Growing up and moving on

Mum on Blog!!! Yay, Mum on Blog.

.

The slightly-blurry, slightly-deformed-looking dog is one my Uncle is looking after. He works for Guide Dogs for the Blind, and looks after dogs during the short period while they are trained (4 months or so per dog)

.

Yeah, that dog does look pretty freaky.

.

I'm a bit sad tonight, cos every new year it is more apparent the number of friends and people who have moved on and settled down - not that I don't want the best for them.

.

I think a lot and am very introspective and sentimental... I also observe a lot, sometimes to my own detriment. One-by-one watching my friends settle down and letting go of the concept of new year being some amazing anything-can-happen big night out.

.

I've let go too, and I think , like a lot of people, I'm not really a fan of new year now, and don't have the same amazing feelings I used to have.... I was trying to decide if I have grown out of it or if i've moved on, and I'm pretty certain it's the second one... cos I don't ever want to grow out of anything :-)

99,000 words

It's Christmas in the novel yay

Hit 99,000 today.

Review 6

Final review post - to say that going forward now one of my biggest drives is to work at ways to get more awareness of Samaritans - and more publicity. I'm kinda gutted Radio York didn't give me longer this morning, and that I didn't phrase very well what I had to say.

Review 5

LOL this is a funny - well not funny but interesting letter I sent of something else I am working on for the period ahead....... Makes me sound like I'm crazy lol

Dear Sir/Madam,

I feel that I have a very important issue I want to put down in e-mail.

I have been a Samaritan at York Branch for over 3 years.

I am concerned as to an issue which could occur in 2011 or later and cause a large number of suicides in the United Kingdom.

This year (2010), two very large football clubs (Portsmouth and Sheffield Wendnesday) came extremely close to going out of business and were saved at the very last minute. This is something that has not occured before (certainly not within my memory) and therefore would be an unprecedented event of which consequences have not previously been researched.

It is thought likely, due to the current financial risk management in football that the same situation may occur at other clubs in the coming years.

I believe also that if a football club of this magnitude did in fact cease to exist, there would be a very high likelihood of suicides (possibly mass suicides) (predominantly amongst males - adult and teenager)

I have zero evidence to back this up. Like I say, it is not something which has occured before and University of Oxford's Centre for Suicide Research have not touched on the issue, and possibly not even considered the notion of it (as it is an entirely recent risk)

My belief that this possible occurence would lead to many suicides is based on a few factors.
* A football club of this size has hundreds of thousands of fans.
* Thousands of people follow their club all around the country to every game home and away.
* For many people, football / following their team is their life.. in some cases, the team is virtually the only thing which matters to them. In many ways, it is similar to people losing their livelihood. For very many people, it holds the same importance and position in their life. Cut short, following their team through thick and thin is everything.
* Football can be something dependable for many people who feel they have nothing else in their lives to rely and have faith in. For some, their team can dominate most of their thoughts, dreams and time.
* Typical cases where it is evident (although by far a minority percentage) would be the guy with club tattoos over his body, or the 15-year-old boy with few friends for whom almost every waking moment is filled with thoughts and hopes of his football club (a common case).

I am writing to see if this issue can get serious consideration. Not just at a re-active level (ie when it happens) , but before-hand (i.e. what can be done to limit the effects of it happening, or work at preventing the event happening)

It is all too easy to dismiss thoughts before an event happens with the idea that because such an incident has not happened in the past, why should it occur in the future? .. or the idea that we will be safe as an organisation to not consider and be proactive on such issues and wait and see what happens.

I cannot emphasise enough how important I think it is for Samaritans to give this some serious consideration. It is my belief, after much thought and consideration of my own, that such an incident could be the biggest single direct suicide cause in the United Kingdom in a generation.

I have also spoken to the PA to Professor Horton at University of Oxford's Centre for Suicide Research, who recommended I take this route with my enquiry.

Regards,

Paul Walton
York Samaritans

Review 4

Okay .. just want to mention some things I'm doing with Samaritans here.... I've really enjoyed being part of a campaign lately to increase awareness of the charity - York Samaritans, and I'm going to try and push this awareness even further in the future.

In the midst of the winter weather, I appeared on Radio York and Minster FM talking about how the weather isolates and depresses people. My Nan is a great example of this - she's 83 (i think lol) and couldn't even leave the house because of the ice. So many people are housebound like this in this crazy weather - whereas before, even a trip to the shop or surgery during the day could make a difference, often now days can go by without any company. And the fact that cold weather depresses people is fairly self-explanatory really.

