A few days of radio silence, and things have been going okay. George has been very poorly this week, which has been bothering me somewhat, wanting to be able to look after her and give her plenty of hugs, but still being down here. I’ve been as supportive as possible- especially this morning, when one of her managers gave her a phone call which could, in polite conversation, be described as ‘unhelpful’. Thursday isn’t too far away- and I’m really looking forward to seeing her.

I’ve also, relatively firmly, decided that our vague masterplan for getting out of London really needs to be kicked into gear sooner rather than later. I’ve suggested a loose date of February next year- it can always be shifted, but just setting a date gives us something to aim for. We’re contracted until the end of June 2007 in our current place, but I’m at least going to find out what would be the problems or consequences of moving early. I’d rather not stay just because of the contract and no other reason…

Thursday saw my first genuine in-person conversation for a while, as my friend Tris came around for an evening of fun and bizarreness. As already documented on this blog here, Tris recently discovered the Barry Gibb ‘video concept album’ Now Voyager, and quite a disturbing thing it is too. Shockingly, it’s nearly 80 minutes long, padded out with some hilariously bizarre exchanges between the hairy Gibbmeister and Sir Michael Horden (who must have been seriously in need of the money), and definitely ranks as one of the weirdest things I’ve seen for a while. Most of the highlights are described in the entry linked above- although somehow, Tris managed to forget the video where Gibb is a prisoner in a futuristic world, and is showed his crimes by being driven around lots of projected images of his ’emotional crimes’ in a large motorised chair! (There’s even, rather bizarrely, flashes of softcore sex in amongst it all, showing that Top of the Pops was definitely not the target audience. The juxtaposition of Barry Gibb and bare breasts was a little too much to cope with…)

I was also forced to watch approximately two minutes of the ‘Making of Now Voyager’ featurette, where Barry Gibb claimed that cinema distributors circa 1984 were getting really keen on the idea of ‘video albums’ (I think once they saw Now Voyager, they realised their mistake…), and also decided to invent a new word- describing Now Voyager as ‘Pioneeristic’. That’s one way of putting it… Thankfully, Tris spared me any more pain, and I showed him the opening of Run Lola Run instead to balance out the agony a little.

Anyway, after suffering the awful majesty (and I do mean awful) of Now Voyager, we journeyed out to some of our old haunts- particularly Cornwall College, where we spent two gleefully enjoyable years doing our A-Levels. It’s all very different now- the main ‘Arts and Humanities’ block where we spent most of our time is long gone, and the old Trevenson Theatre where we did Theatre Studies and Performing Arts is now a photographic store. Time does have a habit of passing. Anyway, we had a great time, and it was fantastic to see him again- exactly what I needed after a week that’s mainly consisted of lots and lots of work.

The book is doing well- I’ve gotten a new version of the climactic action sequence done that’s even more fucked up and strange than the previous one, plus I’ve added lots of details. There’s a list of things I’ve got to try and do in the next three days- and then, on Wednesday, Dad, Linda and Tom are back- which is going to be a seriously peculiar experience after nearly four weeks here on my own. Anyway, I’m feeling upbeat, and I have a plan for the rest of the year that stands a reasonable chance of working.

Thursday isn’t too far away…