ah now... 27 August 2009
Okay, here’s how it went down…last night I woke at the new and industrially-shaped early awfulness of 1.45 am – WTF???? I lay for AGES battling an earache (ok ok perhaps that’s what woke me up but I am more inclined to blame disturbed sleep patterns) and eventually I decided against another little friend which was just as well as the next thing was the alarm going off at 6am and it was time to face the day. To be honest, I thought I looked quite reasonably all right on that night’s sleep too and perhaps better than a lot of others when I’ve had lots of kip. Only disappointment (and they are very few and far between on the filming of SHAMELESS, on which every day at work is a joy (I am blessed as I can honestly say this is also the case on my other lovely regular gigs JAM AND JERUSALEM and BREMNER BIRD AND FORTUNE) was that we didn’t get everything done and the last scene was one I had made a big offer on and was kinda hoping we could just get out of the way (I intend to be presented in a rather unexpected and maybe compromised state) and now that’ll be hanging around like a bad fart (well, maybe not that bad, but). Enough whinging – life is good and I am off to Edinburgh on Saturday (the gig at the Book Festival is Sunday night and I am reading for Amnesty = free gig at 5.30 beforehand). I hear everyone up there is PICKLED from a month’s festivalling (not the lovely bookish types, of course, but the comedians and actors giving their all at the other festival…) – can practically smell that from here…
meals 26 August 2009
I am amazed all over again how many people watch daytime tv. Even when I am idle at home I rarely allow myself to ‘go there’ as I would spend the day glued to the box on any pretext and to start early with the telly would be a disaster. Nevertheless, I am a big fan of same. Yesterday, I was on Cook’s Daily Challenge with Antony Worrall Thompson (it was pre-recorded a while back, by the by) and some rather nice nosh was dished up and a lot of people got in touch today to ask if it was a delish as it looked – yes, indeed it was. So all the more reason to relish what I had for supper this evening? – which was a tin of sardines, some brazil nuts and a cherry yogurt…fine dining, my dears, fine dining…and all that the local co-op could spring to (that’s not a complaint by the way, I did enjoy the strange combination).
re: sleep last night – was WIDE awake at 4.30 this morning, so clearly those little tablets don’t keep me out for long (only took the one in my chickenish state) and was collected for work at 6am and got home at 9.15pm. Same pick-up time tomorrow = ARGH
pills 25 August 2009
I am back on the Chatsworth estate filming Shameless for Channel 4. So that’s a true delight and, I have to admit, fun too. There is just the small matter of sleeping. I like to sleep, as you are all aware. When we film, the hours are long and often the desired 8 hours of slumber are elusive. So I got a prescription for some mild knockouters to help me on my way…but they may be a tad too mild…and tonight I am vaguely considering upping the dose (which I am allowed to, by the way, don’t worry). BUT, I am chicken and no mistake. I keep thinking I’ll slump into some (fantastic) sleepland and that I won’t hear the alarm in the morning (in fairness, all I’ll want to do is ignore it even if it does impinge somehow on my reluctant consciousness). I think in general that I have a bit of an addictive personality and I am wary of adding extra temptation to my life – it’s enough that I like a drink (off it at the mo, trying to look as reasonable as possible for the show and although I would probably be ok, or as ok as this 47 year old* can be, I find that it takes SUCH effort to get the work in with any reminders of good times hanging around that it’s just not worth it, looking good/okay or no) and I think I’ll leave it at that. As I write now I find I am yawning merrily so perhaps the combination of a long day, one lil helper tablet and the threat of the horribly early start will do the trick this time. *possibly the last time I will ever mention my name accurately…
Tonight was the series finale of DESPERATE ROMANTICS on the BBC – what am I to do on Tuesdays from now on? See? Addictive personality…I rest my case…
lock up 24 August 2009
Well now, who’d‘a thunk it – though we probably could have guessed if pushed – the plain and quiet hotel room has yielded a perfect nothing-else-to-do-but-work scenario this evening and a thousand words got knocked off the total, and plenty more within for casting out upon the page tomorrow – this is what’s known as a RESULT. I have long realised that I am surrounded by too many delightful distractions elsewhere and most of the time I can ignore them and exercise a bit of discipline BUT not recently. So it is an entire blessing to be back in Manchester. Also I really enjoyed the work this evening and re-reading what I had already done (and not hating it!). I know of a writer who goes to an airport hotel when he is near completion of a book, deliberately and specifically one near an airport with its transient population and uninteresting aspect, as there is NOTHNG AT ALL to do in those establishments but work and sleep – no distraction of friends or family, or food that’s too fine (ditto wine, I presume) – works for him and this new situation may work for me…I’ll keep you all in the loop, of course.
angry 23 August 2009
Well, I surprised myself tonight by getting unreasonably angry about something that didn’t truly warrant it. Don’t know why as I am living a good clean existence at the moment so am fit, on the dry and generally up for stuff. SO, what was the problem? Well, I fly a lot as you know (my carbon footprint is a fright – one reason why I don’t also drive a car…) and generally choose to go Aer Lingus cos I get air miles and they might still look after you if there’s any problem and I am usually allocated a seat up the front at the aisle for a quick getaway (sometimes I am just transferring to a car to go filming). Tonight, the flight was a lease to another company and by the time I boarded there was no space for my case in the overhead locker. I spotted a space across the way if whoever owned the plastic bag (containing toiletries/duty free I’d‘ve said) would just move it to under the seat in front of them. The woman who owned it didn’t want to know so I thanked her sweetly (no, of course not really) and asked for help from the lass in charge – she couldn’t have been less interested in engaging so I schlepped to the VERY back of the plane and had to stow the thing there…which meant I also would have to wait till everyone was off the plane in London before I could retrieve the blessed bag. I BOILED for the journey, waiting for the BIG INCONVENIENCE that awaited me, which was a total waste of emotion/energy anyhow and not least tonight because, as it happened, it was a very uneventful, prompt flight and emptied quickly in Heathrow. I am a twat – fact.
