Morning editing

Been working at one of the hospital radio scenes... it's funny how many times i can go over the same piece and change the wording and description.... Glad I've done a bit this morning... I wonder how much editing is going to be left to do at the end of all the words having been written.

feeling lucky

Settling down for a cosy blog. Do you ever feel lucky to have things like running water and electricity and computers and a heated house? Apparently I should feel it's unfair that I have worked all my life so far and can't afford to buy a house.. but I don't .. all I feel is how nice it is to have warmth and cosyness.

I spend a lot of time feeling lucky about what I have (although i have comparatively little material stuff to those around me)... Tonight, I came home and ran.. It was my first run since the three peaks, and my run was strange.. like my feet felt like they were running flat rather than properly.. half a mile in i actually thought i was gonna fail cos my legs just wanted to collapse, but it picked up and i managed the circuit.. came home, put rachmaninov on, got bored after 3 minutes, put 2 unlimited on hahahaha, watched the election latest, wrote about a guy on a train, and then pete came round and we went out for snooker and then drinks in Henry J Beans......(a stereotypical perfect night out ie..snooker, beer, football on the screen, dance music on the sound system)

i'm quite enjoying these blogs... like little diary entries

64,000 words

64,000. More from the old man on the train. Talk of pencils and childrens' tv and alcoholism. What a funny combination.

editing and done for the night

editing and word-choosing... worked hard at the book today... still full of ideaas etc but it can wait til tomorrow...

art

It's fun to keep writing at the same speed that I'm thinking. I reckon it's not so important to figure out what to write, but just to write :-) :-)

The artist's way is lost these days.

When you write a piece of music, people say "Wow, are you gonna try and record it" or "Are you gonna try get a band together"
When you write a book, people say "Wow, are you gonna try to get it published?"
and when you draw a great picture, people say "Wow, you're really talented, you should try getting some work, drawing for a living"

For me, art always has been a way of existing and a way of moving myself about. And that's the way it is for all the most emotional art.

If you find the most emotional song, someone really did write it in their bedroom when they really were crying and their heart really WAS broken. And they didn't write it for anyone else at the time. They wrote it for themselves. Similarly, if you buy a book of the deepest poetry, the poet wrote them all for himself first and foremost.

The other day, (weird de ja vous that I've blogged about this already, sorry if i have) The other day (well actually the other month, but no-one says that) i was awe-struck by The Royle Family TV series.. everything about its realism and irony and accuracy to real people and cleverness in both dialogue and concept.. I honestly think it's the best TV series ever made, and it's something I look up to as really wishing I could create art like that.

Anyway when I read about it, I had to read hard to try and find out who and how they came up with such a very clever concept and built on it.... anyway, I found out that Caroline Aherne came up with the concept and wrote the first series when she was withdrawn and suffering from depression. It's really important to know that, and it made me realise, that suffering is where all my best ideas and work has come from.

Another thing that fascinates me is when I hear an amazing piece of pop music that touches me (whether it be makes me dance, makes me cry, laugh, whatever) I want to know who is behind it. In other words, who made it. I don't really care about who sang it.

Recently, I was listening to the Scissor Sisters - I don't feel like dancing, and I thought Wow, I have to find out who wrote that song, it's amazing (and was of course immensely popular when it came out).. Would you believe Wikipedia tells me LOTS about the scissor sisters and LOTS about that song, but doesn't tell me who wrote it. Maybe that's cos no-one else is asking the question I was? Whereas everyone is asking who performs the song, and the artist is forgotten.

Anyway, back to the book... :-)

63,000 words

63,000.

A great once-only character... the old man on the train...he's an ace character and based on a guy I met in London in December. A man who gets to the very heart of you with only a few words and lots of silence.

In the train scene (as happened in real life) he gives me a pencil and a piece of paper with the words "I am" written in the top left hand corner, and the blank page ahead of me for me to fill it in. This is a great thing - I recommend you take some time out and do it, and then see what you can learn by the way you respond.

evening blog

hmm decided to leave work at 4:30 so i could come home and write the next part of the book... but various things stopping me... including lots of interesting twitter links...

