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[misfratz]

I do not know when people who have children manage to write anything coherent. I mentioned this as an example of how crapitalism did not in fact encourage (or even allow) creativity when J's silly friend was here and we were arguing about it, and they said 'oh well JK Rowling' which is utter shit as she says she wrote in Elephant House while her

Comments

[pofflewomp]

Well, despite nipple flashing pain and not being able to write, you have done a HUGE amount of stuff! Way more than I manage without a baby. But that reflects on how amazing you are, and does not in any way suggest it is easy to do things with a baby "sleeping" by you.

You are putting me off having a baby now!

Perhaps J.K. Rowling's baby was older? Grace just called me from Japan and she is unable to revise for an exam she needs to pass in order to get work for them to live because her husband went to his Aikido lesson and left her to look after the toddler this evening. There is no way she can learn stuff for an exam with a toddler beside her. So I think you are very right indeed. And J.K. Rowling must have had help, or something.

I can't write at all anyway because upsetting thoughts atack my head!

[misfratz]

Babies are lovely though! And they grow into Rosie monsters!

I think Grace's husband sounds like an idiot, sorry. Why on earth couldn't he miss an Aikido lesson once when she had an exam, ffs?

[pofflewomp]

I don't know. The exam is on Friday, but she wanted that evening yesterday to revise in. I don't think it is completely because he is an idiot - I think it is probably lack of communication too, as Grace is so terrified of confrontation she probably just mentions it once very quietly, rather than making it clear it is important. She is a bit eccentric when it comes to these things. I don't know, though. She says they are so nearly out of money she is waiting until her last £1000 of savings to keep that aside for emergencies and that is it. He doesn't seem to have understood that he needs to get a job or they starve, or that she needs to pass this exam to get a yoga teaching job, which might just buy enough food for them to survive...

[cdaae]

Aaargh, it drives me nuts when people quote ONE PERSON who has managed to do something from a position of disadvantage, and think it means anyone can do it. It's like saying a black guy is president of the US therefore racism isn't real. Moronic.

[pofflewomp]

Yes, I get it a lot from people who "knew someone who was bereaved but GOT A JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Grrr.

[misfratz]

Yes "Everyone else is a shallow git, why can't you just become one?!" Dickheads.

[pofflewomp]

That made me laugh despite snotty nose!
I have had very little sleep and am not well at all, so i fear alas might have to skip chocolate cafe today and go straight to bed on arrival! Am off to get train now, though so hopefully will make it.

[stubberella]

For his first few months, Sean would lie quietly enough while nursing to let me work the mouse and keyboard for gaming/raiding. He'd sleep for 12h at a time without napping (and only in a swing at first), which left him very cranky during his waking hours. Not a typical baby in any sense; it drove me to my wit's end. So I definitely take issue with books or on TV when they convey the myth of the perfect baby. I wish!

I didn't start my novel until we moved. Sean was almost 1 at that point with a regular nap in the afternoon and sleeping well at night. Finally. Even now, most days I only spend 2-3h on it. If anyone asked, I'd probably say something similar to the effect of writing my novel while my baby slept. But you have to look deeper to see what that really means. Not "I sing a little lullaby, baby drifts off to sleep, and I have a productive writing session." Anyone who insinuates "it's easy, why can't you do it" should be slapped up the side of their head. Babies are frustration! But things will get better, trust that they will.

[misfratz]

Hehe, Ursula is at the point that if I sit at the computer at all, she wants the mouse, if not to bash on the keyboard and try to make it go 'bing'!

[lordsuperfast]

Rowling may have been a bit creative with the truth - perhaps there were a couple of days when the cafe was quiet and she did do some writing with her baby with her, but one might think that most of it would have been written in the evening when the baby was asleep at home. I don't know how definite she has been about the details.

In other words, don't judge yourself by what people you don't know have said about their lives, because it may bear only a partial relation to reality at most.

You do sound very busy. I have been doing a jigsaw puzzle.

[misfratz]

Is it the 3000 piece one??

I'm not even sure what Rowling said herself, but I know the Elephant House make much of their status as 'the birth place of Harry Potter'...

[lordsuperfast]

Yes. I did about 1% earlier while I was waiting for the Dr to phone back, but it doesn't look like it will be finished before we come to visit you, so we may have to move it to hide it from the cats.

[hfnuala]

Monkey Business in Fountain Park has free wifi, but I've never met a kid Ursula's age who could amuse themselves at soft play - A is only just there at 4.

[misfratz]

That is also true- she likes me to sit and roll balls to her and then passes them back to me, but maybe if I took both kids I could get Rosie to do the entertaining (she does a magnificent version of 'row row row your boat' which has a verse about sharks' livers for some reason). OTOH maybe I could just give up on my magnum opus for a while (um, I wasn't really planning one, but still).

[lordsuperfast]

I have been waiting for an update on your autobiography with great patience.