'CALLER' - Wednesday 14th June 2006

I was expecting a phone call from someone the other day. Nothing urgent. Just a work-related matter. The phone call never came. I thought nothing of it.

The day after, I received an apologetic email from the person who was supposed to have phoned. It turns out she had fully intended to give me a ring. She'd written my number on a Post-It and carried it around with her all day. But when the time came to phone me, the Post-It had vanished. She couldn't find it anywhere. And then she suddenly thought that maybe she'd left it behind in a pub. A minor freak-out ensued.

As it turns out, she'd left the Post-It on her desk in her office, but I almost wish her pub fear had come true. I've spent my drive-time of the last few days wondering what people might have done if they'd found the Post-It. Would the words "Must phone Dariush" have compelled them to reach for their mobiles?

I'll never know... unless I go out and leave Post-Its with my number on them in random pubs...

'MOTORWAY BABY' - Thursday 2nd June 2006

I've been neglecting this site lately. Those who know me know the reason why. (Think: red pen.) More worryingly, I've been neglecting my writing too. (Aforementioned red pen's fault again.) I expect a light to appear at the end of the tunnel round about the second week of July...

I'm tempted to have a rant about The Da Vinci Code here, but a) I haven't read the book, so I shouldn't give in to prejudice and b) I haven't seen the film, so I shouldn't give in to prejudice and c) the people who visit this site are doubtless highly enlightened individuals, so there's no point in preaching to the converted. ... However, I WILL say that if NHS staff spent more time providing an H S and less time trying to work out if a dubiously-coiffed symbologist's discovery that Jesus Chris fathered a child is based in reality, then MRSA would be a very scared little superbug indeed.

I was in North London not so long ago, so I took the opportunity to revisit the first house in which I lived... or, to be more precise, the first road, because I didn't actually go inside the house. As I have no memory of having lived there (we moved out when I was around two) I was curious as to why I was drawn to go back. At the risk of sounding pretentiously Kieslowski-esque, maybe when we return to where we were born, we find it a little easier to discern the mixture of chance and decision that brought us to where we are now. We can indulge in a few moments of 'What if-isms'. In my case: 'What if we'd lived on the other side of the road and the local council hadn't been obliged to double glaze all our windows to drown out the sound of the M1 which was taking shape right at the foot of our back garden?'; 'What if the fire brigade hadn't arrived as quickly as they did when I (accidentally!) started a small blaze in the house?'; 'What if we'd never left the UK?'

I expect there's a poem in there somewhere. If there is, it would probably have a line that goes something like: it's not the revisitation that matters most; it's who you to choose to share it with.

'NOTES UPLOADED' - Monday 8th May 2006

The DeCongested website has been updated and now contains my short story - Notes For A Play About Some Family - which you can find by clicking here. Any comments/thoughts would be much appreciated.

The site also contains a brief biography of me; please click here if you'd like to read it.

'READING NOTES AT TALES ' - Monday 1st May 2006

Last Thursday evening the clouds moved aside to make room for a warm London sun, whilst I stepped into Foyles Bookshop (followed by a supportive entourage... thanks for coming, everyone!) to read my short story - Notes For A Play About Some Family - at Tales Of The DeCongested.

Even though I say so myself, the event went very well, not least because the quality of the stories by the other authors (Margot Steadman, Shaun Levin, Jonathan Attrill and Maggie Womersley) was so high.

A big thank you to Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and Paul Blaney for organising it all and to Timothy Alderson for taking photographs.

Within the next few days, my story will be posted on the DeCongested website. I will, of course, include a link to it here in the Diary section of my site as well as in the Links and Writing sections.

The first Tales Of The DeCongested anthology will be published in June and you can pre-order it on amazon.co.uk or by clicking here. The next event will be on Friday 26th May at 7 pm. Please visit the DeCongested site for further details.

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