Rose late, after 10.00. Had a shower. Checked my e-mails. Went for a square pie in Spitalfields again. They had mash this time -- hurrah!! -- but no steak and guiness pies!!! Boo!!!!! I had a steak and kidney instead, which was very nice, but am I destined never to have my favourite pie and mash there again?!?!?

Walked up to the South Bank with Bas, along the banks of the Thames, after lunch -- one of my fave walks in the world. Went to see a new play called "Paul". It's an interesting look at the life of Saint Paul, one of the founders of Christianity. It explores the foundation pillars of religion, the relationship of truth and politics, and how faith can flourish in spite -- or sometimes because of -- the truth. One that saves some nice, unexpected twists for the second half, and which sends you away thinking and talking. Highly recommended.

Had dinner in a restaurant called Giraffe after that, and tucked into a truly delicious burger. After that we popped into a DVD shop beside it, and Foyles, where I discovered copies of "Demon Thief"!!! I was delighted to see them on the shelves ahead of their release date. I must say, they look good in the flesh!!!

I thought we had loads of time until our next play after that, so we strolled up to the city, did some shopping, then headed for our second play, which I thought was "Heroes", which starts at 8.00pm. But when I said it to Bas, she said she thought we were going to see "Mary Stuart"!!!! A quick check revealed that she was right -- I'd got our Thursday play mixed up with Tuesday's!!!!! And "Mary Stuart" starts at 7.30pm!!!!!! And it was 7.35!!!!!!!! Hellfire!!!!!!!!!! We could have gone in, but I HATE missing the start of movies, never mind plays, so I just gritted my teeth, accepted responsibility for the boo-boo, and set off for home, leaving the play for another night. I was disgusted at myself for the mistake, but there was nothing I could do to correct it, so I tried to push it from my thoughts. Then, as we turned onto the Strand, heading for the Embankment, I spotted the sign for "Chicago". Hang on, I thought, doesn't that start at 8.00pm? We hurried up to check, and it does -- and it was only 7.50!!!! We'd both seen it a few years ago, but both wanted to go again -- so we did!!! It's a brilliant show, one of the most stylish around. The cast was strong, as I think it always is. I was dubious about the guy playing Billy Flynn -- he's a young singer called Darius who is "famous" in the UK for finishing as a runner-up in two big talent shows (one of which was Pop Idol). I thought he'd be awful, but in fact he was really good -- charismatic, cheeky, with a fine singing voice. Bas had said he'd be good, so she was able to smile smugly at me afterwards!!

It's been a hectic few days! Spent Friday night answering fan mail -- managed to get through a nice chunk of the mountain of mail which was awaiting me upon my return from the States. On Saturday Bas and I went to see one of my grand-aunts, Nora, then went to see "Guys and Dolls" again. We saw it not long after it first opened, 6 months ago, and wanted to catch Ewan McGregor and the original cast again before they're replaced in a couple of weeks. We managed to get great seats in the middle, seven rows back. It's a top-notch play, great songs and cast. McGregor's singing voice isn't as strong as a lead musical actor's should be, but he was perfect apart from that. The actors were all first-rate, especially Jane Krakowski -- the undoubted star of the show. We met with one of Bas's friends, Sarah, afterwards and had dinner at Wagamama's, then went to a 30th birthday party for some of her other friends over on Fulham Road. Had a good night, lots of drink and chat, and got to bed about 03.00.

Spurs were playing West Ham on Sunday at 1.00pm, so I had an earlier start than I would have liked. Got a steak and guinness pie from the Square Pie shop in Spitalfields Market. I love Square pies, and the mash that comes with them is DEEEEE-licious!!!! But they didn't have mash when I went -- they were awaiting the delivery!! Oh, well, at least the pies were there! I decided to eat it on the train up to Tottenham, but the train was packed and I had to stand, so that plan went out the window! It always angers me when the trian companies don't put on extra games for fans on match days. They KNOW thousands of fans are going to be piling into the trains, but they don't even bother to put on extra carriages, never mind extra trains! Madness!!!!! I ended up eating my pie on the platfrom at Bruce Grove. It was cold by then, but still scrumdiddlyumptious!!

Met the small group of friends I go to the football with in our regular pub, had a couple of quick drinks, then headed up for the match. I hate early kick-offs -- you don't have time to get into the real football mood and the atmosphere is never the same. The game was a scrappy, messy affair. Spurs took an early lead but played poorly. It looked like we were going to escape with the three points, but then West Ham equalised in the last minute -- a gutter!!!!! There's nothing worse in football than sacrificing a last-minute goal!!!

