Day Off

No lazing in the sunshine for me. No sleeping in.

Not even considering that I'd been up till about 3am, reading. I did however get to lay in until about 9am. Although I had left my normal alarms in place (for 6:30am). This frustrated the cats a bit, as they were, no doubt hoping that I would get up at the normal time to feed them. 

They were mistaken, hungry and disappointed.

I did, however, get up at 9am and got myself ready for the day. I had previously arranged with Steve Launay to come down so that he could bring the files of footage and sound, that hopefully I am going to be able to edit into an episode of The Adventures Of Stephen Brown. 

Because I knew he was coming down around 10:30, I got my 'wiggle' on and got up, got washed and dressed, and went into Cosham. (funnily enough they don't react too well if I go the shops naked -No. I haven't tried it, but I'm pretty certain it wouldn't go well). 

I popped into the bank, to cash a cheque from my parents (toward Chloe's birthday present), brought a fleece, and then went and sat in Costa Coffee, writing - or more precisely editing my NaNoWriMo novel. Lately I have been moved by the content of some of the books I've read on my kindle, and the realisation that the only thing holding me back from self publishing on Kindle (as it's free) is myself, and the fact that I haven't finished editing the damn thing. 

Just pecking away at it, bit by bit each day means that I make sure and steady progress. Some days quite a lot, some not very much, but still a great deal more progress than I would have been making otherwise. 

The Chromebook comes into its own here. Enabling me to continue this editing process pretty much anywhere and to update the file on the 'cloud' which means I only have one version knocking about, and I can access that on my iMac, my ipad and of course the Chromebook. 

There's something more serious and focused about writing or editing on the Chromebook. I do still find myself trying to touch the screen in order to navigate on websites or the select a word or phrase. I still feel that for the £120 I spent buying it off Ebay, I got a really useful tool that's easy to use and super efficient. 

I have now found that I am leaving the ipad at home, and making sure that I always take the Chromebook. If it weren't for the contract that I have for the iPad, I would be thinking about getting rid of it, and considering a 7inch tablet (what you mean like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 that I donated to my Mum and Dad ?) for those moments when a tablet's portability and interface comes into its own. This does not need to be a £400 plus device. 

Helpful Youtube Video

Anyway, the workers in Costa, filtered the coffee, I filtered the noise, and there was a lot of it, in order to write / edit. I still got a fair bit of work done, and was interrupted, not by the rowdy people around me, but by Steve arriving. 

After downing my second unnecessarily huge coffee, we set off for mine, to complete the file transfer.

I also treated Steve to some lunch. 

The power units that enable me to use the power sockets to connect the iMac to the router, without resorting to wifi (because it's slower). These had ceased to work. So important is it to me that I have a hard wired internet connection for the iMac, that I'd stated to think about how I could reorganise the room, rearrange things in order to preserve that connection.

After struggling to get them to work, and being initially really angry that they had failed I turned, of course to the internet. 

On youtube I found a very useful video that showed me how to reconfigure them to work correctly. 

Here comes the sun...

I write this, sitting outside (on my camping chair) basking in the gorgeous sunshine we are inexplicably blessed with. These things seem all the more special when you consider that it's October 1st today. Yes that's right kids, October 1st. Bloody hell, after all this furore about global warming, and how bad for us it is (going to be), no one stopped to tell us that it might mean I can write outside on a sunny day, in my shorts, IN OCTOBER. OCTOBER !

Did I mention it was October ?

I've gotten up reasonably early today (well, a shave before 9am) grabbed a coffee, after feeding the cats, and taken netbook with me to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine whilst catching up on some script editing and some reviewing for Beacon.

I even decided to risk letting the cats outside. It's so quiet, and there's probably no better time to let them have a sniff around than today.

Too often I lazily trap myself in my flat, in front of the television, or more often, in front of my Mac. Living on my own (sorry Midnight & Twilight, you don't count as people) that leads to a rather insular existence. Lots of moping and self reflection may be good for you, or at least required if you're a teenager, but at my age it's just a bit on the sad side. I don't feel a burning need to be with other people because I can't manage or survive on my own. But I do recognise that I learn the most from other people (usually all the ones I disagree with) and do enjoy the company of others, as long as they are the right people.