This twitter-feed is absolutely brilliant for writers...
http://twitter.com/BubbleCow

I've had an up and down few days. Did a samaritans shift sunday and caught up with lexi, andy and pete... went to the pub afterwards and felt awful from eating a stodgy pizza and other crap. Yesterday was meant to be doing stuff down the radio, but kind of ran out of time, even though i didn't have to leave the house til half 9. Tonight, was going to watch York City but then decided I'll enjoy listening on the radio instead. The Radio York commentary is really high standard, and the main guy who does it is a brilliant presenter.

I am taking an interest in the election, but am going to NOT vote and NOT bother going along and spoiling my ballot paper. It is amazing how many people get angry with this! lol!!!

Funny things people always say...

"If you don't vote, then you can't complain."

Lol, like obviously I can still complain.. And it's not like if I voted for the other party, things would be different! And the kinds of things I complain about wouldn't be changed by my voting or party choosing.

"There was a time when women fought for ages so that they could vote. You should honour what you've been given."

Ok, what is that supposed to even mean????? Obviously women didn't fight so that men can vote.. and they certainly didn't fight so that we live in a strict world where you're not allowed to vote if you don't want to.

62,000 words (with the last 1,000 fully edited)

62,000. linking and thinking. and starving.

I've done the bit carrying on from getting up on the morning to catching the train to London, mixed with monologue and event. The London section is going to be really cool, cos it's one long weekend, and done really detailed - hence a massive section.

Three Peaks

Hi,

Blog catch-up :-)

Starting Friday.. Met Cheryl who gave me some good tips about the Great North Run. The charity Kidscan is now sending me my entering pack. It's a great great charity, I'm running half for them, and half for York Hospital Radio.

Yesterday, completed the Three Peaks Challenge!!!! In 11.5 hours... Really challenging and demanding on my tiny feet!! Going up the second of the three peaks was when it REALLY started to hit us.... Weather was excellent and it was a great day. Terrain was variable and included a very boggy bit.. Phil managed to put a whole leg in the bog lol. Great adventure.

Phil said that if he managed to raise 200 pounds he would attempt to eat one of the walkers' socks. And yes, it was a sock that had been in the bog too, although apparently it tasted more of feet than bog!! Along the way, we decided fell-stumbling should be a pastime and that if sheep could talk, they wouldn't talk to snow. (there was some snow on the walk by the way, how insane is that!) ... My favourite phrase from Phil was.. "either the wall's moved, or the stream's moved, or we're going the wrong way." LOL

Feet nackered, aching all over today, some other arm injury i've picked up from god knows where.. oh, and sunburn!!! Went to the pub afterwards and got back late and of course exhausted but in a good way!!

Today, had to get up and do my radio show!! haha Did a hilarious stupid thing... My friend Ruth was my special guest.. She was struggling to find the radio station.. so I madly ran out to find her while a song was playing.. (yep limited time)... got her, ran back to the entrance door, realised I didn't have my card to enter the building as I'd left it inside hahahaha So I'd manage to lock myself out of my own radio show, while it was still running.

Funny.. The song was playing, and then it would just go dead! Made some phone calls, laughed at the situation. Decided I couldn't do much more, and hobbled to Gillygate with Ruth to go for a coffee. THEN the chairman of the radio calls me.. He's driving to the radio station to fix it so I can carry on and we can do the interview etc.

So.... this meant in order to do it all in time, I had to RUN to the radio station.. which was a very funny sight considering I couldn't even walk! Got there in time, did the interview with Ruth, and timed it all okay. Madness!

Putting character traits into the speech

Working on the speech of the characters. Repetition amongst what the characters say is important, as we only have a certain amount of time to get to know them. So each character has certain phrases and ways of speaking that repeat.

