Tumble Log

I had intended to do the traditional New Year/Old Year review-type-thingamybob this week but I'm afraid it'll have to be left till the end of the month, which is sort of a tradition too.

The reason for the delay is that I'm reduced to typing with one paw following a bit of a boo boo on the way home from the day job earlier this week. Whilst walking home from the bus stop, a mere five minutes from my own front door, I lost my footing on the snow/ice/frozen slush and took a right old tumble. My left hand heroically took the weight of my body and saved my face from a close encounter with someone's front wall. This was at the expense of my elbow though, which protested with a bit of POP!

By the next morning my elbow had swollen to a couple of times it's usual size and a day trip to A&E was required. It was very busy, mostly due to other weather related injuries, but we were in and out in a mere four hours. Sincere thanks to the NHS!

The final score? A radial head fracture of the type seen to the left. Ouch. Now I have to wear a stupid collar and cuff thing for about two weeks until I get some kind of range of movement back. Apparently I can hope to get full normal use of my arm (turning door handles and other tricky stuff) in about six to eight weeks.

Bugger.

And I'd booked next week off for some intensive writing. Still, at least my injury sounds a bit like the name of one of my favourite bands!

Bugger.

I mean, I'll try and get some work done, but typing one-handed is bone (if you'll pardon the almost-pun). I mean I'm no touch typist (although touch typing is on my must-learn list) but I do go at a fair old rate. Even writing this blog post one-handed is pretty trying.

Bugger.

Still, it could have been a hell of a lot worse. And I still have my eyes so I can read some scripts and catch up on some good films and telly and call it all research. Tragically, I can't really use my Xbox 360 controller at the moment so will be unable to waste whole days in the Capital Wastelands, Arkham Asylum or on Sera.

There we are anyway. No point crying about it. I'll let you know how I'm getting on once I'm two-handed again. Hope you're all having a good 2010 so far, and getting some enjoyment out of our freakish weather, just make bloody sure you're careful when you're out and about in it!

A warning to others...

This is a desktop Henry the Hoover.

This is a Dyson.






One of these is useful for getting the dust, dead skin cells and bits of chilli heatwave doritos out from between your laptop keys. One is not.

Use the wrong one and your laptop will end up looking like this;


Although to be honest there isn't really any point going through the tightly wound knots of dust, human hair and spiders-which-fell-prey-to-your-wife looking for the 'k' key as the retainer will be lost forever. And the sellotape look is so not chic. Save yourself the trouble and buy one of these;

Better yet, don't use a dyson to hoover your laptop keyboard.

Porcine Influenza

Swine flu then. Knocked me out for two weeks. Two weeks where I couldn't do much more than sit on the sofa gazing at the goggle box, sometimes raising the strength to use my Xbox controller. It was actually less fun than it sounds but it did give me a chance to watch a hell of a lot of films.

Had a bit of a John Carpenter retrospective, re-watching They Live and Assault on Precinct 13 and (incredibly) watching The Fog for the first time. Followed those up with some New York films, The Warriors and the original Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The Warriors is so stylish, so exciting, just a great film. Pelham One Two Three blew us away though. The characters were so real, and so quickly established. I loved that everyone looked like real people, no beautiful Hollywood faces. Why don't films look like that any more? And that ending! They're running trailers for the remake on TV that make me want to weep!

Finished the third draft of The Quiet Night Inn on Monday night (Tuesday morning) so that's good. Quite a lot of little changes made and a lot of pages cut. Course now I've had a brilliant idea which involves a massive change to the script so draft four starts as soon as I get my strength back.

Unfortunately returning to work after two weeks off is taking it's toll at the moment. I'm a zombie by five pm every day. Not in a cool way though. There's also some quite major real life stuff going on which I'll be able to mention soon. It's not directly related to my writing but will have a big impact on it, in a positive way I mean! More news soon.

Feeling very motivated at the moment, probably due to a combination of watching loads of films, revisiting James Moran's blog from the very beginning, and just being excited about what I'm working on again. Nice.