Mitchell, Webb and Galbraith

Image: The Sun

Did anyone else choke on their cornflakes yesterday morning when BBC News announced that the Taliban have called for a human rights investigation into a recent air strike in Afghanistan? HUMAN RIGHTS—THE TALIBAN—there’s two phrases you wouldn’t normally connect on any level of human decency or respect.

Quite a day yesterday; I have hit a major high in the writing stakes. Despite coming home from work to find two rejections—well, one of them from a magazine that has now sadly folded, but at least the editor took the time to read my work and say he had enjoyed it nevertheless—it was a most accomplished day.

I got a lot finished in the day job, and back at home I worked on the interview, the spine-tingler story, and a little more on BACCARA BURNING. The short story is now almost complete; wish I could say the same for BACCARA but it’s getting there.

I heard about a live webcast by taking place at 7pm by Mitchell and Webb, so I logged on. David Mitchell, who also writes for The Observer, is running a campaign to save said paper as it is being threatened with closure despite not being in any financial or sales figure-related trouble. Half way through the webcast I typed into the little box: “COLIN GALBRAITH SAYS SAVE THE OBSERVER!!!”

Webb read it aloud as it passed over their monitor and turned his nose up at it. “What the fuck’s he on about? Save The Observer?” To which Mitchell jumped in and backed me up, initiating a debate about why the paper in question should in fact be saved.

I like to do my bit.

Later on, I moved onto some technical issues. One of my web clients needs a client login facility, where her wedding customers can login to their own individual section of the website and view their own personal wedding photographs and place orders. Without actually buying a solution, this is complicated stuff.

It took me a while—I’ve been working on this for a few weeks actually, to find a way of doing it that fits the bill—but last night I finally made the breakthrough. It meant learning up on PHP coding, but last night I delivered the client login, and it comes complete with a spiffing new gallery layout. I’m very pleased with it.

I struggled to get out of bed and into work toady, but I’ve got a few things on that should shake me out of it. As well as my usual writing requirements, I found out late last night I’m on the guest list for tonight’s Ray LaMontagne gig at the Usher Hall. Not sure what to expect, but from the small amount of research I’ve done this morning, he lives on a farm in Maine, has released three albums, and is only two months older then me.