24 December 2010	INDEX
2010 and all that Both my children are healthy, have somewhere to live and have jobs. I guess that's pretty good. Most of 2010 has been a happy year for me. I'd still like to get a job, though I have more or less given up applying, but I have come to the conclusion that a regular job doesn't suit me. Although it is disturbing not to know if you are going to have any income tomorrow (let alone next month), the freelance life seems to suit me. In 2010 I spent quite a lot of time going up to Lincolnshire to video Amy Winehouse's former husband Blake. He's an intelligent, charming man but also a heroin addict. Right now the project has stalled but you never know it may get going again. It cost me quite a lot of money, but I learned a lot about making documentaries so maybe it was worth it. It's said to take ten years to get into the video business. It takes you that long to get your bearings, make the contacts and establish yourself. I've only been doing it for two or three years but I had some interesting experiences in 2010. I managed to severely frighten one rather famous documentary director (a large man who rides an even larger motorbike) while another equally famous director wrote me a very kind note to say I'd got it right about her video and she was rethinking it because of what I'd said. Not exactly fame. Not exactly fortune. But maybe I'm getting closer to the action? Who knows? The video business is a weird world and anyone who says they understand it, knows nothing about it. I think I lost quite a lot of weight in 2010, though I don't really know how much I weighed a year ago. Certainly trousers that were more or less too tight for me a year ago how have quite a lot of spare space. I also started running much more often (more or less every day) and continued to swim regularly. I now feel fitter than I have for years. This could be because I gave up alcohol two months ago. You may think this is quite remarkable but in truth I often give up alcohol in the Autumn. This time, however, I plan to carry on with the abstinence (though I may have a boozy night or two over the Christmas holidays). Years ago I started to get profound muscle strain in my legs which I put down to running too often when I was probably too heavy to be a runner. I tried to take time off running but the strains came back almost as soon as I re-started. In particular my achilles tendons seriously ached. This year I have been drinking a lot of green tea, which supposedly has anti oxidents that are useful in dealing with this problem. It seems to have worked. I am now running more often than I have ever done yet the strains have more or less disappeared. I also started to take aspirin on a regular basis since it is said to reduce the chance of getting cancer by 20-25%. My father has had two bouts of cancer so I may be prone to it. The latest advice is to consider taking aspirin if you are 50 or over. In 2010 I made some very tough decisions that will have far reaching effects. I decided to sell my flat for a considerably reduced price and may well have to leave London soon. On the positive side I am fed up with the noise, pollution and danger in London and would like to get away, if I could. On the negative side, perhaps because I spend most of my time close to my home I now seem to know more people and have a bigger friendship group than at any time in my life. I also love Lea Marshes. It will be gut wrenching if I have to leave. In February I and another guy rescued a boat that had come unmoored and was careering down the Lea Navigation in a very dangerous fashion. In October my cat Charlie died. It was ten years ago that Charlie came to stay. He was a very clever, sociable cat and had become almost a friend. Although he had FIV, the cat version of Aids, he lived quite a long life since he was probably three or four years old when he arrived. Even so his death caused me a great deal of sorrow. I continued to earn my living from public relations (though I also got a small amount of money from compiling crosswords). A very small per centage of my earnings in 2010 came from making videos, including a grant from Apex Arts (ironically the Hitchcock), and a couple of video jobs for an old friend Tony Coll. I have hopes of making a living creating videos for web sites and Tony has helped me hone my technique, improve my portfolio and provided some very useful income.
24 December 2010	INDEX