Gospel for the Godless...

Today has been a day of doing very little... In fact, I’m struggling to think if I’ve done anything at all. I’ve watched a bit of telly, sat in something of a coma on the sofa and done some tinkling on the piano, but sadly I’ve run out of manuscript paper, so the creativity bank is now closed. What a waste of a day.


I suppose I’m just winding down whilst my body attempts to recover from the shock of what I’ve put it through over the past 4 months. I’ll crank things up again on Monday.

I’ve been doing the slightly tragic thing that all creative people try their hardest to avoid doing, namely reading reviews. I've now read all the comments about A Symphony for Yorkshire online, including, several times, every single remark written on You Tube! It still seems that people are being rude about the young rapper in the film, which I think is really tough. I suppose putting anything into the public domain opens it up to whatever criticism comes its way, but I wonder what goes through these people’s minds when they write so viciously about a youngster. Aside from this, I do seem to have become unnaturally obsessed with reading what people have to say about the project. I’m not sure I believe the people who say that they never read their reviews, but I'm sure my behaviour is a league of its own. Not only do I read everything, good or bad about six times, but I regularly google myself to boot, which is surely not healthy. I felt very bad when Nathan pointed out that I’ve been somewhat self-obsessed since coming back from Yorkshire; my mind so firmly fixating on the symphony and the way people are responding to it, that I haven’t spared any time for him and what he’s been up to. This must change...

And for the Nathan fans out there, he’s just about to do a two week run at the Soho Theatre singing as part of the London Show Choir with Our Lady J, who is a transsexual singer songwriter, who plays the piano, I’m told, like a Goddess. The show is called Gospel for the Godless and it starts at 10pm and runs for an hour.

Monday August 6th, 1660, and Pepys was forced to have his dinner all alone. Elizabeth was still in bed, and still in a great deal of pain, “which I was troubled at, and not a little impatient.” Pepys, as ever, refreshingly honest. He spent the afternoon at the office of the Privy Seal before heading back to the City with Mr Man, the sword-bearer. The pair drank on Fenchurch Street until 11pm. Mr Man was still after Pepys’ Clerk of the Acts position, and offered a fat 1000l to have it signed over to him. Pepys wrote later that the offer had “made my mouth water”. I'll say!