27 May 2010
I’m going off-theme for this update. Last Wednesday, I had an experience which shook me. I have to share.
I’ve been going on dates with a woman called Charlotte Eaton. Last week, Charlotte took me to Udderbelly, the venue on the South Bank run by Channel 4. The gig, ‘No Offence… But’, involved a panel of comedians exploring the limits of acceptability in comedy. Read more »
10 May 2010
In the day job, nothing stays the same for long. The two Claires left me. ‘The Hutch’ to do something less stressful and ‘Lady Claire’ to create a new human being from scratch.
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26 April 2010
From 7 February, with the book done, life began opening up.
The arm tied behind my back swung out – flexing away the pins and needles – and long-stagnant to-do lists were assessed, prioritised then stripped down. Starting with the basics: visit the doctor, the dentist and the hospital (it’s official: I’m healthy). Next, life logistics: fill forms, make calls, write letters, divert an income stream into a pension, set up an investment account, attack the massive unsecured loan I took out to spend a year living in a shed.
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15 February 2010
Tony the Tiger update: Tony has taught himself to read music. Four months ago he still thought musical stave lines directly represented guitar strings. Now he can sight read ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. It’s remarkable. It’s like living with a curmudgeonly east-London version of Jimmi Hendrix. We’ve lined Tony up a gig at next summer’s Peace Fest. He’s hoping he’ll attract some groupies.
December was mental. By the 4th I had the month planned out hour-by-hour to ensure I used every moment for the penultimate editing and review sessions – picking through text with my heroic copyeditor, sitting in kitchens soaking up reaction, protracted arguments about the presentation of ideas, then head down: actioning, tweaking, adjusting and fine-tuning.
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30 January 2010
Now I’ve nearly finished, I thought it might be of interest to share the experience of writing a book while simultaneously holding down a 55-hour-a-week City job and investing heavily in one’s parents.
The experience entails doing two full-time, full-on, high-commitment things at the same time. One involves constantly moving and always keeping 10 balls in the air. The other requires a cool head, a clear mind and deep, hard, systematic thought. They pull your brain opposite ways in a 24-hour cycle of cerebral freeze-thaw – a recipe for mental disorientation and emotional fatigue.
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