Days without alcohol - 44. Still not craving a return. There have so far only been about two occasions this year where I have thought - "oooh a little beer would be nice" or "I quite fancy a glass of wine," and those thoughts have quickly passed. It's still going very well, though I am certainly being less social than I was two months ago, but it's not really a bad thing. I thought that touring might make me hit the bottle, but I am driving home from most gigs and the idea of drinking alone in a Travelodge bar really doesn't appeal. So let's push on and see where we get to.
Another bit of breakfast radio today, this time for 6 Music, meaning a return to the old Andrew Collings show studio. I think it went OK, but again can't imagine that our short chat did any good.
Still I was up and out and about at 9.30am and did some work in a cafe near the BBC before popping into the Apple Store. I had to buy a new protective case for my Mac, but was also tempted by a bit of software called Crunch which claimed to allow me to convert my DVDs so that they would play on my iPod. I had been thinking of getting something similar for free from the internet, but decided I would try and do it all honestly and above board.
I wish I hadn't bothered. On getting home I discovered that it doesn't convert any of my shop bought DVDs which are encrypted. Perhaps I should have realised this - it is mentioned in very small print on the box - but I foolishly assumed that it would be OK. After all what is the point of the software if you can't use bought DVDs - merely so you can watch your home made DVDs on your iPod? That's certainly not the implication of the picture on the box, which shows a generic scene of a man in a leather coat running down a tunnel, clearly looking like a movie, rather than a home video. I don't know if they will let me take the software back now, but I might have a go, as I feel it is cynical, if not dishonest.
So I just downloaded the free internet software
from handbrake and now have an episode of Seinfeld on my iPod ready to be watched on a boring tube journey! It is illegal, but I have bought the DVDs and I don't feel too bad about it. Even if the papers today were full of warnings of people getting their internet connections cut off if they are caught downloading films. The difference is that I am watching stuff I have paid for. And I have overpaid for a useless piece of software too. Don't buy Roxio Crunch! That is the message of this blog. Don't be made a chump of like I was.
I made some headway on the Scrabble sit-com, so that is something. Yesterday I couldn't even sit down and concentrate for a second on work, today I wrote the whole opening scene in about an hour and a half. I don't know why this continues to astonish me. It's the way it's always been. I still live in hope that I might get into some kind of work routine. It's probably not going to happen is it? Though if I can continue to get up at 7.30 or earlier every morning then who knows?
The tour starts in earnest tomorrow. Hope to see you in Cheltenham or at one of the other stops on the tour.
