It’s four in the morning. Outside, the sky is a deep shade of purple, not helped by the cloud cover. Birds are singing. Nature is moving on. And, thanks to my hideous workload, I’m still awake. Considering we’re going to be leaving for France in less than two hours, there didn’t seem much point in going back to bed. I’m very tired, at the end of an extremely tiring week, and the journey ahead may have all sorts of difficulties– but I’ll be happy simply to sit in the back of the car and doze.

More than anything else, I want this holiday to be a genuine time of rest. I want to actually stop, allow myself not to think for a while, and get my breath back. I want to step outside of all my current problems, and focus myself on what’s really important. I think it’s going to be good. It’s certainly going to be the longest I’ve been away from the Net for a while. I may get the chance to post- I may not. Only time will tell.

Anyhow, for the moment- this is Saxon Bullock, tired, bleary-eyed but still going, and about to leap into another journey of adventure…

See you in two weeks.

(-over and out…-)

I think I might be in need of a holiday.

Stress is kind of getting to me– plus, for the next 48 hours, I’m going to be absurdly busy. We leave for France at about 6AM on Sunday morning– and I’ve got nearly £400 worth of work to do before then, along with getting various official forms in, and going to a screening of Transformers. And packing. And about a dozen other things as well. Basically, life is feeling somewhat difficult, added to which I’m having trouble sleeping, which means that the idea of 2 weeks in France not doing very much is probably a very good one.

(For those who are interested- the rewrite of the book has reached Chapter 12. Only five more chapters to go, and this phase is finished…)

Certainly, this blog is pretty likely to be dormant for the next two weeks. (At least, more dormant than normal). I’ll have a go at posting my reaction to the first part of the Who finale tomorrow… and once I get back, I’m hoping to be a little re-energised and ready for action. Summer’s going to be busy, and there’s not that long before I hurl myself once again into the maw of the Edinburgh Film Festival.

Stay tuned…

I hate clothes shopping.

I spent a large proportion of yesterday trudging through various shops in London, making purchases I really couldn’t put off any longer. My habit of wearing clothes until they start physically falling apart is fairly ingrained, but I’d gotten to the point where my number of clothes that weren’t falling apart was exponentially decreasing. Something had to be done. So, a quest through London, resulting in new socks, ordering new shoes (they had the type I liked, but not the right colour) and– most difficult of all– two new pairs of trousers. I mistakenly went into clearence ‘warehouse’ Madhouse, where the bolt on the changing room door is placed so high above eye-level I didn’t notice it until a staff member decided to check if my changing room was occupied by opening it (rather than knocking, or peering under the door, or any of the slightly more sensible methods) thus catching me in a classic, bedroom farce, trousers half-way down moment. Needless to say, the bolt was located, and firmly fastened. Madhouse is the kind of place where the clothes are sorted by brand rather than- say- size, meaning lengthy quests through endless piles for the one size you actually need, and where the designers obviously felt the ‘industrial’ look was incredibly hip, rather than dated and tacky. The changing room itself was circular (including the door), and managed to make me feel like I was changing my clothes in a very cramped grain silo. I expected Harrison Ford to unleash a torrent of corn and replay the death scene from Witness at any moment.

I also saw a screening of Knocked Up, which was utterly filthy and fantastically sweet at the same time, and made the whole day worthwhile.

Our new DVD player arrived today- and it works perfectly, except when playing certain discs with DIVX files on them, and it complete freezes up. It’s still a joy to have a functioning multi-region back, though.

I’ve also signed up for two solid weeks of subbing, thus throwing a major spanner in my hopes to get the novel done before we go to France. There are times when I really feel like I need my head examining…

Thursday Morning was supposed to be a fairly easy process. I’d be woken up at 6.20 by the alarm, get 40 minutes of pottering around time, and then head off to the train to head into London for two days of subbing. Instead, I slept through the alarm, and only got woken up when my father-in-law called to tell me he was about three minutes away from picking me up– at about 7.00. Cue a desperate sprint around the house, and then a stagger to the car, followed by a rather dazed morning. Thank heaven I’d already made my lunch, but it wasn’t the easiest start to the day, combined with the fact that I got to the Future Publishing building on Baker Street– only to find that they’d moved offices. After getting directions from a receptionist who didn’t understand the rather important distinction between left and right, I eventually had to call George and get her to navigate me via the wonder of Streetmap, reaching the offices 15 minutes late and soaking wet from the rain. Thankfully, my two-day stint at XBOX 360 went very smoothly after that, and I also stayed over with my friend Alec for the night, spending an excellent evening talking about all things writing. Since getting back yesterday, I’ve been a little shell-shocked, letting myself drift slightly, but I know I’ll have to get back into gear soon.

Life feels good, though. We’re in the country, and we’re happy. Whatever our problems, it could be a whole lot worse…

Coming back from holiday is always surreal- even more so when the downpours of rain have transformed the countryside around our house. When we left, everything was relatively dry and bare- in just a few days, it’s exploded in lush green life. Everything is wet and green and wild, growing in random patterns, while everything wooden glistens with dark colours. It’s at times like this that I’m exceptionally glad we’re living where we are.

A week away from reality has focussed me alot– and I’ve also had some positive feedback on the novel which is leading me to think I may not be too far away from getting it finished. What’s not helping is the general sensation that I’m terrible at multi-tasking– without firm deadlines being involved, I can only handle one problem at a time, meaning I end up spending too much time staring slackly at my life going “What do I do?” One thing I am going to do is throw myself back into the writing fray with another round on Novel in 90. I have a potential idea, which is lurking somewhere in the realms of pulp adventure fantasy and surreal family comedy, and I think the best thing for me may be simply to start writing, and this time try harder not to stop (It’d be nice to beat my previous record). I’ve also got to do some Ebaying- a process I’ve been putting off for too long, meaning there’s a small mountain of stuff to be sold, and the whole thing looks even less encouraging than before.

For a little while, I’ve been a little insecure about my social life (or lack of one), and I’ve officially decided not to worry. It’s never done me any good in the past, so I’m simply going to smile, wink and say “Hey, Nonny Nonny” to the whole thing. Life is for living, and very little else.