Category: Other

This is just a reminder to myself.
You’re tired because you are doing what you always wanted to do. That’s why it feels like you spend your life walking in the cold or travelling on trains.
You want to write. You want to review. This is what you have to expect.
So man up. Drink another coffee and remember that last night you were in the same room as a member of Monty Python.
Go back five years and tell yourself that would happen. Think of that expression on your 20 year old face each time you consider wimping out of anything.
We are in this for the long haul.

Last night I celebrated Christmas with my friends from my improvised comedy group. It’s been a couple of months since I saw most of them. It’s weird how quickly that time has gone.
It was so nice to be surrounded by the kind of people who have some drive to them. They always seem to be full of exciting plans and its a beautiful thing to behold. The latest is the possibility of turning one of my short stories into a short film. I spent last weekend writing up the screenplay (on TextEdit of all things) and they’re excited to get me involved in filming.
Oh, I just have to give a quick shout out to Jocasta for her copy of Office. You’ve given me a new nib you beautiful bastard.

Everyone was excited for news of the book and my other witterings.
I spent a lot of time talking to Sam, who is a singer songwriter. He’s trying to organise a music night and wants me to get involved which is always nice. There were talks of it being held in a church but he’s not found anywhere willing to let us in. I really like the idea of playing gigs where they aren’t supposed to be played, or in places a little unusual. I was just about to say I would like to play a gig under a bridge but then realised I was describing busking.

The important thing to take away from last night is to keep going, and you can do anything you set your mind to. People get to their chosen spot quicker than others but if you want it you can get there eventually.

Its gone nine and I’m not at work. I feel like a truant. I’ve actually been to get a filling sorted but I still feel like I’m doing something wrong.

I just spent half an hour under a spotlight having my mouth mashed about in the name of aesthetic beauty. I’ve never had the best teeth and my new dentist (because I decided to quit seeing one for five years) is sure he can turn me into a beauty queen. I’m not so sure myself.
My friend Danny once told me I had “indie teeth”. I never found out what he meant but took it as a compliment regardless.
Now I have had the nicotine stains taken off them and the chip in the front (caused by a dog) fixed and I don’t feel quite as self conscious about them. They’re still not gleaming little pearly drops dangling between my tongue, it’s basically just damage limitation but its good enough for me.

Yesterday I announced the imminent arrival of my first book; Where Did All The Money Go? & other stories. It’s a collection of short stories about my time at university. I’m still hard at work on proofing it. I’ve discovered I overuse certain words and am quickly scrubbing them through so I don’t look like E L James when it comes to publication.
You should know I am working hard to get this book out to you all. I don’t know what the turnaround is like from when I approve the final copy to it being available but I hope it is quick.
The plan is for it to be available as a physical book for £4.99 and hopefully on the Kindle for free. The cost of the physical book practically covers the costs of publishing the copy, hence why I want the Kindle copy to be free.
I’m not going to get rich as a writer. That’s never been what this whole thing is about. I just got to a stage where I realised I needed to write and to share some stories and this is the best way I can see of doing it short term.
I’m hoping enough people read it and there is some kind of notoriety received as a result.
If you do order a copy feel free to pass it around friends, spread the word, get people involved.

Thank you for the support people have offered up this week in particular.
I’ll see you all at the top.

This weekend was my two year anniversary with Kate. We were saying yesterday how we are obviously onto something good because nobody has put up with either of us for this long before.

On Saturday I picked her up from work with the obligatory chocolate, flowers & card combo and she cooked me dinner. It was goooood. Then we watched The Amazing Spider-Man and struggled to work out which of the lead characters we each fancied most.

On Sunday we went up to big London to have lunch at Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant and to see Matilda: The Musical which was one of Kate’s Christmas presents from me.
The food was so good. It tasted as good as you imagine when you watch his programmes. I know he gets a lot of stick but at the end of the day there are very few people who can cook to that standard (Kate is obviously one of those few (she won’t cook for me again unless I state this)). I had an Italian Mixed Grill which comprised of ribeye, rabbit, game, sausage and devilled kidney. Kate had prawn linguine. We both swapped plates before they were clean. We also had a couple of cocktails. Anniversaries are one of the few occasions where you are allowed to get spandangled at lunch.
For dessert I had a chocolate ganache pot and Kate had tiramisu which she couldn’t finish….so I did.

