One Writer's Life Lessons - The Scourge of Procrastination & Int'l Potluck BlogFest

Picture Source - Taking St0ck

I'm sure you've heard it said that you should 'never put off for tomorrow what you can do today'. My mother used this adage many times during my childhood. I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to those words, but was recently caught in a situation of my own making due to procrastination

I made some changes in my life in 2014 and among the things I decided to do was spend more time on writing and editing. I've been writing mainly non-fiction, but in that time I also did a refresher course in editing. Thing is, this course had a six-month completion deadline.

I did 13 lessons, 13 exams and 15 assignments. The final exam was the only thing left for me to complete at the end of June. For some reason I do not understand now, I didn't do the final exam after the 13th assignment and course test. I told myself that with a six-month window, I could come back and do the finals some time in July. Who knew six months would go by in a jiffy? Certainly not me.

Less than a week ago, I decided to sit down and do that final test. Took out my folder, went over all the course material and then opened up the website. What did I find? I missed the six-month window by a few days. End result? I had to shell out $US59.00 (in addition to what I paid to do the course) to cover the test and certificate. In Jamaican dollars, that's $6,550.00.

Being a cheapskate, I cut my losses and took the 'free' option, which is to accept a certificate with accreditation for Proofreading & Copy Editing based on the classes/tests I had already done, with a final grade of 92%.

Lesson learned? Do it today! 

Faced with the same situation, what would you do?

The experience shared today is part of One Writer's Life Lessons.

I signed up for the International Potluck Blogfest hosted by Lexa Cain, Beth Fred and  Medeia Sharif and since I won't be posting again until Wedneday, here goes. Participating is this Blogfest is simple:

~ Put the bloghop badge on your post.
~ Post the cover of a book you love (it can be your own) with a food and/or recipe from the book, or a food from the MC's region, or any food you just like!
~ Link back to Beth, Media, and Lexa.

~ A copy of Beth's Finding Hope, Medeia's Snip, Snip, Revenge, and Lexa's Soul Cutter, plus a $10 Amazon gift card will be given away via Rafflecopter!

I've used a copy of a book I own, The Real Taste of Jamaica by a renowned Jamiacan cook, Enid Donaldson. The book contains the recipe for the National Dish, Ackee & Saltfish, which is a favourite of mine. Ackee is a vegetable that grows on a tree and when cooked, it kinda looks like scrambled eggs. It's good with bacon, corned pork, ham, sausage. Some people even prepare it with flaked red herring.

1 lb saltfish (codfish)

2 dozen Ackee

1 onion

Diced cooking tomatoes

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 tbsp. Oil

1. Soak saltfish overnight or alternately, boil to get rid of the salt. Flake saltfish.

2.  Fry additional items you may use - bacon, corned pork, etc.

3. Clean ackee by removing seed and pink lining (which is poisonous).

4. Boil for 20 minutes (or less, depending on the ackee) in salt water and then drain.

5. Saute onion and tomatoes.

6. Add saltfish / bacon / corned pork.

7. Add black pepper and salt (if necessary).

8. Saute briefly to blend flavours.

9. Serve hot with Johnny cakes (fried dumplings) or boiled green bananas.

  

There you have it A Taste of Jamaica. 

Ackee & Saltfish