Turns out I have been poorly for a while. Something I only realised today… Hilda kept commenting but I just continued working, eventually it filtered through to my fevered brain that I really should pay attention to what Hilda was telling me. So… I got in touch with the doctor (having diagnosed myself) and laid out the symptoms, one of which was a bad headache, the least of the symptoms.
There was a silence from the other end of the phone. “You do know that’s one of the symptoms for Covid 19, the Pandemic? Very serious for a man of your age! Have you had any visitors? Have you been out of the house? Have you been shopping?” I sighed.
“Yes! I am aware there is a Pandemic, and yes I have a headache, but this isn’t Covid 19… I have a UTI and I need an antibiotic… A cautious question. “Did you work in the medical profession when you were younger?” “No, I’m shielded, I have been confined to the house for nearly four months and have had this condition before…” Audible sigh of relief from the other end of the phone…
So today was the second day of my antibiotic treatment, and was the first day I found out that I hadn’t really needed to wear a sweater or cardigan for the last three and a half months. Today was the day that I found out the weather had been very nice indeed all that time, and I was only freezing because I had a fever at the time. Well… Happy days, I’m back animating again and have produced one of my major characters today, Barber Greytoe…
One thing I’ve found while animating ‘The Santa Stone is; it’s pointless trying to animate the story from my book without a script. I’ve done OK with the simpler scenes I’ve already done as I got used to the software , but now I’m getting into the meat of the matter and It’s a whole different ballgame. I’m not only the animator and writer of the book, I am also the director and that’s a whole new mindset I have to adopt. So… screenplay it is… I’m trying to create a full-length feature script and It’s been a lot of years since I last wrote one, however I’ve just put the typewriter down, having completed enough for three to four days animation… I suspect (in the real world), they have screenwriters on set to make the changes the director requires to tailor an agreed script into a film. So here I am, it’s been a long day, and I have another hour and ten minutes before I can have a wee whisky… Slainte…
Kenneth J. Matthews 