Tonight I went out for a meal with my wife
as a treat, using a gift card that had been given to us a while a go by a
friend for cat-sitting while she went on holiday (something we’re actually
doing at the moment too).
It was nice to do something that was just
for us, particularly as things have been stressful of late. We went to the
local restaurant Hermitage Road, which is always lovely and didn’t disappoint
tonight. It was a pleasant evening after a day that had left me pretty uptight
with all the things I have to do at the moment and how behind on them I feel.
I’d been trying to work today, which proved difficult; even writing this is a
challenge as I’m so tired; these two paragraphs have taken far longer than they
should.
I guess the trick is not push it at times
like this as it only makes it more frustrating, Ultimately, I’m beginning to
pull material together so I’m not in a bad position, it just feels like it as
I’m always working to a tight deadline. I was listening to an interview with
Graham Linehan on Radio 4’s Chain Reaction in which he stressed the importance
of what I think he called active procrastination; i.e. all the little bits and
bobs you do that feel have nothing to do with writing that actually allow space
for your subconscious to do the necessary. I’m a big believer in that, as well
as subscribing to the opinion that some of the best ideas come seemingly from
nowhere; this was the case with mine and Glyn’s porn letter, when the idea to censor
it wih Star Trek characters (and turn Deforest Kelly into a slang word for
penis) came to mind and that’s just one of many examples. The trick is not be
hard on myself about it as that doesn’t get you anywhere.