It was my uncle Derek's 37th birthday, so I stayed out drinking with him after the game. He's less than four years older than me, so we grew up more as brothers than uncle and nephew. We had a good few drinks with the others, though by the end of the night only me, Derek and a guy called Brendan were left -- the rest had all filed home for an early night! We ended up in Belushi's in Covent Garden, then in a club called the Metra in Leciester Square. Got home about 01.00, but it felt much later, since we'd started so early!!

Derek stayed in my flat. We headed out earlyish on Monday, had a quick bite, a few more drinks, then went to the Ivy for lunch. I don't bother much with high-class restaurants, but I like to indulge every now and then, and since it was still Derek's birthday (in his mind, at least!), I thought I'd treat him. It's a nice spot, very good food, but nothing overly special. I think most people go there to spot celebrities -- our only celeb (apart from myself, of course!!!!) was Carol Vorderman, from Channel 4's Countdown programme. Had another couple of drinks after that, and then it was back home to bring my blog up to date.

Came over the London today. I've got a week of football, parties, theatre and movies -- then the work starts!!! Had lots of e-mails to answer in the morning. Then had to get everything ready to bring over with me. Forgot to bring my business cards!!! I have "Darren Shan" business cards which I like to hand out to fans at events. I have some at my flat in London, but not enough, I fear, to last the whole of the tour. So I guess it'll be first come, first served ...

Got to the airport a couple of hours early, so that my Dad could return to his job -- he's the janitor at the school where I went as a kid, and Friday evenings are his busiest time of the week! Ate at the airport (Bas quite rightly compared the food on offer to school dinners). Flew with Ryanair. Smoothe and on time. Caught the 6.00pm train in to London. Booked a couple of shows for the next week -- we're going to see "Guys and Dolls" again, and "Mary Stuart", and have already booked to go to "Heroes" which stars one of my favourite actors, John Hurt. Should be a lively week!!!!

Had my hair cut at Figaro's, by Brian, as usual. It had gone really shaggy -- I was in sore need of a trim!!! I'm looking much smarter now, clean-shaven and tight-haired. I used to hate having my hair cut when I was younger -- I found it uncomfortable, and I rarely liked what was done by the various hair dressers I tried, and I didn't like having to chat with the person doing the cutting -- I was VERY shy in my teens!!! No good at small talk at all!!! I'm still not particularly skilled at it, but I've improved a lot compared to how I used to be!! Anyway, these days I don't mind so much. I even look forward to it, though only slightly -- I've never been much bothered about fashion, so I don't get excited by the thought of a new haircut or clothes the way many people do.

Spent the morning getting things in order for my forthcoming UK and Ireland tour. It doesn't start for another week, but I'm heading over to London tomorrow for a week of R&R (and football!!), so I need to have everything in place before I leave. Realised I hadn't sorted out hotels in a couple of the cities I'm going to on the Irish leg of my journey -- yipes!!!!! A quick e-mail to my Irish Collins rep, Moira, sorted that problem out quickly! I'm looking forward to these events. They're mostly just signings, so I don't have to do as much preparation, talking or performing as I did in the States -- I just have to make sure my right hand's in good condition, and I'm ready to go!!!!! I also like the fact that I'll be finishing up my touring for the year in Limerick -- it'll be nice to conclude 2005's events on home turf!!

Hung up the last of my kinetic sculptures (though I have two more on order, to be delivered in the new year!) -- Harmony, a very cool piece, though Phoenix remains my favourite. I didn't read through the instruction beforehand, and ended up putting it up too close to wall -- it has a long reach, and one of the limbs kept hitting the wall!! Had to take it down and re-drill, which was a nuisance -- but it was my own fault for not boneing-up on all the literature beforehand! Pride comes before a fall ...

Added lots more photos to my site today. It's very time-consuming -- first I have to go through all of my snaps and pick out the few I want to use; then I have to scale them down so that they fit comfortably on a computer screen; then scale them down again for thumbnails; then add all the thumbnails to the online folder; then add all the full size photos and come up with caption for them; then put in all the links!!!!! No one part of the operation is particularly lengthy, but combine them all and they quickly start to eat into your time!!!!!! Oh well, I enjoy doing it -- it's nice to re-visit old memories.

