The torture continues...

...cooling off was extended, because buyers had not got formal approval of their finance. We didn't have much choice, but torture! Now have to wait until at least Wednesday, possibly Friday. Sooooo frustrating. What's more I didn't get that perfect job, snarl. Turns out there was somebody even more perfect out there, tarnation. So Friday was not quite the best day ever. However, we had a pretty good weekend and tomorrow is another day...

Jittery skittery

So much to do...so much to obsess about...and the two, of course, are mutually exclusive. As some of you pointed out in the comments on my last post, this five day cooling off period is killing me! Every time the phone rings, I think, they're pulling out. The surveyor came yesterday and I dogged the poor man's footsteps. 'Found anything yet? You're spending a long time there, nothing wrong is there? OMG, what's that?!' In the end, of course, he found only one major thing, which is the one we've lived with for five years and will fix if the buyers ask us to - on the other hand, they may just choose to live with it too.

And as for the job...yup, still waiting...torture, torture, torture.

In the meantime, it is left to Princess to provide you with amusement. Last night she woke up with a nose bleed. She chose not to rush to Mummy and Daddy to let them know, she chose to take care of it 'all by me self'. Which meant, instead of walking along the short corridor to our room and a waiting box of tissues, she took the long walk along the other corridor to the little loo for a roll of toilet paper. She showed me this morning how she'd cupped her hands to catch the blood, and the unfortunate little gap between them that she couldn't quite close. The toilet paper being judged inadequate, she walked back along the corridor, tottered down the stairs, still with her little cupped hands, and then realised she couldn't open the door to the family room, because she didn't want to get it all bloody from her hands. Thoughtful. So, instead, she took the long way round, through the formal lounge and dining room, still with her little cupped hands and quite the pool of blood in there by this time, and opened the sliding door with her foot. At which point she finally found a box of tissues that she felt met her requirements. She mopped up her nose, washed her hands. Then she went back to bed.

It was such a lovely surprise for Mummy and Daddy in the morning. A bloody trail leading throughout our home, along the corridor and back, weaving down the stairs, dribbling over all the white carpets...drips, handprints, footprints, the lot. It looks like a murder scene. (Princess was lucky that it didn't turn into one). And it's been a busy day of scrubbing for me.

Exchanged on the eucalypt today!

Accepted an offer on Wednesday and signed the contracts this morning. Only a five-day cooling off lies between us and a successful sale! Fingers crossed until 5pm next Friday, please (aussie time). Yes, it is possible to type with fingers crossed. I'm doing it right now.

Blitzed through the little practical test for the job. Waiting to hear, but, honeys, it's all good stuff and I'm feeling cool. A good week so far!

Through to the next stage!

Yippee! I love SEO!

I (cheekily) asked and found out they only interviewed three people out of 60 applicants. I didn't (cheekily) ask how many were going forward out of those three - I only care that one of them is me!

This stage is a 'practical', which is interesting. Given the length of time I've been working in this industry I've never really been asked to do this - people usually go by your portfolio. However, I'm a big believer in it myself, having worked with some junior writers who it turned out couldn't actually write. You see, with a copy portfolio, you never know who might have edited a piece of work before it was printed - and how appalling the copywriter's starting point actually was. So, I have no issue with putting my money where my mouth is and writing a test piece.

Awaiting the details and ready to get my head down and get it back by Friday. A perfectly fair deadline (if he's right about the size of the task).

Soooo glad I'm not sick this week!

Any SEO experts out there?

The potential multiple eucalypt situation has me scouring the job ads. Full time bondage is demanded by Mr Koala.

I'm interviewing for a job as a copywriter for a SEO company. I'd love to get it; they operate from home offices, so basically I'd be able to continue working in the way I do now - except full time and with the work guaranteed and fewer admin hassles. I've written copy for a few optimised web sites, so I have some basic knowledge of what's involved.

Is anyone deeper into this than I am? Got any great tips or buzzwords or new developments I might be able to bring up in my interview?!

All done

Ah, the smugness.

Betas - be ready

Hurtling towards the end of the first phase of editing The Woman in the Wall - thanks to Soccer Boy's evil germs. They robbed me of the ability to speak, which meant I couldn't do any work over the phone, which meant I had to adjust some of my deadlines - giving me some breathing space to get stuck into the editing. I'm really loving this story - let's hope I'm not the only one...

I'm well into the last third of the manuscript now, with a little bit of restructuring to be done. I'm correcting minor things as I come across them, but not being too pernickety as yet. That's at a late stage for me. So my poor betas will get a bit of a warts and all version, but as some of you know, that's not usually too awful in my case, seeing as I spend a lot of my daily life picking warts off other people's writing. Nonetheless, I am deeply imperfect and it's so hard to proofread your own stuff! Logic, in particular, often trips me up, although I'm pretty fast to spot it elsewhere. It's called being too close to your own work...

Updating the koala stats shortly, get the wordage in!

Princess got there before me

Struggling under the onslaught of evil germs that Soccer Boy has unleashed upon me, I reached for my one source of solace - a nice box of tissues. Only to discover that every single one had been wrapped in another one, tied in the shape of a paper doll and put back in the box. Every single one.

*Will be checking Koala stats next week, by the way. Too busy using my manuscript to blow my nose at the moment. AKA deleting text by using the Booger Technique.*

A staccato serenade

Eucalypt remains unsold. Ooops. Looks like we may become a two-eucalypt family. An utterly cash-free, two-eucalypt family.

An ominous throbbing deep in my throat suggests that I am in the early stages of the fancy virus Soccer Boy succumbed to last week - fancy, because it was One With a Name, as opposed to 'cold'/'flu' (no it wasn't the curly-tailed variety, it was fancier than that, trust Soccer Boy not to get the virus that's actually going around, but something nobody else in the area has - except me, apparently.)

Princess took three toys in for News last week. One of her questions was: what are their names? These toys have no names, but, as ever, Princess was ready:
Holds up toy one: Sally
Holds up toy two: Gaga
Holds up toy three: Stupidhead
Everybody laughed, she reported (as did the many members of the Princess Posse who also regaled me with the tale, just in case she hadn't). I muttered things about her language and getting into trouble with the teacher. Oh, no, says Princess, no trouble with the teacher. Apparently she was laughing louder than anyone.

Um, that's it really. Good weekend otherwise, apart from the eucalypt thing. Some writing even.

Tata.