grapes 2 March 2010
Where do I get off with having a ‘face’ on me is what I had to ask myself yesterday as I climbed down off the moral high ground. It came after an incident in a supermarket. This involved a sight I had encountered before and, as has become my wont, I shot a daggers at the person involved. But when I thought about it later I realised I should not have. So, here’s what happened. I was selecting some red seedless grapes because I am very partial to them, and find them great on all levels including keeping the old blood sugar up and stanching appetite from time to time (appetite HUGE at mo though and there’s nothing can quell the beast right now). They are the one bit of genetic engineering that I have to admit I could not do without, those seedless lovelies. ANYhow, there was an elderly lady snacking away on another stack of them close by and it was she who got the killer glance. But, she hadn’t opened a packet, thereby depriving another customer of their weight in grapes, she was devoting herself to the loose section of the fruit and it occurred to me afterwards that they are expensive and this might have been her big treat of the day but one she cannot afford right now. So how dare I pass judgement. And it will have been her one of five portions of fruit and veg so it was a healthy activity that she was indulging in.
bonkers 1 March 2010
Here’s how bonkers life is but technology more so – the dongle has started working again…no reason, just did. In the meantime can I add that I emailed the customer services of vodafone about it when it was kaput and I am still awaiting even an acknowledgement of that – rest easy, vodafone, once I am out the other end of this novule (and that is imminent) we will be parting company…
Delivered (a good) first half today and the rest will be on my lovely editor’s desk by thursday morning at the latest – though I will admit I am having trouble with the 22nd century at the moment…as you do…
Driest lips in the world again – I think when I blogged about those last I called them ‘direst lips in the world’ – either seems fair from here…
shutdown 1 March 2010
Well, I wasn’t expecting it (and I am usually good at listening to the internals) but I shut down last night in classic mode. It was a big day out – writing, then the football match though Villa failed to win the Carling Cup at Wembley (I thought we played well, though, and looking back I enjoyed the match more than I thought at the time – nerves for the team, really wanting the win, etc can be a lot to get past) at the end of a week of massively concentrated writing work. I took to the bed at 9.30 and slept through in something of a coma till 8.30 this morning. Clearly the mind and body decided I needed utter conking out. I have just delivered the first half of the book and will have given in the rest by Thursday morning so the work continues. Trouble is, I feel awful…bit like the shut down has been a warning shot across the McLynn bows.
I need a holiday! In the meantime there is caffeine…
under 27 February 2010
I felt like i’d run out of steam today = no really new ideas. BUT i did get the requisite amount of words on paper. So, I started to cut myself that bit of slack that might allow a glass of wine (after a fortnight on the dry) and the reason I thought I could is that I was flying to London this night (my beloved Villa play Man United at Wembley tomorrow in the Carling Cup and I am going to the game and totally overexcited – many thanks to Aisling O’Neill, the gaffer’s daughter, who is a goddess and the Best Woman In The World right now). All good so far. So, picture me sat in 2C, sipping a rather ordinary New World Sauv Blanc, when I spy that the elderly gent in 1D is on his Mac Air (no less) adding to Chapter…wait for it…84 (!) of his book – and it seemed to be a novel from what i could make out with characters called Angus and Domenica!!! FUCK ME – chapter 84??? tell me I misread that…cos otherwise I may have to end it all…
slog 26 February 2010
The slog continues but i can’t help but feel that in my old age I am going easier on myself and generally saying ‘you’ve done your best for the day’ – thing is I want to believe it’s true even if I know I could have pushed myself a bit harder. HOWEVER, if I had, perhaps I wouldn’t have anything to start on in the morning and it’s important to have that in the bag as ‘twere…well, in this bag (= me) anyhow.
My god daughter, Emily White, is making her Confirmation in a week’s time and I have to apologise to her for being a rubbish moral and spiritual guide. Again there is a ‘however’ attached to this item, which is that girl knows her own mind (and it’s a damn fine one) so she doesn’t need me confusing her just yet. We’ll get around to all that when I introduce her to the joys of drinking, swearing and perhaps even spitting (the latter is something I am not enamoured of, but if it has to be done then it has to be done – in other words we roll with what’s given to us)
thatcher 25 February 2010
I’m a bit like Maggie Thatcher, somehow, at the moment…reason? I am loading all of my stuff into a handbag and touting it round the house with me where’ere I go. But even if I’m in a ‘shell suit’ for the treadmill the bag is a formal, hard-sided, mock pink croc* job…hence the Iron Lady look…spooky anachronistic modernism, sweeties!