Put up a couple of my new David C Roy kinetic sculptures. If you don't know what a kinetic sculpture is, you can find out here: www.woodthatworks.com The pieces I hung this evening are Gepetto and Phoenix. I'm not that fussed about Gepetto, now that I've studied it on my own wall -- it's a nice piece, but the shapes created by the wheels don't fluctuate randomly as they do on other pieces. If I'd spent a bit more time looking at it in the shop I probably wouldn't have purchased. Oh well -- too late now!! I absolutely LOVE Phoenix though -- it's an incredibly cool piece of moving art!!!!

Went to see a stage version of "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4", performed by the Bruiser company from Northern Ireland. Very well acted, and the crowd seemed to enjoy it overall, but it didn't make much of an impact on me. I loved the book when I was a teenager, and read it many, many times, along with "The Growing Pains". But this adaptation either didn't capture the magic of the book, or else I've just turned into a grumpy 30-something who's difficult to please!!!!!!!!

Did quite well in the pub quiz, and came a very respectable fourth out of, I think, 12 tables. Would have been joint third, only I scratched out one of my answers in the last round -- the question was "What does the word Ovine refer to?" I put down sheep, but then stupidly changed it to cows. Sheep turned out to be the right answer -- doh!!!! But I was pleased with myself overall, especially when I got a couple of beauties right! First, I answered correctly that an "oologist" is someone with an interest in eggs!! Then, when asked to state what vegetable is mentioned in the proverb, "You can't butter a ------- with kind words," I put down parsnips. Everyone at the table thought I was mad (to be honest, I did too!), but it was RIGHT!!!!! Heh-heh -- it's always the crazy long-shots which are the most enjoyable when they pay off!!!!!!!

Spent today adding stuff to my web site -- new photos, mainly. Also answered an interview for the Sunday Herald (a Scottish newspaper) by e-mail, and had a lot of other e-mails to get through. Went to see "Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" in the evening. Very enjoyable, with a great eye for the small details. My favourite incidentals were the "Rare Bit" shop and when Wallace covered his nude body with a box that said "May contain nuts"!!!!! Have to say, though, I think the short films worked better -- this felt a bit stretched in places. Definitely better than most kid's movies, but they could probably have done it twice as well at half the running time ...

First working day back home. Not working on any books at the moment -- since I'm only here for a week, I don't really have time to start anything new, and nothing was waiting for me when I got back. So I'm going to do some work on my web site over the next few days. Started by adding several new reviews of "Lord Loss" to the demon part of the site. Although I fell WAY behind on the reviews front on my "Saga of Darren Shan" series (a situation I hope to rectify in the not too distant future), when I DO add reviews of one of my books, I add ALL the reviews that I can find, be they good, bad or ugly. Most of the reviews that I get are actually far more positive than I believed they would be when I first started publishing horror books for children and teenagers (which is how my books are seen in more countries, although I look upon them more as fantasy adventure books which readers of all ages can enjoy). But when I do get a negative review, I slap it up just as swiftly as a good one -- I don't believe in cheating by selecting only those which have nice things to say about me!!!!

Also had a lot of e-mails to answer today. Got the finalised schedule for my upcoming UK tour, and added all the details to the current issue of the Shanville Monthly. It's not an overly extensive tour, but I'm getting about a nice bit, and I have more events lined up next year. Rather than try to cover the entire country in 3 weeks, as I did in the States recently and on my DesTiny tour in October 2004, I'm going to do shorter tours in the UK, at more frequent intervals, over the next year. So the chances of me coming to a town near YOU some time in the near future are pretty good!!!

I'm off to a pub quiz in my local village shortly. I don't do pub quizzes very often, and I don't have a great store of trivia knowledge at my fingertips, so I'm not expecting great success. But Bas and a few of my friends are eager to go, and there'll be plenty of drink available, so it should be a good night regardless of how we get on with the questions!!!!!

It was my grandfather's 80th birthday party on Saturday (he doesn't actually hit the big 8-0 for another couple of weeks, but this was the only Saturday close to it that we could book!). Lots of family and friends flew back from England, and many more came from locally. We had it in the Woodlands Hotel in Adare. I had seven relatives and their partners -- Davina and Mark, William and Manuela, Kevin and Ali, and Siobahn -- staying, so it was a full house! Bas and I played host to the guests on Friday and Saturday, making sure they had enough to eat and drink, getting their beds ready, etc. It's hard work when people come to stay, but I love having company, so I never mind.

