Other Woman News...

As has been well documented on this blog, my Other Women is a confectionary and chocolate slut. To put it bluntly there isn't much she wouldn't do for a Snickers. Or a Wispa.

But the other day she sent me the following email and I thought I'd share:

'I decided on a new year’s resolution this lunchtime! Here’s how it went:
1.00pm. Go to lunch.
1.01pm Decide that new year’s resolution should be to not buy any confectionary products or cake with lunch.
1.30pm. Have three bites of an apple. It is horrible. Remember why I don’t like fruit.
1.35pm. Throw most of apple away.
1.40pm. Buy a Twix.'

It's just another reason to love my Other Woman in my book.

AWL...

For a feisty cynic the Missus does have a romantic side.

I say side. It's more of a miniscule area that like Brigadooon only appears on very rare occasions. But recently there was a sighting when she was quite touched to read that Denis Healy and his wife had a code for when they felt they were getting stressed over impossible problems.

Their code was three simple letters which were 'AWL' which stood for 'Aren't we lucky?' When uttered these three letters acted as a timely reminder that whenever things were going badly they take stock and appreciate each other and the lives they had. And 'AWL' usually calmed them and made them less stressed.

The Missus found this quite touching and sweet so we've adopted it.

We have, however, also adopted a less tender trio of letters to explain our exasperation at some of the people and problems we also deal with from time to time. And this is 'TAC' which is shorthand for 'They're all cunts'.

Feel free to share it with your friends...

PJ Harvey...

There is much excitement at From Beer To Paternity Towers with the impending release of a new PJ Harvey album, Let England Shake.

Previous Polly Jean Harvey incarnations have been grunge rock chick, sashaying vamp, cosmopolitan sophisticate and ghostly waif and, like her ever-changing image, her music is a constantly evolving thing moving from grunge to blues to rock to folk with a bit of electronica thrown in.

She remains one of the few artists who strive to create something new with every release and each new CD rarely disappoints. I think she's bloody wonderful and her creativity and immense musical talent are things that should be celebrated. She is really that good with a body of work to back it up. She is a national treasure.

Having heard two tracks from the latest CD it seems she's gone a bit Patti Smith meets William Blake with musings on Albion and its current state.

The album is out on 14 February. Can't wait to hear the rest of it...

Why EastEnders Is Shit...

EastEnders has a new name at From Beer To Paternity Towers.

It's now called Shit Shouty Cockney Telly Land. It could just as easily be called Shit Shouty Cockney Telly Land Where Nothing Makes Sense And The Plots Have No Basis In The World Of The Characters but that doesn't trip off the tongue.

So Shit Shouty Cockney Telly Land it is.

I once liked Shit Shouty Cockney Telly Land in the days when it was good old EastEnders and it was well written and well acted. But those days are now nothing but a dim and distant memory, like thinking fondly of a relative who used to give you sweets as a child before you learnt he's recently turned into an alcoholic who shoots kittens with a crossbow then skins them for fun.

The new realisation ruins the fond memory but somewhere you hope the kindly old man is still in there. Although if the kindly old mad was an EastEnders character under the current regime he'd be kidnapping children and dry bumming them in the Vic cellar before having a sex change and mainlining horse. And that's a real horse. And that would happen in the space of one show.

Take the Christmas episode which was actress Lacey Turner's big exit storyline. Her character Stacey had an affair with her husband's dad Max that split up a family, killed a rapist, saw her husband Bradley plunge to his death and was diagnosed bipolar to explain the previous storylines so viewers would regain their sympathy for her. Then she had an affair with the father of her baby Ryan.

So lots of material... and all viewers got was some half-arsed love triangle that required lots of last-minute exposition, the worst stabbing in TV history and an escape from the police that made the events of cartoon series Wacky Races seem credible. Oh, and her dead hubby's dad Max declared his love for her at the airport as she was about to leave.
'So that's it? It's all over?' asked Max at one point.
Yes it is all over. And it was shit.

Currently Shit Shouty Cockney Telly Land features a cot death storyline. But that obviously wasn't considered moving or gripping enough so the producers tagged on a baby swap storyline to it as well. Double the tragedy, double the grief. It's like a cover line from Pick Me Up or some other awful real-life magazine.

Unfortunately Jessie Wallace and Shane Richie, Patsy Palmer and Maisie Smith (Tiffany), Jake Wood and June Brown are the only people who can actually act so watching the episodes when they are not involved is pretty gruelling work. It's like watching a local am-dram group who usually do melodrama suddenly have a go at theatre of cruelty for an audience of pensioners who were expecting farce. It's harrowing. But for all the wrong reasons.

The main problem with Shit Shouty Cockney Telly Land is that it's become drama-porn. In porn it's all about the sex and the money shot. Don't worry about little things like character integrity or creating believable stories. Just get to the action. In about 30 seconds, please...

