Story of Tuesday October 30th

Seeing as I haven't blogged for a while, I thought I'd show you what I did today, so you can live through my eyes. Here we go, chronologically:

I woke up




Washed, got dressed etc (I wore a tie today, just for you lot)




Left my house





Walked through the abbey




And Forbury Park



To the station



Got to Bracknell




And my office



Had a poo




Did some work




Left work




Waited for the train



Got home and tried to learn the words to my new songs



And the music



Decided to go to Sushi 108 for a beer




Then came home, watched Macca on the BBC Electric Proms and wrote this blog at the same time





So there you go, my day.

I doubt there'll be any posts next month as I'm writing my book - keep up to date with it here.

Oh, and check Col's writing - it's ace at the moment, excited about the updates which I've ben promised are on their way

Sushi108

The time has finally come, tonight, for Chris Allen’s dream to become a reality. We’ve heard about his plans for world domination now for a good 3 years; how a sushi restaurant was the one fast food gap left in the principalities of Great Britain; how it was healthy, cheap, quick and tasty and how he had spotted a huge money making opportunity and the possibility of creating a whole new franchise. A McDonalds for the carbon considerate, obesity repellent 21st century everyman. Well, ladies and gentlemen, tonight is the night. Sushi108 will be finally opening its doors to the world…well, not the world, tonight is just an opening celebration for friends and family, but you know what I mean.

I remember when Chris came back from travelling many moons ago with a glint in his eye and an idea in his head. I don’t think anyone ever doubted that he would make good on his dream, but equally I don’t think anyone realised it would take so long to get off the ground. There was a feasibility plan to create, projected revenues and costs to be dreamt up, bank managers to brown nose, parents’ fears to quell, and (most difficult of all) a unit to locate. Chris must have been to see dozens of open units in Reading, as well as a good number elsewhere, including Islington and Guildford, and one by one they either fell from favour, or the deals fell through. Ironically, the unit that Sushi108 is now based in was the first unit Chris saw; 18 months after being turned down by the landlord it’s now up and ready for action.

I saw Chris last night when I popped in to say hello. It looked like he hadn’t slept for months, which of course, he hasn’t. Working his arse off gutting and refitting the unit and swimming through reams of paperwork, with the help of his parents and Beehead, his assistant manager. It’s all about tonight though - this is it. This is now Chris’s life, and we’re all very, very proud of him.

Long live the King of Reading.

Oh, and…try the fish.

Wholesome

My Dad’s home at the moment, he’s been having monumental toothaches and apparently the Kuwaiti dentists have given up on him. He was supposed to be coming back at the end of this week anyway as he and Mum are going to Iceland for their 30th wedding anniversary, which scares me a little. 30 years! That means they’re getting old, and so am I , and I don’t like that thought. My mum was 19 when she got married, six years younger than I am now, and my dad was 24. When my Mum was my age, I was already 18 months old. Comparing my life theirs at my age, things are so different. I can’t imagine being with someone for thirty years, it’s insane. It’s reassuring, though that people do it.

So yeah, Dad’s home and I had a bit of a family weekend, which was nice. On Friday, Simon and Rachel came over to Reading and we went out. Rachel now has a full time job and so funds all Si’s social activities, which is amazing; I think it’s more the fact that Rachel would never get to out if she didn’t, rather than her wanting to. Either way, it’s a nice set up Si’s got going on there. They’re both great company and they get on really well with Ally, even though on Friday he wasn’t drinking, which is a relief. No awkwardness or anything and I didn’t have to play host at all, we just all got on and had fun, ending the night ringing on Chris Allen’s doorbell at midnight for no reason whatsoever.

Saturday afternoon I went home to Mum and Dad’s to watch the football and the rugby, which was good, obviously. I tend to follow Wales in the rugby more than England, but it was still an enjoyable result, and I’m looking forward to next Saturday (even though I think England will get absolutely spanked – especially on last night’s evidence, SA were pretty unstoppable against the Argies). We managed to cram in a meal at the Golden Retriever between the footy and the rugger as well. That place has really gone downhill in the last year or so – the menu has shrunk to about a quarter of the size it was, and the quality of the food is pretty poor. 5 out of 10.

A lazy Sunday was then had, after an alcohol-free Saturday – I think that must be a first for the year – topped off with a roast lamb dinner with the whole family all eating together. Bethan came over with Dave and I think it’s the first time that all five of us have been together for at least 3 or 4 months. I think Matt and Ali’s wedding was the last time. It was really good. While we were gorging our faces, Ally and Baz were running the Henley half marathon (remember I was training for a half marathon? Well, predictably, I failed). Ally ran it in under two hours, Baz wasn’t far behind him and they did us all proud, raising a proper decent amount of money for Melanoma Research (I think).

Bit of a crap update, but keeping up with demand

Went to Pavlov’s Dog last night in Reading, it’s a pound a pint on Monday nights. Mental. I don’t think I’ve experienced being able to buy a pint for a pound since I left Yorkshire 8 years ago – even at uni, the cheapest you could get a drink was £1.50 I think (bloody London). So it was great, I was able to get slightly squiffy for a fiver. Amazing. Really amazing. Short sentence creatingly amazing.

It was full of absolutely beautiful students too, in their boho-indie garb, which I find particularly pleasant on the eye, and as it’s still fresher’s week, everyone’s up for having a chat and meeting you, as long as you don’t look too much like a townie. I suppose I am a townie now aren’t I? That thought's pretty depressing, I am going to grow my sidies a bit longer and wear my suede jacket so I don’t end up looking too much like a…like a what? I don’t know.

