All quiet on the teaching front. Or not, as the case may be.

Well, 2009 has been rubbish for me so far writing-wise! Probably Mars and Pluto up to their old tricks but honestly, how long does a Cancerian have to wait for a favourable heavenly wotsit?

And on the teaching front - just as bad! - a series of misadventures among the students involving suicide threats, drug dealers hanging round, self harm, petty theft, and final warnings, has made life interesting to say the least. Bring back the calm old days. I'm assured that the Asian ladies I'm soon going to be teaching for 4 hours a week will be a doddle to someone used to dealing with disaffected youth. Let's hope so...

Everything's ticketyboo

Aren't some words just lovely? And isn't 'ticketyboo' chief among them? A Flanders and Swan kind of word, if ever I heard one. Doesn't saying it instantly lighten your mood?

What about licketysplickly? How fantastic a word is that? And which singer-songwriter managed to get licketysplickly into his song lyrics? (I'm assuming there's just the one, but who knows? Maybe it's a lyrical regular...)

There must be dozens - peripatetic's nice; frilly - I quite like the simplicity of that; perspicacity... Oh, I can feel a visit to the freerice site coming on...

I'm writing! Or am I?

Why do fictional characters taken on a life of their own? How do they do it? They're make-believe, right? They shouldn't be able to do that. When writers say stuff about characters deciding on their own lines and adding levels to their own personalities, I tend to huff and puff about affectation and literary arty-fartiness.
But I've just had a germ of an idea - this in itself is a rarity. Well, more than a germ; I knew exactly what I was going to write. And it's taken on a life of its own. The minor supporting strand has become the main feature. The main plot's been shelved for another day and, even at that point, maybe some other idea will barge it out of the way? (Given that the main idea heavily featured grumpy dustbinmen, maybe that's not too bad a thing?)
It's a bit like automatic writing, aided by some long-gone spirit of a writing antecedent. Well, bring it on!