Lists in threes...why?

Yesterday I wrote a long shopping list. My terrific budgeting plan is to shop for a fortnight with one week's money. Haha, I know. Still I'm an eternal optomist...

'Tell us more about your shopping lists!' I hear you cry (or is that the click click of mice as you frantically move on to another blog). Is the plural of a computer mouse 'mice'? I feel it should be mouses...anyway that's beside the point.

I wrote a long list of everything I needed and wanted from the supermarket. I also write the amount each item will cost to the nearest 50p (easier to add up). So that was all done.
I totted it all up and it cost twice what I wanted.

I crossed off lots of unecessary items like dishcloths and brocolli. (I left the multipacks of choc bars on)

Well then my nice neat list was all scruffy, so I wrote it out again and added it up, it was a slight improvement.

Ok, so why three?

Several family members wander past me on the way to the kitchen.
"You've forgotten toothpaste" Is the first comment. I sigh and squeeze it on to my neat list (the word not the actual toothpaste).

"Don't forget those nice steak things you got last time."

I sigh and add the steak things. ( I thought they were horrible but what do I know?)
Then, without any help from anyone else I realise I've forgotten to write shampoo and milk. So unless we eat dry cereal and go out greasy-haired, I will have to add those too.

I very much doubt anyone cares where this is going, if you've read this far I thank you for your patience.

There's no room on the paper and my neat list looks scruffy again and that just won't do. So I write list number three and put it on the kitchen table ready for the shopping trip.

Later when I'm in the supermarket, I ignore my lists completely and just go with the flow, buying what is on offer and hoping for the best as usual. Mainly because I've left the list at home. Yet another list will never fulfil its destiny.

I ALWAYS forget to take the damned list with me and... I just realised yesterday, that I ALWAYS write it out three times.

Why?
What is wrong with me?

You don't have to answer that, just please tell me, does anyone else have this strange ailment?

Someone Has To Die...

No, no I'm not in a psychotic rage, far from it.

Spikethecat 'Someone has to die vol. 4' Competition results are out! There was a winner, a runner up and ten others to go in an anthology, and my story has been selected as one of those ten. Yay!
Congratulations to all the winners!

In other news, I haven't deleted the old manuscript. I got very cross with it, deleted vast amounts of waffle and have saved it on the old USB stick for another day. Thank you for all your comments, maybe someday the original idea will emerge as a bigger, better, brighter story.

On a completely different note, corned beef. I remember when if money was a bit tight, a tin of corned beef, potatoes, carrots and onions would make a great value family stew. Corned Beef Hash. Suddenly Corned Beef is £2 a tin. I'm sure it was only last year I was buying it for about 80p. It's not fair. Corned Beef Hash is just a hash without the corned beef.

And creme eggs...52p! Agh! Luckily the six pack was half price at Tesco so I congratulated myself on being a savvy shopper and ate them all in celebration.

How many more of the old favourites are getting way too pricey? :(

Finding a home for the WIP

I decided to have a go at the re-vamp of the fantasy story, it had been waiting for a good editing for a long while.
The first three pages were quite good, I'd re written the beginning a while back, so that bit was OK. Then I spent three hours on it and managed to get to page 8.
Naively I thought I could just have a read through, liven up my characters a wee bit, tighten up the plot, get rid of any unnecessary sentences and job done!
There are so many unnecessary sentences, I've decided best home for this particular novel is in the recycle bin. Talk about drivel.

Be gone you historical fantasy you! Thine tale is dismally dull, thy plot woefully wooly and thine characters be wimsically wooden.

Sometimes you have be brutal. I shall keep the ideas in the form of a few sentences, and perhaps one day it will become the start of a new and intriguing novel.

I am consoling myself that I wrote it a long time ago, so I must have learnt something over the years as I am now able to recognise a load of rubbish when I read it.

On the plus side I have subbed a new story to TWN and have two ready to post off to PF, so I haven't completely wasted the weekend.

It is hard to let go though, I was quite fond of it. How do you cope with brutal editing, does it ever end up in the recycle bin?
'You are about to send 'Useless WIP' to the recycle bin, are you sure?'

Of course I'm not sure...