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Strange things in the night - next door...

¦ dialling in from Jesus Mound ¦

14:43 GMT  I forgot to mention the main event that occured last night, after I got back...partially soaked from the torrential rain. I poured a glass of wine and threw myself down onto the comfortable sofa bed, in Dad's room, which has been my home for the last 2 weeks. Flicked on the TV and  found The Burbs was on. One of my favourite flicks to watch on repeat. I was chuckling away at Tom Hanks looking down from his bedroom window, watching his neighbours, the Klopeks, out in the pouring rain with lanterns, hacking away at their garden with shovels, as if digging up a grave...

... the commercial break comes on and I shuffle through to the kitchen for a refill of wine. Outside the rain is still hammering down. Something catches my eye. A flickering light, coming from near the bottom of next door's garden (Les' side). I squinted through my own reflection in the window but couldn't see a thing. I turned off the kitchen lights and could now clearly see the flickering glow of...a lantern, and what looked like a figure out there in the rain. Eh? What?

I hurried upstairs to mum's room, cracked open the window and took a better look. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Almost an exact duplicate of the scene on the television a few minutes earlier... one man, dressed in a heavy coat slick and glistening with rain, standing near an electric lantern, weilding a shovel and digging up the earth.  I looked closer. There was Les, the neighbour, digging something up out of the earth...he'd reached a point where he'd cleared away the top layer of soil and was now carefully scraping away the deeper soil so as not to damage whatever was down there. The features of his face were creased with concentration, there was an urgency and desperation in his expression.

I couldn't believe this.

I hurried downstairs, pulled on my boots and a raincoat and headed out into the back garden... Les didn't hear me approach because of the rain, so when I muttered BOO right behind him the guy shrieked like a girl and nearly expired from a heart attack on the spot. The shovel that had been in his hand ended up about two metres away as his whole body convulsed in shock. I was in a humerous mood but also slightly wary I was about to discover the nice-bloke-who-lives-next-door was digging up some forgotten child...or worse?

Les explained what was going on and I nearly fell over laughing.

Les pointed at the soft form, wrapped in plastic he was digging up... I went over and took a closer look. At that moment, a door in the back of Les' house opened up and a large stocky man started striding towards us. What the fek? Who was this?

As the large men stepped into the lantern light I saw his face was scrunched up with some painful emotion.

Oh my God...

I stepped away respectfully as the man dropped down onto his knees next to the hole, and started gently clearing away the last of the rain-sodden earth with his finger... his shoulders shuddering with quiet sobs.

You see, dear reader, Les, my very nice neighbour, had agreed to look after this man's most treasured pet a few days earlier... a big, floppy eared rabbit. Unfortunately for Les, the rabbit had caught some kind of virus and died. Les felt terrible, especially with it dying on his watch. When the man had returned from his trip and found out Les had done the decent thing, and buried it, the man demanded to have the body of his bunny back. Apparently the man knows a taxidermist.

I spoke with Les today. The rabbit, it seems, is about to become immortalised... stuffed... to sit forever on the guy's desk.

Life is surely stranger than fiction sometimes, I swear.

Djr

Love that rain

¦ dialling in from Jesus Mound ¦

09:39 GMT, sitting at the wide expanse of oak table, French doors to my left are open, letting in a cool breeze damp with recent rain and the smell of the dense mass of trees beyond the garden. I'll be down there in a while... a regular walk through the woods, following tracks that ascend and descend the steep sides of the ravine.

Random selection on laptop is playing soundtrack to Bourne Identity. I'm sitting in T-shirt, underpants, wearing Starsky and  big fluffy Norweigan slippers... two days stubble... hair sticking up in some pillow-based explosion, but only on one side, the othe side of my head the hair is flat and lank. I'm feeling slightly hung-over.

Today is Friday 6th; I was supposed to be back in Bristol last Tuesday, 3rd... but Freddy (lodger) is away for 2 weeks now; mum is still away in the Arctic... so several thoughts came out of this situation...also if I did leave, I was going to be back here in Newcastle in 2 weeks anyway... spoke with Jo and she suggested I stayed up here. I agree. She then suggested I came to the South of France with her and her sister after Newcastle... Christ... I need to actually stop and find a job. But I agreed. A holiday together would be a good thing for both of us...

Went out last night with some of the Be-Safe's and associated crowd: Helen, the celloist, Alex, his ex, Sophie, and his current, Sammy. What a fantastic bunch of people. I feel like I've stumbled onto a gold mine... creative characters with deep souls, sharp intellect, broad interests and openess. Just lovely.

Yesterday was an important day. Sitting in Kitsch'n cafe with Mike, I composed my letter to Chaosium, seeking advice on possible copyright infringement with Yellow Dawn including references to the Cthulhu Mythos. It was a strange experience, because Chaosium have been a huge part of my life, ever since I was 14... So fingers crossed for a positive response.

I spent some time sending E-mails to anybody I know, advising them of the fact I've scored some good publicity. It has already led to a rise in sales of God Seed. The only way I'm going to be able to succeed as a writer, is if this publicity can lead to more publicity...if I can start a snowball effect.  I really need this now, because my writing-fund is empty. I am officially broke. A state of existence that has suddenly brought me a lovely gesture of generosity... I was speaking with somebody yesterday about my finances and they gave me £200... I am stunned and humbly grateful

In their words, "I've seen how much effort you've put into this David [...] holidays should be enjoyed, so now you can enjoy it."

*THANK YOU*

12:33 GMT, just got back from a divine walk down the Dene in the rain. The smell of the trees is like a fine wine on my tongue, and the dense texture of water vapour from the falls, slightly dank yet invigorating when you breathe it in deep into your lungs. There was almost nobody down there. Just two solitary souls like me, dressed in a plastic hooded poncho and drifting through the woods and downpour with a serene smile on their lips.

Plan for the day: get a bloody shower, head up to Kitsch'n, drink coffee, work on new novel (Dog Eat Dog), then back here for more creativity: my man flu is gone, my brain is fully back online... no rest for the wicked.

Djr