The Platinum Ticket by David Beynon

The Platinum Ticket by David Beynon
Shortlisted for The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now First Novel Prize

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Frosty

2011 moves along.

Two weekends ago, I was kept busy with some re-writes and editing that will hopefully bear some fruit worth mentioning in the near future.

Currently I am working on Gerry - my children's story about an orphaned giant.  It's not moving along as well as I'd like.  I think it's just a question of drowning out distractions and doing the work.

Speaking of distractions, it was the boy's birthday yesterday.  To celebrate, I took him aside Sunday morning.
"Hey," I said, "tomorrow's your birthday, right?"
"You know it is," he said.
"What would you say if I told you we might just skip school tomorrow and do something fun on your birthday?"
"Like what?"
I told him and the answer was an enthusiastic YES!

Here's what we did:

Ice Fishing at nearby Shades Mills Conservation Area.

It was a frosty day on the lake, -18 degrees Celsius to begin and that doesn't factor in the numbing wind chill.

Fortunately, we rented one of these:


Although it was beautifully sunny, the hike out to the shed was brutal.  The wind froze cheeks and noses in no time.  Once inside, however, we were positively cozy.







We didn't catch a thing.  It didn't matter.  We joked and chatted and drank hot chocolate from the thermos.  It was one of those great days that I'll remember forever.  I rediscovered just how interesting my eight year old boy is and, I think, he rediscovered that his old man can be pretty cool, too.