And that's why EastEnders is Shit Shouty Cockney Telly Land. It's drama-porn. Forget the build-up. Just get to the action. And if two people going at it isn't good enough let's add some more and get them to scream a bit louder. In about 30 seconds, please...

You get the impression nobody involved on the production or the storyline side really cares that much any more. It's just another job in TV land. Unfortunately the show and its viewers deserve something better.

And if they do care and they think this is good... They need telling it's not. But on the plus side it's still not as bad a Come Fly With Me.

Merry Xmas: Part III...

Every year I make a present for the Missus and this year I have probably excelled on previous gifts such as the Self-powered Hairdryer and the DIY Lipsosuction Kit.

We are both fans of potty-mouthed political satire The Thick Of It so I had some tea towels printed. An example of these is above.

I think it's my finest work...

Black Belt Grading: Part VIII...

I have passed part one of my black belt grading. I am delighted and relieved in equal measure.

Now it's continual assessment for four months followed by a written paper in April with continual assessment for another four months afterwards. If all goes well I could be wearing my black belt in August. If it doesn't I have to start the whole process again from scratch.

There's plenty more hard work ahead and I need to do some work in a few areas but I'm on my way. And very happy about it.

Merry Xmas: Part II...

Our friends from Oz are visiting over Xmas and I've been getting very excited about seeing them and mentioned this to the Missus.
'I'm really looking forward to seeing them.'
'Well don't get too excited.'
'What do you mean?'
'I just don't want you to get over-excited...'
'Why?'
'Because if you get over-excited you'll get giddy and loud and have a few drinks then have a few drinks too many...'
'You think I'm like an over-excited child drinking too much pop and and eating too many sweets, don't you?'
'Of course not, darling...'

She then picks up a cloth and wipes my top lip.
'Ice cream...' she says, helpfully.

Merry Xmas: Part I...

Above is a picture of the surprise present I bought for the Missus.

Can you guess what it is?

Black Belt Grading: Part VII...

The Missus has been very considerate and caring of late and, since the Black Belt grading, quite romantic and tactile by her usual standards.

This obviously aroused my suspicions so I decided it was time to confront her about it.
'You're being very sweet at the moment.'
'I know.'
'Are you dying?'
'No.'

Pause. Then she adds:

'You are...'

Who says romance is dead?

Black Belt Grading: Part VI...

My black belt grading is over and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I could have been sharper on a few things and it took me two goes to break two boards at one point but overall I felt like it was a pretty good day at the office.

The previous day was a senior belt class and it felt like everything I touched turned to shit and I spent large parts of Saturday evening wondering why I was even bothering to turn up to test the following day.

But I woke up the next day and stretched and got my head right. Then before I knew it I was getting up to be an opponent for the lower belts and, to quote Madonna, got into the groove.

Unless you've been through something that intense where you spend months training and honing your skills and pushing yourself to the limit it's difficult to explain what goes through your mind in the months and weeks beforehand but for me there were plenty of moments of panic, self-doubt, fear and nerves.

Then as soon as I was up testing and sparring I remembered something quite simple: to relax and breathe and enjoy the moment. And seven years of training suddenly came down to something so simple.

Best gag of the day belongs to the Missus. Because of my ongoing knee injury I'm not throwing lots of kicks so I've been relying heavily on my boxing during sparring and the head of the academy was kind enough to compliment my hand techniques.

At the end of the grading I went over to the Missus and asked her what she thought of it. She smirked and replied: 'Well... I've always told everyone you have excellent hand techniques...'

I married well.

Black Belt Grading: Part V...

It's Friday night and I have a red belt class tomorrow then it's time to grade on Sunday.

I want to borrow a line from John Carpenter's They Live and say something like 'I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick arse - and I'm all out of gum' but that would be quite silly. And gum chewing in the dojang is strictly forbidden and kicking arse also suggests a level of enjoying violence that would be severely frowned upon when I'm there to demonstrate control and grace under fire.

So the line would end up going something like: 'I would be here to chew bubblegum but that's against dojang etiquette and I would be here to kick arse... if only I'd gone to a slightly more aggressive and more ego-filled school where oneupmanship is the name of the game instead of learning both the martial and the art.'

But that's quite a shit quote so it's probably best to say nothing and just get there.

On the plus side the nerves are now kicking in a bit so I'm starting to get a bit on edge. But that's a good sign. Edge is good.

Black Belt Grading: Part IV...

Three sleeps now until grading day arrives and I've had a No.1 haircut. This is something I always do before every grading and usually before any important pool match because, quite simply, it makes me feel quite good about myself.

