July 9th – 557,870.

I had the perfect excuse to have a non-writing day today – it’s my birthday! So kick back, relax, play some tunes, watch some box, spend quality time with my family, you know how it’s supposed to go.

Guess what?

We had another stiflingly hot night so I was up at a very ungodly hour, and because I couldn’t rest, I started writing. Some ninety minutes later I decided to stop and check my word count – 3,121 words done. So there it was, not even breakfast time and I’ve hit my target on a day where I had good intentions – about not writing.

Mind you, events have put a bit of a damper on any rowdier celebration – there was a fatal stabbing at the weekend, about a hundred yards from where I’m sitting writing this. I didn’t know the poor woman, and police have a man helping with their enquiries, so even money says it was a domestic incident but you don’t expect these things so close to home. My sympathies are with her family.