No More Heroes

Day 6 and I couldn't have wrun if I had wanted to. Man, I feel awful, I haven't felt this bad and sorry for myself since I stopped smoking. A long soak and a laze on the settee watching the two shouty Masterchef men and Curb Your Enthusiasm and I am starting to unravel a bit.........proof that lazing about is better for you. I shall start again tomorrow though, probably.

It hasn't all been indolence. I now park miles from the office and walk up a bloody big hill and lots of steps to get to it, and this afternoon I decided to walk from where I park to a meeting at the other end of town. Christ, it's a hilly town, I should have taken crampons and oxygen with me, the hill was vertical, and they have put houses all up it and an old folks home on top of it. As it plateaued, in the car park, I was going to take a well earned breather, but some young lady was looking out of the window at me, so I had to plough on, up the bloody steps. When I went in she came to greet me and I literally couldn't speak, I was so breathless, then someone asked if I was the afternoons entertainment. Dignity ain't in it.

Halfway up this bloody hill, I came across a raggedy arsed sheep scavenging in an overturned dustbin; this was after seeing a herd of the buggers stroll across the car park as if they owned it. It's like being on another planet, working up there.

It hasn't all been wrunning, either, I have finished the books I mentioned last week; the Peter Carey disappointed in the end, becoming very boring, the other two were superb though.

I am struggling now to get into anything, but I feel obliged to read the new Ray Banks, seeing as the publisher sent me a free copy. Initially, I didn't think it was as good as his others, and actually gave up at one point, but returned to it the following day. It has grown on me now, and as with his others, it moves along a bit quicker than I do in the park. The plotting seems overly contrived to me, but I am only half way in, so shall reserve judgement. The quality of the writing is superb, though it is hard to warm to Cal, but that is one of the great merits of Banks, he does not shy away from allowing his hero to be flawed and at times, the prose makes your heart sing.