The group I work with (my team) at work the 'right kind of people'. Which I don't think is something that neither I or they would have said six months ago. It's been quite the roller coaster this year. I do feel good about the difficult times I've been through, because we (as a team) have all come through them together and that gives us a better understanding of one-another. I'm a great believer in whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. It's as true for immunity to virus and germs as it is to resilience to emotional distress and conflict. Having said that, there is still work to be done. There is more for me to learn (from them) and about how to get along with people better, and achieve more.

Times gone by I think I have been so eager to get a result that I've knocked everyone and everything out of my way in my determination to get there. Unfortunately this always involved knocking over the very people I needed to help me get there.

By far the greatest pride I feel about this year is that one person in my team managed to be successful in getting a job in another area of the business they were really interested in, when they've been overlooked a lot before, two others have been headhunted by other managers to stand in as their deputies, and another has shined so well that I'm convinced pretty soon the same will happen to her.

I'm sure that if you asked any of these four people, six months ago, that they thought they would be in that situation, and how well we'd be getting along, they would have all told you it was impossible and not to be so fucking funny or stupid.

I would have probably said pretty much the same. I've changed, they've changed. We've all grown. I'm sorry this all probably sounds rather mush and twee or terrible Americanised corporate bollocks. But it's true.

Someone who my relationship with has moved in the opposite direction is my friend of nearly 20 years. The person that I've written 4 plays with, countless sketches and created improvised videos for the world to enjoy (or avoid). We've always had diametrically opposing political views, and it's been something we have always been able to work with, ignore and manage. It's actually contributed to some of the balance in our writing. Now we can't seem to see eye to eye on anything. I don't think it's down to the politics. I think it's much more deeply routed than that.

You may recall that we fell out during the production of the last show. It really does seem to have been the death of our friendship. How she was feeling and reacting at the time was due I guess to the severe strain that she was feeling at home. She's had domestic issues for quite some time, in that one of her sons has unfortunately been caught up in the drugs world, and this has also made worse (or been made worse by) his problems interacting with people. He is afflicted sadlywith not being where you would expect a man of his age to be, in terms of social mental development. I am sure there's a medical or psychological name for such a condition, but I'm sorry, it escapes me. She also has, from time to time, problems where her other son gets involved in what could possibly be discribed as the darker element of society, or seems to want to declare war on the drug dealers as a whole for what he perceives as their decision to ruin his brother's life.

All of these pressures take a place in amongst all the others of money and time that an awful lot of people feel at the moment. She also has to deal with suffering from a debilitating condition herself called fibromyalgia. She works from home, as is sadly no longer well for long enough to be in the mainstream workplace. (this wasn't always the case).

We fell out because we disagreed about how to organise some things, or how to make things work within the show. Increasingly her ability to invest productive time and energy to the show became an issue. She became steadily frustrated that I (as she saw it) had taken over and was running things less as a partnership and more as a one man show, with an assistant director / producer. This situation was not due to a lack of effort on her part, merely that she couldn't seem to focus on the things that needed doing.

I steadily began to recognise the symptoms of stress in her, and what certainly looked like her heading toward a breakdown. I could see this, because I have been in that situation before myself, and have been able to move on with my own mental well being (if you like) because I can recognise these traits and take action to deal with things before they get worse. Unfortunately, she wasn't able or willing to agree that this was what was happening, and pretty much saw that I was being mean spirited and making her feel worse.

In the end, I had to manage to juggle not only my day job, and my own outside work pressures (they were nowhere near the sort of thing she was going through of course),  protect her from the harsher elements of what I had been told or observed from members of the cast, and the some of the workload AND protect the show from the more destructive behaviors she was exhibiting. I do think I did a good job of this under the circumstances, because we managed to get to the end of the production with a show that was watchable, and enjoyable (although it could have been 1000 times better had we planned and organised better) and without our friendship exploding right infront of everyone involved.

I don't feel good about having to make decisions to do things without telling or asking her. I didn't like it, but didn't see an alternative at the time that didn't pose a greater threat to the show.

