Life

[wateroverstone]

A general life update:

I’ve posted my latest Challenge on the Biggles Forum. If anyone wants to join in on the forum, then sign up and have fun with us. If you’re inspired to write something for AO3, then go for it. Please credit me (Kismet’s Challenge) and don’t post before Sunday 25th March, when everyone on the forum will post.

Copy of Kismet’s Challenge X

I'm using Fairblue's idea of writing a new tale to an existing title, and the title I have chosen, having heroically resisted certain ones, is Biggles, Charter Pilot.

Stories can be set in any time period and do not have to include Dr Duck et al. Just a situation where Biggles can be loosely (very loosely) referred to as a Charter Pilot.

There will be kudos if you mention within your story:
 Potato (es)
 A book title
 A decapod


I also propose a mini-competition. Mention ‘potatoes’ in as many ways as possible: metaphors, similes, idioms, varieties, recipes with a high potato content (eg hash browns, gnocci, stew) in your story. List each use at the end of your entry and we’ll see who gets the most potato references in.

 

Post anytime on Sunday 25th March 2023. Anything posted later: either in the usual fic sections of the Biggles forum or on AO3 with a shout out to the Challenge.

 

I’ve managed to complete my first Biggles Bingo Square, Chasing Butterflies. As expected, I’ve gone off piste.  It’s on AO3 here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45495409

 

I’ve accepted an offer on my house and the conversion I am hoping to move to is happening again. I cannot describe how exhausted, fed up and bored I am by the whole process. I think I’ll have lost about £30k between the first offer and the last thanks to the changes in the housing market over the last year, several lots of solicitors’ fees, estate agents fees and so on. I was hoping to end up with a cushion of cash once everything was paid for, but it looks as if debt-free is going to be as good as it gets.

 

Another cup of coffee, and I’ll see if the car starts. The battery doesn’t like cold weather, it’s been freezing here over the last few days and I’ve had to postpone my errands due to complete knackeredness. The sun has melted last night’s snow, but it will still be visible and beautiful on the tops. I might take my camera with me and see if the water in the harbour (next to the supermarket) is still brown. Lots of environmental types have been taking water samples and the best guess is that some old mine workings under the sea have collapsed, which may or may not be connected to a new structure being built. 

Comments

[sevenall]

I would like to offer wishes for success with the car battery and sympathy for the house-moving process, but also say that the taters mini-competition is brilliant!

[wateroverstone]

The car started - just - so I had a scenic drive getting it properly charged. Another month and the weather will be warm enough that it will be happy again.

The mini potato competition is, indeed, bonkers, and by the feedback I'm getting, there are going to be a lot of potatoes in the stories. Someone is threatening to put a potato in a loin cloth. I'm looking forward to seeing if they succeed.

[philomytha]

Good luck with the car, and especially with the house sale, you must be so frustrated and fed up with it all by now.

I have a couple of vague ideas for your challenge, we'll see if any of it comes to fruition...

[wateroverstone]

The car started. I have driven around to recharge the battery (most of the problem is that I don't drive enough miles on a regular basis), meeting daughter number two in a car driving in the opposite direction on one of the backroads. When I got home there were multiple messages waiting, wanting to know why I was away from my usual haunts.

The house sale is progressing. My solicitors have entered a different dimension in which they cannot reply to e-mails or phone calls regarding the apartment I'm trying to buy.

I really hope that inspiration strikes re the Challenge. Marie, EvS, Biggles and a potato. What could possibly go wrong?

[philomytha]

Ah, that's the pocket dimension where our social worker lives, next time he emerges I'll ask him if he saw your solicitors in there too!

As for the challenge, I currently have two different ideas, one is a crossover with Lord Peter Wimsey, the other features someone who simultaneously charters Biggles for one part of his job and hires EvS for a separate part...

[wateroverstone]

I shall consider how the address of this pocket dimension could be altered to one in which their continued survival depends upon them answering all queries promptly and accurately.

Both ideas sound fabulous. Re the Lord Peter Wimsey one. Is it Strong Poison where he flies the Atlantic and comes down in the region of Whitehaven? Whitehaven is four miles from where I live... I could give them a cup of tea. As for the other idea, you've taken my breath away. Please, please do something with both of these!

[philomytha]

The second idea popped into my head after sevenall's discussion about the fact that it would have been more historically accurate in Sees It Through if EvS had been sent to help the Finns, not the Russians, and that therefore he and Biggles would have had the bizarre experience of being on the same side...

[wateroverstone]

That is a mind blowing idea and one which Must Be Explored! It would be a formidable partnership.

[sashacat1]

hooe the house goes through ok... big party when it does. fingers crossed. My story is started just unsure I will make it on time as on holiday

[wateroverstone]

When I moved into this house, on the very first night I held a party: bring your own chair as I had nothing to sit on. At all. At one in the morning, one of my friends discovered I would be sleeping on the floor as I hadn't yet acquired any beds, either, so she went home to fetch air mattresses. The photos of them being blown up are memorable. I aim to have a similar party on my last night in the house. I think it will be appropriate to bookend my time there with parties.

Really hope that you'll manage to finish your story on time: it's fun to be part of the Challenge, but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. Have a great holiday, regardless.

[hyarrowen]

Fond of I am of Biggles and his cohorts, I can somehow never write to challenges, but am amazed and delighted at the way the fandom has taken off recently - bravo!

Felicitations on the house sale. All too often, debt-free is the best that can be managed but it's not to be sniffed at. Muted congrats.

[wateroverstone]

Debt free will be good. If things go to plan, (Hah! I'm tempting fate there) I will own a freshly converted small apartment in a Georgian terrace with a parking space (gold dust in my village) very close to the Village Hall, the train station and my favourite pubs. It would be nice to have some money as well, but the important thing is the location, the parking and the lack of maintenance for a few years and that it will hold its value. I love my present house, but it's much too big for me; both my ex-husband and middle daughter live locally and have plenty of spare rooms for when the other children visit so I don't need to house them and it's an old house which needs maintenance which I have neither money nor energy to address. It will be a relief to move.

I'm the opposite with Challenges. I find it much easier to write to a Challenge than to come up with ideas of my own. They help me to find a starting point and once I have a starting point, I can produce something. It's fabulous fun being part of a fandom which has grown so much recently. It amuses me greatly.

[hyarrowen]

Your new place soundsjust perfect -I hope it all goes smoothly!

[wateroverstone]

Thanks. I can't quite believe that it will go smoothly after the rollercoaster ride so far but I'm hoping.