81,000 words

I guess old memories and chasing truth, answers and meaning are the subject of the day. That's mostly what I've written tonight into the book.

I'm at 81,000... still enjoying this journey :-)

Jonathan Walker

The beauty of York Minster here . It's amazing to think about how they began constructing this in the early 13th century.



Change subject.

When I was at junior school all the kids wanted to be either one of two people. 1. the captain of the football team, or 2. the hardest kid in the year.

But I didn't. In fact, the kids I looked up to were often the very ones that most people looked down on. The clowns.

Energy, happiness, fun, happiness again, and maybe a sense of freedom i longed for, being the very shy and introverted little person i was. And ultimately that freedom was to do whatever they wanted. Not bound by rules to try and keep up an image.

When I was 7 and 8, my best friend at Junior School was called Jonathan Walker. He was incredibly hyperactive and we did crazy things together (like smash in the walls of the school swimming pool lol) He used to make up songs and we used to perform them on the last day of the school term. They were always freeflow - it was so funny. Like he'd just write off the top his head, and not go back or think about the structure hahaha. And we'd have not really practiced but we'd go up and try sing them in front of the calss, even though we didn't really know the tune haha just the words!

He moved away when I was 8 - with his family - to live in Paraguay. Like you do.

One day when I was 12, we were having tea when the doorbell rang.

"Hello! It's Jonathan Walker, I'm back from Paraguay!"

We went out into the garden and found some wooden canes, and thought we could use them as measuring sticks... and so we played this game to see who could jump the furthest. He went first and did a pretty impressive jump. Then on my turn - god knows how - I landed awkward and before I knew it was rolling around in pain and then in A and E.

After that we lost touch. And it was completely my fault. It was a bit like he was too crazy, and I was embarrassed and I had other friends, and I didn't want to hang around with this embarrassing friend. How sad, given that he still had the energy and happiness that he always had.

So I never saw him again.

Last night, I was up at 3am bored on the Internet. And I googled his name. But I wasn't very hopeful at all, because let's face it there's a million Jonathan Walkers in the world. And I didn't have any info to google him on really.

We used to go round his house, and play this game where you had to run from one side of the room to the other, and his Mum would stand in the middle, and you had to try and get from one side to the other without her tickling you - and then if she caught you, she would tickle you like crazy hahaha

Anyway, I couldn't google him on that.

Putting "Jonathan Walker" into Google didn't bring up anyone who looked like him. And even after looking through lots of pages, it wasn't looking hopeful. I just kept seeing pictures of some long-haired musician busker guy in Liverpool, which wasn't like him at all.

Anyway, I kept searching for a bit with no success. Then thought I might as well look at this busker guy who'd been dominating my screen and listen to him. Slowly, I realised he was the right age, and soon picked up other details from him, such as on his Web site, it said he was raised in Paraguay.... and sure enough it's him. He is a very popular busker on the streets of Liverpool and Leeds. Kind of ironic too, because last night, I was planning a trip to Liverpool next weekend.

Those songwriting skills that weren't quite so polished back in the day have obviously improved hahahaha

"The key is not to sing, but to want to sing." - Henry Miller

He has a little Youtube account and his latest video, posted a month ago, is called "How far can you jump?" where he gets lots of adults together, and they all have to jump as far as they can.

Life is funny. I will find him, sit and listen to him busk, we will share a beer and maybe smash a swimming pool up.

Solving Local Mysteries

I found it.

It was in HMV.

Laughing Woman

Ok, Blog time.

I have an I-Phone. It will be active from tomorrow.

I have a new hospital radio show.

But first I have to tell you about a couple of funny things that happened this morning.

Sitting having coffee in Cafe Nero with my friend and watching over the city, people watching as I often do....

We noticed a woman sat on a street corner laughing to herself wildly while all the people walked past her. At first, we presumed she must have a funny text message or something, or maybe she was using a hands-free phone.. but after a while, we realised it was neither of these.

This woman was laughing hysterically!!! happily!! wildly!! for no apparent reason.

Of course this made us laugh too, and we expected her to stop laughing at whatever was tickling her, and walk on her way. But she didn't. Instead, she remained sitting on the corner as people walked past and laughing.

We noticed that there was a kind of pattern......

She would stop laughing, and some people would walk past but it wouldnt make her laugh...
then someone would walk past, and for no apparent reason, she would look at them and then crease up laughing uncontrollably... for about say 10 seconds then she'd calm down....

We then started watching passers-by and guessing whether or not they would make her laugh...

Like "This guy's gonna be funny..." then sure enough, one glance at him, and she would crack up.

Needless to say, me and james were in fits of laughter watching. Most passers-by ignored her, being too bothered with their own concerns, but some of them joined in the uncontrollable laughter with her.

It kinda seemed that she was laughing at everyone and everyone was laughing at her.

She was either high on drugs or high on life, but it really didn't look like it was drugs, and I hope so so much it was high on life :-)


Another cool thing that happened today. I watched some kids break-dancing in a square in York. Young kids showing off their moves. Most of them were average - but better than me obviously - then this one kid came on, and started doing cheesy kind of dance moves that didn't look like much. The crowd that had gathered, developed a kind of pitiful look - as if they were thinking - 'oh well, everyone is of different ability and at least it keeps them off the streets.'

And then, out of the blue, the same guy starting spinning round on the floor, fast as anything and pulling out some of the most insane moves ever. The crowd went wild with surprise and of course admiration.


