Reasons To Be Cheerful…

The problem with success, even modest degrees of success, is that you can take it for granted. It’s what I refer to as Leslie Grantham Syndrome.

One day you can be happy with the world and your part in it and the fact you’re back in the limelight with a few quid on the hip. But next thing you start to want a little more excitement as you think you’re on a roll. So you dress up as Captain Hook and start masturbating in front of a webcam– only to have your fun and games plastered all over a tabloid newspaper.

This, of course, has never happened to me (it was a Batman costume for a start) as I tend to value far too many people and interests in my life. But I had started to treat one of the great loves of my life, namely playing pool, as a mistress that I visited when I got a bit bored. So not surprisingly she started treating me like an unappreciative lover and rewarded her favours on people who treated her with far more respect.

Realising that this relationship was going to shit I started courting her again by putting serious time in on the practise table in an attempt to recapture that first flush of love and it’s currently working as I’m enjoying playing again and am now no longer playing like an idiot. Well not a total one at least…

I was reminded why I actually played the game again on Sunday when the county team I represent won its regional championship to go forward to the national finals next April.

The team needed to win by a big score and put in a huge performance to snatch the title away from the defending champions. There were several points in the afternoon where the match could have swung either way but the opposition missed a few shots and we just didn’t let them back in.

So with my enthusiasm totally restored it was a moment of serendipity when today I got a call to say that a new cue I had ordered some time ago was now ready for collection.

Even the writing is back on an even keel at present with my sitcom about a postman-turned-pornographer sent out to Channel 4, a few ideas in with the BBC and a stage play in with a new theatre company.

I am not, of course, going to be excited about all of this or take any of it for granted. But that’s only because I look shit dressed as Captain Hook...