Day five – Backsliding

Uh, oh. It’s 11:45am and I’ve only just got out of bed. Actually, it’s not that bad. This is Sunday and on Sundays I never set an alarm, so I sleep for as long as I need to do so. Guess I needed ten hours. The bad news about this comes in two parts: (1) it will take me longer to get to sleep at a reasonable time tonight and (2) it will be dark in just over five hours.

I hate this day of the year. It makes me crazy when people say they love this day, because they get an extra hour of sleep. An extra hour of sleep in return for it being dark at five o’clock for four months? That has to be the crappiest bargain ever.

However, that is not the backsliding of the title. Yesterday, after putting in some hours on my contract work, I decided to have a cup of tea and read some news on the Guardian website. So far, so good. But then my finger twitched and before I knew it I was doing yesterday’s crossword puzzle. Sounds innocent, doesn’t it?

But, after four days of no stupid fucking spider solitaire, it’s a slippery slope. I’ve been here before, back in the days when I used to make and keep a vow in my journal not to play SFSS. This is how it starts. One crossword puzzle, because, hey, it isn’t SFSS, is it. Then that one crossword puzzle turns into ten. Then I’m stuck. Okay, I say the next day, just one code cracker or word search puzzle, ’cos they’re word puzzles, not SFSS, right? Then I find myself doing the week’s archive of both. Then it’s just one game of backgammon, ’cos it’s not SFSS, right? One game turns into ten, but at least I’m not playing SFSS. Then it’s a game of Hearts or Freecell, ’cos, okay, they’re computer card games, but they’re not SFSS, right. But those one games turn into ten and, what the hell, I’m already on the site, just one game of SFSS while I’m here. And that’s the end of that.

So, no crossword puzzles, no word games, no card games or I’ll be back on the hard stuff.

At least it’s not snowing today.

A panto rehearsal this afternoon, our first off book. After three years in the director’s chair, this year I have a small role. I only have about ten lines and I’ve only memorised about five of them. No, I’m not spending as much time with my script as I should. Probably because I don’t particularly like it. After three extremely clever scripts written by Robin Bailes and directed by me, the script chosen this year by another director is, well, what can I say, not particularly clever. The title says it all: May the Farce Be with You. Star Wars meets Jack and the Beanstalk. Definitely not a script I would have chosen and many of the actors I’ve loved working with for the past three years have taken a pass this year, so the rehearsals, while still fun, are undeniably not as much fun. The role I wanted – the Giant’s Wife – would have been easier to learn as it is confined to one scene. Instead, I’ve been cast as the nasty lady of the manor. Fun in many ways, but my character’s appearances are peppered throughout both acts. Something about that makes the lines harder to learn.

Oh, well, as Denis Norden used to say, it’ll be all right on the night.

Today’s black and white photo.