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It was my wife’s birthday and we started the day with birthday cake in bed and the unwrapping of a present that my daughter made for her at school. It looked like a baguette wrapped in tin foil, but when opened was revealed to be a plastic bottle with a paper towel tube attached which had some poorly determined purpose involving shouting into it to capture or amplify sound (I am not quite sure which). I know they say that a parent will be happier if a child has made a present themselves, but I think Catie would have preferred a box of chocolates or a voucher. But Phoebe couldn’t have been prouder of herself.
She also spilled her water over the bed which was a nice touch too.
I don’t know if Catie will keep the foil wrapped bottle tube sound catcher/ampifier or whether it will find its way into the recycling after a sufficient period to allow it to be forgotten. I know my mum doesn’t use the spice rack that I made her for her birthday, but she says that it’s so good and precious that she doesn’t want to risk getting spice on it and it must be kept in a special bank vault so it isn’t damaged by light or humidity.
I managed some writing today, so it seems the requisite level of terror at humiliation is being reached, as I slowly refamiliarise myself with the characters and spin them off down the unpredictable paths which I only partially control. Got a scene and a half done. Which would be OK if I manage that every day for the next month and a half. Which I won’t of course.
But at least it somehow feels vaguely possible that I might complete the work in time. Even though it still isn’t possible. If I can get a day or two where I vomit out half a script then I will be back on course and I at least have a vague to good notion what happens in two of the six episodes now. It’s the exactly usual scenario of course, though maybe with a bit less time than normal. I’d love to spend a full month of each script and have no other distractions, but the radio doesn’t pay enough to allow that alas, so will have to hope for the usual late inspiration brought about my reluctance to waste the time of the people working on the show and to embarrass myself in front of the people who listen to it.
I hate writing scripts with avengeance though. Just as I will love it when/if they’re done. Though in writing the argument that starts the series I did feel a little buzz of excitement brought on by writing something emotional and true. So just loads more of that and we’re done.
