Two surprises and an achievement

Today marks a major achievement for me. While I have actually written two previous novels that will never see the light of day, today, for the first time, I completed the second draft on a third. And I am excited because, for the first time, someone else will be reading my first Suki Baines spy thriller. For it is now in the hands of Nicoline, who has volunteered to read it and give me some staunch and valuable criticism.

Actually, while Nicoline is the first human other than my wife, to read one of my novels, I did get an AI editor to read it this morning after I’d completed the draft. It was very complementary. There was a lot of praise and very little criticism. It also only took it ten minutes to read, analyse and write about it.

Of course, I take its opinion with a pinch of salt, given AI is generally programmed to flatter. A real human opinion is always going to be better.

That was all first thing this morning. Following this achievement, I started cutting the grass, something that was a lot easier the second time around regardless of the fact that we had rain last night. In fact, following a few recharges, the job was completed by mid-afternoon.

There was a delightful break during the mowing when Nicoline surprised us with a short visit. Always a pleasure, we chatted and had cool drinks in the kitchen as the deck was far too hot under the blazing sun.

Later, following lunch, we headed out to collect then staple some posters around for Riksteatern. It was not advertising any upcoming performance this time. Rather, the poster lists the many benefits of belonging to the society with details of the various Stockholm theatres where patrons can get discounts with their membership.

Anyway, we drove around with me hopping out of the car at various intervals and placing the bright pink posters where people will be likely to see them over the summer.

Time didn’t allow us to complete the usual round so we shall complete the job tomorrow.

Looking at the photo above, the poster looks decidedly red. The camera lies! It really is shocking pink.

Speaking of cameras, during the Cooking Retreat we had a professional photographer along with us for a couple of the days. She was called Valerie and I mentioned her on our first day when she ate a steak.

Anyway, we were promised copies of her photographs a while back and I’ve been eagerly, waiting. I wanted to get a print of the big group photo that Valerie took, in order to frame and hang it at home.

Well, today they turned up and there are some lovely pictures, particularly the group one. The trouble, for me anyway, was that the files were very low-res. For obvious reasons, I hasten to add. But, of course, there is no way I could get a decent picture to frame from a 150kb file.

I wrote and asked if I could buy a hi-res image and, unbelievably, I was generously sent one for nothing, along with a message from Madame Voyage, saying it was a lovely idea. Here’s the photo in blog form.

So now I have more than just the Retreat to thank Madame Voyage for.