Each charcter has their own way of speaking, although Yorkshireness kind of links the speech of all the characters.

61,000 words

61,000

did a little section about imagining what it would be like to be a pigeon hahaha..and started a very personal scene, and did a scene about meeting someone on a train.

scenery

Feel tired in a really good way today. I ran my usual 3 and a half mile route, and i've also walked for about 2 hours today.


I remembered something crazy which happened at Jarvis, while I was on the subject.




A guy got a job as one of the senior finance people and was there for over a year. He was in the process of arranging this huge sponsorship deal with Grimsby Town Football Club, then on the day he was meant to sign it, someone found out something about him. He'd spent years in prison for fraud!... In the past, he'd ran a club, like a working men's club or something and basically stole all the money he made from it. And somehow he'd got a top finance job at a big company!!! Incredible.

When the news broke, the guy actually went "missing" for a few weeks! However, he wasn't missing for too long cos I saw him in Sainsbury a few weeks later, buying potatoes. (probably nicking them)

Another thing is one day when I was working there, I bought some Jarvis shares expecting good news, and I was right, the price shot up and I sold them the next day for 72 quid profit. As far as I know, it wasn't illegal.

Anyway... just all that Jarvis stuff got me thinking about that.

I now have fully charged camera and have downloaded the pictures from Monday's walk. I have concluded I'm still not a great scenery photographer lol and should probably stick to women, but at the same time they're not too bad... just I wish I knew more about photography really. It'll be interesting to see what Adam got as he was breaking his neck more than me for the perfect picture.

I've embarrassingly lost my log-on details for the York Hospital Radio web site so that will have to wait. I have however packed for Saturday, and spoke with Kidscan about my Great North Run place for which I finally now have proper confirmation!

I have some interesting ideas running round my head for stories at Radio York... today in Ha Ha bar, they said they were doing British Specials for St. George's Day.... not English Specials... but British Specials!!!!! In this country, you're either Irish, Scottish, Welsh or .. it seems... British! Are we patriotic? Do we care about being English? Thinking of pursuing that route. And e-mailed people who might have stories for me, looking for something unique to take along with me on my first day. :-)

Editing

Been editing one of the early sexual scenes.

All of the different storylines are now past their beginnings and have found their flow. Such a challenge to see if each one can keep flowing anf then have a good ending.

5-0

Hello. Time for a blog update.

Yesterday went to York City. We won 5-0 which is the biggest league game victory I've ever seen. Never saw anything like that with Norwich lol. A great game yesterday. And the result puts us in the play-offs (barring mathematical stupidity). Went to the Three-Legged Mare afterwards..hadn't been there before...now there's virtually no pubs within the city walls that i haven't been to! Later met up with Adam, and he stayed at mine.

Today, took Mum for a lovely meal at Ha Ha. She really enjoyed it, so that of course, in turn made me happy.

Saturday is the three peaks. I'm packing for it tonight!! In a moment actually. Frantically trying to find the charger for my camera, then gonna download all the photos from Monday's walk so I can replace them with three-peaks photos! Weather forecast is good - massive crossing of fingers.

I'm now in charge of http://www.yorkhospitalradio.com/ woohooo - yep, the site all about york hospital radio. i have some nice plans for it... initially though it's going to be fun with the updates section... gonna do my first one tonight at some point if I can... in between packing for the walk.

Two other things worth mentioning......

Thing 1 is the downfall of Jarvis, a company I used to work at for 4 and a half years. It went into administration last week. It USED to be one of the biggest construction companies in the entire country...and also track renewal and maintenance and lots of other things.

The potters bar train crash happened ( i think 2001 ).. Fingers were pointed at Jarvis for the blame... The company had invested too much too quickly.. and so in the aftermath of the potters bar crash struggled to pay suppliers and get more work because of their reputation....

Hence the bad reputation and bad payment record spiralled... assisted by things like The Money Programme.. Ironicallly, when the Potters Bar enquiry was completed many years later, Jarvis were judged to be not at fault!! But by which time, the reputation had massively damaged the company, and it was in an incredible mess (including my redundancy in 2006).

