Blog On The Motorway

Soooo, nearly three weeks without an update, but the good news is that rather than being a layabout, I’ve been (largely) hard at work on the novel, and I’m getting pretty pleased with the state of things so far. At the moment I have the first 5 issues sewn up, a further four needing a second draft, and the bones of a story arc in place for a second narrative thread. I had a good meeting with the Jonic about developing the site itself, and while I don’t think I’m anywhere near ready to launch, the progress is ongoing in a way that it hasn’t been for months. A lot of this is down to having the support of a girlfriend who doesn’t mind me buggering off to work upstairs of an evening and even kicks my arse a little to make sure I do. That this coincides with her wanting to watch Big Brother is, I am sure, a coincidence.

As well as working hard, Ellen and I both took all of last week off to spend time with our lovely little lady. Over the course of the summer a general lack of funds coupled with a plethora of events such as moving house have conspired to prevent us from doing a lot that is Rosie-centric this summer, so we decided to redress the balance. Rather than spend a week away somewhere (which we will be doing later in the year with a trip to Devon) we decided to take advantage of the many local summery things that are convenient and cheap and have the added advantage of being close enough to mean we could spend the nights in our own beds. And so over a packed week we went to Leeds to Tropical World and a lovely walk through Roundhay Park, to Scarborough for a lovely day at the beach, to Waterworld in York, and one lovely afternoon for Ellen and I in a beer garden whilst Rosie had a day at Nursery. To cap it all we then tested how excellent our daughter is by taking her to her first festival, Moor Music. I reviewed the festival itself for Demon Pigeon here, but it’s worth noting that Rosie had a fantastic time and seemed to enjoy sleeping in a tent more than she does in her own bed. So it turns out our daughter is very excellent indeed. But then we already knew that.

Of course the downside to taking a week off work is that you have to return to work itself. But you can’t have everything. I may have a password protected post going up over the next day or so, when that happens feel free to email me or hit me up on Twitter if you are so inclined and I’ll provide said password.

Last night Ellen and I watched one of the myriad films that is currently clugging up our V+ box (we’re verging on having enough to start our very own To Watch Pile) a thoroughly charming little film called Waitress, which I confess I had recorded simply for the presence of a Mr Nathan Fillion, but which surprised me by being in turns warm and dark and funny and sweet. On top of that, I’d say it was the first Rom Com I’ve seen in as long as I can remember where I honestly didn’t see the end coming. Highly recommendable.