Interview hell!

I had three hours' sleep last night, which, added to the four I had the night before, and the five I had the night before that adds up to profound insanity. I've felt very strange all day: A sensation which is strangely reminiscent of being hung over, even though I didn't drink a drop last night...

I decided, for safety reasons, to take a train down to Brighton instead of  driving. So at six am, hands shaking like an addict, I was on the phone to some call centre in India, trying to ascertain whether an early train to Brighton would break the bank. 

The train journey was fairly hideous. I  received a phone call from BBC Radio York, who wanted to do a follow-up BAFTA interview, which, on the train and on a mobile phone, was always going to go catastrophically wrong. It was no surprise, therefore, when I lost reception mid-interview. No doubt the whole of Yorkshire heard me splutteringly telling the interviewer that I couldn't hear her, before sighing and swearing to myself. It's probably just as well the interview was terminated. I didn't win, so she'd no doubt have asked about the celebrities who were present at the party, and I'd have had to make something up more interesting than the fact that I'd eaten Danny Dyer's pudding after he left! Actually, that's not a bad anecdote is it?!

Anyway, on the train on the way down, I tried to get my head around the enormity of the task we had in front of us today. The plan was to finish mixing Brass tracks, but that was never going to happen without a ludicrous and highly stressful scramble, which would have lowered standards all round... So I took a deep breath, called the masterer and the CD manufacturers, cancelled everything in my diary tomorrow and decided to stay down here an extra day. 

It turns out I was absolutely right to do so. We managed another five songs today but have three to complete tomorrow, and then, of course, all the rest to double check and tweak... Some of them need overhauls. We'd never have got it done. It would have been hell on earth. 

I finished the session, went to Marks and Spencer to buy a pair of socks, a T-shirt and some boxers, bought a toothbrush and deodorant and am currently sitting, like a monged-out lemon, on Fiona's sofa, whilst Fiona double-stops arpeggios on the violin in her bedroom next door!

I am overdosing on caffeine to stay awake as long as I need to tonight,

but it's not just my joints, bones and brain which are knackered. My ears have stopped working too!