Basically, it never recovered. I met up with a mate yesterday who was my best mate at Jarvis. This honestly happened.

All the hundreds of people went into work one day - many of them had worked there for 10+ years... they got called into a meeting in the middle of the morning... they all knew the company was in trouble, but hey its always been in trouble so it was nothing new.

They said to the people, "you've all been made redundant and have to leave now."

Incredible situation. So lots of tears and then everyone had to take their belongings out of the building in makeshift cardboard boxes, plant pots etc... In one swift movement, being stripped of the job they'd done for years.. Incredible, incredible situation. I hate to think of my friends there and what they would have gone through. I've really never heard of anything like that happening before.

Final thing - my prayers for missing girl Mandy :-(

yay blog

Blog time. Spent lots of today, in between writing, planning what stories I can cover in the next few weeks and possibly for Radio York.

Spent the day at work, making a big list of people to e-mail then just forgot to bring it home LOL, so i've been trying to remember most of the contacts. They might be good ideas for Radio York, but the biggest problem is I don't know if they will have been on there before with the same story lol. Hmm, need to listen more.

I'm gonna try and see most of York City's remaining home league games. Including tomorrow night home to Wimbledon!!! If we win, it means we're virtually guaranteed a play-off place.
The rest of the matches won't then be to play for much, but I still want to be there.

Ran 3 and a half mile tonight, wasn't greatly out of breath. In fact, I was more out of breath just going up the steps to the White Horse yesterday! The guy has e-mailed the route for the three peaks. Apparently it'll take us around 11 hours! So aching legs and plenty of time for male bonding. And now we only have to meet up at 5.30 in the morning!

back from walking - nackered

nicely tired from walking all day. did a 5 and a half hour walk around the White Horse area and Kilburn/Sutton Bank and lots of woodland.

Got some interesting scenery photos in. I'm trying to learn how to take good scenery photos cos i have no idea except what i think looks nice. Had a competition with Adam to see how could get the best photo... so we spent a long time trying to get the perfect shot at various points. Lots of woodland, dead wood, mixed with fluorescent green mosses and surprisingly a nice dry day for it.

I found out more about the three peaks challenge i'm doing next saturday and its quite a bit harder than i thought.. i thought it was just a long walk really... and didnt realise that the peaks are quite a way apart and that it really is three ups and three downs rather than just some alongs in between the peaks. It's gonna be a real challenge. Need to run tomorrow if I can.. and then Thursday.. to get fit for it.

Stopped for a meal and a pint at the Dormouse on the way back. One of those pubs that always comes up in conversation but i'd never been to. It was very average lol.

White Horse

more blog while i have a drink.. and check out the walk for tomorrrow.

we're walking round the white horse of kilburn which is a lovely walk....

wow found this amazing picture of the area.... it's not a real white horse by the way... that would be pointless.. its a pretend white horse which is better... it's not greatly big and is made out of white chalk/stones, and close up it doesn't look like much, but you can see it from miles and miles away.

trying to get this cool picture to load.. but its struggling.

its failed.. but here's a cool aerial shot...

http://www.hows.org.uk/personal/hillfigs/aerial/kilburn-whitehorse3.jpg

there he is.

can't wait to get away... was gonna do the goathland walk which i really want to do soon because i remember it being amazing... but bank holiday traffic going to the coast tomorrow and possibility of very wet and very windy last time i checked the forecast. (the horse might blow away?)

by the way, the story of the horse is that it was marked out by some school-kids in the 1800s!!! not quite sure why? maybe someone's gcse project or something.

this is a good closer picture of it (notice it just looks a bit like crap art when you get closer!)

http://www.walkingenglishman.com/northyorkshire/03byland/0308whitehorse.jpg

it has a massive neck.