There are articles on the BBC Web site - and soon York Press - and this morning, I appeared on Radio York again. I wasn't as happy with my contribution this morning... It was about the different ways christmas can affect people and I came across as a bit too vague and generic.

Out of interest, the main ways in which christmas and new year period affects people are:

Relationships - People forced together who you might not normally choose or want to spend a lot of time with - over-exposed, families etc.. More time for arguments, true feelings to come out..... Pressures to perform (e.g. cook christmas dinner)... Supposed to get along with each other.. alcohol flowing etc etc

Finances - The crazy spending of before christmas putting a strain on them

Isolation - Christmas is a time when people are pressured to be with loved ones. There are a lot of people with no-one, and so it is a time that they can feel a lot more isolated.

Depression - It's the time of year when we are told we are supposed to be happy, so any difference from that can be magnified. Christmas is often idealised - e.g. the perfect family christmas.

Thinking time - With more spare time, time off work, time alone etc, people often find themselves with a too much time to think.

End of year - The end of the year is traditionally a time when people reflect and take stock, and then look ahead to what they will do in the new year. It can be a time when people decide their future is bleak, or start to question their lives and meaning.

Review 3

An update on my on-line creative stuff.........

I have now done over 90,000 words of the novel!!

I've also throughout the year uploaded most of my poetry and quotes to my Web site, and written a few short stories.

Review 2

July!! And a contender for best gig I've ever been to -- Ash -- at The Duchess

In a crazy hot venue, sneaked my way to the front, and being so light, spent half of the gig not actually with my feet on the floor!!! Haha, that was crazy. Falling second to that, a hospital radio fundraising gig at Stereo... oh, and York Peace Festival.

Thanks to the hospitality of Christian and Elaine, fun band hero night and poker nights - as well as some great nights out featuring Zumo, Ali and Clare - and a night in Stone Roses belting out Indie anthems!

It's worth pointing out, should I read this in 30 years time, that England's World Cup early exit was dismal and included the usual mash-up of bizarre under-performing and a blatant disallowed, over-the-line goal... oh and the Germans. The South African World Cup as a whole though was great, as mostly was the passion of the England fans over here.

I got an IPhone. Also, my favourite film of the year = Inception. Wow.

At the radio station, my Sunday show ran out of steam. Simply due to the fact that, aside from special guests, I was usually in the studio completely on my own -- and I learnt I was very bad at this - and needed someone , anyone to be in the studio with me - in order to function really well and put across a great show.

With this in mind, I switched to Wednesday nights - where I currently present a 2-hour show - the first hour features requests.

It differs from my previous show, as it is more upbeat, less spiritual, less reflective and more 'in the moment'. It often has a theme for the song choices too. I work really hard at show ideas, concepts, preparation and lots of fun special guests!! I thrive hard at creating a very professional, buzzy , heat-of-the-moment show while thoroughly enjoying every moment and making time to accommodate and feature friends in the studio. Currently, I have a team of 7 that come down and walk the hospital wards getting requests for the show. One guy writes theatre reviews and another helps with his immense footy knowledge lol. Another great thing about doing Wednesday nights is that we can watch the footy game while the show is on, and also I can report on the scorelines in the big games - again giving it that real in-the-moment feel. Furthering myself and breaking new ground - albeit with hospital radio - is something that's really important to me.

Whilst working at the dullest job on earth (The Crown Prosecution Service), I had another three interviews - all of which I failed to get - CPP, Great Rail Journeys and Azlan again.

An unusual and surprisingly very touching episode occured one night, when I googled an old school pal Jonathan Walker - only to find out he was an amazing - like truly amazing - street busker in Leeds and Liverpool. I caught up with him and re-connected the old friendship. Does re-connected have a hyphen? Hmm, I don't think so. Reconnected. There we go, I have reconnected the word reconnected.

Yes, it was wonderful seeing what a great guy he's become, and also touching because his voice and music are amazing, and because there was something about what he's doing - busking on the street every day - just him and his guitar - that resonated with my own life massively.

So onto my love life in 2010.

Ok so now that's done, onto friendship and four friends I haven't mentioned yet, who are reading this and have been there in 2010.

Zumo (Mr Z. Juice lol ) - thanks for your great friendship in 2010 and here's to more in 2011 - from new years eve literally.

