Except we so smecking are. Mwahahargh! Yes he’s a bit fucked off. I was going to do a post about writing this week—and accompanying things—but the accompanying things got a bit out of hand and so I’ve gone off on a completely non-writing related tangent. Do you remember a refrain from the Blackadder II episode where he’s made Lord High Executioner? ‘We’re not at home to Mr Cockup!’ he tells his team. And they fuck it up, of course, and Baldrick says, ‘Shall I prepare the guest room for Mr Cockup, my lord?’ Yeh, well …  Mr Cock-up seems to have taken up permanent residence in the spare r ..read more

Not, entirely what you think it is, this one … OK, so it’s been a long time, there’s been a fabulous holiday, an equally fabulous author event—the Indie Author Book Fair in St Ives—which genuinely was wonderful by the way. There’s been rather a lot to do in the garden and for Mum. As a result, I’ve walked a little closer to burn-out than I’ve wanted to, hence, no blog. But this week I’ve done a little writing, I’ve had a lie in and I have another one on Monday and things have been a bit more relaxing and quite … interesting so I thought I’d share them with you. McOther and I have decided to h ..read more

Obviously, I use the word, ‘exciting’ advisedly, the ironic implication being somewhat the reverse. This week, I have mostly been … running around like a blue-arsed fly! As previously implied, it’s not exciting and sadly it’s not even that funny either. But this is my blog, so I can do what I sodding well like, which means I’m going to tell you about it anyway. On the Mum front … more admin popped up, just for a change. There is so. much. admin. Ugh. Never mind, it is what it is. I can’t fix that. It’s dealing with it in the most effective way possible that counts. A few years ago, Mum very w ..read more

Holy shizz, this has been a hell of a week. But there have been successes among the rampant chaos. As you know, if you read this regularly, the chaos fairies frequently play havoc with my life. They’re dogged little bastards and their latest escapades have been more than a little annoying. Yes, it’s time for the Insurance Story. OK, so I insure my car because if I don’t then, in this country, it’s illegal. I am under no illusions that it will be easy wresting any cash from the most compliant and efficient insurance company should anything happen. I drive a completely stupid car. I admit it. It ..read more

Yes, you find me all arse-about-face this week. Well that’s the default state, I grant you, but in this particular instance I’m probably a bit more arse-about-face than usual. Yeh. I know. Impressive. Even for me. One of the difficulties I’ve experienced recently with my blog is that there’s been so much to write about I haven’t really known where to start, so then I’ve just gone a bit droopy and given up on it. The past few weeks have been rough. On the Mum front, nothing much seems to be happening about getting her an official diagnosis for dementia and we are reaching the stage where she do ..read more

The Bury Beet Factory in sunset hue … Less Silver Spoon and more Golden Spoon in this one … This blog post is written over a couple of weeks but I’ve not harmonised the timeline. Instead I’ve left it in as-I-wrote it mode because it seems to read better like that … This week I have suddenly developed sciatica, or at least a trapped nerve but same end result. It just gradually appeared over the course of Wednesday evening as McMini and I watched TV. Yesterday it wasn’t great but I exercised a lot to try and keep it all moving. This was the right thing to do on paper, but unfortunately, I woke ..read more

It has occurred to me that I haven’t done a blog post for a long time and when a friend noted it in my Christmas card, expressing concerns as to whether everything was OK I thought that maybe I ought to, so here I am. First up. Happy New Year everyone … belatedly, I admit. Second, just to confirm, yes, I’m still alive. There is a lot going on and I think part of the problem with the blog is that when I come to talk about everything that’s happening … I just don’t want to give that shit any more air time. I’m exhausted, I’m spent, I’m done. I pull up the page with the best of intentions and the ..read more

It sounded as if the Dalek operator inside was laughing as I did this. OK, it’s a bit of a long one this week because woah! Norcon! What a gas! And I want to give you the low down. Yes, you will remember—if you wade through my outpourings regularly—that last week, through the wonders of modern technology, I was talking to you, in my absence, from Norcon where I was flogging books. Now I’m going to tell you all about it. Oh yes I am. Why? Because it was brilliant! That’s why, one week on, I still haven’t quite returned to earth. During the summer, I did St Albans Comicon with some author frie ..read more

This week I was going to write about The Queen, I may not have time to do it justice because I am going to have to write today’s blog post yesterday and speak to you from the past. That means I only have half an hour or so before I’m due to take McMini off to a club. Then, since he’s already eaten I have to come home and eat, then shower and then McOther will be picking him up. Tomorrow, or at least, today as you read this—Crikey! This is complicated isn’t it?—I’m off at 6.30 am to Norcon; and on Sunday too. The Queen was a reluctant monarch. She prayed that she’d have a brother so she didn’t ..read more

Quite a lot to catch up on after the gap last week. Sorry about that, I was out digging, this time near Haverhill. Once again, it was a weekend event with two days’ on the fields. However, on this one the fields had been ‘fertilised’ with something called ‘green waste’. Green waste is low grade industrial waste so it contains hundreds of tiny pieces of metal. Therefore, if you’re detecting on it, you will have to dig about 20 pieces of scrap; bits of circuit board, wire and—a favourite—the metal bottom bits of car light bulbs. The first day, I found a button, what I think was a Roman tile, a R ..read more