Somewhere along the line we have stopped communicating by telephone. I think this may be attributed to me getting cross with her after repeatedly being unhappy that she'd be on the phone to me for hours on end, when I've just come in from work and hadn't even had a chance to eat and was due back into work in 8 hours. These conversations would always be bad ones, that would make me feel shit, and would ruin my evening, or they would be ones that didn't actually achieve anything other than to moan about how much work there was to do, and how little time we had to do it. My observation at the time that we could achieve more by doing things than by sitting on the phone talking about them seemed to fall on deaf ears.

The paralysis of negativity is something I can see in people that are depressed, and also understand is hard to see past. I also know that the only way to feel good about achieving things is to get them done. You won't get the reward from finishing something if you never even start it.

She has now sent me several either lengthy (2000 word plus) emails or similarly long facebook messages, including one which she sent out to her nearest and dearest friends to 'brief' them on what's been happening in her life. In addition to this, she has now mentioned twice in different messages that she was offended because I haven't commented on her status at all. That I had 'hidden' her.

What's the netiquette about how often you should comment on your friends' status updates ? What if you don't want to, or feel the need to comment ? What if you don't because you're pretty much certain that what you say is going to start an argument ? Her updates are normally very political in nature, and mixed with rather lame personal attacks against those in power, that are usually all in capital letters. She also has the unfortunate habit of copy and pasting just about every pointless internet hoax or chain message that's doing the rounds.

I don't comment, because I think such things are either just rude or stupid, and say lots of things about how gullible and crazy the person repeating them is.

One of her longer messages that was sent out to a 'select' bulk of about 20 friends listed all the things that's been happening to her lately. Truly horrible things. Lots of our mutual friends made impassioned comments in reply to it. Was I wrong not to comment ?

I'm now left with the troubling problem of what to do. I'm not happy to be painted as the villain, but I'm also not happy to be expected to say things that someone likes just because they want to hear it, even if saying it will mean me lying, or being false.

Deflated. Mk II

After fixing my bike on Wednesday, and consequently cycling to work each day, (well, ok, most days) I managed to pick up another flat. More precisely it could be described as the son of the previous flat tyre - The one that was caused the day I stopped off to put out a small fire on my way home from work.

This week's puncture was in fact caused by the piece of metal that I was left in my tyre from that incident. Despite checking the tyre over before fitting the replacement inner tube (I keep a spare to make it a bit easier to fix them) I now have had two inner tubes with punctures in exactly the same places. I will probably have to replace the tyre soon as well. Was a sizeable bit of shrapnel in there. Nowhere near as disastrous as the effect of a piece of metal piercing a tyre did on the Concord taking off in France in 2000 (the plane crashed, 113 people lost their lives), so perhaps I shouldn't complain so much.

I've had a mixture of laziness, followed by drunkenness interspersed with some creative activity and more than a little cleaning over the bank holiday weekend. Completed a review for Venturer Magazine again, this time reviewing the second story that I wrote for them. I have very painful memories of it because when it was shown to the rest of the company it was nowhere near finished. It was in such a state that it made it impossible for anyone to follow the storyline, and it was meant to be really important as it marked the departure from the show of one of its main characters.

It's hard to be objective about your own work, I know there were failings in the script, but a bucket load of whole fresh ones were created by the presentation of the story, with the usual challenges around direction and acting. I know it's amateur, but I still would want the story to be just that, something that tells the story. All the technology and the pretence and performance, if done right, should be invisible. The suspension of disbelief.

I was invited to meet up with some of my colleagues from work at a pub last night. I sidestepped my initial negative response and made the effort to go. I did indeed drink away quite merrily and got a little bit drunk, which was a nice change. Good to let my hair down, what there is left of it.

Despite not seeing my daughter, she has sent me regular email updates and text messages. I really do appreciate it, as otherwise I would really feel the emptiness of not being able to see her until next weekend. I'm glad that she gets to go away on holiday, but it doesn't mean I don't miss her when she's gone.

1001101101010

Was it really any surprise that I raced home after work today to get to spend some more time on my new shiny ?

Not really much of a revelation there. I have spent quite some time this evening getting to know it better. I have sadly not been able to complete the review of Kaos Absolute, the story of The Adventures Of Stephen Brown that I have been due to write for the last couple of months (hassle of moving, Christmas chaos and a lack of internet being the reasons for the delay), due to the footage seemingly not being encoded correctly. I can watch on of the four parts to the story, but sadly without the other three there' little point in me doing the review.