blackberries 22 August 2009
Nope, not the phones (at all, at all – as we Irish say in films…oh, alright, and SOMETIMES in Real Life too, especially if it will get a little chuckle out of someone) so not phones but the fruits. My mother slagged me off something rotten a while back because I let the wild brambles take hold majorly by one of the garden walls but today as I picked bowls full of the fab berries now mine for free I took time to feel a little smug – niiiice….
I cut the grass while I was out there and hacked back a plant that I hate and which has done eff all this season – speaking of which my lovely young husband (|still averse to helping in the garden) sat like a lump on the couch all day watching sport and was as eff all use to me as that plant that I KILLED. Well, he did actually do two (TWO!) good things for me today, but modesty prevents me from telling you what.
A quick reminder that the last JAM AND JERUSALEM is on BBC1 tomorrow night. For the second week running, in my present nincompoopish state, I have bought myself a ticket to fly to London then so it’ll have to be the iplayer route for me later, after the nation has seen the thing. It’s a shame as I love to see a show as it’s transmitted, that gives me a warm feeling and a bit of a kick (yup, I may a strange woman…)
The cat has taken to pissing on the new mat inside the front door – don’t know if it’s accidental, as it’s by her litter, or a protest (she seems to have a lot of issues that are complaint-worthy at the moment if the amount of following me around meowing is anything to go by…) The mat now lives outside…result for the G? we’ll see…no doubt she let us know in her own feline way and in her own sweet feline time
erm... 21 August 2009
oh, twice…how emphatic…
bridges 21 August 2009
It has been a day of bridges…I had a fine old time in Belfast narrating a series for the BBC, then popped on the train to Dublin (usually a lovely service) BUT we had to get a bus link from Drockeda (sic), a place we Southies pronounce Droheada, as the bridge we were about to pass over on in Malahide had partly collapsed. Of course, at the time of the announcement, none of us gave a shite that we might have been hurt had we been in the train on said bridge when it fell apart, all we could do was piss and moan. And in a way we were right cos it took an age for the coaches to arrive and it all added an hour onto the journey (though not death or injury so I GUESS it was a fair enough swap). Anyhow, as we drove through ‘Drockeda’ I saw Richard’s favourite suspension bridge in the distance and I must admit it is a beauty. And when we hit Dublin we passed very close by the new Samuel Beckett Bridge across the river Liffey (unlike Godot, this is turning up) and it turns out that it is also a suspension bridge of much beauty (though smaller than its ‘Drockedan’ cousin). Struck me all over again that it must be a total thrill for an architect not only to design a bridge but also to see it built and rare too. Bridges are magical, no?
bridges 21 August 2009
It has been a day of bridges…I had a fine old time in Belfast narrating a series for the BBC, then popped on the train to Dublin (usually a lovely service) BUT we had to get a bus link from Drockeda (sic), a place we Southies pronounce Droheada, as the bridge we were about to pass over on in Malahide had partly collapsed. Of course, at the time of the announcement, none of us gave a shite that we might have been hurt had we been in the train on said bridge when it fell apart, all we could do was piss and moan. And in a way we were right cos it took an age for the coaches to arrive and it all added an hour onto the journey (though not death or injury so I GUESS it was a fair enough swap). Anyhow, as we drove through ‘Drockeda’ I saw Richard’s favourite suspension bridge in the distance and I must admit it is a beauty. And when we hit Dublin we passed very close by the new Samuel Beckett Bridge across the river Liffey (unlike Godot, this is turning up) and it turns out that it is also a suspension bridge of much beauty (though smaller than its ‘Drockedan’ cousin). Struck me all over again that it must be a total thrill for an architect not only to design a bridge but also to see it built and rare too. Bridges are magical, no?
waking 20 August 2009
I’ve been going through a phase of waking up incredibly early recently even though I am not filming again just yet – obviously it will stand to me for when I am (which is next week) but in the meantime it has been a bit of a nuisance as I love my sleep and will take as much of it as is available when possible. At least I have had the chance to go back to sleep these mornings, although that hasn’t always been successful for me in the past week. Anyhow, twill be good for tomorrow too as am of at the crack of dawn to get the train to Belfast for a bit of voicework for the BBC (huzzah). One of the awful things, particularly when filming, is lack of sleep not just cause it leaves you a bit diminished for work but there is the issue of looking shitely tired too, and then there’s with the added sword hanging over the head of an early rise (as you are WILLING yourself to pass out) so frustration can set in (not madly conducive to sleep). And all sorts of other things can get in the way of my passage into that lovely land of Nod, from extraneous noise to a whirring brain – all of which are factors especially now when sometimes that cursed 8th novel decides to get creative on me just when I have called a day on the day. SO I have arranged to try a very mild sleeping tablet, just enough to set me off because once the sleep is established I reckon I’ll be fine. Tonight shall be the trial…I’ll let ye know how I fare on the morrow – nightnight!
Oh, and I might try the ride too…