Last night I went to Norwich to make another attempt at classical music, to see the Britten Sinfonia, who have become my go-to guys for this kind of thing thanks to the availability of £6 tickets.

As always it was a mixed programme although this time they were joined by a French conductor and piano player, so it was more piano based than last time. And I had my first experience of a mad looking conductor - he threw his arms around and waved his head like a mad man, but interestingly the orchestra hardly seemed to look at him at all.

The first peace was the best bit - Haydn's Symphony no. 83 in G minor, also called 'The Hen' because apparently part of it sounds like chickens clucking! Didn't spot that myself to be honest, was too busy loving the beautifully dramatic violin playing. However, it does demonstrate my problem with classical music - this was symphony 83 out of 106, and that's just one composer, so were the hell do you start when you know nothing about it?!

The last piece was his mate Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 14in E flat, which was more romantic and sound more like film music, so didn't work as well for me, although it did remind me that I still haven't seen the film Amadeus and really must get round to it.

The middle bit was the tricky bit - works by a modern American composer called Elliott Carter, who is till alive and writing at 101! It may well be good stuff - and he's been given so many awards that clearly someone likes him - but I thought it was dreadful!

The was a duet for piano and orchestra where the piano parts are short, random and apparently tuneless, the kind of noise a small child makes when let loose on the instrument. Meanwhile the strings are playing beautifully and the whole thing just makes your head hurt! Similarly a duet for flute and cello where they both seemed to be playing different pieces of music. And a solo oboe piece that could have been made up on the spot. It's the kind of thing I think of when I think of bad modern classical music and I hope never to hear it again!

Half the fun of the evening though is the audience, who are very different from a theatre audience and a bit thinner on the ground. What I don't get are some of the conventions, like when to clap and when not to: if a piece comes in three distinct sections and each one if separated by a deliberate pause, why does no one clap in between them, especially if the bit that has just finished has been magnificent?

And why is there so much bowing? Not just to the audience but between the orchestra and the conductor? And why does the conductor have to keep shaking the hand of the orchestra leader? None of it makes classical music accessible, it just makes it a bit silly, which is a pity as I think I could love it if I could ever get to grips with it properly!

Tonight was Guy Fawkes Night, or Bonfire Night. It's one of those occasions that I look forward to but which can often be disappointing, just like Christmas or birthdays but without the expense of gifts and a new outfit.

But tonight it was fabulous!

There was a large display in the centre of King's Lynn, in the newly refurbished Walks. I went with Trish and Janet and about half the population of the town - it was fabulous to see so many people out supporting it, and fabulous that it didn't rain. And the beauty of it was that it was all free!

At 8pm sharp the fireworks began and for the next 15 minutes I grinned madly - they were quite possibly the best fireworks I've seen in years! It was just one thing after another - God knows how they kept the momentum up! They were beautiful, so my ooohing and aaahing wasn't in the least bit ironic. Well down to the council, who organised and paid for it - finally my taxes are being well spent!



Of course the traffic getting out of town was slightly hellish so we lingered. And by lingered I mean ate chips, from a new chip shop called Chips 4U which cheekily uses the same logo as Phones 4U. They're just round the corner from the rough flats so I wonder if they should really be called Chips 4 Chavs? Anyway, the sausage was huge - always a blessing - and the chips were great!

Then Janet battled through the traffic and we ended up in Tesco for a little late night shopping. I got the kind of random nonsense that these trips are designed for, then there was just time for a cup of tea at Trish's before heading home. Lovely to see you both! xx

Wednesday really is the dullest day of the week, surprisingly even duller than dull old Sunday! So I brightened it up with a gentleman caller, who was fun and brought chocolate - my kind of man! Then I restored my energy with a Chinese takeaway, and right now I'm too full to move, let alone go to bed, which is what I really need to do!

I think I may be about to bail on the novel writing experience for this month - 5000 words in and I'm suffering from my lack of forethought - I had an opening scene in mind and nowhere to really take it, so I've been writing shite, essentially rewriting my own life, which is too dull for fiction anyway. I hate to be a quitter, but I don't want to put lots of effort into it if my heart isn't in it.

I got home tonight to find that the house next door to me was empty, which means that the awful neighbours have finally moved! Hurrah! Hurrah!

So in their honour, and in the absence of any actual news, let's enjoy my favourite moments from our time together, in no particular order:

The night the woman came home at about 3am and clearly had forgotten her key. She banged on the door half an hour, calling out, "Graham! Graham! Let me in!" Unfortunately her husband didn't seem to hear her. Next thing I hear is a loud bashing sound- she's using their wheelie bin as a battering ram to try and break into her own house, which is pretty impressive as she's not much bigger than a wheelie bin. But still that doesn't wake him up, so she goes round to the back door and smashes a pain of glass in the door so she can let herself in.

The night they play music all night, really loudly, finally stopping at 9am on Sunday morning - I'm guessing they passed out and didn't notice it was on - which promoted me to report them to Environmental Health, who wrote them a letter which prompted a certain amount of frostiness between us.

The night the screamed at each other until 4am, at which point I thought, "fuck it!" and called the police. Who then turned up in two enormous cars, which seemed a tad heavy handed! It shut them up, but we never spoke again after that.

Do you think I'm going to miss them?

The trouble is the house has always attracted unhappy people. I'll always remember hearing the couple who lived there when I first moved in screaming at each other then trying to work out what the strange thudding was. Eventually I worked out they were throwing things at each other! Several others followed, including the couple with the young daughter who wouldn't stop talking to me if she say me outdoors, and the single man who lived on his own then vanished unexpectedly one day, probably to prison. So part of me thinks that the last neighbours were just the latest in a descending spiral of awfulness - could the next ones possibly be worse?!

If you know anyone who wants to rent or buy a terrace house in a small market town, with a lovely gay neighbour do send them my way! But not if they're mad and prone to shouting. Or throwing things.

Today is Mum's birthday, so I snuck away from work early to go and eat cake. And gorgeous cake it was too - well done M&S!

She'd spent the day with my sister and the kids and seemed to have had a nice time, but it's so hard to tell with my Mum as she doesn't really seem to enjoy anything. She got nice presents and the kids were there, which was probably all she wanted for her birthday. She doesn't really like things you can't do anything with - if you gave her diamonds she wouldn't understand what they for, but if you gave her a wheelbarrow she'd be thrilled! I know this because in the past we have actually bought her a wheelbarrow. And pretty damned impressive it was too!

It's been an odd kind of day. It rained all morning so I found myself wondering on Twitter about what I could do today. Someone replied "write the novel you've always meant to" because today is the start of National Novel Writing Month. I did it in 2005 and loved it but felt I had run out of ideas for another try, and certainly haven't got the time this month. And yet once the idea was in my head I couldn't let it go, so I'm doing it!

50000 words in 30 days - it was tough to do it last time and I'd had plenty of time to prepare so God knows what will happen this time! But I've got off to a good start - 3300 words this evening. I've got several busy weeks this month so I'll be amazed if I finish it but it'll be fun trying!

I really should have kept writing once The X-Factor started but I got drawn into it and before I knew it I was shouting at the TV. That can't be good. Thank God I'll miss it for a couple of weeks otherwise my sanity might be in question!