Sunday and Monday

So, it's a long weekend here, and I do actually have some things to get done. Sunday was the day I Got Stuff Done. Laundry, work, emptying bin, paying rent, tidying room, etc. I started writing my best man speech(!) for my brother's wedding. Going well so far, but there's still a few bits that want tweaking.

Checked the weather for the rest of the week, and Monday was looking a bit cooler, with some clouds and potential rain, so the beach idea has been dropped for this weekend. That's ok. I'm here for a long time.

Went native, and had a wander around the nearby blocks at 7pm looking for places to eat - the Italian I'd planned on visiting was unexpectedly but very definitely shut, but the tables were all laid out and everything. It was weird. Instead, after not much searching, I found this cool little (posh) burger place, that felt like the equivalent of Gourmet Burger Kitchen in the UK. Open french doors onto a modern art-y stepped amphitheatre  with water features and whatnot, and cheesy/cool chillout music playing (the Bodyguard song - "You can call me Al", Signed, sealed, delivered, and more)

It was really nice, and not badly priced at $17.50 for a (huge and very posh, with tomato relish etc.) burger and (amazing) chips. That's just under £12 in real money. Good for a very filling dinner.

I only make a point of this because of the cider, which I hadn't noticed because I was too busy focusing on the food and the name of the cider. Pipsqueak. My mum used to call me Pipsqueak. Must be destiny - but if destiny costs $11 for a pint (£7.40!) it can go to hell.

Monday - slept in till late, as I was up till the early hours writing bits for my book. Here's the thing, I'm not actually writing stories (yet), I'm just fleshing out ideas that I like in order to better set the world for the stories to happen in. I love world-building like that. It's all about the details - things that won't be noticed and will likely not even get mentioned in a story, but that doesn't matter, because as long as I know how x is supposed to look/work/etc. then I feel like I can give everything else better context for when I do get around to writing about a character's journey. Also if anything does get included, I have notes written down somewhere as to what I want it to look and feel like that I can reference without needing to remember stuff.

Also, I'm really picky over this particular world. I want everything to work. By which I mean, I want it to seem as realistic as possible, whilst still including the concept of magic. Which essentially just means that the laws of physics are exactly the same in this world as ours - but I've wedged magic in as an outside, restricted access power source from the 'closed system' of the universe. I like any setting that takes the original high fantasy approach to a magical setting and then goes "what happens when time and technology moves forward as it did with us?"

Anyway, I started actually writing about the characters last night, which is relatively new territory for me, but was rewarding in a different way. Nothing major, just fleshing out the concepts. Was fun.

Did some more work. Emailed a few companies, but not hopeful for replies. Doesn't matter particularly, but would be nice for completeness of the results.