Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Compliment or complement

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Compliment or complement: A compliment is praise given to your lover in hopes of the rewards of love. You may complement a collection of objects by making it complete, or add an item to some others for the same reason.

‘Frank was apt to flirt with the girls and compliment them on their figures and appearance in the hope that they would favour him with, well, favours.’

‘Jesse brought in a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon to complement the meal of roast beef.’ 

15 June 1996 – Central Manchester was bombed by Irish dissidents.

Another example, fortunately now well past, of idiots believing they can achieve their unpopular aims by terrorizing populations indiscriminately. Terrorists rarely actually achieve anything that couldn’t be better changed by normal, if slow, democratic processes. And when governments and journalists dress up the activity of such sociopaths by referring to mass murder as something other than what it is, they aid the terrorists.

Writing: 4300 Words; But it is Saturday

A latish night last night but up early for a Saturday and wrote 1,900 words before breakfast. Two of the main protagonists are featuring a lot during the current sessions, as there is a lot happening for them but the other two threads are both in quiet periods.
The garden at the front is slowly being prepared for a relatively major project and today that moved a step forward, when Valerie and I removed a major obstacle in the form of a large bush. Transplanted it to another part of the garden. Let's hope it recovers.
After lunch, I had a second session and completed another character profile for a minor character who has decided she should take a more prominent role. They do this to you, don't they? Characters take control and dictate certain aspects and you just have to go along with them. I usually find they are right as well. After that, I wrote another 2,400 words, featuring the new character in an essential part of the narrative. So, 4,300 words of epic fantasy done.
I added a couple of pictures to my Facebook album, 'My Homeland' and then responded to the comments they attracted.
Kate has gone to yet another 18th birthday party - her life seems to be full of these as her friends all reach that age. She has her first A level exams on Thursday.
So, we're going to relax now, having taken our constitutional a little earlier.
The picture was one I took in the back garden a couple of days ago.

Writing: 3000 Words in Two Sessions

The first session, before breakfast in bed with Valerie, took me to a little over 1800 words and again moved the story on apace. After the usual morning jobs, we saw the weather forecast for tomorrow and decided our walk would be more pleasant today. And, pleasant it was, though we trod the ground we have covered on many previous weekends.
After lunch, inside, as it was too windy to sit in the garden today, I set to on a second writing session and turned out another 1200 plus words. So, today, the epic fantasy has taken me through a desert, along a track in a rain forest, and into the streets of a city lying on the shores of a lake beneath a smoking volcano. I've been in the company of slave traders, questionable high priests and heroic warriors. Such is the daily life of the writer of fantasy; and it's great fun.
Of course, England (the football team, that is) were playing Switzerland in a qualifying match. The draw was a better result than they deserved, to be honest and I'm pleased I sat through only the second half.
Dr Who entertained us with further adventures and left us cliff hanging until the series resumes in Autumn. Neat trick from the producers, that.
Now, since I've uploaded, edited and 'fixed' the photographs I took in the garden and on our walk, dealt with a multitude of emails and spent enough hours pounding keys and staring at a screen, I think it's time for the rest of that bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon I opened last night, don't you?

Writing: 2900 Words; Better.

This morning, the computer was playing up; Excel was slow and the custom dictionary in Word pretended not to exist. I wrote on nevertheless and managed 2900 words of blistering prose, taking three separate story threads further through the tale. After breakfast, I restarted the machine and all settled back to normal, apart from Media Player, which had somehow lost all my music from the playlist. I created a new one and imported all the albums into that; it now works again as well. Bloody computers!
A quick trip to Tesco's for fresh groceries and then lunch under a clear blue sky in the garden.
Kate took a friend off to the coast in the car to 'study' on the beach.
This afternoon I scheduled more posts for the blog to take me to next Thursday. Read some of one of my writing magazines with a great feature about the late great John Sullivan.
After tea, pinched Kate's bike to carry Valerie's bowls bag to the local bowling green, where she had a match, and then cycled back. I'd forgotten how much effort it takes to cycle against the wind and up even a slight incline!
This evening, I've completed 8 character profiles, which leaves another 8 to do. But now I'm going to spend the remains of the day with Valerie, sitting on the sofa and watching comedy on the idiots' lantern, whilst imbibing some Cabernet Sauvignon from the case I got from Naked Wines on my birthday.

The picture shows a villa in Crete.

And I've just noticed I've reached 300 followers on the blog tonight. If you'd care to join them, please do. As a member of Facebook, you just click on the Networked Blogs link, and if you don't belong to FB, just click on the 'Follow' link instead. I'd love to have you along for the ride.

Writing: 2900 Words; Better.

Up and found my computer had decided to only partly load the start up programs. Excel, which I use for my timeline, took forever to load. Word came up and didn't recognise my custom dictionary, which meant that every character and place in the epic fantasy sat on the page with a squiggly red line beneath it. I wrote on ignoring it all and got down 2900 words in three separate threads. Whilst I was having breakfast with Valerie, I restarted the system and all came back to life as normal, except that my Windows Media Player, which I use for the background music during my writing, had lost all the music from the playlist. It was still there in the various albums, so I created a new playlist and dragged all the albums into it. Seems to be fine again now. Weird.
Lunch again in the garden following a trip to Tesco's for light groceries, since Kate had the car to take herself and a friend to the coast to 'study' on the beach.
Discovered I had no 'spare' blog posts prepared, so did enough of those to last until next Thursday.
Took Valerie to her bowls match, which was in the town tonight. Kate still had the car so I pinched her bike to carry the bowls bag and then rode back home. I'd forgotten what an effort it can be to cycle against the wind and up even the shallowest incline.
This evening, I've completed 8 of the new character profiles, so just another half dozen or so to go. Oh, no, 2 more, since I need a couple more to interact with another main character.
Time now for a relaxing end to the day with a glass, or two, of Cabernet Sauvignon from the case of reds I got from Naked Wines for my birthday.
 The picture is of a villa on Crete.

Just noticed I've hit 300 followers on the blog today. If you care to join them, it's a simple matter of clicking on the 'Networked Blogs' if you belong to Facebook , or click on the 'Follow' button if you don't.