Well, I didn’t make my November deadline, but I’m only 8 pages off it, so I’m not stressing about it too much. At one stage there, I thought I was going to be at least 30 pages off target, so in the end, I did well. Of course, this still means I have to write 200 pages of Bound by Shadows in December, and that’s a pretty fiercesome target given Christmas is stuck in the middle of it. If I can get anywhere close to target again, I’ll be happy.

Of course, I probably would have completed my allotted 200 pages if I hadn’t decided yesterday to paint. One end of the new house is weatherboard, and it’s the end that gets all the weather, so it was pretty bad paint wise. It’s also where I want to put a couple of large water tanks, and if I put the tanks in first, I won’t be able to reach the weatherboards to paint them. (we’re on stage 4 restrictions, which means we cannot water outside at all, and I have a really pretty garden I need to keep alive). I’ve been trying to paint that end of the house for weeks, but the weather has been pretty crappy–either too windy to get up on an extension ladder, too hot to paint, or too rainy.  Yesterday was almost perfect, so I got out my ladder, paint stripper, and away I went. It took me nearly all day to prepare the wood and then paint, but at least I got a coat done. Hopefully sometime this week I’ll get another one on, then I can finally think about get the tanks and a pump installed.

I’ve also taken to watching movies at night, mainly because there’s crap-all on TV at the moment. I watched 2 very different movies over the weekend,  one I’d been wanting to see for a while, and the other one I bought on a whim because it sounded interesting. The first was the X-Files: I want to believe. It was nice to see Mulder and Scully back on the big screen, and I loved that they finally moved the relationship to where us shippers believed it should be, but really, the plot line stunk. Which isn’t saying it was bad, because I did actually enjoy it. But it was more a stand alone episode, and after all this time, I really think they should have concentrated on the myth arc more. After all, that was what the x-files was all about, and the other movies–and the series–left so much unanswered. So, a reserved thumbs up.

The other movie was Gabriel. I’d never heard of it, never seen any advertising for it, but the blurb on the cover said it was an dark action drama about the battle between the Arcs (angels) and the Fallen (fallen angels/demons) for the souls in purgatory, and it sounded cool. It was also cheap, meaning I didn’t lose much money if it was crap.  Well, it wasn’t crap. It was a little strange–actually, it was a whole lot of strange, and reminded me a whole lot of The Crow in its feel–but it was still interesting. The special effects and action in the film were great, and so was the main character. I ended up enjoying this more than the X-Files, and coming from an x-files addict, that’s saying something. I’ve since discovered that Gabriel was Australian made, and basically made on a shoe string budget from the directors own pockets, because no one in this stupid country actually wants to support movies that are a little different or out there. You know, movies that people might actually want to watch. But I won’t get into that rant right now…  Basically, if you’re feeling bored and want to watch something a little different, it’s definitely worth picking this one up. And it you want to try before you buy (or rent) check out the website. It has lots of clips, pics and sounds to enjoy.