I guess the review will have to wait a little bit longer. I am a bit sad that after the success of yesterday's writing and rehearsal sessions that Helen and I weren't going to be able to meet up and get some more of the script written for the show. (The FatCat And The Grafter).

Work is feeling a heck load more possible what with a tweak to how we do things, and the efforts of a superhuman Louise, although I did have to spend 4 hours in a room today, going through a questionnaire that's meant to help the business figure out just how much we (don't) know. Good idea. Makes sense, as people's knowledge levels seem to be all over the place. But 4 hours ? Didn't even manage to finish the booklet in that time. I hope that doesn't mean that the conclusion the powers that be will take from the exercise is that I actually don't know anything, and have been blagging it the last 4 years. I haven't. Honest.

One of the things that I do for Beacon, is write reviews of their stories for their in house magazine (Venturer Magazine). If you want a copy, you'll have to join first ! Anyhoo.. I've decided to post on here my reviews in future. So without further ado... This month's review is the second story in the 2010 season, The Doomed.

The story crafts a well executed connection between the Wilkes' era story 'Lazarus' and the back story of the Crawford children, Max and Sally.




We are treated to very pacey and well put together teaser section, the CGI ship may look a bit on the clean side for my liking, but the interior is very successfully created in the Beacon studio, displaying rather well the maxim that less is more when it comes to set construction. You can feel the annoyance of a group of people that can't stand each other, having being kept in close confinement for far too long. In those few moments the scene is set, intrigue is born and the audience begin to guess what is going to happen next.

What happens next, is the awakening from the dead, as it were, the Churchett and Doidge obsession with zombies. As much as its predecessor, The Doomed is a feast for the eyes, in addition the old time travelling paradox of creating the very thing you are trying to stop, merely by some unintended consequence of your actions is explored. It's a staple of science fiction as old as space rockets and laser beams.

When the 'recovery team' are dropped off, there's a particularly well chosen set of effects as the ship leaves them stranded, doomed you might say. I have to say I found the wobbly shots, round the leaves much to my liking.

It is here, that we get pun no. 1 out the way with the line :- 'I need that signal find the beacon...' Jordan barks at James (Farmer), so then off he trots with his scanner, that somehow has stolen the tri-corder sound effect last used by Lt Sa'avik in Star Trek III. Ah the memories....

Matt McKechnie really does look the part. I think there's something in every man, even me, where they enjoy pissing about in forests dressed in army gear pretending to go round and shoot things. As they get older this evolves into the love of paintball, that's as serious - if that's the word - it gets. Matt was so at home in his fatigues and 'webbing' - I never did figure out what that is - that his disdain for Will Gammon's character makes you think that he really will actually hurt him in a minute.

Will Gammon is the first casualty in the hunt for the theoretical drive. As he's set upon by a small gang of zombies, led by Joshua Ive... they wrestle him to the floor and start eating him. Great sequences, I was disappointed at the lack of a really good scream though.

After James turns on Matt and shoots him, - they were hardly on a corporate team building day now were they ? - he is quickly dispatched by our zombie gang. I am at treated to the scream I'm looking for. If you're going to be thrown on the floor and bitten by four men, someone should at least scream at some point, even if it's from relief.

As Jordan and that odd looking guy with the khaki cap make their way toward the half buried Venturer they even up the score with the Zombies some. At least I'm not trying some half witted accent this time, but the idea of me trying to look all butch and manly with a big gun.. well, I'm even impressed myself.

So.. we get onto the Venturer flight deck.. those cobwebs, aren't they exactly the same ones I nearly set fire to the other weekend ? This is a really important part of the story.. and there's lots of things that Jordan has to tell us. Lots of things indeed.

The editing here could have been a bit tidier.. the shot lingers far too long on my ugly mug, and the shock reveal of the zombified Stephen Brown isn't really much of a reveal, it's not that much of a shock either. We've seen what Ryan looks like some Sunday mornings... and I had a mouthful of the foulest tasting gunge in that scene..so that I could supossedly spit out a mouthful of blood.. did that make it into the shot. No. You mean I did it all for nothing ? Pah !

I suppose I best get moving onto episode 2.... or I'm going to have to do the review in two parts...

