Tuesday 20 October 2009

Fantasy


My days in Liverpool were surreal. Every taxi driver was Jim Royale from 'The Royale Family' and insisted on giving me a detailed history of each building we passed. The tests (so tiring I actually fell asleep on the desk at one point during a break) were at times a bizarre mix of 'The Generation Game' meets 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' but sadly without any prizes :-(

After being shown 50 pictures of objects and asked how many I could remember I was so tempted to say "Oh and the cuddly toy, do I get the cuddly toy?" but I had a feeling that humour would not encouraged. Shame, as I was also tempted to respond to the question "Why do people pay taxes?" with the answer "Because they haven't got a good enough accountant!'

Back home shattered and wrung out, I'm struggling to gather my resources to rewrite my chapter. So I'm trying to focus on fantasy, on escapism, which is what my chapter is all about really and what I've been enjoying listening to with my Louise Bagshawe audiobooks, (titles including "Glamour", "Glitz", "Passion" and "Sparkles"). Her wonderfully written alpha males and exotic locations are an inspiration IMO.
I'm still waiting for M&B to develop an audio programme in the UK. If I lived in the US I'd be allowed to listen but because I'm in the UK I can't. Neither can I get my computer to read the ebooks I've purchased for copyright reasons, very frustrating given I have paid for them...

Anyway, I've  come across a real live prince who looks nothing like Prince Charles :-) He's HRH Prince Emanuel Filiberto, Prince of Venice. An exiled prince working in Geneva as a hedgefund manager (so says wiki anyway :-) There are a lot of House of Savoy exiles in Europe, plenty of fantasy fodder for my 'future heroes' file. 


I've also found a picture of my hero's villa on Lake Como. 

Yes, it's working, I'm starting to feel better already...



7 comments:

Suzanne Ross Jones said...

Oh, gorgeous - the Prince and the villa. I'm seriously rethinking my positin on princes after that photo (and your lovely prince, of course).

Give yourself a day or two - there's still time before the comp deadline. Your chapter is brilliant already and you only need to tweak here and there.

Hugs for the tests - but I'm glad you kept your sense of humour (a laugh in the right place can get you through a lot).

XX

Jackie Ashenden said...

I am imagining Bruce Forsythe here... Loved the Generation Game as a kid!

Yep, keep up the escapism eh? Looking at what I have to do for my synopsis, I feel like joining you!

Tara Pammi said...

Hope you feel better soon. I had a crappy job interview and I'm already feeling better after seeing the prince and the Villa.

Sri.

Lacey Devlin said...

I'll fight you for the prince and the villa :P winner takes all!

I can't blame you for the tax question answer - they're asking for it really aren't they?

Lorraine said...

Thanks Suzanne, glad I'm winning you round on Princes!

Jackie - At least I didn't have to model a clay pot or anything silly! I did get asked things like 'What's the speed of light?' and 'Who wrote Faust?'. No cash prizes though :-)

Thanks Sri, I'm sorry the interview was crappy, hope it went better than you thought...

We can share Lacey, play nice! George Cloony has a villa just a few yards from this one! Found that out when I was researching this one.

Sally Clements said...

Gosh I either need more or less coffee today, I thought you said the prince was a hedgehog manager. Now off on a strange mental tangent as to what exactly that might entail...
Those tests sounded altogether too difficult, echoes of the 'items on a tray under a teatowel' game we used to play when younger. And that tax question, I think you had the perfect answer!

Lorraine said...

LOL Sally :-)

I'd quite like a job managing hedgehogs!

Actually I once knew a man whose job it was to design tunnels for hedgehogs under roads. How he trained them to use them I have no idea but it was some sort of environmental compliance thing!