Day 5 editing v.4

38. Friday 27 February 2026

Progress was somewhat laboured today. I’m planning to go to Edinburgh for the day tomorrow, I think I’ll be out on Sunday, on Monday my car is booked in for an MOT and service in Galashiels (50 minutes’ drive away) from 10am and I am hoping to go from there to Peebles to complete my errands before shops close at 4pm (to be on the safe side). My friend Kyla is coming to stay from Thursday until Sunday, which is very exciting (she was our first ever visitor three years ago and I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say about the changes since then). My point is that I had in mind that it would be good to finish this edit before Kyla arrives, knowing that today, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning are my only free days.

                I ended up tidying and cleaning around the stove (it needed it), which extended to a thorough vacuum. I did a clothes wash. I also rearranged a kind of seating area half way up the stairs, trimmed and tidied some sad-looking pot plants, had a walk (hurrah, first walk of the week and first sighting of the sun!) … and then it was lunch time. So, yeah, point is that I didn’t do anywhere near as much today as I hoped and expected. Oh, and I started another sourdough loaf. Of course I did.

                As for progress, I am now on page 97 of 247. However, I’m still working in Eclipse (which is proper editing software for steno – it’s a lot quicker and easier to use than Word) and I’ve realised that I’m pretty much just rereading it and only making a few changes. In turn, I realise that I “can” only edit properly if I’m in Word and it’s all printed out. The “problem” is that once I convert from Eclipse to Word, I can’t really go back because the formatting goes horribly wrong and, like I said, Eclipse is much faster and easier to edit in than Word.

                I need a plan. I WILL finish this edit, which is more cursory than I’d expected, by Thursday. I will then convert it to Word and maybe try to go through some of the formatting (it’s a big job – it’s not that Eclipse isn’t clever, it’s that I don’t have the expensive software I’d need to convert it straight into Word rather than in plain text). Next week, I will then start editing in Word, possibly even from a printed copy.

In other news, not only am I making another sourdough loaf, for the first time in my sourdough baking year I’ve used a different method (gulp) AND I’ve added olives. I fancied olive sourdough. I am hoping it’ll come out fine. It was good to walk today and I felt really happy to see and feel the sun. It’s been a tough week up here weather-wise. Order is largely restored now it’s 18:45 because the burner has been on long enough to have warmed up the living room (where I’m sitting to write this) and I’m about to start making a new favourite dinner of fried tofu with noodles (it’s so much better than it sounds, and I don’t usually eat or like tofu).