After such a brilliant start in episode 1, its successor starts with some awkward and wooden acting, the trees being felled on this occassion by Matt Hampton and Katie Whiteland. In fact, their sequences are upstaged by the ones between Ryan and Robo. There's some real gleam in the script here, and for once it's given the chance to shine with some great acting, camera work and editing.

The editting is not as good when it comes to the overlaid audio of an argument between Glenda and Mr Launay. It's just not been treated in any decipherable way, so appears to just have been recorded, and the sound track grabbed and added to the footage for the episode. Churchett's pointless walk out to his car, round it and then back inside is forgiven by his performance later on. He does particularly convincingly at being hypnotised. Maybe a close up shot of the house
number would help us realise how important that is to the story.

We cut back to the last surviving member of mercenaries. Jordan hides something in the foliage, but again, perhaps a closer shot here would help us understand what it is, and know it's relevance to the plot. The zombie hand that creepily crawls after him lets on that it's still firmly attached to an arm....

Back with Ryan, Katie and Churchett the sparkling dialogue comes to the fore again...Churchett bemoans that he's being bossed about by 'one of the pet shop boys' and asks himself, 'what have I done to deserve this ?'. Ahem. Oh dear.

Emma Giles makes an appearance as PA to Launay's distant, evil and manipulative shaddowing figure.... with Emma's accent that reminds me in an unsettling way of Miss Hoolie - from Balamory... Launay's menacing and evil boss act we're distracted upon by some strange idea about shooting people through a fan. Tried for arty farty, and just ended up with farty ? I have to say I'm not a fan ; of the split screen for telephone conversation either, thinking it cuts in too quickly, a bit like the music does at the end.

Episode 3 carries on from where the episode formally known as two, left off. With a nice security cam effect we get to see the interview of John Hampton as Zempho. We could have done with some close ups of Giles and Hampton's faces, missing as we did the punch of some more sizzling lines. Brilliant.

What isn't so fan-tastic is that blasted fan again. Grrrrr. What really is fantastic though is the first appearance of the armless zombie hand. Armless it may be, harmless it certainly isn't.

Some more comedy moments from the cheeky idiot that is Matt Hampton's
Blocklan, even with the boom putting in a minor appearance it's still all flowing very well. Jordan is now holding a rather relaxed Ryan & co hostage until Churchett reveals that he isn't Crawford. Oh dear. Nicely framed shot at the end
of the episode, if only Jordan wasn't hiding behind Churchett's arm.

And then we're on the final furlong that is episode 4.

I'm not sure if it's intended or not, that there's a girl laughing over the footage of Matt playing the the theorelative drive in order to squeeze in a sneaky pint. what's katie laughing for on the sound while Blocklan tries to find the time device thing. It's a conundrum. But not for long.

Realisation starts to dawn the those held at the end of Jordan's gun that somewhere they've made an awful mistake.... I do like the cutting back and forth between them as the dialogue fires along. The shots are well framed, the actors perform well, the lines are well delivered.

As Blocklan's flirtation with space time dynamics begins to come apart around his ears, Matt being chased by zombie.. looking zanny and holding the camera as he runs down the road looking like a deranged idiot is another really good use of camera.

With all this going on, it's nice to see that Ryan has time to get all deep and serious and deliver all his lines to the daisy he's playing with, instead of the person he's talking to. I'm also not quite sure how we get from rushing out to look for the nanites to laying down on the grass like the end of the world isn't a real possibility. Maybe it's a date. It's so distracting the person holding the boom forgets to hold it out of shot here. You can't really blame them, but it's a mere scratch compared to the awkward moment where Ryan hugs Katie after she saves him from being bitten by the very zombie that had been chasing the hapless
idiot.

It's also a little amazing that Stephen Brown has nothing to say about that. We do seem to jump then straight into the resolution of the story, which I'm not entirely convinced doesn't work.

As stories go, I do rather like this one. The weaker episode of the set is the fourth, but even though it is outshone by the others, it's still a rather good piece of work. Episode one is most definitely the best. I don't know if there's any conclusion to draw from the fact that the best bits are the ones without our lead character. Really. I don't.

On the whole this story has a cracking script, it's well executed all round, great to watch. The acting's on the mark, with some shining performances from Matt McKechnie, Steve Churchett, Matt Hampton, Will Gammon.. oh and those zombies.. all those zombies. NEXT !

