Happy Birthday, Cheryl!!!

sunny, rainy, cool highs 9

I've frankly never seen weather like this. I'm freezing! How can a Canadian freeze to death in London in April? Baffles me, but I am. Need to put on my long underwear. I think it's the damp, the rain, the hail and the wind. But I might be wrong.

Ah, April. And I was so smug about being in spring while back home in Quebec it was still winter.

Though I have received a few emails from friends saying it's still snowing. That really must stop.

Speaking of home - it's our good friend Cheryl's Birthday today!!!! Happy birthday, Cheryl. She and Gary are married and have two great sons, Evan and Sam. And Joan, another wonderful friend, is Gary's mother and Cheryl's mother-in-law. And people wonder where I get all the inter-relations in Three Pines!

Am the Dear (not Dead) Reader fiction pick for this week. You might want to go over there - I think Googling DearReader will do it - and check it out...they publish 5 days worth of readings, so you get the first few chapter of a book (in my case The Cruelest Month) for free. Get to preview it.

Wrote for most of today. Eva, Erika's cleaning woman came. She speaks no English, only Polish. And I speak no polish, but found myself speaking French to her for some reason that confounded both of us. It obviously didn't help. All I really wanted to do was ask if she minded if we didn't leave, as we normally would. But stayed to write.

After an hour or so, when we didn't leave, she brought out the vacuum cleaner. That had a limited effect. It chased Michael out of the living room and into the dining room where I was working.

Working is a relative term, of course. I'd been very happy with yesterday's writing. Then we went out for a pub lunch on Walton Street, just around the corner, then bought the Sunday papers. When we got home I wrote for another couple of hours. But when I'd finished I wasn't feeling so good. Not physically, but just sort of uncomfortable.

I ignored it for a few hours, but eventually gave in to what I knew to be right. What I'd written was wrong. It wasn't necessarily bad, just wrong. The wrong way to convey the information. I wasn't sure what the right way was, but at least I've come to trust my instincts.

So this morning I re-wrote the whole thing. It was hard - had to back up a few times as well. There seem to be stages like that in my books. Sections where a few things need to be related - and not all verbally. Anway, after stuggling all morning, and trying to ignore the vacumm with the same determination Eva ignored my Frenc, I finally finished. And I like it.

But wow, is it ever hard to go back and erase thousands of words. And start again. Though I must admit, it's getting easier. Perhaps because it's getting easier to trust my feelings.

Busy afternoon. Heading off the London BookFair to meet kim McArthur at the Headline Publishing Booth. Kim's my Canadian publisher and affiliated with the UK Headline. We'll meet the Canadian ambassador there - James Wright and his wife Donna Thomson. then all go to the Canada booth for a party. Kim says I'm a guest of honour, but I'll believe that when I see it. Still, thought I should put on my party frock, and perhaps even remove the long underwear.

Then it's off to Michael's sister Carol's and her husband David, for dinner. A man named Eddie Botterell will be there. Michael and Carol knew him when they were kids. They sailed together and Eddie went on to compete in the olympics - sailing for Canada. He's in London because his grandfather is being honoured. eddie is in his late 70's, and his fgrandfather just died, can you believe it?

He was the last flying ace from the Great War. Died at the age of 106, a couple of years ago. The Brits are honouring him and Eddie Botterell is here to represent the family.

I'm really looking forward to meeting him!

Watched the Masters until 1am last night. How thrilling for Trevor Immelman - though when he put his drive into the water on the 16th I shuddered. Michael and I held hands as though at a horror flick until he was safe.

Must be off. Speak to you tomorrow. Be well.