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Even though I was only in the city for less than 24 hours, I managed to pick up a bug in Edinburgh. I felt it crawl into my throat during Mat Ewin’s show and sure enough it’s laid its disease ridden Scotch eggs in me and left me with an annoying lurgy. One that is not bad enough to knock me down, but annoying to deal with. Oh Edinburgh, you always get me in the end.
I didn’t realise how bad I felt until I had travelled into London for a meeting about my new book. With some additional lower back pain having kept me up most of the night I was not on top form. I am 51 now. This is just how I will feel all the time. But don’t worry, I’m taking you down with me, by constantly writing and talking about it. Oooh, my back. And so on.
I tried out a new route into town, going from Harpenden to Blackfriars (a five minute walk from my publishers). Other Herts residents warn me that this is not a very reliable service, but it got me into town in the advertised 35 minutes. Come on, who said living in the countryside was rubbish. Not me, that’s for sure. And anyone who says it was me is lying.
Harpenden station car park has spaces, but by 9.35 when I arrived, all the nearby ones had gone and it was quite a walk to the station. Also, had I arrived at 10, I would have got parking for half the price and still been just about in time for my 10.08 train. This is just a little Hertfordshire commuting service that I provide. I could have gone from Luton instead. Haven’t yet tested what parking is like there. Come on, this is gold.
The ticket machines at the station were all broken except one and I was on the car park side, where there is no ticket office. I wanted to use my Network Rail card (again well worth getting if you travel off peak within the south eastern part of the country as you get a third off all fares so it quickly earns its cost back), but that doesn’t work until after 10. I hoped that if maybe I waited for the previous London train to leave that the machine would have the sense to know that there was no way I could use my ticket until the correct time and let me use it, but it didn’t. I went to the back of the queue, arriving at the front at 9.59. Surely now, common sense would kick in. There’s no way that anyone can use their ticket before 10 if they’re still at the ticket machine. Especially given their train isn’t arriving for 10 minutes. It would be crazy to make people wait, holding up the queue… But the rail service is nothing if not insane. In this modern world of intelligent computers, this machine does not let you buy the discounted ticket until after 10am. What a crock of shit. Oh my back.
The meeting went well in spite of my slowed down brain. I was surprised to discover that there will be printed copies of the book in a couple of weeks. But of course it will be available to buy in shops in a little over five weeks. How exciting.
It’s a book that will work for people who have never heard the podcast and I think it will liven up Boxing Day with your family, so it’s the perfect Christmas gift for all the family (maybe skip some of the rude questions though).
Of course if the book is a success it will give us more chance of developing Emergency Questions and RHLSTP further and also I will earn some money (I know that that's not in the spirit of podcasting). So do support this venture if you can.
Another fab guest added to the series 14 RHLSTP roster. On October 8th I will be talking to acting/writing/directing genius Alice Lowe.
Book here.