...........Just in case the video above doesn't work, you can view the episodes by clicking here.

NanoWriMo....Time to crack out the post-its

Write here, write now. Well, not now. In just under a week's time, NanoWriMo starts. The push yourself competition that pits you against your own self belief, and challenges you to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

After getting a real kick out of Script Frenzy, (100 page script in the Month of April), and knowing that writing a book is something that I've always wanted to do, but never gotten around to doing, I've decided to have a real crack at it.

Scrub that, I'm not going to have 'a crack' at it. I'm going to do it. Despite the fact that I need to submit a story for Beacon, finish (with Helen) The Fat Cat & The Grafter, write a review for Beacon... and on top of that, oh, yes, I'm moving at the end of November !!! I've also signed up for a shed load of overtime in November, to make sure that I have enough money set aside for the first month in the new flat.

It's all do-able though. Isn't it ? Sure it is. Just requires some focus and dedication.

What I realised when I wrote Retro Rocket for Script Frenzy in April, was that I really didn't feel comfortable writing on the fly. I've read the book, No Plot No Problem, (by Chris Baty) - about launching into NaNoWriMo without so much as a plan or forethought, and just letting the story, characters and plot evolve at your fingertips.

When I'd thought about entering NaNoWriMo, I have thought about having a plan. Having characters, a plot mapped out. At this point, I've got nothing. Zip, nada, bubcuss.

It may turn out to be a great deal more interesting (or stressful, or both), than I had anticipated.......what this space... to see how it goes, and if I'm still sane at the end of the experience.

... and there are walls now...

Paid another visit to site today, to see how work was going on the flat. As you can see, care of Mr Snap-Happy, the inside walls are going up pronto. Chloe is getting rather excited now, as am I.

I really can't wait. No news yet though on exchange of contracts.... surely it must be soon.

Writing for the play on hold whilst Helen is on holiday. Means that I have time to do some work on the Stephen Brown story I am next up to write. It's hard to get motivated about it, when previous enthusiasm turns to such disappointment. The story in question isn't due to be shown to the rest of the group until late 2011, if not later.

Kelly came round tonight, the last time I'm going to be seeing her before she goes off to Australia for 6 months. Hard to think that the next possible time I will see her, such a fantastically wonderful opportunity for her though. Amazingly scary though. But I guess that's the whole point. Do one thing every day that scares you, right  ?

I often wonder about going off abroad somewhere, but also wonder if I would shyly remain in my hotel room the whole time, cursing the lack of internet.  There are so many places to see 'at home' that I don't know that there's a need to go overseas. Then again, the fact that you do it in the absence of need is rather the whole damn point.

Cracking on reading 'New Moon', the second book in the Twilight saga. Finding them very, very, very good page turners... so it would follow, that without further ado, I bugger off to bed and read for a bit before turning to sleep to pass the few hours until I have to get up again and head off for work.

Weekend without TV

Bank holiday weekend, and I've been working away at the old word processor, well, to to be more precise.. Celtx.

Yes. Celtx. Not heard of it ?  Well if you've ever fancied writing anything, a stage play, a book, a comic, a screen or radio play... then this fantastic piece of FREE, did I mention FREE software makes everything so much easier.

And it's free. My favourite price.

Anyhoo, religious fervor aside, it's really helpful, quick and easy to use. I was using it to help me complete the script that is way way way overdue for The Ninth Man. A new series for the amateur video group that I'm a member of (Beacon).

I've had some motivational issues lately, in trying to find the time, energy and desire to complete the script, that I started what seems like so many months ago, writing in partnership with one of the other key members. Sadly he'd had to go off to Europe to work doing things that involved him working in Europe.. (I'm vague, because I don't really know).

Having finally completed the elements of the plotline into a script at the weekend, I've spent a bit of time 'dabbling' and 'tweaking' the odd bit here and there. I'm not happy with it. Not ready to 'release' it yet. I've had to resort to printing hard copies (I know, dead trees !), as sometimes when I'm stalling infront of a computer, it's easier to review it away from the machine. Review with a great big red pen. I don't have a red pen, but I do have an unforgiving and totally critical blue fountain pen.

