I'm in an empty house right now...
I'm resting my computer on an empty shelf of a bookshelf because there is no table and I'm standing up to write because there is no chair.
There is nothing quite like moving. There's also nothing like the last hour or so in the house, when, bit by bit, everything is gone, and you retreat to the last room in the house with a table in it, and then there's no kettle to boil water in for tea and no mugs to put the tea in even if I boiled the water and nothing to sit on while drinking the tea anyway.
I'm left with things I'm going to put into my Mini, mostly clothes, books and computer & phone things, and then I drive South. When I'm ready for more fiction, I'll play the audio book of John Crowley's Little, Big, I think. Otherwise, there are many CDs (lots of them things people gave me while I was on tour that I never stopped in one place long enough to listen to).
Cat's done a sterling job getting the world into boxes and out the door: Amanda and I couldn't have done it without her, nor without Lee, Amanda's Cloud Club landlord (that's not the right word for what Lee is -- here's an article that explains it better than I can).
I can't wait to be able to move into the next house and unpack everything again, and make tea. There's a kettle waiting for me. It's on a moving van. It's in a box.
Let's see: the kind of stuff I'd usually have Twittered or Tumblerd or Facebooked, I will tell you now. Please pass the word along, if you are on such platforms:
First off, THEATRE! I want to congratulate Lenny Henry and Tanya Moodie for their What'sOnStage Theatre nominations, for Fences (for Best Actor and Actress, respectively) and to I want to congratulate Tori Amos and everyone involved in The Light Princess for their nominations, including Best Newcomer (for Tori) and Best Musical. (I also loved The Events, by David Greig). You can see the full list at http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/12-2013/the-full-2014-whatsonstage-awards-shortlists_32864.html and you can vote for your own favourites at http://awards.whatsonstage.com/ (A vote for The Light Princess increases your chances of seeing it elsewhere, he hinted cheerfully.)
Secondly: A PIER!
The Ocean at the End of the Lane -- the road, rather than the book -- is where the busses drop people off in Southsea for the Canoe Lake and the South Parade Pier.
There is a trust that exists to buy, rescue and renew the South Parade Pier itself -- already once partly burned down in 1974 during the filming of TOMMY.
The future hung in the balance and came down on the good side. The pier survived that... Now it needs help to get to the 22ndt Century.
The website is at http://southparadetrust.org/, and you can buy a calendar and prints showing the pier in the style of many famous artists. Like this:
....
I wrote this blog entry, then forgot to press publish in the final mad loading of the car, and drove south for five hours. I just woke up in a motel somewhere chilly, with the vague impression I had forgotten something, and I pondered, like an author of very little brain, and realised it was this blog entry.
Hitting publish in three, two, one...
I'm resting my computer on an empty shelf of a bookshelf because there is no table and I'm standing up to write because there is no chair.
There is nothing quite like moving. There's also nothing like the last hour or so in the house, when, bit by bit, everything is gone, and you retreat to the last room in the house with a table in it, and then there's no kettle to boil water in for tea and no mugs to put the tea in even if I boiled the water and nothing to sit on while drinking the tea anyway.
I'm left with things I'm going to put into my Mini, mostly clothes, books and computer & phone things, and then I drive South. When I'm ready for more fiction, I'll play the audio book of John Crowley's Little, Big, I think. Otherwise, there are many CDs (lots of them things people gave me while I was on tour that I never stopped in one place long enough to listen to).
Cat's done a sterling job getting the world into boxes and out the door: Amanda and I couldn't have done it without her, nor without Lee, Amanda's Cloud Club landlord (that's not the right word for what Lee is -- here's an article that explains it better than I can).
I can't wait to be able to move into the next house and unpack everything again, and make tea. There's a kettle waiting for me. It's on a moving van. It's in a box.
Let's see: the kind of stuff I'd usually have Twittered or Tumblerd or Facebooked, I will tell you now. Please pass the word along, if you are on such platforms:
First off, THEATRE! I want to congratulate Lenny Henry and Tanya Moodie for their What'sOnStage Theatre nominations, for Fences (for Best Actor and Actress, respectively) and to I want to congratulate Tori Amos and everyone involved in The Light Princess for their nominations, including Best Newcomer (for Tori) and Best Musical. (I also loved The Events, by David Greig). You can see the full list at http://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/12-2013/the-full-2014-whatsonstage-awards-shortlists_32864.html and you can vote for your own favourites at http://awards.whatsonstage.com/ (A vote for The Light Princess increases your chances of seeing it elsewhere, he hinted cheerfully.)
Secondly: A PIER!
The Ocean at the End of the Lane -- the road, rather than the book -- is where the busses drop people off in Southsea for the Canoe Lake and the South Parade Pier.
There is a trust that exists to buy, rescue and renew the South Parade Pier itself -- already once partly burned down in 1974 during the filming of TOMMY.
The future hung in the balance and came down on the good side. The pier survived that... Now it needs help to get to the 22ndt Century.
The website is at http://southparadetrust.org/, and you can buy a calendar and prints showing the pier in the style of many famous artists. Like this:
....
I wrote this blog entry, then forgot to press publish in the final mad loading of the car, and drove south for five hours. I just woke up in a motel somewhere chilly, with the vague impression I had forgotten something, and I pondered, like an author of very little brain, and realised it was this blog entry.
Hitting publish in three, two, one...
Labels: driving south, fences, Moving Out, tea, The Light Princess, theatre