Jim, who has probably paid me the most compliments of any person in my entire life lol - and offered a very close friendship - including a trip to the panto!!, a day out in Scarborough when it was freezing cold and the waves were crazy, and a journey at midnight to the North York Moors to sit on a car bonnet and look at the stars.

Lexi - the most genuinely caring person I've ever met - who's shared a beautifully true and unconditional friendship, calmness and support through 2010, as well as coffees, beers and countryside... everything a best friend should be about.

And Paula - with whom I've had the nearest its come to a holiday this year - visiting Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool, Castle Howard, Hawkshead Park, Fountains Abbey, Chester, Widnes - ok shouldn't have included Widnes - sharing weekends and laughter - and more than anything a feeling of being really alive, being loved, having a soul-mate, and mattering.

Back to my love life, and apart from one average forced half-date with a cellist that didn't go very well!!! haha, there has been none. I'm okay with this though, as I'm only 30, and I think the important thing is that I'm still growing spiritually.
Not growing height-wise, that would be stupid.

Sitting in on John Hodgson's Minster FM show was a highlight, as I am keen to work for Minster FM in the future. Pub of the year has to go to the Old White Swan aka The Mucky Duck, where I have spent many hours drinking, quizzing, seeing Samaritans friends and eating sausages. LOL It really is my favourite pub.

I've had some good therapy this year - and a really good therapist - which has seen me become more understanding and aware of my massive anxiety and has really helped. It's pretty personal obviously so it's not one for the blog here - but I feel, even though I've spent about £1000 on it, that it's been of great benefit.

It was the year 2010 when Rich Pauer got himself a lovely girlfriend - a thoroughly-deserved little miracle - in fact the guy probably deserves it more than anyone i know :-)

As the year went by, I became more and more focused on my next big challenge: The Great North Run - 13 miles - a half-marathon - obviously a massive, massive challenge. I stepped up from my usual 3 mile distance and made my runs gradually longer. It was a really new feeling doing long runs - huge segments of time spent running and thinking - I inspired myself by excitedly planning out new routes and finding a new running partner. When the day came, I was focused and determined., and I did it - with a time of 2 hours 13 minutes of which I'm very proud!! I then became ridiculously wet, tired and lost somewhere in the North-East.

Sadly, since then, due to the cold weather, I haven't kept the running up as much as I would have liked to have done. In fact, aside from walking, I haven't done any exercise for ages. Oh, I mended a puncture.

I'm, completing my third year at York Samaritans, which I love very much. Whenever I doubt my own life, I remember that things aren't just about me, and I think about how enriching it is to help others. I never tire of being there on the phones and helping people, just by listening and caring. Helping others is something that's really easy to bring a reward if you let it.

I have been a Team Leader there this year too, which has been interesting and a new experience for me - as well as helping out at information and selection events and being branch leader on Christmas Day :-)

My day job finished at the end of October, with an end as flat as the job itself. I know I'm partly to blame for that. Still, at least it finished at the end of the month. Just like in February. So that gave me the wonderful feeling of turning over a new leaf at the start of a new month.

Unemployment was at first hopeful - i'd always found employment quickly in the past - but soon mixed the following emotions - despairing, scared of having no finances, unknown, weird (yeh, it definitely felt weird), pressured to find something, unsure as to the right approach or how I should spend my days and consequently critical of myself. And lack of shaving, if that's an emotion.

But in between that, it also brought a feeling of great freedom, relaxation and telling myself to make the most of the free time. Being unemployed has also given me the chance to spend quality time with my Nan, as she is cut off by the Big Freeze.

Since being unemployed (almost two months now), I've been living off jobseekers allowance and housing benefit. I've only had two interviews, and turned down some terribly paid jobs. The second interview I had, I got some incredibly negative feedback about my personality and approach - I've accepted it, cos I figure it was just one of those days.

At one point deep into december, I accepted a very poorly-paid job in Harrogate. I felt pressured into accepting it - like pressured to find something. The more I thought about it, the more I figured I'd made a wrong decision, so I rang up on the morning I was meant to start and cancelled it. I was scared of getting into a mess - with all the travelling and the terrible pay. Mind you, that morning was terrible - I thought like I was having a breakdown or something.

During the last few weeks, and the crazy famous winter of 2010!! (which I have largely loved!!!! - the deepest snow I've ever known!!!), things have come my way to keep me really occupied.... A series of special guests for my radio show - including theatre actors, meeting and interviewing the York City players and a visit to the Archbishop's palace to meet and record a message from John Sentamu - Wow!

