Brian Houston

Went to see Brian Houston play

March 31st, 2006 Bedford,

The ent. Shed Gordon Arms,

Castle Rd.

last night. First time I'd seen him / heard of him but was dragged along by my sis-in-law. Glad I went! Liked him a lot. Quite a loveable scruffbag.

Take a look if you like. www.brianhouston.com She told me he was a bit Bob Dylan sounding. Sometimes he sounds a bit too country for my liking but others of his tracks are pretty rocky and very likeable. A lot of the songs have a pretty sad, solemn content (drunk fathers, getting life threatening news, betrayal) but between songs he's hilarious, stopping to tell funny anecdotes and banter with the audience. Shame there weren't more people there.

I'm Not Scared.

Buy this!!! 99p at Waterstones and a better value read you won't find anywhere for a long time. This story is amazing! My boss told me to read it so I could explain the ending to him. It's the 2nd Italian author book in a row as recommended by him and I was wary as the first title was a bit pap. (Camilleri) Wow, I started this morning and could not put it down. The protaganist is an 8 or 9 year old boy living out in the countryside of Italy. Cycling out in the stifling heat of the summer of '78, he makes a startling discovery out in the woods playing forfeits with a gang of mates. I'm not telling you anything else but it's page turning, evocatively written, suspenseful and touching. READ IT!!

idle words!

Managed to have a conversation with my boss back at my home branch yesterday in which the old order was established. Me being rude to him and him being rude back. It was strangely comforting.

me: it's you who likes camilleri as a writer isn't it?
him: yeah, brilliant stuff
me: no it isn't. the prose is piss poor
him: no it's not
me: bang, a shot rang out
him: it's not like that
me: it's rubbish
him: well it's a good story
me: yeah that's what they said about the da vinci code

laughter

(final point to kumquat methinks)

So I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt and will finish it. So far it's horrible stereotypes, repeated hyperbole and too many long winded sentences talking about the brother of the person who isn't actually at this conversation but would have been if it hadn't been for the sister of the inspectors...... zzzzzzz.

Still, I'm only on page 52 (!) and I have ridiculed many a good book at this stage only to end up loving it. At least I have a train journey tomorrow to kill. It's never going to rival the Palahniuk I read the book before last. Top flight american-quirky-weirdness. Fab.

~0~

So anyway, I can't believe I haven't told you about me smashing up my car. Darling Maddy has a scrumpled up bonnet and smashed lights on the driver side. I'm gutted. Also they can't mend her til 11th April. Traffic on the A1 backed up in front and a momentary lapse in concentration prevented me from stopping quite in time. I felt rather a fool but thankfully the owner of the car I went into went into was very nice about it. Just a bind. Something else to contend with this week.

~0~

Tomorrow should be fun. Regional AM mtg in London where I get to meet lots of my lovely friends and hopefully go out for drinks after we've humoured the senior staff by nodding in the right places. Right Phillie?

Oh that reminds me Phillie, you have to ask me about your latest member of staff arriving from the branch known as 'exile'. I have insider information. heh heh.

nuffield visit

ok well the news is not awful. basically we got option 'b'. the tumour has not grown which is of course, great news. the consultant maintains that it has been there for a long time. we now have to decide whether to leave it alone and just check up on it from time to time or go ahead with radiotherapy and shrink it. i know what i would do but esentially it's not my decision (also my opinion hasn't been asked yet!) The next step will be an appointment with the oncologist at Addenbrookes to talk through the process of treatment that will give us more of an idea of what we're accepting or turning down. One further meeting with the consultant after that and we'll be ready to make a final decision.

thank you so much for your interest and concern. it's been a pretty trying time and we both still feel a bit up in the air about what's going on just because it's hard to turn off those months-long feelings of waiting and wondering.

and now i'm going to write a post more light hearted things so you're not greeted with news about brain tumours the second you log on here!!

watch this space

FAO all you lovely people out there who for one reason or another seem to give a damn about us, Mr K has an appointment to see the consultant this Wednesday. This is the biggy. We're expecting to find out if his tumour has; grown (requiring a biopsy, radiotherapy and who knows what outcome), stayed the same size and therefore is not cancerous but may need further monitoring or if God has healed him and the tumour has disappeared...?!?!?! Being a woman of not enormous faith in the healing department I'm expecting moderately good news ie option 'b'. However we are surrounded by friends and family all over the world who have been praying for months for him to be healed. My take on this, as a Christian, is that God is under no obligation to do as we tell him - you know, him being big and us being small (!) - but divine intervention kablamo style isn't something I'd turn down.

Whatever happens, the next couple of days are going to be somewhat stressful as we try and brace ourselves for the possibility of our world being held upside down and shaken a bit til all the loose change falls out of our pockets and we appreciate your thoughts, friendship and prayers.