Goals for May

I had a goal for May of doing a job for Elance, I did it. So should I sit back and wait for June? No, I have decided to set a goal that I will get one marketplace article accepted on Helium.

For this I know I will have to up my game as I have failed miserably in every attempt so far. In part this is because you get no feed back on whether it was style, grammar or content that let you down but I am sure that if I re-write (more than once) I will come up with some better writing, even if it isn't bought.

I'm also going to have a go at a few creative pieces. I wrote my first one for a challenge on helium last week, and honestly I think it is pretty poor in some areas so I'll have to do a leap-frog when I have thought about it a bit more. I based it on the song Hotel Califonia by The Eagles, and now I can't get the song out of my head.

I may be going over the top with this link inside the post thing now I finally found out how to do it!

Accents....

Being a foreigner in this country has led to accusations by others that I have an "accent" . I imagine I do, but obviously I can't hear it.

The city I live in has a lot of foreign inhabitants, many of whom have far more impenetrable accents than me. They usually know it though, and slow down. I am famous as the only person several families that originate from Glasgow will talk to in the shop because I can understand them (Glaswegian father).

The West country folks come to me because I don't laugh at their accent , and in fact can speak the lingo ( I'm Cornish/ Devonian).

The Italians and Greeks rattle on and we get there in the end, and the Chinese usually bring a small child to translate...another story.

The point is most of us with unusual accents realise we have them and make adjustments, which leads me to my experience today.

I had to do a label for a lady who wanted some strong pain killers. " What name is that for?" I enquired.

" Peterson"

"Ah ha!" I think, there are so many ways of spelling that , I will check. " How do you spell that? "

" P- E- T-T"

I typed P-E-T-T.... "NO"...she said..." P-E-T-"

I looked at my screen and showed her, PETT, " NO," she said "P-E-T-T"....she gave me an "are you stupid?" look. ( I was a little uncomfortable, this is a look I use, not one I get..)

Very slowly she repeated, "P-E-T-"

I sat looking at my screen dumbfounded, I had typed P-E-T. I sat and stared at her. What did she mean? What was she trying to tell me?

By now she was getting annoyed, slowly she repeated herself yet again, "P-E-T"

"But, that's what I've put. " I said.

"Can you not spell? are you deaf?" she shouted " E...E...E for epple",

This will mean nothing to some-one who isn't familiar with the Kiwi habit of using the wrong vowel in words, such as "fesh und chops" for fish and chips and "sex-pock" for a six pack.

For those familiar with the accent imagine my dismay and embarrassment, but I have to say she must have had the problem before, it was a very thick accent ( unlike mine?)

Woo Hoo.... for sure

I just got paid for my first job on Elance, I worked hard and after a few false starts due to communication snafoos the buyer seemed pleased with what I had done.

I have to say that I was a touch worried when I didn't hear from him for a few days and some of what I had written was already on his website but I think that was a timing thing as I now have the money in my hot little hand, or rather my hot little Elance account.

It was the first job I had bid on so when I got it my heart was in my mouth but I did it...woo hoo... I did it. Now to bid on some more stuff and see where life takes me.
See My Elance Profile

An invasion

We've been invaded from next door. This pumpkin plant has grown through the fence, I assume from their compost heap. I hope they don't cut it off as it will save me planting my pumpkins this year.

The flower is very similar to the cucumber flowers that I hope to be seeing on my cucumber trellis in a few weeks time, as it should be, they're in the same family.

The vegetable patch is in the early stages yet but everything is springing to life. It's weird living here. You can grow most vegetables in winter, which is summer in the northern hemisphere. When it's summer here it's too hot for a lot of things. I end up growing vegetables in the same months that I would have in England, but in the winter.

What people know about health matters

I just read a post on the traveling midwife that left me with a few thoughts. The writer is a midwife and she had a minor brain fart (as I call them) and her client got upset. The situation was smoothed out and all is well. What it summoned to my mind was how little some people understand their body's and what happens to them. Working in the health field I assume most people have a level of general knowledge that they clearly don't.

Example: I was counselling a lady about a change in her brand of contraceptive pill. I emphasised that because it was a mini-pill she had to take it at the same time each day, or it could fail. She replied that that was ok. She had changed brands because she had two boys and wanted to get pregnant with a girl this time. Her friend told her brand X was better to get a girl.

Stand back now, which question should I address first? Where do you start with some one who knows so little about what's going on that she thinks changing her brand of contraceptive pill will change the sex of her baby.

I suspect her "friend" had told her this to stop her breeding.

Wooo Hoooo.......I think!

I got that writing job I went after. I am so excited and writing like a fiend to get it done.

It's been a steep learning curve to get what the buyer wants, and I hope he doesn't lose faith but I'm endeavouring to make all the changes he asks for as I go along. The only problem really is that he is in America and I'm in Oz, so we're on totally different time lines. Having said that we seem to be answering each other's queries promptly so one of us is keeping a weird schedule.

I think it's me...I work my day job then come home and launch into this, at which time he is just getting up.

It's kind of like having a baby again, no sleep, psychotic breaks, but an underlying joy in what I'm doing. I really hope it's the start of something good and if it comes off I'll post a link to the site when I'm done. You'll have to guess which bits I wrote as there's already some stuff there.

Passion Fruit

The passion fruit vine has a new spurt of life on it again. I'd say it had started for the season but it hasn't actually stopped producing fruit for over twelve months.

Last time it took off like this my husband gave himself passionfruit poisoning. Who knew they were a citrus fruit. Well we do now. (I'll leave the effects of over consumption to your imagination, but I don't think he'll be eating them again.)

This time I'll be making jam and freezing pulp to store excess, not leaving them on the side for my husband to poison himself with.