As someone who dislikes insects (I can't sleep if there's a fly or a moth in the room) I didn't have the best start to the week. We discovered we had been colonised by moths — little flying pieces of dust that we'd spot flitting across the TV screen of an evening in increasing numbers. It meant we had to spend Sunday and Monday moving everything and spraying the carpet with moth killer. We ran out of spray with some areas still to go, so I've just spent another £50 to eradicate the little bastards, so we can go over the whole house a couple of times.
I will say that our first attack on the problem seems to have made a difference. Far fewer visible by midweek, but clearly we need to eradicate them all. Moving boxes, beds and book cases on the hottest day of the year so far wasn't what we had planned.
And on the second, even hotter day I was sat indoors with the windows closed because July 1st was "Flying Ant Day" here in Wivenhoe. We've had ants under the patio for years and it grew to such a problem that we had to have the patio around the back door redone. But they didn't do the whole of the patio, which has had weeds burrowing into every crack and ants tunneling under every slab probably since the day the patio was laid.
On Tuesday, they came out in force, a writhing sea of insects that will haunt your nightmares if you dare to watch the video below. Meanwhile, I was sat indoors with the windows shut to make sure they didn't fly into the house...
It wasn't all insects. We did some useful things around the house like defrost the fridge and the freezer and mow the lawn. Then we collapsed into a sweaty heap and cooled ourself down with Magnums and ice lollies. I've even taken to eating an apple as a snack rather than a couple of biscuits.
The lack of snacking (or maybe the increase in sweating) has meant I've achieved a little milestone. My weight has been a problem for years: it soared after I gave up smoking in 2012 and peaked at over 17 stone. It took me two years to lose two stone, before my weight went back into reverse and I put on a stone. Then, in 2019 I started to lose weight again, and again lost two stone before it bounced back a stone. I managed to lose a bit last year, then bounced straight back to where I had been over winter.
Now I've managed to lose half a stone since January. That's not a huge amount, but I'm losing it steadily, as that (I'm told) is the best way to make sure the weight stays off. I'm not setting any targets, and I'm still ten pounds heavier than I was in June 2020, but hopefully I can keep up the exercise and, more importantly, stop eating quite so many snacks.
Progress has been slow but steady on the Air Ace book because I'm still designing some of the biographical pages — I also replaced one that I'd already written as it turned into a bit of an epic about someone who contributed only one issue. Picking out illustrations is a problem with some of the more prolific artists, too... for instance, I'm going through the Air Ace contributions of Solano Lopez, and that means trawling through over 1,500 pages to pick maybe 40 examples, which I'll whittle down to two dozen in the final design. It all takes time.
And today (Thursday) was a bit manic as Bear Alley launched MYTEK THE MIGHTY — finally! It seems to have taken forever, especially as I completed work on all four books back in April. The bulk of the time since then has been spent waiting on printed proofs, corrected proofs and final proofs. The latter arrived last Saturday and I've been trying to think how best to launch the books. I was thinking maybe at the weekend.
However, my hand was forced by Jules Burt, who was doing a video and wanted to post it on Wednesday.. Who am I to argue with one of Booktube's finest (it's like Booktok for Youtube). that meant I spent today (yes, it's still Thursday) dodging about trying to sort out a few images and covers to launch the regular information column that gets posted on the Bear Alley Books site, posting details on Facebook and wondering whether I should do a little launch video as I've done for some books in the past. Maybe I can do that for the weekend.
The first orders have come in and I'm processing them as they arrive. In between I've been reading my Prog magazine and playing Hall of the Mountain Grill by Hawkwind in memory of Simon House, who died recently. I went there once, the Mountain Grill in Notting Hill, and had a rather greasy cup of tea.
But that's a story for another day. Now it's back to MYTEK... and hopefully there will be more over the weekend.
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