While I was in the middle of attacking some of my work, I also needed to submit a review of an episode of The Adventures Of Stephen Brown, the flagship series for Beacon. I had to review 'Dice With Death', which was ironically, another script that I had written for Beacon. This task was made infinitely more hassle than was needed by the lack of oooomph in my netbook, and trouble getting the youtube videos to play seamlessly on my 'old' laptop. Got there in the end.

What was so bloody amazing, was that I had decided that working into the night doesn't really work for me these days, and that actually, I am at my creative best when I attack the computer first thing in the morning. So, at 7am, Bank Holiday Monday, my alarm went off, telling me it was time to get up and go the 'office'.

Me @ the office. 7:30am. Bank holiday Monday. Mad, inspired, or both ?

This decision would have been astounding enough, what made it even more so, was the fact that I actually did it too ! I did get out of bed 7am on Bank Holiday Monday, and after a quick detour that involved a cup of tea... I headed all of two doors down the hallway to the 'office' (the spare room), where I had left my netbook, looking terribly lonely and dwarfed by the size of the computer desk it was sat on. 

And so, the write was on. Now with the various technical issues... solutions were elaborate, and involved.. 

1) Refreshing the screen.

2) Reloading the browser

3) Another computer. (luckily I dug out my old laptop)

4) Try original computer, with cable rather than wireless connection

5) Rebooting my router.

6) Turn it off.. and turn it back on again...

7) Try and view the video on my Blackberry.. discover I can't... 

Add a caption

Me @ the office. 7:30am. Bank holiday Monday. Mad, inspired, or both ?

Anyway, in the end, I managed to get to see both episodes.. (although, perhaps there were times when I wished I hadn't).

So after submitting, a less than scathing review, and feeling satisfied that I had completed another writing assignment (task just sounds way too boring).. I sat down with, by now the fifth cup of tea and waited for the death threats to start.

Then... well, then Helen turned up, for us to do some more work on The Fatcat & The Grafter. - the play that we have decided to write, having done so well last week. After some hours... and it amazes me how those pass by... you start off at 3pm, and before you know it, the clock tells you it's 6pm.

Anyway, much progress. First scene in the bag, or on the computer at least. The more we write, the more we get to know the characters ourselves, the more this is shaping out to be just as mad, chaotic and hopefully funny as our other efforts.

I'd like to attach some work in progress to the blog, but can't figure out how to do that, yet... but when I do, you absolutely must promise not to tell anyone, okay ? Spoilers and all that. 

So well, were things going last night, that despite saying 'we must wrap up around 10', Helen didn't actually leave till just gone midnight, when I pretty much kicked her out the door and told her to get a taxi back to chav-ville. (I didn't. I was joking !). I was expecting some sort of suffering for being up so darn early until so late.. but no. There was a short, but dispirited fight with the alarm clock(s) this morning, but I was up, in reasonable time, and awake enough to navigate my Blackberry for some magical solution that would allow me to get from Cosham to Havant without having to get a taxi the whole way, or being late. 

An early start means an early finish.. well it's meant to. It doesn't always for me. End of the month there are administrative tasks to preform, that are pretty much like all end of month administrative tasks the world over. Anyway, for the first time ever, I'd actually completed all mine last Saturday. This removed any need for me to stay late after the shift today, and meant that once I had walked in the glorious sunshine to the train station, and gotten back home I decided to make the most of what must be a dwindling number of sunny days, let alone evenings, and went over the park with a book. A book I said. A book. 

It's actually really, really good, it's one of those that I picked up whilst taking advantage of the 'buy two get third free' offer in Waterstones whilst purchasing a birthday present for my mum the other month. On reflection, I think Waterstones took advantage of me and my quivering debit card. It's called 'The Earth Hums In B-Flat' by Mari Strachan. 

It's such an interesting writing style, it makes it utterly engaging and compelling. I'd started reading it on holiday. One of the great things about holiday is that it makes it really easy to find time to do things I love, like reading. This gets so much harder once reality arrives, and I have to go back to work. 

This book makes me want to find the time to read it, and this afternoon, that's what I did. I went and sat in the park over the road for two hours, which with the rich and colourfull descriptions of Welsh hillsides seems the perfect place to read it. 

Other, lesser books haven't captivated my imagination and interest enough to demand that hard fought time in my life. On that note.. I'm off to go read some more.