When the critics lambast it.

If you want me to beta read, drop me a line.

Thanks, Once I've tidied up the first three chapters, I'll take you up on that offer!

Both grandad and grandma have passed away within a month of each other. Married for 70 years. Both were 1-2 years shy of 90.

Sorry to hear that. Condolences to you and yours. Not much else I can say, to be honest. I hope you can take some crumb of comfort knowing that they are together, once again.

now they are both still together. sorry to hear the sad news ...

Sorry to hear that, but I also find it somehow good that they both died around the same time. It can be a huge shake-up to suddenly be "alone" after 70 years together.

My wife and I have talked about it and, if we are "old", we'd like to die together. Not be the one left alone and not the one to be the cause of the pain of being alone.

It is a big loss for the rest of the family, but at least they were only separated for a few weeks, a little "holiday", before spending eternity together.

My condolences.

Thanks all. I've long made my peace with the nature of mortality many years ago. My grandma had been in decline for some years and she knew she would go soon, especially as she had been in and out of hospital so many times this year. My grandad and grandma had made a pact that they would go together, so when he learned that my grandma didn't have much time left, he too started to eat and drink less in an effort to die. Sadly it took another five weeks before he died and it was spent mostly in hospital.

Glompus Van De Hloed's Tales From The Crypt

Does anyone else remember this? I heard it as a teenager, a friend gave me a recording and I used to listen to it regularly. I'd love to find an Audilble version.

I think the recorded it at the Fringe. Starring Andrew Sachs, Mel and Griff, Rory McGrath and a few more. I seem to remember that it was half of Not the Nine O'Clock News and half of Who Dares Wins...

It had some great jokes, many of which came so thick and fast, the audience totally missed them.

Inspector Bribeasy: I'll show the Chief Inspector how intelligent I am!

Sergeant Porno: Right, Sir! You get the tape measure and I'll get the two short planks.

Or
"Here, Professor, it seems like we've been going round in circles!"
"Creephole had noticed that I had nailed one of his feet to the floor."

How to make a girl smile.

Watch this, but beware...in Russia the video watches you.

I encounted Vinhetero's channel last year some time. I think it was something about evolution of music over time. It's quite freaky how he looks at the camera until it was pointed out that he uses a teleprompter to read music. Still, he does some fun stuff and I like his rendition of classical songs - if he produced an album, I'd certainly buy it.

Ah damn, some of the magic just died
I've watched a fair few of his videos. Good stuff.

Went away for a few days, and only had a notebook and pencil, but still got some writing done. Typed up my notes, and added a bit more, and I've now passed the 50,000 word mark, and am still going strong.

Had a funny experience with Excel yesterday. I wanted to print out a huge spreadsheet, to get an idea of just how big it was.

I thought I'd print a 1 page overview (i.e. tiny cells, unreadable, but giving a sense of scale). I selected the option "fit all columns and all rows on a single page", Excel told me, with this option, it would print out 41 pages!

Quick update, and a slight change of plans.

I've now broken the 76,000 word mark, so I'm now looking at the final stretch. Another 15,000 words and I should be about there.

Dave, if you're still up for having a read, that would be great.

I decided not to send out anything yet, as I am still making changes, and don't want to be in a position where I'm asking people to re-read chapters just because I've changed a sentence or two.