Umbrella-less again for the 1000th time

How many damned umbrellas is it possible to lose? There should be attachments on our heads that fold out for rain.

Very

Very, very, very, very, very, very bastard tired.

Turning into Helen

I sometimes think I am turning into Helen Fleet, I think the same as she does. Opening these preservative free eyedrops - they are sealed tightly in foil - is like opening condoms. She makes the same comparison with photographic paper, fumbling in the dark. On that note, I am late with the eyedrops and must go. I am tapering the Tipex today, it is very exciting.

Enid

If Enid Blyton was anything like her portrayal in Enid, no wonder her first husband turned to drink. Still, I loved Malory Towers and The Famous Five when I was a child, especially Malory Towers. The stories were all that mattered. Enid being a bit of a monster didn't come into it, we had no idea.

Grumpy old woman

You missed Brucie on Strictly (he had flu) and Claudia Winkleman was super annoying - at least her hair wasn't right in her eyes, maybe someone told her it looks really, really dumb - and much as I love the writing/acting in The Thick of It, there is too much swearing.

Lights, camera, action!

I didn't want to blog this cos it is Fri 13th and I didn't want to jinx it, but I am thinking it might cancel out bad things if I post something lovely. Last week, I got a phonecall out of the blue and was asked if I wanted to be interviewed for this documentary about ME. Yesterday, my kitchen became a makeshift studio for a couple of hours. I spoke about how the illness had punched into my life in autumn 1982, wrecking my university studies and career plans, and how The State of Me came into being. It was surprisingly relaxing. There's talk of extracts from TSoM being dramatised and intercut with the interviews from others with ME in the UK, and USA. (I have always thought the book is quite filmic, episodic, and that is cos I wrote in in small, manageable sections. Also, when you are in a severe phase, even the smallest event has huge significance, it becomes an episode. Interesting how the illness is even reflected in the style.) A project like this is long overdue, bringing it all together, the hell we have been exposed to by the non-believers, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Stepfathers & fathers & books

'You know I've been born in snow, I like that kind of thing.' My stepdad's response to the Charlie English book, The Snow Tourist, I gave him for his 80th birthday last week. He ploughed straight through it, loving every page. It's a beautiful looking book too, silver snowflakes on a white cover. I just read Julie Myerson's article on David Vann's Legend of a Suicide, which I am now desperate to read. I am not really a fan of Myerson's books, but this article is meaningful to me.