Jennie's News Page

We're getting towards the end of the press part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival now, after what seems like an age. For most of the last week I've been working from 8:30 in the morning through till midnight. I'm worn out, my eyes are sore, my back is cramping, and I keep having to take time out to flex my arms and restore bloodflow, but we've got a lot of excellent material out of it. Donald has been wonderful, bringing me cups of tea and cooking me dinner, and being very patient with my phone bleeping in the middle of the night. Stuart, of course, has been very busy himself, spending half his time through in Edinburgh photographing the likes of Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Brian Cox and Sean Connery. He's got Ray Harryhausen to look forward to tomorrow. He's also been drinking on my behalf at assorted media parties. Alcohol is strictly off-limits for me until this is over.

In the meantime, I've also had to find time for my own stuff. I went in for my breath test at the hospital last week, needing to be escorted because my blood sugar was so low due to the previous day's restricted diet, and then I got very faint whilst the test was in progress, and had to get a bed to lie down on, but the nursing staff were very helpful and made sure I got safely home. Unfortunately, though we're still waiting for confirmation from the lab, it looks like the test was negative. This means that I probably don't have the easily treated disorder we'd expected and I have to wait for yet another appointment with a gastroenterologist to try and find out what is wrong. In the meantime the pain continues and hopes of being able to get drunk on my birthday have evaporated. Not that it'll be a bad party as a result - I'm still looking forward to it. It's now going to be held at Aidan's place, with a 1920s theme. Donald laughed heartily when I informed him of my intention to be Silent. "Only visually," I clarified.

Due to the festival I haven't been out much recently - even in meetings I've had to excuse myself being on call - but I hope to get to the pub on Wednesday to see my friends and debrief a couple of my writers there. I'd like to go to Bedlam to celebrate my freedom next Saturday, but don't know how easy it will be to find a posse. Everyone's sick of the music there. I sympathise; unfortunately the venues which I'd otherwise prefer are largely physically inaccessible for me.

In the midst of all this I have unfortunately had very little time for my novel but I have got some useful research done, so I'll see how that pays off. I've also secured (I think!) another website project to work on, so that should keep me busy. And I still have the Scottish government's poverty consultation to finish before the end of the month...

I'll write more here when I get the opportunity.