Getting involved with a big press drive for York Samaritans and speaking on the local radio stations about it, passed the time nicely too.

Lots of York City games - and two more 30th birthday parties towards the back end of the year - a surprise one for Ben and a christmassy one for Chris. It's staggering at these events, whilst surrounded by great friends, that there are about 12 couples and then me and Smith who are single LOL. Most of the couples are (appear) really happy too, and it was great to see Neil and Leanne's place where they have settled in Copmanthorpe.

When my friends Pete and Helen had their baby recently, it was pretty special for me - cos I got to hold and feed a baby for the first time!! Surprisingly it didn't feel that weird - though I must admit to imagining it being me one day.

Time for two weird facts of the year - i guess two unusual claims to fame....

1.) I helped significantly with Jeremy Kyle Confronts The Porn Industry on ITV. It was set in my bedroom in London. Seriously. I am also proud of the message put across, despite most of the programme content being massively biased towards porn being evil, as we expected it to be. It is a baby-step :-)

2.) Really weird claim-to-fame. During the Gamu Nhengu (X-Factor) scenario - at the time she was front page news - on the night when journalists surrounded her house but no-one was allowed to get in to get that all important first interview --- On that night, she was chatting to me on the Internet via Twitter. It sounds far-fetched, but let';s say I am almost certain it was her - without going into boring details about how I know it was her, she paid me a great compliment on the quotes page of my Web site. Very surreal Friday night that was.

York City produced a memorable victory over Rotherham - and the best game I've seen for ages!!! - I've also been getting a lot more into York City and football in general during the second half of 2010 - and am to be given an opportunity of commentating from Bootham Crescent in 2011, so I've been preparing myself for that too.

Last but not least, Christmas Day this year was very special for me. Some of you know about my awkward childhood and the mental hell I went through....

Yesterday, on Christmas Day, I reconnected with my brother for the first time since our childhood. This was a really special thing as growing up, it felt like we didn't have each other as brothers - and so now - for the first time - it feels like I have a brother.

Merry Christmas.

Review 1

Hi,

As it's now the final week of 2010, its time to reflect on the first half of the year.

Comparatively, the year hasn't been great for me. A bit like 2006 wasn't great. But there's still been some really nice things within it.

The first main event of the year was a trip to Stoke for the game against York City... a game which promised a lot, but was actually pretty dull and absolutely freezing, especially standing around for ages waiting to get in. Apart from that, it was a laugh though and a day out in Stoke lol. City lost 3-1 and despite very briefly taking the lead, never really looked like winning.

I came runner-up in my first ever poetry competition - on-line ones don't count - The Husthwiate poetry contest does (yes, its a tiny village). A job interview at Azlan came and went.

More and more snow fell, which made me feel really warm ironically. One of my favourite memories was walking down Micklegate in the snowiest, most surreal scenes I've ever encountered - it was beyond beautiful - going into an amusingly sludge-floored Sainsbury's.. laughing hysterically at the surrealness of it all, meeting a girl who was also laughing and then walking through the city with her. Funny how little things stand out, but I'll never forget the beauty of the city that day.

That inspired me to buy a digital camera, which I've happily used throughout the year including photography expeditions... I've never been so fascinated by photography as this year... and have been learning techniques and looking for opportunities to take beautiful photos.

Got to see Adam's band - who are really good - called The Hung - and recently supported The Pigeon Detectives. Wow. Tuesday nights became a regular night at The Habit pub. I did some side-work at home for a translation business - yeah that was pretty random - checking over documents for a bit of extra cash. Saw Stewart Lee at the Theatre Royal -- he was hilarious - love him! Saw an amazing York City win at home to Wimbledon., a trip to castle howard, anda trip to Crewe. (lol)

If there's one thing this year has sucked massively at - it's my career....

It all started in January at the Meat Hygiene Service.... Having been there 3 years, I decided to leave.. I really enjoyed my time there and had a really amazing job there which I loved.... I honestly never thought I'd end up with a job choosing and supplying abattoir equipment as a living - a job where a typical day involved trying on gloves and other clothing, meeting with suppliers about products, and generally covering my desk with all kinds of unusual abattoir equipment.