The Missus, of course, hates it and her previous opinions on the haircut I've now sported for about 13 years have included:
'It make you look like a thug.'
'It makes you look like a care in the community case.'
'It makes you look like a kiddy-fiddler.'
'It makes you look like the type of exceptionally gifted lover, wit and writer that any woman in her right mind would want to have several goes on. Then invite her younger and better looking sister to have several goes on too. Then invite her twin sisters, etc...'

I may have made the last one up. But tonight is my last training session then it's pretty much here. I'm calm, collected and confident. And ready...

Black Belt Grading: Part III...

It's quite unnerving. In fact it's quite worrying... but I'm quietly confident about tackling my black belt grading in six days.

I've put the work in, I pretty much know what I'm doing and now it's just a matter of enjoying my remaining few classes, before arriving on Sunday and waiting for the nerves to start so that final surge of adrenalin kicks in to get me over the line.

One of my training partners filmed us going over our techniques last week and there are times I look quite competent. I surprised myself. Who knows, there may be a black belt martial artist lurking in there somewhere after all?

Let's hope so, eh? And let's also hope that he doesn't do something really fucking stupid and gets himself badly injured between now and Sunday. That would be very bad...

Other Woman News...

The Other Woman sent an email yesterday linking to a quite nifty game her long-suffering other half had created to help pull in punters to a website his company runs. Rather suspiciously, however, she used the term 'lovely' before his name so my curiosity was instantly piqued because I've never heard her say anything affectionate about him in public before. Unless he buys her chocolate. Or sweets.

So my mind was racing: Had she cooked something the previous night and accidentally poisoned him and was trying to throw detectives investigating the case off the scent? Had she done something really bad to jeopardise her relationship with a man who is quite frankly better looking and more intelligent than her?

It seems not...

When I approached her about this she confessed because it was getting near Xmas she decided to be nice about him in public in the hope of getting better presents. But when I pointed out this virtually made her a hussy she didn't take kindly to the accusation.

When I also pointed out the phrase 'chocolate tart' was invented for her she also did not take too kindly to the insinuation.

And finally when I suggested a far easier way to achieve male compliance she simply told me I was sexist and crude.

I don't know. You try to help people...

Black Belt Grading: Part II...

It's my own fault. Preparations for my black belt test were going far too well. My badly injured knee was sort of OK and my less badlly injured knee was pretty much healed up. Even my rotator cuff injury was not a concern. I was even quite relaxed and starting to enjoy myself.

Then I was doing some no-contact sparring with an over-exuberant opponent who thought it would be a good idea to stick his elbow straight through my foot at full force. I obviously carried on with the class and the sparring as I thought it wasn't too bad... but by the time I got home and the adrenalin had stopped flowing I suddenly realised that my foot was bruised to buggery and hurting quite a lot. Swearing hurting. Like proper swearing.

Now it's a waiting game. After resting it most of the weekend I can spar lightly and kick lightly but any type of lateral or pivoting motion is out of the question. And as I need to perform spin kicks to break boards my foot may need some quick recovery or the kicking some supple bodily negotiation.

So, in the words of Cher, if I could turn back time I'd like to say the following to the opponent responsible:
'You clumsy, careless, half-witted fucking oaf. What does 'no-contact' mean in your numb-skulled world? Does it mean I can repeatedly punch you in the fucking face till your skin is flayed off? No. Thought not. You brain-dead fucking cum-bucket for pox-ridden sailors.'

Of course, I could say that. And Cher probably would as I understand she's bit potty-mouthed. Probably too much exercise. Or plastic surgery.

But I won't say anything because I'm too polite. And I wouldn't really mean it. And he didn't do it intentionally. I'd just be venting and I know that wouldn't help.

And I have 12 days to heal up then I have a grading to pass. And my trusty ibuprofen gel seems to be helping. So it's best to let it go and just write about it instead. At least that way it's out of my system...

Black Belt Grading: Part I...

It's now 18 days until I grade for my black belt. My injured knee seems to be sort of mended and holding up and other niggling injuries on one of my ankles and one of my rotator cuffs seem to be fine.

I've also pretty much got a handle on all of my techniques, both old and new, and some dodgy foot placement in forms aside I'm quite confident. In fact if I can get there in one piece without any more dramas I'm looking forward to it.

That confidence still didn't stop my first grading anxiety dream last night, however.

In it I was in a packed do-jang surrounded by my fellow students and trying to break a wooden board that I just couldn't break. In the dream I knew it was because I was tense and not moving fluidly but the more I couldn't break the board the more tense I became.

After yet further failures of one sort or another the dream ended with the head of the academy telling me I was a nice chap who just wasn't good enough. I may also have been naked. And some female students may have been pointing at my genitals and laughing.

Sometimes that sort of dream, whether it's about hapkido or writing or pool or anything else, stays with you for a while and shakes your confidence.

