Mike Gayle's Blog, page 2

Greetings!

Hello, all and welcome to my new blog where I won't be so much blogging as putting up book news and the like because for some reason known only to Rupert Murdoch I can't access my myspace blog (which let's face it was a bit too 2006 anyway).

Anyway, this is me practising my blog skills.


cheers

Mike

So do you want the good news first? Or the bad news? The ...

So do you want the good news first? Or the bad news? The bad news? Fine, pessimists! The bad news is that despite my best efforts I haven't got everything done. I gave it my all, I really did. As well as doing my normal day job, on top of traipsing around the country promoting The To Do List to anyone and everyone I also posted cakes to cousins, bought a new mobile phone, found the password to my e-saver account, bought some shirts that fit me, chased up invoices. Cancelled sim cards, wrote l...

Before I get started a couple of things for those of you ...

Before I get started a couple of things for those of you who have been worrying about the state of the garden and my recently nicked mountain bike, (I'm mainly thinking of you, Mrs A. Harries of Barton-Under-Needwood…does no one else read this blog?????). Firstly, yes, Mrs Harris, I did indeed venture back outside to tackle the leaves and collected over a six-hour period a staggering eighteen bags worth of leaf fall from my garden all of which is now lined up at the side of the house waiting ...

Recently I've been doing so much explaining about To Do L...

Recently I've been doing so much explaining about To Do Lists and their value to the world that I almost feel like I've become the leader of some kind of To Do List based cult. Time and time again I've been sat in radio and TV station studios announcing to the world: "To Do Lists really can change your life!" have been leaving my lips to the extent that it almost feels like a mantra which it isn't. It's just some words that I keep repeating over and over again…wait a second…that is a mantra! ...

Yesterday I crossed off item 29: "Find the only set of sp...

Yesterday I crossed off item 29: "Find the only set of spare house keys that we own so that should my wife and I ever leave the house without our keys we won't be forced to resort to breaking and entering." It took me the best part of three hours to locate them (would you believe I found them "hidden" under the mat by the front door) but along the way I also found the back to the DVD remote control, two staplers, the missing strap to my bike helmet, the phone number for a roofer that I wrote ...

With all To Do Lists there are always a few items that yo...

With all To Do Lists there are always a few items that you put on that even as you scribble them down you know full well they will never, ever get done. And so while it's highly likely that you'll phone your auntie Margie, pay the gas bill or even take that jog/power walk that you've been talking about for ages it's highly unlikely that you'll cure cancer, fill in that on-line application to become a spy that you started filling in after watching the series finale of Spooks or for that...

The last couple of days have been spent doing something t...

The last couple of days have been spent doing something that I never do: answering the phone. I don't know whether it's a bloke thing or just a me thing but ever since I got married I simply gave up even registering that the home telephone was even ringing. I just tuned it out. The reason for this was (to my mind at least) quite logical: it was never for me. Every time I'd pick up the phone and offer a chirpy hello there would be a short pause (to indicate severe disappointment) before the...

For those of you who have been worrying these past few da...

For those of you who have been worrying these past few days about my bee predicament (I'm mainly thinking of you, Mrs A. Harries of Barton-Under-Needwood) I'm pleased to say that having lived with them for some months now yesterday (and so far today) I've been completely bee free. Part of me likes to think that this is a vindication of the To Do List belief that if you leave most things that need doing long enough eventually they will sort themselves out but mostly I put it down to the Mrs...

I was about twelve when the whole video nasty/horror film...

I was about twelve when the whole video nasty/horror film craze happened. Mates would come into school claiming to have seen "Friday-the-thirteenth-I-spit-on-your-grave-let's-murder-the-teenagers-staying-in-the-house-III" round at some mysterious "friend's" house and then regale you with fantastical stories of what they had seen. I knew they were lying and they knew I knew they were lying but it was as though there was a written agreement between us all that we should never let the truth get ...

You can really tell that you've really being throwing you...

You can really tell that you've really being throwing yourself into your To Do List by the fact that you feel a sense of relief rather than dread that it's Monday again because it means that if you're at work you won't have to do so much.

In a word my weekend has been mental. Most of it has been spent moving out all the stuff that I moved from my home office two years ago in order to fulfil To Do List item number 12. Given that I'm a writer you'd think that by "stuff" I'd be solely referring ...