I have a weird relationship with being busy – it’s part of existance as a freelancer, but I seem to veer from absolutely nothing happening and shaking my fists at the sky in sheer bored frustration, to having virtually every single second of every day accounted for and filled by a torrent of work. This is one of those times – I’ve just finished my first go at sub-editing a book, almost a week-and-a-half of work, and my brain feels like it’s been reduced to the consistency of a milk shake. Added to which, I’ve got a book review to finish, another manuscript to red (Edit- this should, obviously, say read. See below for further comment…) by Thursday, and a film review to finish by Thursday. Plus, I’ve got another film I’m seeing on Thursday, and next week I’ve got three days of magazine subbing. On top of all this, of course, I’ve got the now worryingly close prospect of my move to Manchester, which is now only three weeks away, and there is a whole selection of things I’ve got to do between now and then. But, when it comes to the crunch, I would rather be busy at the moment than not – there are various financial issues to be sorted, and I don’t know exactly how well or badly I’ll be doing once I’m away and officially ‘on my own’, but the work I’m doing right now can only help.

One side-effect of what’s happening is that I’m also selling and exchanging lots, slimming down the DVD collection (which has now been officially split between mine and George’s, with a couple of casualties on my side that I’ll hopefully be able to re-acquire soon) via the world of Computer Game Exchange on Ramillies Street in London, and the resulting exchange vouchers are enabling me to get some stuff that I’ve wanted to get for a while. Season 1 of The Wire, Season 1 of The Shield, the complete series of oddball Canadian/South African SF series Charlie Jade and – in an unexpected scoop – the collector’s edition of E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, which is the only R2 edition that has the original un-CG-tampered version of the film. I’m mainly stocking up so that once I arrive in Manchester, I can lock myself away from the world for a little while and simply lose myself in quality drama – although I think picking up something a little upbeat as well might be a help.

It’s been an odd, slightly intense weekend, but I’m doing okay.

And thank you to all who left messages on the previous post – it really meant an awful lot.