Friday, May 27, 2011

Travel plans

Contrary to what I said yesterday, I'm jetting out to Japan on June 5th, and filming with the BBC on the 14th. Which, I realised this morning, is my brother's birthday. I'll have to ask someone at the BBC to remind me on the day, in case I forget again - him being in China makes it easy to forget he exists, apparently.

Anyway, I'm pleased to report that I weigh 12 stone 11. Which, thanks to my anorexic blogging of my unsuccessful efforts to lose weight over the years, I can safely say I haven't weighed since January 2008. The goal is to get down below the 12 stone 4 I was in October 2007, when I first vowed to lose a few pounds and then spent the next three years getting fatter and fatter.

I'm also still training my memory on a regular basis, and doing reasonably well at it, too. Which makes me wonder whether I should start looking for a job (it's two months tomorrow since I left my last one, which was the point at which I decided I'll decide) or leave it for another month and keep up the good work...

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Hard at work

Next Saturday, June 4th, I'm going to Sheffield to play othello, on the 6th I'm going down to London for the exciting pilot episode of a new BBC show that I may or may not be allowed to talk about (I really should read the things I sign, or at least remember what I've skimmed through, but never mind), and then I'm apparently going to be flying out to Japan again for a big exciting TV show that they've decided at very short notice they want me to appear on.

Incidentally, I hate it when people come to me and ask "what kind of fee do you expect for doing this?" I mean, admittedly that's probably better than "we're not going to pay you, by the way," which are the terms on which I usually do TV shows, but I'd much prefer it if they named a fee, so I don't face the embarrassing prospect of asking for too much or too little.

Anyway, I'll have to learn to speak Japanese again now. That'll drive all the Chinese out of my brain. It's a tough life.

Monday, May 23, 2011

no Nou no

I was down in London today, filming for the upcoming (in the distant future) BBC show I've been talking about. I've signed the official secrets act, so I'm not supposed to talk about what it involves, you'll just have to be pleasantly surprised when you watch it. Today's stuff, though, was the exact same interview I've done a million times before, so you probably won't be surprised by that bit. But the rest of it will be interesting!

And I came home to find that I've been sent two copies of the new book "Kiseki no Nou no Monogatari" by Dr Ken Mogi, who filmed me last year for the TV show "The Best House 123". The book's all in Japanese, but I'm in it, so if anyone out there can read the language, I've got a spare copy you can have.

They came with a letter thanking me for giving permission to publish the book, which I don't think I did, but since I would have gladly given permission if anyone had asked, I don't really mind.