Soggy golf and drunken art

Had a real thrill this morning when Paul Burston (http://www.myspace.com/paulburston) who edits the Gay Section in Time Out emailed me to say how much he'd enjoyed A Dangerous Man (http://www.flamebooks.com), as below:

"I finished off A Dangerous Man and I have to say I loved it. Michael is a wonderful character. An artist and part time prostitute - where on earth did you find the inspiration for him? And the story had me gripped. Everyone go out and buy this book! And please let me know in advance when the next one is coming out so I can find you review space in Time Out."

I particularly enjoyed the "Everyone go out and buy this book!" comment - that would make Flame love me, for sure! Many thanks indeed, Paul. Much appreciated. And I'm looking forward to your "Lovers and Losers" being published next week too!

This morning, Marian and I played golf in spite of a steadily increasing rainfall and, actually, we did very well - for us. We even did a few really good shots when a family playing waved us through (an action normally guaranteed to make us lose any poor skills we might have thought we had ...) and looked like real golfers for a while. Result! I ended up utterly soaked through however, so hope I don't catch something nasty.

I also gave up any ideas of going into Godalming to get shopping done and have also failed to do any writing or housework. So not the most productive day on record, I have to say. Sigh. No doubt I shall wallow in guilt later on in suitable Sad Person fashion. However, I have been thinking of writing - and it struck me yesterday that perhaps the reason why I seem to have changed my writing habits with "The Gifting" (in that I am now scribbling first and typing up on the computer later, rather than doing it straight onto the computer as usual) is that of course part of Simon's job description is his role as scribe. He writes everything down - on parchment. Far-fetched perhaps, but it's made me feel that much closer to him, which can only be a good thing.

Tonight, I'm up in London with Jane W to see the "Citizens and Kings" exhibition at the Royal Academy (http://www.royalacademy.org.uk). I must say the picture advertising the exhibition looks much like myself after a hard day's scribbling but I suspect I'd probably wrap something green around my head in preference. Afterwards we will, I hope, soothe our artistic brows with a nice curry, so everything will seem fine. And I can drink to my heart's content as the noble Lord H is picking me up from the station. As long as I get off at the right station. You do, I think, always need to drink wine when looking at art - which reminds me of a friend of mine who once said she loved "King Lear" and indeed the rest of Shakespeare, but could never really get through a whole one without a choc ice in the middle. I could only agree ...

Oh, and I was jesting (not itself a word you hear often nowadays - am I in a time loop?) with Lord H yesterday, wondering why the Iranians won't give us our sailors back as, after all, God knows we have so few and they can't be needing them - to which Lord H's answer was the Iranians will have to wait their turn for being invaded, as that seems to be what we do these days, and they'll just have to be patient. Hmm. Let's hope that doesn't turn out to be prophetic, and let's hope the poor buggers are allowed home soon. Perhaps we can do a swop. Anyone for Blair?...

Today's nice things:

1. Paul's lovely comments about "A Dangerous Man"
2. Thinking about writing
3. Art.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk

Counselling and a London jaunt

Up at the crack of dawn today in order to avoid the car parking crisis of Guildford. Which meant I was there with an hour to spare before my Counselling appointment and with more spaces than you could shake a complex at. But this was actually good news as it meant I could scour the shops for those essential Christmas staples - such as a pack of 5 videos to record the numerous goodies on TV which we can't watch as we'll be out and which we'll never watch later. Ever. I am ashamed to say that we have some marvellous films on tape which we recorded about 7 Christmases ago and which we still haven't got round to watching. Ah well. Oh, and I also bought a box of chocolate biscuits from M&S - those one with extra thick chocolate and added chocolate bits with, um, chocolate, just in case there isn't enough chocolate in the first place. Well, we've got to have some comfort food in the flat for the season.

So onto my last counselling appointment with Kunu before Christmas. We talked about my conversation with Michael which I'd written down, so that was useful. To all three of us. I think I've worked out that actually having the conversation made me feel incredibly energetic and alive for about two or three days, but then comes the slump. Which I think I'm probably still in now, and will probably go some way towards explaining my current jittery exhaustion. (Query: can you actually have jittery exhaustion? Hell, you know what I mean ...). Kunu thinks I should go on having conversations with Michael where I (we?) feel it's right and see what comes out of it. I'm not sure I'll write them down again though - it's too tiring, m'dear - but maybe I'll go with the flow. Gosh, how girly that sounds - there's hope for me after all! Michael, of course, would make an instant decision as to what to do and stick with it. Lucky bastard. Oh, and during the session we also talked about my early family life, which was quite enlightening. Perhaps it's true after all that there's nowt wrong with me and it is the rest of the buggers. Hmm, dream on.

This afternoon, I've typed up the Goldenford (http://www.goldenford.co.uk) minutes and done my outstanding actions, so I have the halo of secretarial sainthood even now glowing about my temples. I might do a bit of writing or I might just sod the whole thing and have a quick nap. The latter seems the better option right now. And tonight, I'm out in London with Jane W - we've booked a curry at 7pm in Waterloo and a catch-up, so that'll be good. I'll have to remember not to breathe when I return home though - how Lord H hates the smell of secondary curry!

Today's nice things:

1. Counselling
2. Buying chocolate biscuits
3. Seeing Jane W.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com