2002-11-05 - 10:55 a.m.

Reasons to be cheerful:

Stitches out today, and first look at the scar. I would post pics, but not sure how I would do this, aside from laying face down on my scanner. You�ll have to use your imaginations, but rest assured it will be, as you youngsters say, hott. At least, it had better be, or I�m growing a beard.

A newspaper beginning with �G� and rhyming with �uardian� have shown an interest in reading a feature I�ve proposed, and whilst this is still a bajillion miles from being published in said esteemed organ, it is the furthest I have ever got with a publication that I actually like.

Great documentary last night about the up and coming star of the British Nazi, er, I mean National Party. He was secretly filmed saying how he thought National Socialism �filled him with nostalgia�, and how he liked to �break people� to the point of suicide so that they killed themselves and you had �no blood on your hands�. His parents must be glowing with pride. If this moron is the future of the right wing in this country, we can all breath easy. The moment when the interviewer, whom he�d befriended, revealed he was Jewish was just great TV.

One of the fake obituaries has been shortlisted for a comedy writing prize. My short film didn�t make the last ten in the competition run by the jolly BBC, but I�ll settle for the last twenty out of 800. Copies are still available, by the way (e-mail me).

�Miranda Hobbs Week� on Sex and the City repeats on E4. I know, I know�

My brother in Sydney completing his first year at university bar a few exams � a long, long, story, but this is an amazing achievement and I�m buttock-clenchingly proud.

Paltrow and Chris Coldplay are dating, taking two insufferable whining saps off the market in one fell swoop!

Finally getting the Tindersticks Amsterdam EP with their cover of Leonard Cohen�s �Kathleen�, which, er, granted, may not SOUND very cheerful (second most miserable musicians in the world covering a song by the most miserable) but trust me, it�s a beautiful thing.

Researchers Say One in Ten Rams Are Gay! God, those researchers are such gossips.

Er�.

That�s it. Still, not bad for a Tuesday.