very funny and entreating to watch when you’re reading”

As I grew up and moved away, ready for an independent life, I had to force myself to become aware of this particularity of mine. So I’m not doing it so much anymore unless, like is happening lately, I’m very tired or stressed and hence distracted.

Probably connected to this habit is the ability of reading more than one book per time (and now writing also) without getting confused.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, while I’m reading, the images and characters become 3D in my head. I guess that then characters become in a way real people, while the story becomes a real situation.

Maybe it sounds crazy but I figure that as you don’t mix up your friend and their lives, same happens with books and you characters’ stories.

Maybe the way I’m so attracted to the story that I end up commenting aloud is a side effect of them becoming real to me.

Does it make any sense?

So to answer the question what kind of reader I am, I’d say I’m just creasy!

But if for some reason there is someone out there who share my problem or ability, it depends on the point of view, give me a shout, so I won’t feel alone!

And what kind of reader are you? Let me know in the comments below!

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Ode to Books- Happy Book Day!

Since 5^th of March is Book day, and I’m very passionate about books, I thought the best idea was to dedicate a piece to them.

Books are object that come in different and variegated size, shape and thickness. Many people in the world are extremely scared by these objects mainly because are traumatized by them in school and I cannot blame them for this. I was one of those people myself.

However, although books and dictionaries function very well as steps or support to balance instable furniture, they work even better as source of inspiration and research.

Whatever you want to know is hidden in a book somewhere in the world.

Although being aware of the potential offered by research websites, and despite being an avid user myself, I know for sure that books will ever be on their shelves, ready to use, even if some kind of huge post-apocalyptic catastrophe is bound to happen.

Books smell good, they have that old eternal vampire charm, they’re always full charged and you can bring them everywhere without the fear someone would take away from you! After all, let’s face it, for unfortunate it may sound, culture thieves are still rare!

On the other hand, even if the most recent technology can’t wipe away the old, faithful paper books, it’s just fair to admit that eBooks have their utility. You can bring your eBooks reader everywhere with you. And if you’re like me and love having your favourite stories always at hand, the majority of eBook readers fit every kind of bags.

Also, they offer you a variety of choice at the same weight! It’d be difficult bring around a bag full of novels and nonfiction books and encyclopaedias! But you can have them in a good eBook reader just at a flip of your fingertips. This is one of those cases when even the most orthodox book geek should love technology.

It might sound like a harsh opinion, but being a book lover I don’t really understand whoever doesn’t read. And I know what I’m talking about as, for a nice fate’s trick, I’m surrounded but such a kind of people.

Books bring you information and entertainment. If you’re given even a moderate amount of creativity and fantasy they can bring you anywhere you want. And mind you, I’m not only talking about fantasy books or I’m not even restricting it to fiction. If you’re really passionate about, say for example, Gengis Khan and you want to live his adventures, then you can read his biography.

This is exactly my greatest discovery. It doesn’t really matter how much teacher force you to read in order to cram into your brain information you’ll never remember. It’s definitely funnier and useful read for the sake of it, and believe me, surprisingly enough all the details will come to your mind straight ahead.

I’ll leave you with a quote by Roald Dahl, one of my favourite writers:

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray

Go throw your TV set away

And in its place you can install

A lovely bookshelf on the wall…”

Oompa-Loompas’ song in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

 

 

 

 

 

My Reading Pile – March

As you might notice from the picture above, I have just changed the frame and the stickers.

I’m very ashamed to say that I haven’t finished a book since last month… February had been hectic and a sad month as well during which my psychosomatic side had been feeling particularly naughty and I could add creative…

Although I relax reading, I decided to dedicate the spare moments I had to my writing in order to go back in the writing habit.

As I mentioned before I decided to write 15 minutes a day and I have to admit that it’s working. Surprisingly I’ve managed to gather a reasonable number of pages on two different WIP. But this is the reading post, so let’s go back to books!

Maya seems to have taken after me so, even if we didn’t finish Matilda, she wanted to start Peter Pan.

I’ve reached a good stage in Harry Potter because it’s maybe the only book I’ve kept reading. A few pages before bed every night.

Since I’ve been having problem to fall asleep, a reread like Harry Potter is ideal to relax and put me in sleep mood.  As I tried to explain to my partner, when I read a novel, everything inside the book -setting, character, etc…- pops up in 3D in my head. This is why I manage to read different books and also why I can probably write two at the same time. But mainly this is why lingering several minutes at Hogwarts every night helps me to feel at home!

A part form that, I have no much to tell!

I hope next month the picture will be a bit different! And also the situation a bit brighter!