Went for a mile run tonight, my first in months and oh my god, what a lot of hard work is needed. Run a 13 minute mile and boy am I going to ache tomorrow.

Read Full Post

Is it only me that finds repugnant the release of the much-hyped Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 video game in the same week as Remembrance Sunday, Armistice Day, and the deaths of six British soldiers in Afghanistan?

Not being a fifteen-year-old-boy or an aging spod with no life, I admit I also find the game itself repugnant: the idea of selling the experience of armed combat as entertainment is actually offensive to me, and I can only wonder how the families of those who have lost loved ones in the recent conflicts, not to mention those fighting, feel about it.

But whose idea was it to schedule the 'premiere' (at a Leicester Square cinema, no doubt in order to borrow some of film's artistic legitimacy) on this particular day, in this particular week?

Read Full Post

No doubt this will get me into trouble yet again but I have to say that I am a little saddened by the actions of Jacqui Janes. For those of you that live in a cave and have not heard this story, Jacqui Janes is the poor mother of Jamie, her 20 year old soldier son who bravely lost his life in Afghanistan on 5th October. She was appalled to later receive a hand written letter of condolence from Mr. Gordon Brown which she states is nothing more that a rushed, scrawled and misspelled letter littered with half finished words. After her initial offence was made public, the Prime Minister telephoned assuring that no offence was intended but today I hear the only thing Mrs Janes has taken from that conversation was the 16 times Mr. Brown said sorry, yet still insists there was no apology. It is such shame that this 5th generation soldier who was on his second tour of Afghanistan and very proud to be serving his country, as well as making life better for the people of Afghanistan, is going to have his memory of being a hero overshadowed by a hand written letter.

Maybe a typewritten letter signed by a PM who did not even know its content would have brought more comfort.

You can see a copy of the letter at http://donnasdailydeliberation.blogspot.com/

Read Full Post

So far we have the Royal Mail postal strike, then the bin men went on strike and now I hear that some coach companies have gone on strike. Where will it all end? Let's just hope that MacDonald's does not follow suit or the UK may just wither and die

So after the initial disappointment of not securing a place in the 2010 London Marathon Ballot I decided to apply to The Little Miss and Mr Men Children with Leukaemia Charity and guess what, today I heard that the fairy godmother herself has waved her wand and I have a place. Well actually I have two places as an american friend of mine, Jamie, will be running with me. We do not have a theme yet but I have thrown the idea of Jamie pushing me in a wheel barrow into the pot. Let's see if he goes for it.

I’m a very recent convert to the X factor. We only started watching it as a family because our ten-year-old convinced us he would be a social pariah at school if he wasn’t able to confidently discuss who is in and who left (weeping) over the weekend. I liked to think I was a bit take-it-or-leave-it. But that all changed when Lucie Jones got voted off on Sunday. I finally understood Simon Cowell’s Machiavellian reputation and very much wanted to throw shoes at the telly.
Now there isn’t a huge amount in common between standing on a stage, singing overwrought pop songs, and being a sensitive, shy flower who likes to write stories, but it certainly isn’t without parallels.

Read Full Post

Elephants in Our Bedroom is, quite simply, one of the best books I've read. It is a very strong contender for my book of the year (watch out Kimball, Smailes and Tillyer!). You can read what I had to say about it here.

So, you can imagine how thrilled I am to have its author, Michael Czyzniejewski, here on the blog for an interview. And what an interview it turned out to be...



Welcome to the blog, Michael. It is one heck of a pleasure and an honour to have someone whose writing I admire so much here.

Thanks, Nik. I’m glad and honored myself—especially to talk to someone who spells “honored” with a “u.”



First of all, could you tell us a little about your short story collection, Elephants in Our Bedroom?

It’s a book I’d worked on for a long time. Those stories mean a lot to me, as they’re me finding my voice, finding myself as an artist. To see someone grab onto that, acknowledge it, and most of all, read it, verifies what I’ve been doing.



But in more simple terms, it’s a book of 24 short stories, most of them about how people can’t seem to figure out how to relate to each other anymore, with a lot of absurd concepts and images thrown in.



The stories in Elephants in Our Bedroom put me in mind, in themes and quality, of the work of Aimee Bender and Etgar Keret – who are probably my two favourite writers – and that’s got a lot to do with the unlikely and fantastic situations your characters find themselves in. Where do these situations come from? Is there a process or do they just happen?

I purposely try to come up with something that I think is clever, funny, challenging, impossible, uncomfortable, and bizarre all at the same time. I spend a lot of time thinking about things. Once I have something, though, I can run with it. It’s like moving the furniture around in your living room. Only certain things work, and once you find it, you just sit back and appreciate the news angles that you can look at things.

Read Full Post

I somehow doubt that this woman was in the top 100 when it came to short listing for the 'Mother of the Year Awards'?

http://donnasdailydeliberation.blogspot.com/2009/11/mother-of-year.html

I am tapping my fingers and waiting to hear if I have been sucessful is securing a place in the 2010 London Marathon. If I have then I will be running for Children with Leukemia....fingers crossed.