The following things were in the post waiting to be read when I got back from holiday:
- Paperback copy of Penny Dreadful from CafePress
- Tickets for the filming / recording of three BBC programmes, one radio and two TV
- Acknowledgement from the BBC of receiving Penny – a form letter of course but a nice one – it said “I am looking forward to reading it”. I wasn't expecting that, even though everyone gets it – I was expecting a 'ho hum, not another script' response.
- A refund cheque from the Inland Revenue for nearly £5,000
- A stupid letter from the Spitfire's insurers that I was supposed to phone up about today but forgot
Could have been a lot worse…
The status with Penny is that I've sent a draft to the BBC who, it seems, are a bit more indulgent when judging work: they'll act if they see promise and not reject something if it fails to be the finished polished product. But to send it to anyone else (like independent production companies) it needs to be finished and polished and almost ready to shoot, so now I need to work in criticism like the stuff from people here and redraft…
Still trouble with the noisy neighbours, the council says people have been complaining about them while we've been away – it's good to know it's not just us being over-sensitive. You do start to wonder after a while. But I can hear their music clearly now and I'd really rather not.
The tax refund has taken some of the pressure off about finding work, but I'm still looking. It seems increasingly unlikely that I'll be able to go back to the Royal Mail, which is a major disppointment, so I need to look further afield now. Started today by applying to an agency that handles freelancers. They placed a couple of people with us during the big RM project and seemed okay. We'll see.
Other than that, not much. Will have to go to Kingston soon to pay in the cheque (forgot to go today). The big project now that Penny's almost off my hands is to finish the rebuild of my website, which has been dragging on for almost a year now.