But I already know I need to be relaxed and I know the not being good enough bit is bollocks. And I'm proving it in 18 days.

Rejection...

As a writer sending scripts to various theatres and TV production companies I am used to rejection. In fact I have become hardened to it.

But I have just received my worst ever rejection letter in response to a radio comedy show I sent out a few weeks ago. I'd worked hard on the show and really liked it but, to quote the letter:

'...it didn't make me laugh enough... and that is the one single thing we're looking for when we expectantly crack open a new comedy script.'

I'm still not convinced they have a point but I will reread the script and reconsider. But the production company in question have also produced some dross among the good stuff they've done so they don't always get it right either.

So: self-delusion or self-belief? It's tough to know the difference but there are times you have to trust it's the latter and just carry on.

To quote Winston Churchill:
‎'Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.'

But then again Winston Churchill was also funny. Fact. Then again maybe I'd be good at war...

Drunk...

The final county pool game of the season is always a messy affair as several of the team usually venture out for a few drinks afterwards. And that's a few more drinks than the usual few post-match drinks too.

And as my friend Shaggy and two of the Croydon fellas were my drinking companions for the evening, and as it was my last blowout before knuckling down for my black belt test in four weeks, it was never going to be a sober night.

Previous evenings out with Shaggy have ended with him in hospital after falling off a pavement and breaking his ankle, and the two of us being threatened with death by a man carrying a bike in Hampshire. Fortunately as we also had two mutual friends along for the evening – and thanks the delights of a pub near Reading station that was packed with London Irish fans – the night was lovely and incident-free. Our little group even made friends with two local girls who'd been to watch the rugby.

In fairness my head was not a good place to be on Monday morning and I had distant memories of weeing in sturdy plastic bag on the train when I found the only toilet was broken, then carrying it home until I found a drain to pour it down. But at the time I think I decided it was what Hannibal in the A Team would have done in an emergency weeing situation so I felt I was in good company.

But now there's no more stupidity. It's knuckle down time. I have a black belt to earn and four weeks to nail my final preparations. Gulp...

Ancient Worlds...

I'm quite a fan of history. History is big, cool stuff and I'm rarely happier than when I'm reading or watching anything on whatever chunk of big, cool history happens to have caught my imagination.

So I was looking forward to watching new BBC series Ancient Worlds in which archaeologist and historian Richard Miles explores the roots of civilisation. And if episode one is anything to go by, I'll probably stay with it as he's an engaging presenter and the idea of examining 'us' 'then' is a smart idea.

Two things annoy me, though.

The first is that Miles is a bit too sexy to be doing this. I want my historians older and uglier and I certainly don't want them to flirt with me. And Miles does.

Sometimes when he talks directly to camera he tilts his head in a coquettish manner and lowers his voice to speak in a husky yet smooth tone that makes him sound like a telephone sex line gigolo. He may be discussing ancient city Uruk but he could just as easily be whispering sweet nothings and wooing millions of viewers into his book-filled boudoir.

The second is that he looks like a slimmer and more debonair version of a bloke I used to work under who was a major arsehole. Let's call the major arsehole Mike. Because that was his name.

Mike was an arsehole and a pedant beyond belief and, added to this mix, he was also a smug, self-righteous twat. So much so that when my football team was scheduled to play his team some years later I actually offered financial rewards for anyone who stuck their studs through his ankle.

In retrospect I'm not proud of this course of action. Although it was the most satisfying £20 I ever spent. But if you'd have ever met Mike and spent more than five minutes in his company you would have offered me more funds to increase the bounty on his ankles. So that he was crippled for life. And therefore much less likely to ever enter your social sphere again. Fact.

And Miles looks a bit like him. So if he can sort out his appearance and his habit of flirting with the camera I'm sure I'll grow to love him and his show.

Thanks.

Cack-handed...

The very flash and very expensive new kitchen is nearly fully installed and fully functioning at From Beer To Paterinty Towers.

Sadly I am not allowed to use any appliances until the Missus has given me detailed instructions on how everything works because, apparently, I'll 'probably break something' because I'm a 'cack-handed twat'. I'd like to protest that I'm not quite as clumsy as the Missus thinks but sadly it would be a protest in vain.

Recent damages include snapping a metal spade in half, damaging the bath and destroying an electic can opener. And I wasn't doing anything bizarre with any of them either. I was just using them the way they were intended to be used. Sort of...

One item that certainly will not be getting damaged when it arrives, however, is my new cue. It's being made by one of the best cue-makers in the country and it's a replica of an antique Riley tombstone cue I've wanted for at least two decades.

It may be very sad but I'm so excited. It's an early Xmas present to myself. Expensive kitchens are rubbish. New cues are where it's at...