Got a bus to the Woodlands and a wonderful night. It was fun to see so many relations and friends, the food was great, the service was first-class, the band was ideal. Lots of mingling and chatting, catching up on all the family gossip, telling people about my trip to the States, etc. My granny hasn't been in the best of health recently, but she was in sparkling form on Saturday. The evening was a little bit poignant, in that I found myself looking around every so often and wondering if we'd all ever be together like this again, or if we'd have lost a few of the family by the time of the next big get-together. But at the same time, the knowledge that a death or two was likely over the course of the next year or so also helped me enjoy the night more -- it's one of the things I stress in my books, that we should all enjoy our good moments in life to the fullest, because there's no way of knowing when things will take a turn for the worst. Of course, most of us don't pause to reflect when life is good, and only realise the high points long after they've happened. But on Saturday I was aware that this was a lucky time for us all, that we were all together, all in good form, all happy and relaxed. In life, you can't have a great night every night, but this was one of the great ones, and I recognised that at the time and did my best to enjoy the night to its fullest.

The bar stopped serving at 02.00, so everyone went home. But several came down for an impromptu party at my house. Luckily I had lots of drinks in the fridge, and we stayed partying for a few more hours. It was 06.30 before I got to bed!!!! A longer night than I'd anticipated, but all the sweeter for the unplanned extension. I didn't even mind cleaning up after everybody when all the others in the house were in bed and snoring at the end of the night!! It was quite fun to be the only one awake, drawing gradually to a close rather than just hitting my bed and falling asleep immediately.

Back in good old Pallaskenry! The flight home was smoothe as a mouse (as a Biestyish friend of mine would say). Got in at 05.25. Bas picked me up. Went to bed for a couple of hours when we got home, then treated it as a normal day, making myself stay awake -- that's the way to beat jetlag!!! Took a long time to wade through my post and catch up with everything, but by late evening I was on top of it all. Went to visit my grandparents and parents, watched a few episodes of season two of "Little Britain" -- extremely funny, although I do feel that some of the characters are growing a bit stale by this stage -- then crawled into bed and slept the sleep of the just. (Or just very tired!!!)

Got up at 10.30 today. Had quite a few e-mails to check. Then went to do some shopping with Bas -- we have a horde of relatives descending upon us, starting tonight, for my Grandad's 80th birthday party tomorrow, and they eat like a swarm of locusts!!!!! Knocked the latest issue of the Shanville Monthly into shape. Saw another couple of episodes of "Little Britain" -- "bitty" is definitely my fave out of season two!! And now I'm off to meet some relatives in the local pub, to sink a few pints and get the weekend started!!!!!!

Seems hard to believe, but this is the end of my 2005 USA tour!! The last three weeks have flown by in a blur!

Started the day in Portsmouth High School. Several schools had bussed kids in for the event, so there were lots of fans there, with loads of books to be signed!!! Met Alexandra again (cup cake girl!) and lots of other fans. A very busy but hugely enjoyable event -- just the type of large scale session I wanted for my final day!!!

Scooted over to Hampton Academy next, for another BIG event -- three or four hundred kids, I'd guess! Did my "Lord Loss" reading (which I've done at most of my events here, though I have tried other readings and skecthes, to make things more interesting for myself). Didn't have to sign quite as many books this time, but the line was pleasingly long -- another top-notch school event!

My final visit of the day - and the tour! - was to Manchester City Library. It was an early afternoon event, so I didn't have high hopesof drawing a big crowd, but was delighted to get an extremely decent turnout. Gave "Lord Loss' one last spin, answered my final set of questions, signed my final piles of books -- and that's it!!! All over. Ginny dropped me off at Logan airport in Boston, where I said a sad farewell to Jennifer. She put a lot of hard work into organising this tour, and was brilliant company on the road -- it would have been a LOT duller without her!!!!!!!! Jessie -- you my sweet Scottish bee-AWtch!!!!!!!!

And now it's time (or soon will be) to board my plane and head back home for a bit of rest and recuperation. And then the touring starts all over again for my UK and Ireland tour!!!!!!!

Cheerio, America! I had GINORMOUS fun and hope to be back in the VERY near future!!!! To Jennifer ... the staff at Little Brown ... the teachers, librarians and booksellers ... the escorts who drove me around ... and especially all of the amazing fans who showed up to say hi and have their books signed ... DARREN SHAN SALUTES YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!