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Publication Day!
Exciting to know the book is out there and it got into the top 10 comedy books on Audible which is good news (
and the audiobook has some extras), though didn't make any impact on the book charts on Amazon. It's early days though and I hope word of mouth will get round as I think this is my best book yet.
Fittingly perhaps I had my annual CT scan today. It's just precautionary to ensure that nothing horrible is lurking anywhere inside me and is one of the many benefits of having testicular cancer. With these regular tests they should catch anything else early. And it's nice to just know there's nothing in there that shouldn't be there. I won't know that for a couple of weeks of course.
It was a fairly painless experience and as per usual I didn't get the promised sensation that I had wet myself when the iodine was flushed through my system (though I did get a sensation and metallic taste in my throat), but when the nurse put the canula in my arm it hurt a bit more than usual and she had to do more cleaning up and try to flush the system with water. When I stood up to leave a stream of blood hit the floor. “Is that meant to happen?†I asked somewhat pointlessly, as I knew that it wasn't. She had another go at cleaning up and reattaching the cannula with plasters. There was a bit of a mess and I could smell my blood and see all the bloody wipes on the side. I am usually pretty squeamish about blood and have to look away when someone even gets a paper cut on TV, but I was blasé about this today. Not even particularly concerned that my body was leaking its contents. Clearly she'd slightly bodged the job, but I have such confidence in the NHS that I assumed I'd be fine. And rightly so. They had to wipe a bit more blood off when they put the iodine hose in, but it was all cool.
As usual I was the youngest and healthiest looking person in the waiting room, until that was a mother wheeled a baby in a pram out of the scanning room. Again that sort of thing can only serve to make me release how incredibly fortunate I am. I know they don't risk a CT scan in children unless it's something fairly serious. The father had been waiting outside the room and been asked to move into the corridor outside as things were so busy. He was later called back into the room though. I know I would have wanted to be as close as possible if I was in that situation.
Afterwards I went into London to be interviewed for Audible. As I arrived Liz Truss was resigning. I was able to inform the interviewer and the cameramen of the news. They couldn't believe it. They'd only been in the room for an hour and outside the world was changing.
Then I was straight home again. It was raining but the cab driver was convinced he couldn't get his car around a slightly tight bend on the road that led to Audible HQ and was insisting we walk 250 metres to him. I didn't care but my publicist tried to convince him he could do it as there was a van parked outside. She wasn't rude to him but he was having none of it and we walked to the car sharing an umbrella,. The driver was furious when I got there, saying that the woman on the phone had been very rude to him (she hadn't - she'd just asked him to do his job) and saying that his feelings had been hurt. I explained that none of that was anything to do with me, but that it looked to me like there was another way of getting to the correct address. He carried on whining in what I thought was an unprofessional way, but it's nice to see him expressing his emotions. Even if he's not actually really attempted to do his job properly and doesn't like being called out on it. I put on my headphones and fell asleep to avoid any more confrontation in this argument that I had no skin in.
Sorry to everyone who I encouraged to buy the book from Waterstones and who haven't yet received it. They updated a system and orders are blocked up. But I have made a minor fuss about it and hopefully they will arrive soon. If not then you can cancel your order and get a book with an exclusive signed postcard and the chance to win a Right Bollock stress ball from
Gofasterstripe. And if haven't ordered yet and you'd rather give your money to Chris Evans (not that one) than Ian Amazon, I'd suggest you get your copy there too. He will get it into the first possible post!
