Rainy Wakefield

Greetings from a rainy Wakefield. This place is genuinely rather depressing, filled with boarded-over shops, abandoned building projects and empty pubs and clubs. If anyone's looking for a city which sums up the hell of recession and the fact that we're a long way away from recovery, I'd suggest a little jaunt up here.

I was in a far more bustling Leeds this morning. I took the train there, first thing, for a meeting with Rozina and Katrina at the BBC about Brass, which they're going to be covering in depth as part of their commemoration of the First World War. It's all very exciting. I just need to write a decent musical now!

Rather surreally, as I was sitting on the sofas outside the radio studios, deep in conversation with a journalist called Tim, Nathan traipsed past to do an interview about his pantomime. He'd announced last night that he was due to do a radio interview "somewhere in Leeds" at noon, and it was only when he got in the car this morning that he was told the interview was actually with the BBC! A proper coincidence.

I spent the afternoon in Wakefield struggling to make my dreadful computer work; just connecting it to the internet in Nathan's flat became some sort of extreme endurance test (which I failed miserably) and I got so frustrated that it became almost impossible to do any work. I just shook with rage whilst contemplating throwing the blessed thing out of the widow. This is, without any exception, the most horrific computer I've ever owned. The very worst purchase, which actually hinders my life in a multitude of ways. I think the problem is a combination of things; the brand (Acer) and Windows 8 being the two main culprits, alongside my inability to troubleshoot technical problems. I just want to run away.

We went for a drink with the cast, crew and band after Nathan's second show. It's slightly weird that I haven't yet seen the pantomime - that all happens tomorrow night - so in the meantime I have nothing to say to anyone!