weather 30 April 2010
dongle troubles again, m’dears, but service has resumed! actually i seem to be having technical difficulties all round with machinery – took me ages to get the lil dishwasher in flat number 2 working and i’m all fingers and thumbs with keys and the laptop too. general lack of coordination and feeling strange are the mood of the day.
i’ve just taken a trip to Manchester. it was odd, but in a good way, to be there without having to go filming on the show. what really struck me, though, was the weather. i’ve always found it very like irish weather, as it is often rainy and grey-skied. recently London has had unseasonably good weather (Dublin too) but Manchester is adhering to the seasons and it was raining all the while – actually there was even a hail shower this morning before i left. nice that some things are steady, and reliable..!
canary 28 April 2010
I was a gig in Canary Wharf tonight in London and both acts are those that you should seek out ALWAYS if they are in your area…or travel to see them – they’re that good. Firstly I sing (though not in any league even approaching her feet) the praises of Ella Edmondson, singer/songwriter extraordinaire – google her and you’ll find the links to hear her songs – just wonderful.
then came the Bad Shepherds who bring the beauty and folk to punk – believe me, you have never heard all of your favourite songs sung quite like this and i heard lyrics tonight that have been buried under the anger (is an energy) forever. BRILLIANT
horrible 27 April 2010
Had a horrible 36 hours between one unexpected thing after another, however a lot of people were very good and adult about the various hiccups and I am grateful too them and so relieved that there are civilised types in the world. As always there was a flipside which was that I didn’t eat and felt SLIM. Then tonight, after another lovely evening with me clan in the burbs, a (LARGE) bag of ready-salted handmade crisps lured me like a Siren and I am ashamed and bloated having eaten most of them – WHY?!
Have a great agenda for next few days that takes in a gig in the East End tomorrow night – Miss Ella Edmondson and Mr Ade Edmondson, Manchester to see my mate Sally Carman from SHAMELESS be brilliant in a play called BEAUTIFUL HOUSE at the Library Theatre on Thursday and back to London’s Town for drinks, with a top producer/writer/genius whom I shall not name as ‘twoud be just too name-droppy, on Friday evening – Ay Thank You!
speedy 26 April 2010
Well, the old gal may still have a bit of ‘go’ in her yet – I had one of those odd and horrible days when someone I thought was wonderful really let me down in an I-thought-that-wouldn’t-happen-with-them-I-was-so-sure-they-were-great way so I took a walk to Stockwell to see the lovely Rebecca, my wonderful sister in law, and she says I was there quicker than I had ever done the journey – amazing to me as I thought I had strolled (thinking and pondering all the way, as I was) SO feeling a little foxy and fast as a result! There’s life in us aul wans, clearly…
shorthand 25 April 2010
I can usually read those tests on papers luring you into something that go ‘if u cn rd dis u knw shrthnd’ and I always feel a bit clever though it’s probably just pathetic and proof that we humans SO want to be flattered and can be led by the nose from there on out. And there’s a problem with this kind of speed-reading too when it takes over and you realise you are not paying full attention to a text, and also allowing some ATROCIOUS spelling (bad when checking the proofs of a novel, I can assure you). But I had to slow right up today when I read that a Killer Tomato was rampaging across Mississippi – it is, of course, a Tornado that’s doing all of the damage…
election 24 April 2010
John Fortune told a great story when we were filming the other day about being put in your place and having perspective thrust upon you by those who know you well. Basically when Alec Douglas Home was made PM his mother was interviewed on television and asked how she felt about her son being Prime Minister and she said ‘I don’t think he’s up to it’…!
THE CALLING is in selected cinemas throughout the UK right now. It’s the movie I made with Brenda Blethyn year before last and has lots of great women playing nuns like Suzanah York, Rita Tushingham, Amanda Donohoe (a mum not a nun in it) Suzanah Harker and Harriet Thorpe.
omen 23 April 2010
I like a good coincidence and take it as something of a good omen. Yesterday the novel went into production and I went for a celebratory glass of fizz with my lovely editor, Clare. the bar had a tv and on the news was an item from Bristol from outside the Arnolfini gallery – and here’s why i think that’s a good sign – the Arnolfini Portrait features heavily in the one particular section of book!
In other news, I got drunk (at home so, happily, no staggering about the streets was done) to celebrate the novel’s further progress…
Actually, I fell a little in love with it while I was re-reading and tweaking it over the last week and hope you will all like it too. It’s called THE TIME IS NOW and will be out 8 July in Hardback in the UK and trade paperback size in Ireland.
Went out to play with the 2 Johns and Frances Barber for the Bremner show yesterday – oh, and we recorded one of the infamous dinner parties while we were at it too! There’s be 3 nights of satire in the lead-up to the UK election, so brace yourselves.
All round, a TOP London day…
hygiene 21 April 2010
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. In the race to finish with the copyedit* of the book I have let myself go..and how..I am largely unwashed and had 2 snoozes today because I needed them – my back was in bits from sitting on a wrong chair for writing at a table laden with piles of paper at precarious angles but all in spots of note and to hand should they need to be rifled for a word or information, so awkward angles it had to be. In the midst of all that any plate or cup used was abandoned where it was put by my distracted hand. I went for a walk by the Thames but didn’t change out of the exercise gear afterwards and reeked as a result (still do). The washing up is lying in the sink stagnating. There is still a section to be dealt with, a new insert I have been mulling over, and it will join the manuscript OR NOT at daybreak tomorrow. After which washing must occur because I am off out to play with Bremner, Bird and Fortune for the purposes of laughter and satire.
*the copyedit is the version gone over by the person who tries to make sure your grammar isn’t too awful, unless it’s deliberately meant to be, and that your spellings are at least consistent and facts, such as you are using, are indeed facts…sometimes they put questions in the margins that are so maddeningly reasonable and obvious that you are obliged to throw the manuscript at the wall while cursing loudly…
nostril 20 April 2010
Well, the spot in the nostril is the man will make you sit up and think, especially if your nose is on the larger size (as my own is). I have a resident in the right nostril and it feel HUGE. To be honest, in the mirror you’d hardly notice it which gives me great hope that the mirror in fact MAY lie from time to time…and also makes me think that perspective is everything and not a notion to be ignored or forgotten…
That volcano is still carrying on something scandalous, isn’t it. Nature is angry, my friends, and a lot of us are feeling that right now.
The copy edit is coming along but was interrupted for very good reason tonight = the viewing of SHAMELESS and I must say it was a cracker of an episode – all kudos to writer Tom Higgins and director Paul Walker for marshalling such excellence. Am very proud to have been part of it.
biblical 19 April 2010
I’m finding the volcano story somewhat biblical in proportion and flavour -kind of plague of locusts time, or akin to The Flood (an Ark would be just the thing to have right now too). And it all comes on the back of world financial ruin and chaos so an appropriate ‘natural’ response from the earth, and this seems to be one, is due and a valid comment.
Speaking of which, I see my pal Heidi has joined a group called “‘ah sure look it’ is a valid response to a question” and let me assure you that in Ireland it SO is. It sort of means ‘ah now, sure what can you do?’ or ‘ah now, don’t START me!’ depending on the tone employed and you need say no more than ‘ah sure look it’ and comment is full, covered and understood. I’d paid the phrase no mind in ages, though I’m sure I say it regularly enough, but it’s great as an example of how the Irish speak a different language to most other peoples even though it bears some resemblance to English…
Am well into the copyedit now and enjoying the novel – can’t believe I actually wrote some bits or that I knew enough once from my researches to be technical about science, and medicine too…