giza

No, I'm not at the Pyramids today, at least not in real life, but I'm using Cairo for a scene in my novel. Actually I'm using the desert and the city rather than the Pyramids, but I thought the pyamid and sphinx at Giza would make a fine picture for today. Its quite a long time since I was in Cairo, but the first time I was there a friend drove me over to take a look at the Pyramid in this picture. I'd expected the journey to be into the desert and needing a four wheel drive with lots of supplies of water, but we just jumped into his family saloon and drove all the way.

If you havn't visited Giza, you may think it is right in the desert, but actually its just a few hundred metres from a housing estate and a couple of large hotels. We sat in the restaurant of one of the hotels eating mezze and looking at the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. At the time it was quite a surreal experience, as I'd only been off the plane for a few hours by the time we were standing by a Pyramid. I liked Cairo, and had a chance to explore along the Nile as well and even ordered a small silver cartouche from a jewellry trader which I was able to collect on a subsequent visit.

But now, I'd better get back to my epic plot.

Chelsea Bus

Occasionally its good to just post something 'day to day' like this London Bus in Chelsea. Thats where I am today, in King's Road and other parts of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Its one of my favourite parts of London and there's always plenty happening.

NaNoMagic

The Nanomagic is starting to work now and my characters of James, Anya, Karen, Mohammad, Douglas and so forth are beginning to work out what they need to do to have a part in the novel. I'm writing it in a slightly non-linear style which is quite interesting (for me!) and it gives a chance to create little back-stories for characters whilst thinking of the next plot development.

Its already got quite a lot of action and I just know will make a great screenplay (!). I suppose I'd better start deciding which Hollywood stars to involve in the movie. But in the next few minutes I need to start getting ready to be taken out to be wined and dined and then tomorrow I gather I'm in Chelsea for the day.

Click here for a peek at the first few pages!

sitting on top of the world

Well, here's an impression from my flight back to UK on Thursday. As its also my birthday today, I though I should find something inspiring. The flight had a fairly clear sky and so the view of the French and Swiss Alps was pretty good until we got to Grenoble and the clouds started to bump the edges. In the distance, for quite a long part of the flight, I could see Matterhorn towering over the lesser peaks. It took me a while to find my camera to take a photo, however. And what was interesting was the number of other 'seasoned travellers' who were also taking in the view.

NaNoWriSlow

I was a trifle late out of the gates for the NaNoWriMo musings this year. The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel between 1st and 3oth November. I did this last year and by around this point I was at 16,000 words. This time I'm at 5,500. I reckon by Sunday I need to be at around 16,000 to be anywhere near on track. That is quite a lot of writing. Hmmm. And it looks as if this weekend will be sunny...

UPDATE: Well now its Friday evening and I've decided to write some more to try to catch up. It may not be top quality, but I managed to get the Apache helicopter into the first scene. When it gets made into a big budget movie it will need a good opening sequence before the titles.

Casino Royale

After yesterday's party, I feel as if I've just come back from Casino Royale, and so am pleased to see I will be able to re-live the experience in a few days when the film arrives.

In the meantime, I will have to make do with the strategy game which allows us to search for James Bond like artifacts and meet all kinds of villains.

I'm also pleased to see that 007 has reverted to a proper Aston Martin, from which to perform his various adventures.

croissant on the croisette

Departing Cannes this afternoon, via Nice and then back to London. This morning I enjoyed petit dejeuner looking to the sea, before starting some work. Yesterday night was a bit of a party and today the calm makes a great contrast. Cafe au lait and croissant (but no Gitane).

Rums felled

So Rumsfeld is out. Its claimed that Bush had already decided a few days ago that a "fresh perspective" was needed at the Pentagon. With the level of criticism of Iraq, Bush pulled one of the instigators, but strangely he waited until after the mid terms and the Democrats made big gains.

Bushman ex short term CIA director Bob Gates takes over from Donny, though Republican chadman James Baker(he of the Florida re-count) is going to run the study about what to do next in Iraq, allegedly reporting by Christmas.

But now America has Democrats running the House of Representatives and maybe the Senate, it will be interesting to see whether theres the start of hearings related to US foreign policy.

Rumsfeld is purported to have said "We know they have weapons of mass destruction, we don't need any debate about it." But this uber-confidence overwhelmed him in the end. The Rummy way of describing "known unknowns" reinforced his view that Iraq was a little understood and unfamiliar war, complex for people to understand.

You bet.

OTA: Wordless Wednesday

cannes, by phone

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

6

Here's a few 6 word novels wot I rote tonight...

WAR: government seductress; seditious downfall; army state.

LOVE: electric eyes; softly taken; eternal embrace

DEVASTATION: Do not press the big red...

SPIRAL: lonely glue high crushed car flames

KIDS : flopsy bunny shows giraffe skipping trick

and I tag:

Si, Debra, Struggling Author, Maximus Bobulos, Jo, roger of the plog and ANYONE from BlogAllStars. Please a) do it and b) tag it on...

excuse my lack of proper links: I'm on wet string linked thinkpad at the moment - I'll patch the links when I get some bandwidth.

Bon soir.

canned

Tonight I will make up for some sleep deficit over the last few days. Since last Thursday, I've had around five hours of sleep because of my rather compressed schedule.

I flew into Nice this morning after starting from home at 06:30 and have been in various scheduled events all day - it doesn't feel at all like a Sunday, which I believe is supposed to be lazy.

Tonight I was sitting with a small group in a pleasant hotel room where we decided to order from room service instead of hitting the town. We had some super food, in my case a 'make it yourself' spaghetti carbonara under the watchful eye of my Italian friend who said she would rate the final production.

By the time we finished it was very late and I then wandered back through the Mediterranean air to my own hotel.

Guy Fawkes in Battersea

Today consisted of a tiny amount of sleep before helping with an apartment move to Chelsea - which went very much to plan!

Afterwards, the group of us decided to grab a bite to eat and found an excellent Italian restaurant in Lower Sloane Street. Tonight happens to be one of the main Guy Fawkes Night party evenings so the streets in the area were filled with people on their way to the big fireworks party in Battersea Park.

We crossed the twinkling Chelsea bridge on the Thames and noticed many fireworks in the sky.

Much later, as we left the restaurant, the air was laden with the smell of gunpowder.

Remember, Remember the Fifth of November...