dog 30 January 2010
I spent yesterday dealing with the Black Dog that’s lurking now and always does at the end of a big and cherished job and so, last night, when it was clearly time to conk out I didn’t check in with youse here on the site in case it woke me up again and gave the dread creature a chance to pounce.
I didn’t go to the series Wrap party because I just knew I’d get all woedy (as my pal Helene calls it) and also that I’d get too drunk and wake up with a mother of all hangovers and therefore even more jittery and down than was good for me. SO, I got myself from Manc to Dublin by midday, hopped up on the treadmill, then lashed into the rowing machine and a few weights and thereby triggered a few endorphins. I thought it best to keep on the move so I arranged for Himself to meet me in a nice wine bar for dinner with some nice tipples for me (he is a sensible type who’s on the dry for January and is now threatening the same for February) and a bottle to bring home (always good to know there’s an emergency supply handy JUST IN CASE). It passed the day and I slept well and I am sort of repeating this winning system today only in stead of travelling I will slot in some writing…I’ll let ye know how it goes…
Oh, and if anyone has any hints on how to deal with this sort of thing please do let me know…
final 28 January 2010
ARGH, final day of the shoot and…yes… you guessed it, because you have all been here before at the end of jobs with me – I HATE IT! I HATE GOODBYES and I hope none of the ones I did today are final – passage of time and natural wastage and all of that – too much mortality and sheer faulted humanity and everything that they throw up.
I booked myself passage out of Manchesterford in the morning also because it’s time to start moving again and change aspect and, as it happens, change jobs properly – time to unleash Writer Pauline to concentrate on finishing the novel so that you may all have it in July, for that is presently the Foxy Plan.
Good Luck to us all on that…
libby 27 January 2010
Heartfelt thanks to all of you who took the time to let me know you enjoyed SHAMELESS last night and are intrigued (and in fact sometimes delighted) by Libby. I was SO nervous as it was my first time to see the episode. Here’s the thing – you read the scripts, they change, you shoot what’s been locked off as DA WURDS and then it’s edited etc and you never know how much, if anything, of your stuff will still be in the episode when it’s transmitted – them’s the nuts and bolts of being a gun-for-hire actor. I was just mightily relieved to see it was a truly good kick-off to the season and to be there and a part of it and doing okay…some day I’ll watch it without the terror and maybe even enjoy it cos, as you all know, I am a fan anyhow.
Again, THANKS.
just one word about the Libster though – she’ll not be back till episode 7…
pillows 26 January 2010
I’ll be sleeping nightly with Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby from now on…so no complaints there from Yours Truly. It’s as a result of appearing on their morning show today on ITV to publicise SHAMELESS. They found out that I spend a lot of time travelling and now have a bed in 3 different towns (the McLynn Bermuda Triangle of Dublin-London-Manchester) and I have a theory that good pillows are one of the secrets to a restful night (I favour a feather pillow for those of you who are curious on that point). SO they had one made up with their logo and a picture of each of them on either side. It’s freaking my mate Lou out BIG TIME as ‘Face Pillows’ are veh veh spooky to her, but Philip and Holly are too pretty to be scary if you ask me.
brangelina 25 January 2010
Well, have they or haven’t they? If Brad and Angelina have indeed split, as is being loosely reported, it seems they’ve taken steps a while back to make it civilised at least, with talk of them having arranged how to deal with their 6 children and considerable fortune – I salute this. No break-up is easy but I really do feel it’s best to go in with eyes wide open to any relationship and pave the way for being good to one another if the worst happens (notwithstanding that you may actually hate the living sight of the Other when and if that time comes). That way there is a CHANCE you can remain on speaking terms and no harm will come to either. I know this may be easier said than done but a bit of grown-up foresight can be a wonderful thing, surely??
I am in a huge knot of nerves now about the series airing tomorrow night but I do have to tell youse all that you are in for a treat. I will be watching, like all of you, during transmission for the first time also (!) so whimpering will be the order of the day. Enjoy! And do tune in to THIS MORNING on ITV tomorrow if you get the chance and I’ll wave out of the telly at youse all…off now to sew a button onto the back of the skirt of the suit…
tips 24 January 2010
Plenty of floral tips coming in from you re: tulips etc.
So, here are the top 2 –
never put daffodils and tulips in the same vase…they don’t ‘get on’
and
if you want tulips to stay upright use a straight pin to pierce the stem through an inch from the bloom. (Actually, I like that swoon the tulips do, as you all now know, but it’s handy to know how to deal with that if you don’t want it).
I got an unusual 10 hour stretch of sleep last night and am a ZOMBIE today as a result. It’s like it allowed my brain to shut down (though I have forced myself to write and continue novel-based researches today, tough as that has been). I also look far too like a zombie for my liking – every muscle in my body has had the chance to relax and it ain’t pretty…
Getting nervous about the show airing now…Tuesday is creeping up…oh, hang on, that’s got my heart racing and brain engaged – EEK! the zombie is no more, a somewhat crazed lady has taken her place…
tulips 23 January 2010
I am longing for daffodils to appear. I find it impossible not to be happy to see such jolly, yellow flowers. In the meantime I have taken to always having some tulips in a vase in the little Manchester flat. I like the bending-over thing they do. But my goodness they’re thirsty devils, ain’t they? Take your eye off them for an hour and they’ll have hoovered up everything in the vase and be fainting over the side rather than leaning elegantly. I’ve never had them be successful for me in the garden though, unless it’s the miniature lads n lassies growing in a tub. One gust of wind and they’re done for, and there’s usually plenty of that when they throw themselves up and out of the ground in season.
Hello to Jeremy, a lovely man I met yesterday in Mancunia.
Sorry to Joyce for being tardy with this!
I’ll be on THIS MORNING on Tuesday talking about SHAMELESS, for those of you who might be able to tune in, and the first episode of the new series goes out that night – enjoy!!!
diesel 21 January 2010
I am normally blessed with insane amounts of energy (or at least the ability to bounce back and get the work done) but last Friday I ran out of petrol. I have a tonic in the Manchester flat that I remember to take the odd time and it tastes lovely and all and maybe it helps too, who knows. So, imagine my delight to hear a whole batch of it had been taken back ‘cos it was found to have actual diesel in it! I found out it was Batch 112 and was all excited coming home to check on my bottle – after all, diesel is a first cousin of petrol so I thought I might be onto a winner if I had got the dodgy lot…but no, turns out I have Batch 104…ah well, next time maybe?
thoughts 20 January 2010
Thoughts have I none, my dears…the brain is in shutdown mode. Well, it’s retaining lines and letting me get them out on cue for The Acting, but little more than that. So, here’s a little something I saw that tickled me from Kenneth Clark…
‘Opera, next to Gothic architecture, is one of the strangest inventions of Western man. It could not have been foreseen by any logical process.’
comfort 18 January 2010
I can hear the wind howling around outside the flat in Manchester right now. It’s always comforting isn’t it when you are indoors and warm (and, I suppose, feeling safe?) while outside is a bit of an upheaval. Richard just loves being in bed all snuggly when the weather is going NUTS outside. These are small and almost free comforts, aren’t they, and all the more pleasurable for that.