Crikey and criminy, it's been a while since my last blogpost and I apologise for that. Life gets in the way sometimes.
The first big distraction was discovering that I have Type 2 Diabetes;a bit of a shock, especially as I am completely asymptomatic. But, putting a positive spin on it, it is controllable and it's a huge boot-kick up my capacious arse to lose some weight. 22lbs lost so far (and having gone through Christmas with no alcohol, chocolate or sweet treats - sob!) I'm feeling better already. I'm on the way to solving my own problem :)
Secondly, I'm off and running on researching for the new Series M of QI and will be pulling together two scripts this year. Well, I say scripts ... the show is pretty much a bunch of smart people randomly riffing on a series of curious topics. But someone has to pick the questions, put them in order and couch them in a precise way so that Stephen can squeeze the maximum interestingess from the panellists. So that's me for the next four months. Expect marsupials, missiles, mad monks and mud.
I've also finished off the work I've done for Dr Sue Black's brilliant book Saving Bletchley Park, which is being designed and typeset as we speak. That's going to be a cracking read I can promise you. I'm also working on a couple of small publishing projects and will be doing a few talks and events this year, some VERY exciting with people much more imortant and famous than me sharing the bill. So ... huzzah!
That said, behind the scenes, the work of pulling Why Did The Policeman Cross The Road? together continues. Around 80% of the book is now written and the other 20% is plotted out and the research completed. If we can just get off this half-funded plateau, I can get the goshdarned thing finished, designed, typeset, printed and delivered to all of you delicious subscribers.
Tell the world! Just 45% to go!
The problem solving shedposts will resume shortly.
I leave you with one more 'distraction' from the past few months - my appearance in one of Channel 4's Short Shorts series for 4OD. The series is called Bad Dates. You can see my short short 3 minute episode here on Youtube. The other two episodes (both hilarious!) can be seen on the 4OD site here. I hope it gets a series!
Oh, and if you're wondering where you've seen Toby - the 'young' me - before, he's been in lots of TV drama and he's a great comedian. But you may know him best as the vet in that Specsavers advert where he can't tell the difference between a cat and a hat. Curiously, he's a really popular and busy voice-over artist ... but I'm voicing him this time!
P.s. I should offer some defence for picking McDonalds for a first date I suppose. Just bear in mind that it was 1982 and McDonald's was something new and different and actually pretty cool. It was a slice of Americana of a kind we hadn't really seen in the UK before. And that bad date was my very first visit to one. But not the last. Sigh.