*for this read scale-y and plastic, but a good knock off
also I regard it all as a good omen as I am writing some stuff about the early Thatcher years in the buke…
cardamon 24 February 2010
So here’s how the day goes…coffee (usually nasty instant stuff and a fair few mugs of it) to wash down the vitamins – one general lad, plus 2 superstrength glucosamine and 1 superdooper mix of fish oils for the crackling and previously aching joints. Snacking. Arsing about on email/internet etc. Snacking again with more coffee or tea. Writing. Tea. Internet arseology. Treadmill and sundry exercises for arms and tummy (none of which appear to be working). Snacksnacksnack. Tea/coffee. Internet wastrelling. More writing. Far too much snacking. Tea/coffee. Emails. Dinner (far too much of everything). Football match on tv if there’s one on. Bit of writing. Then a detox tea that I found recently and which I am still unsure about. It’s made up of a mixture of aniseedy herbs and cardamon, with heavy emphasis on the latter…tastes like a liquid curry without the ginger or garlic or cumin or salt or any of the other lovely things etc…in other words slightly strange, though I love cardamon in general…I wonder if I actually like this tea though??
I am still on The Dry but feel a few jars coming on over the weekend…reason? I will be delivering the novule (HOPEFULLY) and, perhaps even more importantly, my beloved Aston Villa play Manchester United at Wembley in the Carling Cup Final and I’M GONNA BE THERE!!!! I’m tipsy even thinking about it all…
freckles 23 February 2010
I long for some sunshine. I want to make freckles on my face. I am usually quite wary of the sun but this year I NEED SOME and hope to get away for 10 days or so at the end of March/beginning of April SO where will I get guaranteed sunshine then? – preferably in a close-by time zone (I don’t fancy flying far enough away for jet lag if it’s only going to be a break of just over a week…). I want to make the happy vitamin (D?) while straining my face toward the sun like a sunflower.* Am I thinking it’ll have to be Tenerife or the Canaries then?? Advice please. Course you know what’ll happen – some bags will offer me a job I really want to do and I’ll do it and suddenly it’ll be time to go back to the tv series and I’ll have narys the freckle to show for myself at all (at all)…
It snowed in Dublin today and I was reminded of the 5 weeks it followed me around during and after the Christmas break – hence the urgent longing for a few uninterrupted rays of the fireball we circle everyday…
Oh, and when i was a kid I HATED my freckles..now I don’t mind them so much…but maybe that’s cos i never really have them anymore because I don’t get to lie in the sun very often…
*I love passing the huge fields of sunflowers they have in France – and I always hope (against all hope) that there’ll be one dilettante plant facing the other way!!
boring 22 February 2010
That old adage about 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration sums up my writing day today. I had a nice morning doing a bit of voice work on SHAMELESS ‘down the line’ from a studio in Dublin to one in London – bit of a laugh as well as a nifty piece of work. Then I strolled through town and MAYBE I bought 2 frocks (that the arms and tummy will have to seen to for)..and a belt too, MAYBE. But at home there was no avoiding That Buke. It was dull boring stuff, simply because I have to score so many words per day now that I am pushing myself on to things that I might let stew awhile and figure themselves out in their own sweet time. It’s grinding. And I bet anything these will be people’s favourite bits of the novel, in spite of the fact that they have given me a pain in my face!
toxins 21 February 2010
I have been on the dry for a while trying to give myself the OPPORTUNITY of making most hours of the day usable for The Writing. It’s amazing how much displacement activity there is in my small world, though, be it simply unloading the dishwasher or farting about on the internet. Anyhow, I do feel the better of it in as much as there are no alcohol-related headaches or chemical jitters. but it comes with its own set of problems…like the jitters are now clearly all my own and not brought on in any false way AND as my poor old bod clears itself of the false sugars and empty promise of (delicious) wine every toxin involved has decided to exit via my face – fresh hell, indeed…and spots…AT MY AGE!!!! Indignity piled upon insult, if you ask me, and hardly to be endured.