Anyway, I wish I was at uni, but I also don’t wish I was at uni. Which I’m not. So that’s 50% happy. That’ll do.

Friday Night In

Well I think this writing thing is going to be harder than I expect. I don't know whether I have the patience to dedicate hours to it every day for a month. But maybe it's a good exercise. Well there's no maybe about it, it will be a great exercise. To be honest I'm quite interested to find out what's in this crazy old head of mine, it's a good way to get the shit out. The stream of consciousness thing is always a good cleanser isn't it? Sorts your head out for a bit, gets rid of all the erroneous rubbish that's lurking there. I have a few ideas about plot lines and narratives, I'm interested in getting them developed this month so I defintely know what I need to write about, then I can just bash through it, maybe with some random bits in between and thunder through some crazy thoughts etc. I know it's definitely going to be in the first person, and kinda quasi-autobiographical. I'm comfortable enough to say that I'm quite self-obsessed and it's the only way I think I'll be able to write 1700 words a day; write about myself. It's going to include two relationship threads with girls, a bit of band stuff and the theme of disappointment with adulthood. That is surely the thoughts that go through every twentysomething's head? I hope so, I don't want to be the only one.

I've just written a song. Well, I say just, I wrote the words at work in the week and then messed around with some chords yesterday. Tonight though, with the aid of a bottle of wine and an empty house, I put them together. It's sounding pretty dogger I must say, very 60's pop. I think it's the influence of listening to The Redwalls tonight and the new Rilo Kiley album, which I've been listening to all month. What a great album that is. They deserve to be mainstream, but I'm glad they're not. They have an interesting back story, a beautiful lead singer, great pop tunes and a good old sexy attitude. My favourites on the album, called Under the Blacklight incidentally, are '15' (which reminds me of Chris when I hear it), 'Smoke Detector', and 'Dejalo', which includes the line 'she sleeps on your left side, she gets nailed, I get tired. I sleep on your right side, 100 ways to kep love alive'. I fucking love them.

No plans for tonight. Most of the jocks are away at Saunders' stag do - 30 of them, and I wasn't invited. Fair enough. Chris and James aren't invited either, but they're out with their Mum and Dad tonight; they said they may get in touch later if they end up out on the town afterwards but I'm not holding my breath. I know only too well the effect that a large meal can have on one's night out libido. You never know though. So I'm getting drunk on my own. I've been watching a bit of Monty Python, and may try and find something else funny to watch. I'm satisfied that I've been creative tonight - writing that song and then getting involved with this. Finish off this bottle of wine and then start tackling some of the cans of Grolsche in the fridge - a noble task for the evening if ever there was one.



PS. Loving the attention at the moment dudes- keep it up!
PPS. Check out Sarah's blog on the left too - sorry I forgot it on the last post :)

Novel, in a month

OK, well the gauntlet has been thrown down by my old friend Rich, I am going to write a novel in 30 days in November.

I’ve signed up to this website here, it looks pretty awesome, and will give me a creative endeavour to go for next month. Awesome. I was considering using those few paragraphs that I wrote a few months ago as a starting point, but is that cheating? What do we reckon?

Rich, the game is on!

(PS. Please see updated links to the left there – I’ve added Rich and Lee to my colony of fellow timewasters)

4 Coffees In

I have this theory. If you sit down and start writing something with absolutely no clue as to what is going to come out, then eventually what you write will take a shape and form, a direction, a beginning middle and end. Even writing about nothing is writing about something, even if that something is nothing. I do think it’s possible to get 500 words down on paper without having a clue where it’s going to go. This can be quite exciting as you literally can take it anywhere. At the moment I’m sat here, at work, consciously avoiding climbing up my mountain of paperwork, as I know that once I start the ascent, I won’t be able to stop until I reach the top (and indeed, descend back down the other side). So I’m procrastinating, and searching for a way to fill my time. I always consider writing to be something worth doing, even if it has no real purpose. I have dreams of having a column in some trendy weekend broadsheet or ‘lifestyle’ magazine where I can spout on incessantly about myself and moan about the direction my life has taken and ‘where am I going to go next’. I also have a dream of being an actor, in films or on stage, not so much on TV. Of course there’s the music dream, but I don’t like to think of that as dream - more of an inevitability that one.

So I thought, you know, I’m 25 now, I suppose I should start going for things that I want. Too often I find myself in the evenings just sat about, going out drinking, fumbling around on my guitar or playing Football Manager, and it’s a proper waste. Well, the drinking isn’t so much of a waste - it’s important to socialise and meet people and everything, of course, but there’s probably a lot more productive things I could be doing with my time. What though? Even when I took up running, which I considered the most positive thing I’d done in a long time, I felt as though the time I was taking doing that could have been used for more productive things. The running didn’t get me anywhere, so to speak. I even regained all the weight I had lost in about 2 weeks. I am considering asking Chris to sort me out some freelance work writing for one of the future publishing magazines, but you need to write things to get published. What do I write about? What do people want to hear about?

Seriously, ideas please.

The acting thing. How do I even go about that? I’ve never acted in my life. I think I’d be quite good at it though - I’m quite shameless, emotional, attention seeking and good at lying. Maybe I wouldn’t like it? Maybe I would be shit at it? But maybe I’d be world class at it? Maybe I’m the next De Niro?

I sat down ten minutes ago and began to write with nothing in my head. Here I am writing about the same old stuff.