We had incredible seats for Matilda as well. I done good. Tim Minchin and everyone else involved have done an amazing job in bringing one of the best stories of our childhood to the stage. The songs are still in my head. The set pieces kept appearing out of nowhere and the cast were absolutely awesome.
I can’t comprehend how something like that is put together. It was flawless.
It’s got a good sense of humour and appeals to both adults and children alike. Bertie Carvel (Miss Trunchball) is one of the greatest villains I’ve ever seen onstage. It’s a mix between Rik Mayall and panto and delivered with aplomb despite the fact he has been onboard since the start of the run.
Go and see it.
I promise it is well worth it.

After the show we got the train home, had a cuppa and watched a bit of Pirates of the Carribean before I headed home.
What a lovely weekend to spend with my lovely girlfriend.
(You may all go and be sick now).

After starting and stopping for the last month I am finally back to work on my MacBook Pro. I won’t go into all the hassle it has been but everything seems to be working again and I’m steaming ahead with my creative genius.

As it turns out I have lost pretty much everything I have done in the last two years but that won’t stop me. I’ve got it all in my head. I spend 90% of my time thinking about these projects, there are entire scenes played out in my head as I get the train or take walks across London in the freezing cold. The important thing is my finished work is safe. My two novels are safe. Anything else can be rewritten and will be rewritten and I’ll make it better than ever. The versions in my head always excel the first draft anyway so I’m moving up and moving on. Today I’m writing up the screenplay of a short story I lost last week. It’s hopefully going to be made into a short film. That’s the kind of thing I hold onto. 

If Facebook is anything to go by a lot of people are not happy about the current weather situation. What a terribly British thing to be concerned with, especially when it’s -18 in Moscow, just for the sake of comparison.
I like it though. I like it being cold. It’s refreshing. It stops groups of scabby teenagers off the streets, it makes rushing home that little bit more worthwhile.
I guess I can say that safe in the knowledge it hasn’t really impacted me. My life is still very much on time (even if this train was four minutes late). I can see why it could get annoying if you are scraping your car each morning or stuck in traffic but you’ll moan just as much when it is warm.

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch night of the release of V/H/S, a bold new horror film. The film was well promoted and night was hosted in a basement in Shoreditch as a mock up of an 80s/90s video rental store. It was like fresh nostalgia. My friend Sam, who is the editor of Screen Geek, the site I’ve been doing some freelance work for, said it seemed especially poignant giving yesterday’s bad time news about HMV and Blockbuster.

The reason I have tagged this as an Enjoy my life post is it made me realise how truly lucky I am to be under Sam’s wing and brought along to these events. There was a free bar, I got to chat to guys who write for Radio Times and Radio 5, and everyone was full of the joy of films.
I’ve previously accused critics of being too critical but last night was an absolute joy to be a part of. I’m very lucky.

I woke up at five this morning to find I was having a nosebleed. I’ve suffered from nosebleeds since I was very young. I always worry that the blood will never stop. Once, when I was about three I woke up to find I had experienced a nosebleed in my sleep. There were spots of blood on my pillow and the bed sheet. When my parents asked me what happened I said “the crocodile came out of the sunshine”. That surreal witticism has never left me and it was my first thought this morning as I groped my way to the bathroom in the darkness with my other hand pinching the bridge.

I think it was zero degrees when I left the house for the first time this morning. That’s not even an exaggeration. I checked a thermometer and everything. Puddles were frozen over. It was very meekly snowing.
I still ran three miles.

As I’ve said before I’m a sucker for routine and whether that sounds good or bad I’m stuck with it. It means even when I can’t really settle into sleep and keep having creepy vivid dreams of drained swimming pools I know I’m just counting down the minutes until I have to get up.
I woke up at half two this morning feeling rested. It was still dark out but it’s still dark out when I leave the house so that was no big deal. The scary thing was I felt rested and prepared to get up and go off and do things. That’s a scary state of being for someone who spent his teens and early twenties not going to bed until that time.
I’m a creature of habit and I’m early to bed and early to rise.