Wednesday 23 October 2013

I'll get better, I promise!


Go Writer Lite - for those of you that have not heard of this application, I just downloaded it.  My friend and housemate, George, recommended it to me this evening, and I couldn't wait to start using it.  SO what is Go Writer Lite? It's a simple word-processing app, but unlike other simple word-processing apps, it makes "clickety-clack" typewriter sounds as you freaking type!!! (Though, I'm sad to report, while the app plays the sound of the carriage return, it lacks the satisfying "ding" at the very end of it.  Gotta take the bad with the good, I guess.)  I'm loving it.  The sound is, oddly, somewhat soothing and helps me focus on what I'm doing.  So I'm finally getting around to writing a "long-awaited" blog post.  

Anyhoo, it's been quite some time since my last post, and for that, I'm sorry.  There's really no excuse. I have a lot of time.  Oodles of it, one might say.  I've even put it on my daily "to-do" list: "compose and upload blog" every day.  And it's not like I don't have anything to write about, either.  I have lots to write about - I am in West Africa, of course.  So this is my official apology for slacking off.  It won't be the first time, I'm sure.  We can't all be amazing like Sharon Harvey!

So, what have I been up to? Well, lots, actually! So much, in fact, this could be a very long post.  This is the problem with not keeping up with my end of the blog-bargain; I get backlogged with too many things to write about that I can't actually write about them all at once.  That would be just silly, wouldn't it? You know what wouldn't be silly? A brief jot-note summary.  Here you go:

1. Went to Accra with Alex and Mark to pick up Sean and Caroline! They're here! Yay! Also, we had sushi in Accra.  I don't know if it was actually glorious, or it was just glorious because I haven't had sushi in a few months.  

Sooooo good! Also, A+ for presentation!



2. I have been spending my time teaching English composition and speech at a private school near our house, so that's convenient.  How's the work?? It's….okay.  I'm definitely getting a lot more headaches and chin acne.  More on this in several future blog posts.  And I mean several! The first one will start like this: "Getting up at 5 AM every day is hard." It is. It really is. 

Nice facilities.  Every room even has a white board *coughWMCIwhycan'twecough*


3. There was a scorpion in our house.  Chris smashed it to pieces (literally) with a hammer, while he used a dutch oven pot as some sort of shield.  
R.I.P. Ted


4. Thought my hard drive bit the dust - turns out it's okay!! All my data is secure and (now) backed up!  The problem? Something inside my computer doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that there's a hard drive in there.  So I have to access my data by plugging my HDD in externally.  Pretty lame.  Hoping to get it fixed while Mark is in Washington, or at Christmas in Saskatoon.  

5. I bought even more cloth.  Please.  Someone save me from myself.  

But....isn't it nice?

Look! It even has glittery parts! Totally worth it. 


6. I think Kwame Nkrumeow is in heat.  She's showing all the signs and symptoms, and is annoying the crap out of everyone in the house who is trying to sleep.  Poor kitty.  And poor us. Also, she's getting so big!! Here she is playing with her dead mouse for size reference.

We did eventually dispose of the mouse, incase you're wondering.


7. I had an amazing taxi driver named Samuel, who went above and beyond to help me transport a vanity to our house, and almost got clocked square in the nose by an angry vendor in the process.  Thanks, Samuel.  

8.  I've just completed week three of the Insanity workout.  It's really hard, but I'm super excited about it, and I can even see some muscles starting to poke through my protective layer of fatty skin! Hooray for progress!

9. I've consumed an unreasonable amount of Nutella, which may be negating my hard work with Insanity I'm totally okay with this.  

10. Many of us at the VOTOlandia house attended the FIFA World Cup Qualifying match between Ghana and Egypt.  It was pretty cool to see some pro-football, and we even got a picture in the news - well, Sean did.  We're just in the background.  It still counts. Ghana won, obviously.  
What am I even looking at in this picture? Also, Sean looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo here. I love it.


11.  Mark and I spent a weekend at Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana's only natural lake, which was formed in a crater from an ancient meteor impact.  That's right.  I was in a crater last weekend.  Jealous?  Here is the beautiful resort we stayed at.  




I'm sure there's much more that I could touch on, but since it's been so damn long since my last post anyway, I'd best not delay it any longer.  I promise that I will be more diligent in my posting frequency from now own (and this time, I mean it!).  Now that I have this absolutely awesome Go Writer app, I'll definitely be more motivated to write! For now, I hope this will be enough!

Take care out there, and make excellent choices!!

Jo

PS: Here is a picture of a nice sunset from our house.  It's no Saskatchewan sunset, but it's pretty nice.  




2 comments:

  1. Thanks for recommending Go Writer Lite, Ms. Newman! I'm obsessed with the sound of old typewriters and I absolutely love this app! Now I do most of my writings on it. The sound does help me concentrate and make me feel good about what I'm doing.
    Hope you are having a great time in Ghana. My creative writing class is not the same without you!
    -Jackie

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    1. Hi Jackie!

      Wow! It's so awesome to hear from you! Glad you like the app - it's totally the bees knees! Hope all is going well in your final year! I am so excited that you are continuing to take creative writing!

      - Miss Newman

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