Friday, July 17, 2009



For those of you worried about the state of my mental health, fear not, for everything happens for a reason.

Take my interrupted sleep last night for example and this is true ... I woke up and wondered "whatever happened to the baby pictured on the front of Nevermind by Nirvana?" The album was released in 1991 so he'd now be 18 years old and I wondered if he boasted through High School about who he was or whether he had kept it a secret.

Well today, I found out who he was/is. His name is Spencer Elden, the son of the photographer's friend Rick Elden. It also transpires that Spencer Elden went onto appear on the cover of a cEvin Key (pronounced "Kevin Key") album in 2003.

And the pseudonym of cEvin Key??? ... Kevin William Crompton.
Following my last post I have nothing to report other than the "Making of Pinstripe" out-takes have been posted on YouTube and I'm fit and well after my annual colonoscopy.

Flew down to Bournemouth this morning to see my Mum (and watch Bournemouth v Spurs) and was amazed how much crap Ryanair can peddle in a one hour flight. Maybe I just noticed it more because we were on an early morning flight (not helped with not getting to sleep until 1.30am cus Gemma was finishing her article and then were up at 5.30am to get our flight) but, bloody hell, I was ready to wrestle the intercom off them and rip it out of the wall.

First of all we had the usual safety briefing, which I heard but didn't watch due to the fact I was trying to get some well needed kip. Then once the seatbelt lights had been turned off and I was just nodding nicely off to sleep we get the announcement over the tannoy that the cabin crew will be mincing up and down the aisle with the menu cards and went on to describe the majority of the items on the bloody menu (I recall frothy cappuccino, panninis etc etc). So up and down the aisle they mince asking every 2nd person, "menu cards? menu cards?" Once that was all over I settled my head on my hand once more in order to get some rest only for the tannoy to strike up again to announce that the cabin crew would now be circulating through the cabin with the inflight magazine which had a list of an exciting array of duty free items in the back. So up and down they strode again "In flight magazine? In flight magazine?" You expect these things when you go on a flight to a certain extent but it just went on and on ... and on. We were asked if we wanted to purchase Ryanair scratch cards with the chance to win thousands of fantastic prizes including a car and flight vouchers, Ryanair phone cards which could be used all over Europe or as a top to you mobile with a low call charge of only 6 cents per minute, we then had the tea trolley offering the delights from the menu (twice), and then a selection of perfumes from the duty free ... all announced on the tannoy and all involving the cabin crew mincing up and down the aisle trying to peddle their wares on a captive, albeit half-asleep audience.

I make that 7 times up and down the aisle (10 if you include 1 x collecting the menu cards, 1 x collecting the in-flight magazine and 1 x collecting the rubbish) which when you consider the flight is an hour and it's 15 mins before the seatbelt light goes off and 15mins before landing it comes back on again, that's somebody up and down the aisle ... and a bloody announcement every 3 to 5 minutes.

Further insult to injury is inflicted with the proficiency of the announcements. I'm all for foreigners practising their English but I wish they wouldn't do it (a) on a public address system, (b) when I'm trying to get some sleep and (c) when I have no-where to escape to.

So no Ryanair, I don't want any of your perfume however cheap, or coffee however expensive or any other crap that you might want to try and fob onto me whilst I'm at your mercy.

So I've now arrived in Poole having missed the hourly courtesy bus from the airport by 5 minutes and having to pay £25 for a taxi.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Nothing much to report at the mo although I have planned my objectives for the next 6 months.

1) Edit the Digging Deeper film script and submit to film type people. Receive rejections. Repeat process as required.

2) Whilst submitting film and waiting for rejections ... continue to write new novel (which I originally said would be out in the Autumn ... no chance)

3) If I get bored doing (1) or (2), have a go at actually writing the sit-com I've loosely come up with or writing the fighting fantasy book.

Do this whilst selling our current house, looking for a new house somewhere between Bath and Aberdeen (we've narrowed down the search parameters considerably), holding down a full-time job in a volatile construction industry and getting organised for G&H's wedding in France in August.

We also have tickets for the tattoo in Edinburgh next month and I'm looking to get tickets for U2 in Glasgow and A Band Called Quinn (if they're playing in the area any time soon).

Oh ... and I've signed up for twitter (not sure why) as THELEECROMPTON. Lee Crompton was "taken" but when you do a search for Lee Crompton, nothing comes up so I'm not quite sure how that works. They obviously heard I was coming.

Toodle Pip!