Yes - my radio show is now to be on Wednesday - it will have new features, and a different format to the sunday show. Also there will be new special guests each week!!! Whereas before my special guests were generally amazing individuals doing amazing things..... For this new show, i'm going to have a section of the show about different charities - in particular local charities - and so the special guests will be from the charities.

Building, binding, bonding

The book keeps going. And things are slowly getting glued together. The glue-ing is a very long but fun process.

The wise characters - ie the ones loosely based on Jim, Phil and Lexi - are having their storylines plotted better and more exact so I'm getting a good indication of the exact scenes they appear in, and what should happen in each scene.

In addition, I'm doing a lot of colouring in... By this , I mean going to old scenes I've written and inserting bits in there that tweak it and help the flow of the story.

Out of interest, the book begins with a kiss. As for the ending, after a period of erm lets say intense drama, the final scene is just one of the everyday monologue bits :-)

Anyway, here's some of the random sentences from stuff i added tonight, now that blogspot lets me copy and paste finally lol.
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I know my journey isn’t really like anyone else’s, but my joy in the journey is just the same.

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On the way, a flock of sparrows squabbled over a half-eaten sandwich on the edge of a tennis court.

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And a greyish rectangular face, both pointed and poignant in appearance.

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Across the pavement, a squashed ice cream proved exciting for a little black and white dog.

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Its now at the stage of year where it's feeling cold even though it ought not to be. Or maybe that’s just because it mirrors how I’m feeling.

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That must be like the coolest thing that’s ever happened to that blackbird.

I knew the octopus would pick Spain

Here's the song of Paul, he's the psychic octopus.
He knew that Spain would win, and the whole world made a fuss.
If he had less legs, you might think he's one of us,
But no, it's Paul the Psychic Octopus!!

Episode 1:

"Hi Paul, what do you think is behind that rock?"

"I reckon... it's fish."

"Oh my god! It's fish!"


Give it up for Paul, he's the psychic octopus
He's never wrong at all, and he's never a bit sus.
Look he's at the bus stop, and now here comes the bus!
Cos it's Paul the Psychic Octopus!!


I've gotta say I love the news at the moment, and the advent of sites such as Twitter and better awareness of people's demand is changing what's on the news. It's great. Though many sources are still very old-fashioned in many respect of what they term important news.

Imagine how would it feel if you sat on an octopus?

I love these two news stories from this week:

This one - after you've got the snigger out the way, is absolutely fascinating - an amazing discovery...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8792000/8792008.stm

This one I don't even properly understand but is amazing too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10517040.stm



"How many octopuses does it take to screw in a light bulb?"
"1/8!"


In other news, I found some Raoul Moat jokes hiding about:


“Rothbury residents tell police they can't resume a normal life until Raoul Moat is caught. Only then will they all go dogging.”


"Man City have bid £45m for Raoul Moat. They've no idea who he is, but they've heard everyone's after him, plus he can shoot!"


"Whats the difference between Raoul Moat and Ashley Cole? Raoul Moat is still deep in the geordie bush."


Why don't they ask Physic Paul where Raoul Moat is? You could place a bush and a tree next to his tank and take it from there!

79,000 words

79,000.

Working away at the therapy storyline - i think tonight is the fourth scene of this storyline that i've been working on.. started and almost finished. The third scene was started and finished last week.

Out of the World Cup

Today is an extremely insignificant World Cup day if your name is Ledley King.

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However, time for a concluding World Cup blog.

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England had one good game (against Slovenia) in the world cup and it was the one where everyone was at work!

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Fortunately, for those who missed it, James Corden reviewed the game in his World Cup show on the evening...

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"What a great game today! It was a great game. Wasn't it a great game, don't you think? It was a great game."

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Similarly he reviewed Spain versus Chile later in the week:

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"Did you see the game? What a great game."

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So that's good, cos if you miss the action, you can always count on James Corden's post-match reviews to bring you up to speed.

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If there's one person thats annoyed me more than James Corden this world cup, it's the Mirror Football columnist Oliver Holt. This is the same Oliver Holt who on one particular match-day called his column "Why Lee Dixon is the Best Pundit at the World Cup"

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The column read: "Best pundit of the World Cup so far: Lee Dixon." then he completely changed the subject!!!

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Oliver Holt ran a headline before the Germany game that James Milner had matured during this World Cup. What?? He became a man in a week or so??

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The USA game.. he played and was terrible - did he mature then? No

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The algeria game - he didn't play - what maturing did he do then? None, obviously.

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The slovenia game he played well.... ahh i get it now.. during those 90 minutes, he really grew up as a person, stopped being a boy any more and became a man. I get it now.

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Oliver Holt!!!!! grrr

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Why do all the commentators start beating one out over Spain!!!! The worst moment I've seen.. Torres hitting a shot from 30 yards out way off target into Row Z, only to be followed with the commentary... "Torres...he's done everything right there."

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Finally, tennis. Andy Murray is out, and I blame the pitch, the ball, the net, the ballboys, the umpire, the racket, the towel (definitely the towel), the banana and the coach!

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As for England, of the many excuses, I think really it's just down to the players!!!

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Some people are blaming the jabulani, and I can kind of see their point...

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I mean, if you're going to let the players have a curry before-hand, it's not really the best preparation.

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:-)

78,000 words

Well I've hit the 78,000 mark tonight. A lot of the book is about my journey through counselling/therapy, and that's the main thing I'm working on writing lately. It feels good getting these key scenes in because they are a big part of what makes the book stand out, and also they form the most central and crucial storyline and backbone to it all.