I opened the door today, to be greeted by my brother-in-law, my mother-in-law, and a key to a Rover 300 that was sitting in the parking area just next to our house.

We have a car.

Gulp.

It’s been ten years since I’ve driven properly- but now, I’ve got the opportunity to get some experience back. Plus, I’m in exactly the right place, as once you get off the busy road that’s in front of our house, there’s miles and miles of quiet country lanes, which will be perfect for getting back my driving mojo. The possibilities this opens up are boggling- most particularly, it’s going to mean fairly soon I’ll be able to go to London completely under my own steam. Insurance will be sorted on Monday, and there’ll be other things in place soon to make sure the driving experience should be pretty smooth.

It’s good news at the end of a tough week. After having gone back to work for Hotdog last year, it looks like I’m about to be shafted again- SMD Publishing are about to go out of business, and I’m probably going to lose £876 as a result, and this is at a point when we really can’t afford to lose any money at all. Financially, things are really, really difficult at the moment, but we’re going to be doing things to get them back under control. Finding out from the Landlord (of the flat) whether he’s been able to book the builders for the refurbishment would be a massive help- we’re not going to be able to make progress until the monthly £715 drain on our finances goes away, and I’m praying that it’ll be sooner rather than later. We’ve had a couple of other setbacks, but we’re going to keep going. No matter how hard this gets… I’m glad we’re here. It’ll be worth it in the end.

And now, I’m off to stop my new car from making pithy comments and engaging Turbo Boost when I expressly tell it not to. A hefty spanner should do the trick…

Progress on the book has been going slowly- and I realised today that one reason behind this is that there’s a whole selection of sequences that just aren’t good enough. Even polishing them up isn’t really going to help- so I’ve made myself a list of eleven major segments that I need to heavily revise, and I’m going to start from scratch on them. It’s very important that I get this done- but it’s not going to be worth it unless I’m confidant in what I’ve done. With various transport issues affecting my life at the moment, the novel is one of the main things I can concentrate on- and I don’t want to get a month down the line only to realise that I wasted a chance. Once I get these eleven segments sorted, it’ll still need a MAJOR polish- but at least I’ll be a lot closer to my goal. I just want to make sure that it’s fun, and I don’t care what I have to do to get it that way. I don’t want another person to read it and not make it through to the end- they may dislike it, but they’re damn well going to make it to the end!

Free! Free! I’m free at last!

No- a month of either no internet whatsoever or dial-up only didn’t exactly do me much good. However, I’m here-battered but not bowed, and back in the world of Broadband! It may be a little slower than our London connection- but it’s here, and it’s a damn sight better than anything else we’ve had in the last couple of weeks. George was bouncing around with joy earlier this evening- as a dedicated World of Warcraft gamer, she’s been feeling the pain of dial-up, so there were many gleeful yelps of “Broadband! Broadband! Broadband!” tonight. I should also explain- our ‘activation date’ was scheduled to be this Thursday- I was only trying the modem in order to get the passwords and access software logged on, I wasn’t expecting to get actual Net. As a result, I’ll hopefully be a little more of a presence here than for the last month- not that there isn’t an awful lot for me to be doing in order to catch up with the rotating wheels of life…

More details soon. Must go and tidy a few things up.

We have broadband. Life is good.

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…

….Hello? Is this thing on?

It’s been a little while- and Christmas and New Year has felt rather like being flatenned by a Steam Train, and then dragged along in its wake. It’s been fun, but there’s been barely an opportunity to catch my breath- added to which, it’s now looking like our financial situation is going to be as difficult as it’s possible to get for the next few months. Life is going to be very, very hard- but despite my pessimistic nature trying to assert itself, I’m determined that we’re going to get through this.

The week away in Wales was both great fun and very hard work- I’m the sort of person who instinctively wants to tuck himself in a corner at Christmas and watch movies, so being in a house with 14 of my in-laws was educational, to say the least. Good times were had, I think it was mainly just the timing- I really needed a couple of days to catch my breath before had, rather than being pitched straight into it. It was a very impromptu arrangement, and if it happens again next year, the organisation will definitely be better- which will help immeasurably.

I’m currently subbing at IPC, bouncing back and forth between London and Hampshire- but the plan for next week is to stay at home and work on the book. George is working hard at getting the house sorted- and I’m not always good at telling her exactly how much it means to me, but I know that this is all going to be worth it in the end. We’re still having to sort out £715 per month for the rent on the previous flat, but hopefully we’ll soon be able to at least get it sorted when the ‘ultimate cut-off point’ actually is. Even if it’s June, there’s only five more to go- so if it can be moved forward at all, it’ll be a benefit.

We’re also currently stuck with dial-up for the immediate future- so not only will my updates here be a little fleeting, but my TV Eye looks at the recent downloaded American TV are going to have to wait. Hopefully, I’ll soon be able to raise the tone out of bleak despondency- I’m at least going to be taking the weekend off in order to get my head together, so hopefully I’ll be better able to handle things better soon.

Normal service will be resumed soon…

Just a quick note to wish anyone reading a Merry Christmas, as I’ll soon be returning home to Hampshire, and then tomorrow morning we voyage to Wales for the start of the Holiday. I feel like my feet have barely touched the ground for the past few days, and once I return from the Holidays, I’ll hope to have some news, and more detailed round-ups. For the moment, have fun- and try not to eat too much…

I think anyone who read my current book-in-progress would considerably disagree, but apparently…

I am: Olaf Stapledon Standing outside the science fiction “field”, he wrote fictional explorations of the futures of whole species and galaxies.

Which science fiction writer are you?

And if that wasn’t enough…

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: His Most Serene Highness Lord Saxon the Lachrymose of Wimblish upon Frognaze Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

And, just for its head-scratching value…

Okay, this is the beginning of a rough end-of-year round up. I’m not dealing with Torchwood as I’m lagging behind a couple of episodes (not that I’m too upset about that), but otherwise this is where most of my American TV viewing has got to. Mucho spoilers (and a rather lengthy Galactica talk) follow…

The New Year beckons…

Theoretically, yesterday morning should have gone fairly smoothly. All I had to do was get up at 7AM, have breakfast, get my stuff together, and ensure I was ready to leave at about 7.50AM to be picked up by George’s Mum and taken to the station at Alton. Instead, I woke up, saw the alarm clock was saying 7.49AM and had singularly failed to go off, and then spent the next five minutes sprinting around like a madman. Thankfully, George made me some sandwiches for the train, which I was exceedingly grateful for, but the whole thing was rather intense- underlined by the fact that I was actually going to be away for nearly three days.

Last night was my first stay on the sofa back at the flat. It would have been a little easier if I hadn’t forgotten my iPod (meaning I couldn’t continue the unabridged audiobook of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell I’ve been listening to), but it actually went pretty smoothly. I had already seen A PRARIE HOME COMPANION earlier that night- a strange, enjoyable yet melancholy film- and had stayed out long enough so that I was nice and tired. Being back there was like being in an alien environment, and really brought home exactly how much personality George and I tend to imprint on a place. The sofa was comfortable, though, and I awoke refreshed at 6.55 this morning, and was out of the house by 7.30. I’m aiming for a repeat tomorrow, as I need to check my PO Box before I head back to Hampshire- and then after that, it’s time for a week in Wales, and hopefully a minimum of stress.