I'm exhausted, but decided to post to a) update you with my progress and b) prove that I am still alive.

The Sponsorship

Sponsors: 28
Sponsorship Total: £92.50
Money Owed: £63.50
Money Paid: £29
Page Count: 98

Proof I'm Still Alive

I dunno. Throw a peanut at me or something!

Anyway, writing the sponsored novel has been stressful. I'm just about managing 30 pages a day but god, it's difficult. I think of a storyline to keep myself occupied and then it just disintegrates into babble. I'm starting to just write a series of unrelated bits and pieces. If I'm really struggling, I'm writing bits from 'The Chronicles of Stan' or 'The Great Couch Happening of '69' to boost my page count, or ranting pointlessly when times aren't quite that hard.

Also, I got my guitar and clarinet! I managed to totally ruin the G and high E strings on the guitar (they were worn as it was, then I played for a good two hours yesterday) and I'm finding the clarinet impossible to get any sound out of. I fill my lungs with air, blow, blow, blow harder and then get a high squeak just as I'm going blue in the face. And Dad took it upon himself to put it together while I was doing something else yesterday - forgetting to grease the cork bits. Now I can't take the damn thing apart. Thanks, Dad.

I seriously didn't think the clarinet would be so difficult. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I will get it to work. I'm not spending £90 on an instrument so that it can gather dust on my desk.