Yesterday I had a big day. After school drop off (which I do not do!) I ate breakfast, got dressed and plonked myself in front of my computer. That sounds weird. That sounds like I was hitting myself up with cheap wine at breakfast time. As entertaining as it would be to imagine me sloshing about in the mid-morning, I was not. Rather I was dramatically sitting down on the couch with a relaxed yet determined flourish. That kind of plonk. Not a carafe in sight, I swear. No gingham tablecloths. No bread baskets. No cutlery wrapped impossibly tight in paper napkins. Nope. Get your plonks straight.
My plonk went like this: For five and a half hours, while the kidlets were tucked up at school, the room stood still and quiet, and I wrote stuff for a new book. It was so still and quiet and stuff-y that I forgot to go to the bathroom, move, drink tea (or water), eat…. I just kept writing. Not only was it still and quiet and stuff-y, it was a bit stinky too. The smell of an unfortunate mouse languishing inaccessibly under the floorboards finally jerked me from the plonky zone, reminding me that TIME was indeed still ticking and it was not 9.30 any more. It was 2.45 and 2.45 smelled like mouse. It also looked remarkably like school pick up time. Imagine that.
I am a bit of a fan of that kind of plonk. The kind that swallows time and stinky mouse smell, and it was a REALLY great plonk, because I got so much done. So much that I needed to use italics there. (You need to read that bit with your eyes a bit squinty, shaking your head disbelievingly to illustrate the point. Or perhaps you are doing that because italics are hard to read in this font. Whichever it is, you are totally feeling this, aren’t you?)
This plonk day, I was on a roll. I got lots of good words out and I felt so happy and accomplished and pleased at the end of it. Also I felt tired and hungry and busting to pee. Sorry. At least I did not say plonk there. That would be gross. Does this ever happen to you? Not the pee bit. Not the unsavoury kind of plonk bit. But the losing time, getting in the zone, not coming up for air, making progress bit? It’s kind of like having a really satisfying meal, without the cooking, food or dirty dishes… instead you dine on paragraphs and letters and numbers. Well. It’s probably not like that really. Some letters are quite pointy and would be hard to swallow. What I am trying to say it’s really feel-good to have those kind of exhausting great days. Does that make sense? Despite the starving, thirsty bustingness, it felt really rad to achieve stuff.
(Do you know, when I work in a big, obsessive block like that, I seem to be less inclined to write something over here, too. It’s kind of like I have totally filled my quota of happy words and I can’t even think about typing even one more full stop. Or exclamation mark. Yes. That is more appropriate. Perhaps it is called being Plonked Out.)
What do you think? Do you think PLONK and BLOG are stupid words for great things? Do you ever feel like I do? Or do you feel like you do? How do you feel?!
xx Pip
i'm lovin me the plonking to bits!
but more than that………could your writing be ANY MORE MAGNIFICENT???!!!!
sorry about the shouting-it wasn't really meant to be shouting but just emphasis.
i LOVE reading it soooooo very much.
your writing makes me so very happy.
thankyou. xx
ah Pip, you rock the dog's biscuits. I mean that in a thoroughly positive way. I'm gonna plonk ALL DAY tomorrow, in dedication to you.
xo
Gosh, I haven't had a good plonk day in SO long! But you've captured it perfectly. And now I really want to get busy and get good stuff done!
Congrat your productive day! I have no doubt that the words you wrote were absolutely brilliant ๐
Katie x
I have a 2.5 year old and a 7 week old. Achieving a plonk day is about as attainable as solving a Rubik's cube in under a minute.
I am happy in my crazy though!
I say good on you for getting stuff done.
I have tried unsuccessfully to get my napkin wrapped around cutlery that tightly – to no avail! Knew exactly what you meant with the first 'plonk', to me a 'plonk' is when you sit with the intention of staying there a long time (but most 'plonk' themselves in front of the TV). Kudos for you for making the most of your 'plonk'!
I'm hearing you loud and clear lovely lady!
I work from home and when I drop the little tacker off at crehe and return home, there's nothing more satisfying than a good ol' plonk of productivity.
Couldn't think of a better work to describe it….
I think I'm in need of a whole plonk week! It would be wonderful to achieve so much, with that much focus. Imagine what I could get done!
And thank goodness we don't have a mouse problem here.
Dear Pip,I love you, because I feel like you've given me permission to 'plonk' as well and not feel one tiny, weeny bit guilty. Except, I might have to knit something because I'm not writing a book! Same thing, different haircut.
Chris
Dear Pip,I love you, because I feel like you've given me permission to 'plonk' as well and not feel one tiny, weeny bit guilty. Except, I might have to knit something because I'm not writing a book! Same thing, different haircut.
Chris
Always an amusing outlook on such a simple day! Love it!!!
The word 'Plonk' does conger up images of red wine rings on the coffee table but obviously in your case…..it is not the case.
