So said Harold Macmillan when asked what tended to blow government plans off-course. And he was right - I still haven't finished the book, nor have I yet mastered the website, but I do have 13 Friends on Facebook at the last count (Come and join us, Come and join us - was that not a hymn, or have I lost my marbles completely?). Out of the blue, I was telephoned by a nice young man from the Guardian, named Oliver. Would I, he asked, like to write about 700 words on the Paralympics, given a comment I had made on a Guardian forum thread. Mastering the instant urge to say "No, I really wouldn't", I instead inquired if one would be threatened with financial reward - "Of course", he replied; "My Hero!" I noiselessly breathed. And leapt at the wordprocessor. Well, it was published - almost exactly word for word, which is somewhat unusual, and comments were opened online. I was then advised that not only would the piece appear on the website, but would actually be printed, in the paper. This did a great deal to deaden any feeling of annoyance at some of the comments I got --- d'you know, I think quite a lot of people don't read the words at all; they just read the headline, which has nothing to do with the writer, and base their entire comment on that. But so what - nothing new there...From this article, I got to appear on two radio phone-in programmes, and a television call-in via Skype. If ever you're invited to do one of these, my strong advice is don't: for one thing, they don't pay you; for another you can't see anything on screen other than your lovely self; and for yet another tv is still an amateur zone as compared to radio: the poor lad who questioned me hadn't read the article and didn't know what the hell he was doing. Radio was much more competent - and by comparison, enjoyable. Though they don't pay you either.... Swine. Anyway, point is, these events took a lot of time one way and another. And then I had to sort my pension/benefit status out, which I'm still in the process of doing. And I've still managed to paint an illustration on sort-of commission (I get fed now and then, and receive the occasional goody: bottle of whiskey, payment in kind), and three small acrylics for the Art for Youth Mystery Postcard competition - hard to judge exactly what's required for that, but they've used me twice so far and I'm happy to do it. But of course, I can't post any of this - so you'll just have to take my word for it that I've not been slacking entirely. There's an acrylic I'm itching to finish; an oil ditto; I'm naturally thinking of resurrecting my writing career, building on my recent success (of which I'm quite proud: the mission was to create a bit of an argument, and boy - did I!) - and I suppose that leads me into the obvious: ie, finish the blessed book. It's all been a bit of a whirl, really - but as proof I'm not dead yet, quite welcome. And don't forget to join me on Facebook, those who can be doing with it. www.wightpaint.blogspot.com