I left because I found it really difficult to work with the guy I worked closely with - even though we'd had a good laugh for 8 months or so - It was probably as much my fault as his, but I decided the job wasn't worth saving.... One of the main reasons (apart from his moodynes towards me) was the fact he was so obsessed with the job - it was his entire life. It meant that even if things were ironed out (which by the way they are now), it still wouldn't have made for a great job. He would talk about the job all day long, even the minute details of it.

But that wasn't the only reason I left. Also - big one - I was still temporary there, and it was hard to see the job being extended (as it turned out, with the coalition cuts, my job would not have been extended anyway!).. what this meant was that I felt I didn't have much to lose by handing in my notice... and so I thought it through and given that it was really getting me down and flattening me at the time, I thought it was the best thing.

Also, my boss was so kind that she would have offered me an alternative role within the company, but I decided even if she did, that I didn't want that either... and that being a progressive person, after 3 years there, I wanted to move on. She understood - my boss.

The last month there wasn't easy. Including told off severely in a meeting for loads of things I didn't do... my boss however, did decide on her own accord before the end of my time there that I was being bullied and the situation was wrong. It didn't matter though, I was all set to leave.

I made some good friends there and people were really lovely to me when I left - and got me things including a digital photo frame with a slideshow of photos of me from my time there - my highlights being travelling round the country to conferences, chairing meetings - and erm dressing up as a woman for children in need (actually, i really hated that!) lol... but i did it as a challenge in my first year there.

Looking back, I am not really sure whether I made the right decision to leave or not.

The snow kept falling in January - it was very snowy and then.. very icy. Amusingly, I had no downstairs heating through most of it.. and a guy who kept returning making excuses about it.

Before handing in my notice, I had a day out at an abattoir in Bridlington with Becs and Robbie. An amazing experience... Wondering round the different parts of an abattoir - like lost sheep. Well no, that's a stupid comparison.

Absolutely fascinating - and the processes they use make it seem so.... well normal. A bit shocking when you see the moment when it happens - but after that, your brain associates with the carcass being meat rather than animal.

Phil Morris, my friend from Preston came up one night, and we had a big night out ending in the Gallery. Used to do that all the time!!! It was funny with it being so rare, but a very cool night!

Matt Wilson, one of my best childhood friends came back... having formed his own company, now virtually a millionaire, with offices all around the world... and living in the Phillipines. Amazing the routes which people take - he always wanted to be that person.

Having had about a 2 or 3 month break from being on hospital radio while our studios were re-furbished, I returned into the Sunday morning slot. Our new studios incidentally are better than Radio York and Minster FM, so its been a massively different experience to how it used to be presenting.

My Sunday morning slot continued with its trend of spiritual-ness, calming-ness, and local special guests.

I have only been to London 4 times this year - and only filmed three of those times. All through my own choice and the fact I've been doing other things on weekends mostly.

BT, my musician idol, released These Hopeful Machines - his 6th album - which (no surprises really) became my favourite record of the year... and also features my favourite song of the year, which is The Unbreakable.

I did a bit of stand-up poetry at Space109 and then at Oxfam Bookshop - but it was a bit pointless really - still it was raising money for Haiti, which was something I felt really affected by. I've kind of parked the stand-up poetry, but am still proud of the 3 events I've done with Adam... though nothing matches the one we did at Selby Town Hall!!

I got a new job - at the Crown Prosecution Service - which lasted 8 months - and turned out to be the dullest job and situation i've had by a million miles. I never actually knew it was possible for a job to be that dull, and was relieved when they told me that all temps had to go because of cutbacks. I try and learn from everything, but honestly, I learnt very little from that time, and sadly that's the main reason why 2010 hasn't been the best year in comparison to other years.

I started running again, interviewed new radio members, did an A to Z of the 80's show (wow that was fun), started a trend of having meals out with my Mum (that's been a nice idea!), a lovely meal and gift exchange with Ruth, some Samaritans afternoons and nights out drinking, time walking at The White Horse (not the pub!) and Neil's 30th birthday (ok, that one was the pub). Actually, did lots of great walking this year!

My first major challenge of the year was The Three Peaks Challenge - Oh my God, was this a challenge!!! The biggest challenge of this event turned out to be, having to stop half-way there on the car journey cos i felt travel-sick, and facing the very real possibility that (in order to not delay the others), I would have to be abandoned at a random point in the Skipton countryside (like literally in the middle of nowhere!!!!) somehow figure my own way back and miss out on the whole day. I honestly genuinely thought that was what was gonna happen. Thankfully, it didn't!!!

