I’m just coming to the end of the second day of subbing, and while there’s a whole selection of paperwork to sort out fairly soon, it’s just possible that I may be able to have a relatively quiet weekend at home. George has been working like a trooper in order to get various things like housing benefit sorted, and hopefully we’ll have most of the relevant details together soon. Our finances are still resembling a smoking crater, but things are looking a little more hopeful- and having a few days when nothing too goddammed dramatic is happening will be something of a relief.

Once I get the major stuff out of the way, it’s going to be time to recommence with the novel- and this time, there can’t be any messing around. I’ve got a much better idea of where it needs to be, so I’ve just got to bite the bullet and actually make it happen. I want to get this sorted, so I can finally stop worrying about The Hypernova Gambit and start worrying about something new.

A brief note on my Christmas experience- possibly the most fun I had was thanks to the PS2 Karaoke ‘Singstar’ game that one of Meryl’s kids received, which cued a whole series of tortuous battles and duets. The strangest moment was ending up singing ‘Wind of Change’ by The Scorpions with my brother-in-law Alec, while I also discovered that ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen is phenomenally difficult to sing without passing out from oxygen starvation. Freddy Mercury was a force of nature, never let it be denied…