My example of the type of 'plonking' you were doing would be when I am allowed a big chunk of time in my studio to play with my fabrics and even finish a few sewing projects… not really just sitting in one spot but definitely forgetting the simple necessities like food, water and a trip to the tinker.
ps. Blog is quite a silly word, I think. ๐
Ha…LOVE this post & loved to read about the zone (I'm well acquainted) & the mouse & achieving stuff.
Amen Blog & Plonk are stupid words. I don't even like to say the B word…it goes hand in hand with the "Journey" (reality TV style) for me. xxx
Apparently 'plonking' is a new worldwide craze that involves plonking yourself on the couch with a glass of plonk and getting your friends to take photos of you and post them on the internet… or so I'm told…
Like the sound of your plonk day though!
What do I think? I think that "It was 2.45 and 2.45 smelled like mouse" is the best sentence I've read all day. It might just become my favourite comment of the week…maybe even the month! It brought a smile to my face, and gave me a laugh. Thanks Pip! ๐
I love a bit of plonk, both of the alcoholic persuasion and of the productive variety! There's nothing quite like the sense of achievement you feel when the job at hand is finally completed. It doesn't happen often for me though, because, as with most of us in this world, life just rolls on and work is never ending. My last personally creative sense of achievement was last December, when I scanned every old Christmas-time family photo I could find, and created an advent calendar for my parents and brother. Each day of December was accompanied by a 5-10 minute montage of Christmas memories from the 'olden days' when my brother and I were kids (accompanied by a Christmas-themed soundtrack of course!). I absolutely loved doing it, and while I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of creating each little montage for the advent calendar, it literally took me countless evening hours to create. Before I knew it, it'd be 4am, and I'd cringe, knowing that the whole night had slipped away while I was engrossed in creating special effects, pan and scans, and timing each image down to the millisecond (and remembering that my then 4 year old would be awake in about 1.5 hours didn't help!).
But each morning, when I handed my family the USB stick filled with that day's advent calendar date, I was filled with a huge sense of satisfaction and was brimming with excitement.
So yes, I love a good productive 'plonk' as you put it, Pip. And when a productive one isn't available, the alcoholic one certainly doesn't go astray either, lol! ๐
Ahh pip – congratulations on your crazily productive PLONK DAY!
I totally know what you mean by losing time, by zoning into a project so fully. I do it very regularly (poor bladder) as an artist. I don't know where I picked it up from, but I have the idea in my head that I can't walk away from a canvas until at least a really solid foundation is down, but I usually just keep going right through to as far as I can go ๐
Now go rest before you crash!
Luvluv,
Sway
I can't remember the last time I got lost in my own stuff. The sound of small children, suppliers, co-workers and just crap that needs to be done every day wakes me up with a start before I even begin to think of myself. sometimes I find old books of sketches and wonder if that was ever really me. Maybe one day when both kids are in school, the house faeries clean everything, the cook makes dinner and the bills get paid by themselves I'll think about me again…. until then the newspaper will remain unread, the pile of books next to my bed will grow (I'm an optimist) those ideas will just keep swirling around my head
i love a good plonk day! i haven't had one in a long time – with 2 wee kidlets around it's hard. congrats on writing the new book and getting a heap of work done! I love music so much but i really relish silence even more these days and find i am most productive when i am by myself and in super silence!
I love a plonky day,almost as much as a plonky night with friends. I don't however love the stinky mouse smell. We seem to have the same problem with a little something that has met it's demise somewhere in our wall. The only thing that I have found is Nil odour. I am not a huge fan of chemically smells I much prefer the natural smell of freshly juiced lemons, freshly mown grass, a wood fire in the winter, or the smell of choc chip cookies fresh from the oven but none of those combats stinky smell like Nil does. Good luck with the smell and congratulations on a great plonk day!
I am super jealous of your productive plonk day – congratulations. I wish I could have one of those, i'm writing my thesis at the moment and it doesn't ever seem to be super productive, just slow slow progress. If plonk is your word, Plod would be mine.
I wish you many more productive plonk days.
I like the word plonk for this kind of day. I call it an active passive creative productive in the zone day. Time stands still and flies at the same time and at the end of it the results are tangible and satisfying. You plonk into bed after a day like that feeling superb and exhausted. Plonk is a better and shorter description. And it goes well with a bread no basket and corsetted cutlery.
I had a plonk day too…might be something in the air…Hopefully not a dead mouse thou…I hate that smell…It lingers far to long for my liking…
So I plonked…on comfy couch and forgot to eat…or pee…and then it was time for school pick-up…why does that time tick around so quickly?
Glad to see I'm not the only one…
I do think your day could have been more productive than mine…
in the creative department…
How do they wrap the cutlery so tightly? I love the quiet house to sit and really think things through and settle onto a really good plonk