Nanowrimo word count 1771, running total 50,277 Success!
I managed to reach 50k words in Nanowrimo 2020. I am happy and hope this will give me a boost to continuing to write every day. My memoir has many years to go so, I can’t stop now.
I have my lights up for Christmas but as yet no tree.
My granddaughter wants a Playstation 5, but there are none in the shops. Her parents have told her Christmas will be late. I remember when the first Playstation came out in December 2000, the only way to buy one was to pre-book at Argos. I did. It didn’t come in until the 22nd. Clydebank Argos on a wet, cold night after work. The things we do at Christmas!
Marmite Puzzle: November 29th
Nanowrimo word count 1991 running total 48507
Tomorrow ‘Write a novel in November’ or, as it is also known, National Novel Writing Month, comes to an end for this year. I have 1500 words to go to make up the 50,000 required. I am writing my memoir, or my family story, as I would prefer to call it. I am about a third of the way into my life, so I’m afraid this draft may take a few more months. I will keep writing but not post up the word count as I did this month.
Today I completed my Marmite jigsaw. It was a present to my husband from his son (we think) a few years ago. It was opened, deemed to be difficult, and left on a shelf. In the midst of our latest lockdown, I brought it out again and spent spare half-hours on it. I thought it would take till Christmas to finish, but today it seemed to fall into place! We sealed it with clear jigsaw film on the back. I will try to post a picture of it in December.
There is a film, on Netflix, that I like called ‘Puzzle’. It’s about a woman who discovers a talent at solving jigsaw puzzles at speed and how this changes her life.
Cine films: November 28th
Nanowrimo word count 1491 running total 46516 (two more days to reach 50k)
I have been having my Super 8 cine films digitalised. First of all, I sent away a small one of 200 feet, and it was fine. Since I was happy with the quality, I sent off a video of 800 feet. It is of the wedding of my sister-in-law who arrived from India in 1976 and now lives in Wolverhampton. Since we were the oldest members of her family in this country, it fell to us to organise and pay for the wedding. The film is 49 minutes long, but after 30 minutes it froze, on both computer and television. I have sent an email to Asda photos, and I’m sure they will sort it. Let’s see.
Feeling the Cold? November 27th
Nanowrimo word count 1735 running total 45025
Feeling the cold: November 27th
People used to say to me ‘You must feel the cold in Scotland since you come from India.’
I didn’t think that was the case, I wore extra clothes if I was cold. In my mind, there was no question of where I was from, and it wasn’t India. I had been unhappy there, very few people cared about me although they were family. They were not able to protect me from how my mother treated me, although I believe they knew and sympathised. That was no help.
As for the weather here, for me to feel the cold more than my white-skinned husband seems not so silly these days. There is a theory that everyone is genetically suited to either hot or cold countries. And this is the reason dark-skinned people in Scotland should take Vitamin D supplements. And lack of this vitamin doesn’t help you if you contract Covid-19. Be careful.
British Sikh Report: November 26th
Nanowrimo word count 473 running total 43290
British Sikh Report: November 26th
I discovered today that there is such a thing as the British Sikh Report. It’s been published every year since 2013. This was the first time it was launched in Scotland as well as England. It is a ‘snapshot of what it means to be a Sikh living in Britain today’. I found out about it because my civil servant son was invited to speak on the panel. It was on a Zoom Webinar. All these innovations that I’ve learned to use because of Covid-19.
From the report, it seems there are about 420,000 Sikhs in the UK.
24% of Sikhs who died of Covid-19 were below 65 years of age as compared to 10% of the whole population. And that seems a big difference.
Two-thirds of Sikhs are married – the figure for the general population is one-half. Perhaps the arranged marriage system means that more people marry – or stay married.
Lots of other statistics at www.britishsikhreport.org
Palo Stickland 