I am considering getting a sort of dictaphone arrangement. So that I can cook and write at the same time. Retreats for you is getting busier - with the result that I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, rustling up culinary delights for our lovely guests. I adore cooking - I find it soothing and fulfilling, and of course I love the warm appreciation that comes from the recipients of home made fish cakes, warm banana bread, sticky toffee pudding and the like. But sometimes, on days when editors are snapping at my heels, and there are rooms to change and guests to look after, I wish that I could accomplish more than one task at a time. And indeed, I quite fancy the idea of twirling around the kitchen, stirring and chopping with gusto, all the while speaking words of quality into a headset comfortably in place.
I imagine that after my first foray into this kind of multitasking, it would come very naturally, and indeed, in the same way that Barbara Cartland dictated her best sellers while reclining on a pink velvet couch, I feel some of my best writing could be done in this way. After all what more natural environment for writing from the heart, than from the heart of the house - the kitchen.
Writing and cooking - my two favourite occupations. How gloriously satisfying to imagine that both could be done simultaneously - smoothly, effortlessly and in perfect tandem.