where's your GCSE coursework martin, it was due in today? well miss, if you look over that way.... :-)

gonna get to bed now so i can get up, make sandwiches, get waterproofs etc and leave for 10.

why can't you copy and paste into this blogging software???

anyway, off to empty washing machine then bed. (not empty the bed)

Taxis

sandwich before bedtime and getting addicted to blogging. I love getting taxis. The taxi driver is on a journey and you're on a journey.. like i don't just mean the "in the car" journey.. you both become part of each other's journeys .. haha i know what i'm trying to say... it's a good job.

this thing always happens after i've done a samaritans shift.. every time...

get a taxi.... taxi driver at first doesn't say anything.. but is wondering if i'll mention the samaritans and what i do there....

i don't mention it directly... then they say something subtle like "Have you been busy?" meaning "How was your samaritans shift?" lol

of course, it is absolutely 100 per cent confidential so they never find out... but its funny that they are always intrigued.

i said the funniest thing tonight. i can't say it here though cos its confidential. hmm that was a great story.

what you realise though is people really are worse off, like some people are really really worse off. that's the way of the world. And whatever your problem is, someone somewhere has that same problem worse.

its very truthful, and i like to keep in touch with the dark and sad side of people because its very real... thats how things really are... it took me ages to learn that.

Life is suffering. Once you have that stand-point, and you have gained contentment with it, you can accept the negative situations easier... i.e. if you sit on the bottom, then you will always be looking up. - wow, cool, need to save that one lol

I think negative feelings and situations come at you all the time.. and you can either hide from them by bottling them up or pretending they don't exist - but ultimately this is a burden and means you're carrying it around with you and it can make you really hard and cold.... the other option is to admit, surrender, allow to these feelings and situations.. Understand they're real.. and that everyone has big sufferings too... just most people can't talk about them to others AND can't talk about it to themself.

There is a great great truth about listening to people's problems and sadnesses. Everyone's bassline is suffering.. it's just so important to remember that, rather than the message from society, media etc where the message is everyone's bassline is stability and perfection. That is changing though, and I really believe it's for the better.

Tonight's taxi driver slagged off the daffodils for coming out too late. I said are you taking that anger out on the daffodils cos that's what people always accuse you of doing. LOL

More editing

Been working away at the initial London and adult entertainment scene.... its a massive scene cos there's so many parts to it....many of them not done yet.

The main character is basically a big thinker but not much of a talker. It's kind of worked out like this almost accidentally. Because when I am writing conversation scenes it is about developing the personalities of the other characters, whereas any speech from the main character doesn't really add to his personality, which is already well established.

So.. the main character is shy and quiet, and that way it makes sense. And then that is contrasted with lots of "thinking" scenes and moments.

Through the book, the main character makes progressions and changes but they are mostly inside himself rather than through the interactions and other people he meets.

Easter

It's been a lovely Easter weekend so far. Very relaxing, very productive and a nice combination of social stuff and time to myself.

I've been doing leader duties for Samaritans yesterday and today, which basically means my phone has been ringing lots, and I'm giving support to the new starter Samaritans by talking to them about how its going etc. It's really nice cos they are all excited when they start lol.

Went to the pub in copmanthorpe last night for Neil's 30th birthday. It had been ages since I saw the old friendship group so it felt good... and also that weird feeling fo everyone growing up a little bit more and moving on that little bit more. A noticeable difference in sensible-ness and maturity even since last time we met up a couple of months ago. Myself included there.
Pub chat and jokes, and lots and lots of talk about past memories and remember whens. Hmm, and we're only hitting 30.

With people settling down, the future is with their loved ones, so there isn't the future to discuss much. And then the present - well when we used to meet up every week there was always that what's happening now - but now cos we haven't seen each other in ages, there isn't really that ongoing feeling... so most of the chat is about things in the past lol.

Funny how things move on, but its still nice to have that great group of friends I grew up with.

Today, I did an Easter Sunday radio show. We're doing this thing on the radio station.....

