Sound the trumpets, declare a national holiday – the proofreading is done!

Well, not completely – but the bulk is out of the way, and I’ve only got a tiny amount of tidying up to do tomorrow morning before I can send the whole package. It has, as usual, been a little on the intense side. In certain ways, it’s been welcome, and in others, it’s been a bit of a drag, but it’s almost done and it nets me another healthy chunk of money which has got to be a good thing.

Mood-wise, I’ve been doing pretty well – there have been some bounces back into depression, and it doesn’t take much to set me off, but I’m still doing okay, and I’m slowly getting my head around the intricacies of life in Manchester. One of the things that definitely helps is that there’s a very large section of parkland that’s only five minutes walk from the house – you have to cross a busy dual carriageway to get there, but the park itself is big enough so you can briefly pretend that you’re not even in a city, and it’s also been allowed to become a little wild in places. It’s got an actual character, and there’s a duck pond, and paths, and playing areas, and it’s proving to be a very pleasent place to go for a walk. It’s not quite the same as the wooded road where I used to walk in Hampshire – but it’ll do for now.

Anna is off on a business trip to Hong Kong this Friday, so I’m going to be on my lonesome once again for a few days, and then next Wednesday things will get action-packed once again as I embark on a madcap eight-day trip back to London for as much of the London Film Festival as I can fit in. Right now, I’m definitely down for kid’s fantasy The Secret of Moonacre and the barmy-looking South Korean Sergio Leone homage The Good The Bad The Weird, and I’ll be seeing lots more besides, but I’m also going to make sure that I actually socialise, meet people, and have fun. I’ll also be staying in a Picadilly-based hostel with a 24-hour reception for four nights , so I might also be trying to take advantage of a little of the West End night life for the brief window that I’m there. It’ll be work, but it’ll also be play – something I’m rather in need of right now.

There’s plenty of stuff I need to sort out over the next few days – but I’m also feeling the need to start writing again. I really want to start having some fun – however long this section of my life may take, I’m in an interim, chrysalis phase right now, and writing is one of the only things that’s going to make me feel like I’m getting somewhere. I’m looking forward to sitting down with an idea and actually having fun with it. It may take me a long time to get to the point where people are actually going to pay me for the crazy stuff I’m thinking up, but I’m willing to put in the effort. I’ll get there in the end.