I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

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Saturday did not go as planned. The intention was quite simple: nip up town, buy a DVD, grab some coffee and read the paper. All went well until I tried to the buy the DVD, which I required in order to prepare for today’s commencement of the League of Ordinary Gentleman deconstruction workshop. Not a single shop in Edinburgh had it in stock; HMV were all out, the Virgin Megastore is now a clothes shop, and Fopp, much to my amazement, wouldn’t have any more in until Tuesday.

Step in my Twitter friends to the rescue with some ideas and, thanks to JF Derry, the location of an online resource where I could watch the film for free. Not as good as a large wide-screen but hey, needs must and I was desperate. I’ll probably still buy the DVD to appease my guilty conscience.

So anyway, one coffee and chocolate-filled pastry later (that I was reliably informed by the server is actually called a ‘Pan au Chocolat’ when I asked for a chocolate-filled pastry) and then it was time to head home—empty handed but confident I’d still get to see the film.

The afternoon was slow and easy; exactly how I wanted it, in fact. I did some tidying and worked on the GREENER manuscript. Flowing nicely.

In the evening, and with the house to myself, I sat down at my PC to watch The League of Ordinary Gentleman. I’m not going to say a thing about it because the person that is taking the course also reads this blog (*wee wave* yoo-hoo!) other than to say I enjoyed it. All I knew of the film was it got slammed by the critics but readers of the graphic novel from which it was based generally liked it. Imagine my surprise when up popped Connery followed by Dr. Jekyll in the same cast… very intriguing and a lot of fun. It goes to show: never trust a critic.

Yesterday was very much a day of two thirds and a third. The first two thirds was an official Daddy-Daughter Day. Laura and I hit the town, did some shopping, went for lunch, toured the pet shop and cuddled the bunnies, checked out laptops (I’m buying her one for her school work and soon-to-be exams) and had a bit of a laugh together. Back home we drank Irn-Bru, ate pizza for dinner and watched some television.

Later, after she’d left for her gran’s house with Gail, I settled down to read a few chapters of Bill Clegg’s book. I still had well over 60% to read but I couldn’t put it down and it was almost 1am when I turned the final page. WOW! What an awesome book; sad, compelling and utterly fascinating.

So, although it was a weekend that started off in a worrying fashion, everything came good in the end. As Hannibal Smith himself would say: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

Today, and for the rest of this week, I will be working on two main things (with other things whirling around the perimeter): the deconstruction workshop (which I’ve just checked into and the forum is already open and introductions being made) and completing my GREENER manuscript. Two rejections also came in over the weekend, both of which will go back out this evening so I have lots to be getting on with.

On the social front I have a night out on Wednesday: The Diners are coming to town and we’re going to hit a restaurant and a few bars on Wednesday night. There’s also a funeral to attend to on Friday, which I’m not really looking forward to but that I can’t miss.

To round off, here’s a funny bullet list article that did the rounds on Twitter’s writing community over the weekend: 20 reasons why you shouldn’t date (or marry for that instance) a writer.

Peace out!