Friday - 60s hits all day
Saturday - 70s hits all day
Sunday - 80s hits all day
Monday - 90s hits all day

So with my show being on a Sunday, I was tasked with the 80s theme. I came up with a cool idea as I was walking to the radio station of doing an A to Z of 80s songs within my 2-hour slot.

This calculated out at around 3 songs per every quarter of an hour which is perfect!!! So I planned it, and got it absolutely spot on. Had to hunt round to find a ZZ top vinyl that was from the 80s... and the vinyl finished in absolutely perfect time for me to say goodbye and bring the news in.

Here is the listing I played....

A-Ha - The Sun Always Shines on TV.
Baltimora - Tarzan Boy
Culture Club - Karma Chameleon
Depeche Mode - I just can't get enough
Enya - Orinoco Flow
Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere
Genesis - Invisible Touch ( that song is TOO radio-friendly lol)
Human League - Don't you want me
Inner City - Good Life
John Farnham - You're the Voice ( great song!)
KC and the Sunshine Band - Walking On Sunshine (wooohooo)
Lionel Richie - Dancing On The Ceiling
Michael Jackson - The Way You Make Me Feel (Madness rejected!)
Nena - 99 Red Balloons
Odyssey - Going Back To My Roots
Proclaimers - I'm gonna be 500 miles ( and 500 more, so why not just say 1,000 miles, it's easier)
Queen - One Vision (wow, Q had to be Queen, but so many great Queen songs to pick from in the 80s)
Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
Shakin' Stevens - This Ole House (1981)
- would have played spandau there but needed to play a short song to try and make up some time
Tiffany - I think we're alone now.
UB40 - Red Red Wine
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
Wham! - Club Tropicana
No X
Yazz - The Only Way Is Up
ZZ Top - Legs

Yeah , I didn't have time to research enough to get an X, but I just presumed there weren't any until I got home and Adam told me some.

58,000 words

Done more on the pub scene (a kind of typical pub scene, makes me smile with its typical-ness) and another little radio scene.

58,000.... 30 per cent!!! woohooooo

57,000 words

57,000 .. writing a section about poker.. and doing more of the conversation based on Phil.

Review

Okay, time to do a review of my creative stuff cos I haven't done one for ages.

Firstly, I made a Web site, and am going to put most of my poetry on there soon! I went through and filed all my poetry on my hard drive the other night, and have some exciting ideas for more poetry when i get the time... including a great note in a Word Pad file ("Do the one about the neighbours hearing me banging")

The Web site itself isn't much, but it surprised me how easy it is to knock up a web site these days... and even edit it in Microsoft Word... all that is new to me...and I'm re-learning HTML... i've also added snippets from the book and short story on there already, and created the poetry page ready.

I've passed 50,000 words with the book. I have to say its not going as well as I would have liked with the last 10,000 or so... but its still definitely progress rather than going the wrong way... and as usual i've still learnt a lot from it.. and still am closer to the final product in my head.

I've also done quite a bit more to the childrens' short story. :-)

Back into the running

Happy to have ran half an hour tonight in the pouring rain....

Basically ... got running clothes on....looked out.... saw it was chucking it down... watched through window.... it got worse if anything....thought sod it.....

went out and ran and it was ace... its actually better running in the rain (albeit it got a bit cold after a while and i came back earlier than i usually do)

its a great feeling though, getting back into the running... and its much better than going to the gym or something... cos you can literally just go from your back door...and decide a minute before you run that you want to do it.....

I had an interesting conversation with my friend Christian recently who's doing the Great North Run with me... He said he only runs in the gym, because he's too embarrassed to run in the street.. and other people tend to tell me that they couldnt just run in the streets cos its boring...

Whereas I am the other way round... i would be way too embarrassed and self-conscious in the gym.. especially with lots of muscly men around.... and I would also find it deadly boring... rather than having all the different scenery and cars to avoid and things.....

