from the "write you bastard, write" dept.

I am now living in North Vancouver, at the corner of First and Lonsdale. I am living here on-and-off for the next 3 weeks or so. My friends Sheryl and Stephen have gone to the Big Apple for the joys that city offers. And I am here, looking after their space.

Today is writing day. My long-delayed "Roadtip Across Albania" piece is due tomorrow. It's pretty much sketched out, I just need to edit it. And I have the whole day to work on it.

There's a fair amount of construction, bus traffic, and folks trundling off to work on the other side of the windows (the curse continues!) so I may head back to SOMA for the lions share of the writing. The XM Radio works here, so I'm able to groove to all kinds of music. Can't say enough about XM. Love it to bits.

An email this morning advised me that fellow travellers Mike and Charlotte have posted the latest story of their SE Asia tour. Great text and pictures are HERE.

Yesterday, Randy and I met with Jon Festinger, our lawyer on the documentary project. We're dotting the i's and crossing the t's of the story rights agreement. I expect that to be finally put to bed this week.

We're still considering whether or not to head to Poland and Germany on a research trip next month. I would fly to either Berlin or Copenhagen and then rent a car and drive to Poland to follow some leads and visit Auschwitz. Then I would drive to Nordhausen, Germany to visit the place where the Nazi's built their rockets.

We have no development money yet -- so this trip would be paid out-of-pocket. Probably $2000-2500. That's a lot. But the trip is very important. And the focus of our story, Christa, may join us overseas as well. Great opportunity. And, once development is secured, the money would be refunded.

The only worry is that the CBC lock-out drags on... and the CTV work is drying up. Not unexpected: this is always a slow time of year as summer holidays are now just memories and Visa bills -- and the Christmas season has not yet started.

I've managed to sock a bit of coin away, and I have some more coming from various sources. But it would be nice if an angel floated by and cast a couple grand or 60,000 airmiles my way! You don't ask, you don't get.

This is too comfortable! The sun is beating in on my face, I'm drinking a cup of my secret stash of Guatemalan coffee, Elvis Costello is on the XM, and Barky and Yappy are miles away. Aaaah. How the hell am I going to motivate myself to write?

Oh yeah, money!

Cheers!