Was it a good day?

As I've been doing minor edits to my novel I've been thinking, "Actually this is good. I like this." Inevitably that meant my hopes were raised - only to be dashed by a rejection this morning. From one of the three publishers I submitted to.

Even if I don't expect to be accepted I still hope and it still hurts. Hey ho. I notice in my submission record notes that the other two publishers don't even bother replying if they're not interested. (Bad form I say.)

Further depressed by a trip to the library and the sight of all those thousands of books that have been published. Yes, some are better than mine and some about the same but others are worse. See, I knew I should have bought chocolate while I was out.

* * * * *

Thanks to a generous donation I was able to go to Primark, a clothes shop at the cheaper end of the market, and stock up on thirty-six pairs of men's boxers and twenty-one pairs of socks for Zac's.

And today we've received another £200 of vouchers. I think I shall contact Primark, tell them about it and ask for a discount. I didn't have the courage on Saturday in the shop, and finding the right person who wasn't a Saturday girl would have been difficult, but I don't mind emailing.

* * * * *

I was thinking about my shopping and wondering how it is that we call them pairs of pants when it is only one item. Or a pair of glasses or a pair of scissors. Thank goodness for Google.

The original pantaloons were made in two separate pieces, one bit for each leg, so you needed a pair. That makes sense but then I wondered why we persisted in treating pants as a plural when, again, there is only one of them. 

It turns out that pants and scissors and binoculars are all examples of plurale tantum. A noun which is plural in form but singular in meaning, although not necessarily. "I am going to hang the pants on the line," could refer to one pair or several.

So far so good. I did look into it a bit more but gave up on reading this:

Thus forms which are syncretic contradict the expectation that every grammatical function has a unique form, periphrastic forms involve multi-word expressions where elsewhere the system involves synthetic exponence, and so on.

* * * * *

Forced myself to go to the gym with Husband this morning as my class is cancelled temporarily. Twenty minutes on the treadmill, ten on the bike, followed by floor and weight work, a little routine I created myself.

Came home and walked Toby and Louie on the beach. Daughter is off on holiday on Wednesday and had lots of work to do, while Daughter-in-law had to go to London as her mum is in hospital, so we were happy to help out.

Two dogs, a walk of about an hour, and six - yes 6 - poos! I think they save them all up for Granny.

Since then I've done some Christmas shopping - still on target to finish by the end of October - and written this blog post. If it hadn't been for the rejection I would have called this a good day. Fluff it, it was a good day!

Some late roses and some pumpkin fungi!