One of the best possible things that can happen to you when you're running.... and you have to be very lucky for this to happen.... is that you catch up another person who's out jogging and overtake them..... this is a great feeling!!!...but has only happened to me once that I can recall and it was a very slow old lady...

Usually, its the other way round, that I can hear someone running behind me, and i think oh crap i have to go a little bit faster to avoid being overtaken.... One of the funniest things I've ever seen was when I was on a bus and the driver saw this man was running to the bus stop, so he slammed on the brakes... but the man just ran past cos he was a jogger

lol

I ran i think 2 miles today..whereas usually i do a route which is i think about 3 and a half.. but i'm just getting back into it.... I do now have three friends doing the great north run with me.. so am going to do a few more runs on my own, and then will start running with them.....

Another thing I always challenge myself to do , is not stop running for a single step during the whole duration... This causes me to look slightly stupid when stood at the side of the road waiting for cars to pass before i can cross and carry on my route.

Anyway that's been the highlight of my day. I have a total of 1 easter egg this year and its from my boss, and it's the obligatory boss easter egg.
Also had a 2 hour 29 minute conversation with phil today... which is perhaps the longest personal phone call i've ever had with a man in my life lol.....

He was telling me his philosophy that everyone has only 2 drives..... desire and fear.. and everything, absolutely everything is a result of those two.....

So in other words people who don't do things, it always boils down to fears, even if its fears that people don't want to verbalise or even admit to themselves. Phil's great to talk to about the creative process and achieving goals... and to learn from... Also, an amazing thing happened to him recently.. He was cured of diabetes!

He's had diabetes for many years - i'm not sure how long - but completely altered his lifestyle , every step of his diet etc to fight it - and even though it is largely talked about that diabetes can't be cured, he has done. He told me, its because the way of curing diabetes is by drastically changing your lifestyle over a period of years, and most people simply arent prepared to it... in the same way smokers know the damage they are doing, but it doesn't mean its easy by any means to change the lifestyle.

Anyway, yeah, I was getting advice because my long-term goal is the Great North Run this year. And of course a novel by the end of 2013.

His advice differed a bit from what I knew already so it was great to take it on board. Cos he talked more about thinking of the end product and the goal, whereas I break stuff down into tiny manageable chunks, but often I don't put enough desire into the long-term goal.

Last night I was at Hospital Radio. I've been interviewing new members there and helping choose which people to select. The good news is we have loads of new members now, from a heap of applications and interviews... and some really exciting people. A guy who has so much experience of producing radio shows for commercial radio. I can't wait to get his input on my show, and I know i can learn so much from him. Also a woman who runs the Gazette and Herald newspaper - a very good contact to have.... and a guy who can't stop writing stuff (lol, familiar).. Actually, he'd written hundreds of things.... andhe's going to be climbing the three peaks with us next weekend so I can't wait to hear about the kind of stuff he's written.

I spent the largest part of the night, learning how to edit and update the hospital radio Web site - all good fun - and doing a stock-take of membership clothing LOL...

Tomorrow it's one of my best mates - Neil's 30th birthday so going to the pub in Copmanthorpe for that - 30 really is a biggy. I'm gonna give him a Snoop Dogg Microphone squeaky dog toy.

54,000 words

Taken it up to 54,000 words today - That's 54,000 words inside my first month!!! I seriously can't believe that myself, though there's still so many challenges ahead on it.

Anyway, today's 1,000 words has been the start of the first section based on the adult entertainment scene - which tells the story of the first time I was involved in it.

Therefore, train journey, London town, meeting the people and filming, followed by train journey back.

It's a big scene, and I'm happy to be ploughing into it and happy with what I've written on it so far.

Short Story - Lions

done more on the short story this morning... it's a childrens-style story about lions... am gonna open the curtains and start the day in a minute :-)

some cool words...

a leopon is a cross-breed between a leopard and a lion
a liger is a cross-breed between a lion and a tiger

53,000 words

53,000 reached tonight. Did more on hospital radio third scene, and also wrote a magical little section that goes near the start. :-)