The tiny balcony by my bed is useless for sitting out. It's really a kind of fire-escape, although we'd have to tie sheets together then jump onto the threadbare patch of grass below.
Plastic nut containers are destroyed by squirrels but metal ones keep bluetits busy for ages. It was a mistake to buy the net of peanuts and fat-balls because the peanuts were released almost immediately by the squirrels. Fat-balls lasted longer and attracted birds big enough to perch on the pots and reach the net- mainly wood pigeons, with the odd jay and magpie.
Despite a spell of flu, generated, I think by a coach trip to the north and another to Brighton in the same week, I have written quite a few website reviews since my last entry. I was really put off by the the pressures of the BFI course last year, then by the London Film Festival. I saw too many films and didn't allow enough time to write between screenings.
Now I'm writing for about four websites and usually attend advance press screenings.
Dimsum is a website about China for the Chinese community in Britain. The arts editor is someone I met on the BFI course, and it's such a well-respected site I can mention it and get into China-related things for free. A couple of weeks back I went to the Tate Liverpool and reviewed an exhibition called The Real Thing: Contemporary Art in China. A few days before I'd been asked to contribute a piece on The Curse of the Golden Flower so that's on the same page:
A film website I write, called Cinemattraction, for is New York based. I reviewed 'Mr Bean's Holiday' and, more recently,
'Dans Paris' and 'The Singer' :
One of my favourite sites is about London events, especially fringe or minority interest is called My Cultural Life and I've written some China-related pieces for them:
Later in the week I'm going to cover a production of 'The Bald Prima Donna' by a company called Etcetera, in Camden.
I think I've managed to get the balance right now - not to try to do so many reviews that I get overwhelmed and to leave room to develop my fiction writing.
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