11.5 hours of up-and-down feel walking... a real real endurance challenge - incredible - and i did it!!!

After spending a long time on the application form, I was rewarded with 2 weeks' work experience at Radio York - which I bravely took as unpaid leave from my new (dull) job.

With my big dream/ambition to work in radio full-time, it was an important step for me. Or so I thought. Career-wise however, it wasn't.

The job itself was very journalism-oriented, which in some ways proved a steep learning curve (with me not being a journalist) - I still regret the huge struggle I had to find a giant rabbit breeder!!

Still, the two weeks was fascinating and a great experience - the highlights were taking weekly vox pops (short interviews) with members of the public, schoolteachers, parents, schoolkids (wow, that was fun) - basically in relation to whatever the main news story was!

The ultimate highlight though - and perhaps my highlight of the year - was taking the BBC Mic to Bootham Crescent for the York City game - which incidentally despite massive efforts to protect it, fell beneath all the jumping bodies when Brodie scored late on (for a 1-0 win in the play-off semi) ... Anyway, so the highlight was interviewing Richard Brodie, the hero, after the game. Especially brilliant as he rarely gives interviews so it was a brilliant capture.

My other highlight was creating and editing a short piece for Julia Booth's show where I visited a new vintage shop - House Of Avalon - opening in the city. I was really proud of that and really surprised myself on a creative level.

They didn't keep me on - which was a shame - but also, well, it wasn't surprising - with me being relatively new to journalism - having no qualification - or driving licence for that matter.

It stunted my radio dream a little, but not too much :-) And it was so much fun working on the stories (and wondering around with a BBC mic, watching people's reactions and feeling important)

As usual, I went to and enjoyed most race meetings at York this year - and also, had some luck!!! Over the year, I made a profit! - wow that never happens :-) Going to York Races is something I always always enjoy :-)

Had a night drinking with Mike Burns (colin off the brittas empire) who is a friend of mine, though i havent seen him for ages - he's been busy with edinburgh etc.... still, a little claim to fame.

York City reached Wembley for the second year in succession, which meant I went down for the second year in succession. Sadly, the play-off final and our chance to get back into the league went pear-shaped. Oxford beat us convincingly. The day was okay though, we still had a laugh.. Just such a shame that we could have been back in the Football League.

One of the more bizarre things I was invited to this year, was to be a judge in the hospital's "Nurse Factor" .. yes a copy of X-Factor with nurses.... haha needless to say that was a great laugh... being simon cowell for the evening!!! (only slightly geekier!)

A day that stands out in May was doing the Robin Hood's Bay walk from Whitby to erm Robin Hoods Bay ... along the clifftop... I did this with James - it was a truely wonderful walk - and one of real sharing of truths which I will remember for a long while.

Unusually, only one significant NEW person/friend came into my life this year, and that's Ali - hi if you're reading :-) -- a friend who I met on-line - Canadian and after a brief spell in London, arriving in York to start a fresh life. I found this story fascinating, so it was great getting to know her, build up a nice friendship and help her settle into her new way of life here in York :-)

The World Cup came around - possbily my favourite thing in the entire world - and also got me back into footy, cos it seemed to have been drifting out of my life....

I was soon crazily excited about it all - and of course fancied England's chances as always. Watching the games this year was great - especially with the support of Christian, Elaine, Zumo and others with the same passion about it all as me - there is absolutely nothing like it.

Given that, it was really cool that my 30th birthday fell on an England game date!!! Incredibly lucky really. I've never had a load of people integrated for my birthday before, but managed to do that with a lot of my friends that day - which made it pretty special. 30 has certainly been a big age for me - a real point that's got me thinking about where i'm heading, who i am etc. 30 is a big age.

Add to the mix, large amounts of snooker, Canadian day, stalking someone in Leeds and hurricane obsessions... and that just about concludes the first half of 2010 :-)

97,900 words

97,900... yep done just a little more today on the therapist scene....

The commonest thing I get asked is about my long-term plan for the book....

Roughly... although I probably won't stick to this....

End of 2010 - reach 100,000 words
End of 2011 - reach 200,000 words
End of 2012 - structure, erase, replace, fill gaps
End of 2013 - Go through it all and edit it finely

97,800 words

97,800.

Yep, I'm still writing my novel.. ok , at a slower pace lately, but I'm still really enjoying it when I get chance to do it. So far today, I've continued on the therapist storyline. Gonna take a break to clean the house and then get back to it in a bit.