waffle 31 August 2010
I have learned that pillows are more important than you might at first think – e g I have a few that match a waffle duvet cover – fine and dandy and comfy and true – BUT the waffle pillow tends to leave a print on the face…controversial for a make-up artist at 7am each morning…
balloon 30 August 2010
It’s just great when new tv comes along and delights you which is what it should do, really, whether that is with laughter or tears or both. SO it was with such delight that I saw ROGER AND VAL JUST GOT IN with Dawn French and Alfred Molina – funny, touching, really really moving and then tonight the total joy, also, of Simon Amstell’s GRANDMA’S HOUSE – the plot of the latter involved, amongst other wonderful plot strands, his mother insisting that he’s a celebrity and that he take part in a balloon ride over Africa for charity…and now later tonight, get this, I am watching a celeb crossing Rwanda in a balloon…not quite as hilarious as the Amstell but it has made me laugh all the same…
wedding 29 August 2010
Well, the weekend got away from me because I spent yesterday at a top top wedding. Tina Malone, who plays Mimi in SHAMELESS, got hitched and a great day was had. Too good a time, actually. You’ll see all in OK magazine…And I wore the highest shoes I have ever attempted to scale and they were weirdly comfortable…And today was spent almost entirely in bed sleeping. Now for the rest of 2010…‘normal’ service has resumed…
rabbits 26 August 2010
I managed to grab a night in Edinburgh just now to see the wonderful comedian Des Bishop performing his show about how his Dad was nearly James Bond. It’s fantastic – funny, moving and brilliantly performed. I had a few glasses of wine, met a hoard of peeps I hadn’t encountered in a long time and was back in Manchester by 9.30 this morning. 2 mildly strange sights/occurances – first was 4 black rabbits hopping about on the lawn of the hotel beside the zoo, obviously not in the least scared of the sounds or smells of big wild animals within that might want to eat them (that goes for the creatures in the zoo too!! – do you see? do you see what I did there!) – and when I got on the train to town from Manchester airport I was on the service going to…yes, you’ve guessed it…EDINBURGH
shoot 25 August 2010
I live in a strange land right now – hence the wonky blogging. Basically, we are on a week of night shoots on the show. So I am a zombie during the day wondering why I am not asleep and then a bit challenged at nights and in the dark when we are making televisual fabness for your pleasure. Last night I had one of those ‘whatjusthappenedthere?’ moments as I looked around in a narrow alleyway packed with about 30 people filming a woman in a wheelchair and another on the tiniest mobility scooter I’ve ever seen and me…odd, very odd…
criticism 23 August 2010
So here’s a strange thing – although (like a lot of people I know this year) I have been low in self confidence and sometimes plain panicky about life, I am well able to take criticism right now. Or that is to say, I can take it on work done, especially writing work. This pertains mostly to the latest novel THE TIME IS NOW. And I am aware that there are things about it that not everyone is going to like or think works BUT I think because I am so pleased with it personally that I can take on board the caveats and not feel bad or low about them. This is surely a step forward. And long may it last!
magpie 21 August 2010
I heard great chattering from a bird today. It was out front somewhere and I couldn’t see it but I think it was a magpie (there are plenty of them round our way). The strangest thing about it was that it was very close to words. I could just imagine it making sense of a sentence. Indeed the rhythm and cadence of it all was akin to it giving information – if only I could have understood the language I might have learned something valuable today!
disgust 19 August 2010
Okay, how about this for spelling on an official email today – the person sending it to me referred to conditions ‘as disgust’…on exam results day too – ah, ‘education, education, education’ as a former british prime minister uttered…
veins 17 August 2010
I remembered an advert today that i saw on the side of an Edinburgh taxi last week which I found mildly perturbing. It was for a service involving thread vein removal. I know this is a necessary procedure for many but I am unsure as to the efficacy of advertising a clinic for such things on the side of a moving vehicle. Perhaps I didn’t fully appreciate it as I am not yet the target for such operations and when my time comes (and decrepitude is indeed progressing so it is simply a matter of time) perhaps I will feel differently. I also wonder at the kind of person who might jot down such a number for such an establishment from the side of a cab and think it would be ideal for them…it’s the most unusual advert I have seen on a public transport vehicle, I’ll give it that…
pearls 16 August 2010
Himself loves a cup of Jasmine tea – nay, he is ADDICTED to the stuff. His favourite are the pearls that open out into leaves when very hot water (though not boiling, he assures me) is poured over them. Today I found some ‘soft downey balls’ belonging to him and but for the fact that I am aware of his addiction I might have thought they were something else entirely…And ain’t tea RACEY these days…
In other news, banana bread is wonderful of itself, especially if made by a domestic goddess such as Curly McLynn, but in yesterday’s experiment I found that wine was a better cure for my hangover than the fine confectionery she plied me with. The things you learn!