Christmas. That’s suddenly the focus. I haven’t even finished the Halloween madness. And suddenly I’m having to think about Christmas…
I’m yo-yoing between London and Brighton at the moment. Things are getting busier and I’m having to spend a bit more applied time preparing for presentations and the like. I woke up in Brighton knowing I had a zoom interview for BBC Radio Jersey at 11.30. Bergman the XTrail was the best option for an office. I ended up sitting parked up on Marine Parade being enthusiastic into my overheating phone for about half an hour. It felt like we got the salient points across, and hopefully it’ll help sell the remaining tickets so we get to have a busy and crowded Christmas show again. I mentioned my grandpa by name. Good to tease up my connection with the island.
Once the interview was done we had a read through. I hadn’t processed that fully in advance so it rather took me by surprise. My mobile is on its last legs and it was hot in my car. For a short while I sat on a sunny bench with Lou as we read. Then we had a break and for some reason I decided to start to drive back home, even though the journey is 2 hours and the break we had was only about 45 minutes. Oops.
I ended up doing the bulk of the read-through in a lay-by off the A23 with dicky reception and juggernauts pounding past every minute or so. The magic of zoom… I switched my picture off to preserve battery and to stop my phone from overheating. But bandwidth was still terrible. I’d like to say that nobody noticed, but honestly – I’m glad it was a read-through of a familiar project, with friends.
Funny to be screwing on my Christmas head on such a hot November day. The sun in the morning was stunning by the seaside. But walking around Hampstead and also in Stanmer last week it is noticeable how abundant the berries are on the holly and the yew. A heavy yield of berries speaks of a cold winter to come. Nature clearly knows something we don’t. Or its just been thrown completely out of whack. We shall see.
I’m back in London with all the things that need doing next to all the distracting things. Which will win??
Once I arrived here this afternoon, post read-through, I rationalised to myself that the days work was done so did remarkably little. I mostly read my book. Then I had the traditional bath and now it’s my bedtime ritual but somehow time slipped away and I just looked at a clock and it’s 2am. My body clock is all over the place. I’m gonna put my head down.
AlBarclay 