London is melting

Location Office | Mood Nesting | Date 19 July 2006
Filed in:
Author (full name): 
Franny Armstrong
Location: 
Office
Mood: 
Nesting
Soundtrack: 
Johnny Cash: "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when"
Ailments: 
Heat torpor
Date: 
19 July 2006
Current crisis: 
No next time agreed
Current silver lining: 
Better to have a fantastic boyfriend you don't ever see than no fantastic boyfriend. (Or is it?)

London is melting. Today was the hottest ever day in July. 36.3 degrees C. I'm happy to say this is not going unnoticed.

The Middle East is also in meltdown.

We'd been planning to go to Jordan for two weeks before heading back to New Orleans (we've got permission to film Al doing his stuff with microscope on a rig!! YES!!). Got to find our last character - representing War. Funny how three buses come along at once. I've never been too interested in the Middle East - far too complex and intimidating - but now I seem to be involved with an Israeli, making a film about Arabs and heading to Jordan during a war. Woah.

Good news today: Betty Shirley has agreed to let us film her singing her song for the Jazz Club scene. In fact, she was positively delighted at the suggestion. Al is also chuffed to bits that his favourite singer is gonna be singing specially for him (sort of). See, positive things happening already for Al...

Also met a brilliant lawyer who is starting climate change lawsuits against various governments and oil companies round the world - like the Big Tobacco suits. Met in a cafe in town, but quickly worked out that we live one street from each other. For some reason I find this deeply encouraging - maybe that people working on climate change are not spread as thinly as I'd thought. Anyway, going to invite him and other key cc people round for dinner - pinch all their best ideas for Crude for the price of a plate of veggie slop.

Curiously moved by documentary about the comedian David Walliams swimming the channel. Not sure if it was his determination, good looks, ability to come up with cracking one-liners while, literally, front-crawling through shit, or the fact that he sang Pet Shop Boys and Morrissey songs in his head to keep himself motivated. But something about it re-inspired me for Crude. Funny how these things work.