Having a broken ankle involves large amounts of being stuck at home. Luckily this is a good thing for introvert inclined writer types but you can’t write 24 hours a day.

Given I also have to stay off the ankle a lot, I can’t really embark on major home improvement or gardening projects, nor do I have the brainpower for terribly complicated knitting (thanks to being in revision cave plus being slightly sleep deprived due to the boot) so there has been lots of reading, watching TV and playing on the internet.  So herewith a sampling of things that have been entertaining me:

1. My iPad. When I found out I had six more weeks in the walking boot, I kind of got grumpy and indulged in retail therapy. An iPad seemed logical given it allows me to do many things from the comfort of my couch. It rocks. I don’t read on it but I do many other things (and not just playing Lego Harry Potter and Angry Birds!)

2. Pinterest  Pinterest is kind of like tumblr taken to the nth degree. Many pretty things to look at, crafty things to discover, recipes, girliness, really whatever takes your fancy. For magpie writer brains, it is many hours of shiny distraction.

3. Paprika app  I’ve had a recipe notebook for many years but with the advent of recipes on the internet, it’s become increasingly stuffed with print outs that I’ll write up “One day”. Angela James tweeted about a recipe app called paprika which she liked so I decided to give it a go. It’s kind of awesome.  You can download recipes directly from many big recipe sites, you can capture other recipes pretty quickly, you can categorise them, it will scale the ingredients for you and you can share the recipes too.  I have the desktop and iPad versions now.  Also good for storing beauty and green/home cleaning type recipes. Now all I have to do is slowly transfer my handwritten notebook recipes!

4. I have been watching Sons of Anarchy and Doc Martin. Kind of alternately. This may create story whiplash but one is dark and gritty and enthralling and the other is lighter and fun so it’s a good balance.

5.  Reading.  Thank god for my e-readers which mean I have a steady supply of reading matter even when I can’t get to the library or a bookstore. I have had a big glom of the Kerry Greenwood Corinna Chapman books (Melbourne, bakers, cats, what’s not to like?) and many many more.

6. Indulging the girly side.  One can paint one’s nails, try to teach oneself to curl hair with a flat iron, give yourself a facial (right now, I’m trying this mask….when I was a teen, Avon used to make a great green apple face mask that set and you peeled off…this may just be the unscented, home made version of that!). Pinterest is good for finding things to try. Also YouTube is girly stuff technique heaven.  I like Pixiwoo and Lisa Eldridge but there are many many out there.

7. Apple TV.  I was given one of these nifty little creations for my 40th.  Love.  Stream stuff from your computer to your TV, including photos (you can have a slideshow of your photos playing all day, music, video and podcasts!) Genius!

So there you go, many many evil (well in my case, good at the moment) sources of entertainment when you can’t do much!

Have fun ; )