Hello my lovelies... Thank you all for your birthday wishes left in all the various places. I've just had a very healthy fancy fruit salad for a very late breakfast then ate all the round toffee ones from a pack of chocolates someone gave me. I know this is cliche but BOY this year has flown by! What the?? Quite scary! I barely had time to get used to 30 and now I'm 31. That had better not keep happening or i'll be 105 before I know it! Thank goodness Justine's been filming as I've been going along so I can remember what I got up to in this blur.

If you haven't watched the new vBlog, watch it now... warning... major plot spoiler after this full stop.

That's right.. you probably guessed it. Little Miss Heap didn't make the finish line for her birthday this year (moves onto long rectangular chocolate coated toffee ones)...This album has taken me by surprise so many times. I really feel like I'm taking this huge strong dog out for an endless walk and it's running about it all directions...sniffing over there, chasing that rabbit, running into bushes and ponds . I've just had to go with it. Also like a dog.. you can't leave it for too long or it gets the hump with you. If I could just somehow shut everything else off for 6 months I could have finished it by now but with PopTech!, Nitin Sawhney gigs and song, Jeff Beck gigs, silent movie accompaniment, a jaw harp appearance, weddings, birthdays, laundry, accounts, the Mika song, Little Spirit (or not as the case may be), IAMX remix, vblogs! Japanese classes, getting my driving license, trying to get/keep fit, building a studio from scratch, feeding everyone who was working on building it, taking on the family home and all this whilst filming the whole process with Justine behind the camera... It's not been easy to find time to get on with it! Now there's christmas getting in the way godammit!

I love that you're all on this trip with me. I can't tell you how helpful it is to have you all here egging me on. Not having a boyfriend this time around has been quite a different experience. There's no-one to shake and wake up to tell them all the exciting news from the latest goings on in the studio. That's why I'm digging more than ever blogging and more recently using Twitter. I think I'm developing a twitter twitch.

So the big question, I can hear you all ask from my kitchen table already, before you've even read this... WHEN IS IT COMING OUT HEAP?? Well... some of you may think that when it's done.. it's out in the shops/ ready to download the next day. Sadly (for you and me both)... that's not the case. I want to give this album a great set up, you know? To give it a really cracking chance of a good life. So I want to do videos, get some great artwork (I have a plan... you're gonna like it) together, photos, b-sides, interviews about the album, a few warm up gigs, some TV and radio, hopefully a sync (when the music gets put into movies/tv) or two to help spread the word... it goes on and on. And... another big thing... is I want the DVD to come out with the album and that's going to take a while to edit. Maybe this is all to depressing for those of you who are just clawing the walls for it to come out now? You still want to know exactly when right? Oh GOD! OK... but don't kill me, ok? I never said the actual album would be OUT on 9th Dec... just that It would be finished by then (which it isn't but I'm a month away from that now). So.. ok ok... here it goes. April/May. arghhhhhhhh..I'm sorry! I want you to have it right now really... I dooooo! (there are sooo many chocolate wrappers by my laptop now it's not even funny).

If it's any consolation... I will put out a song or two before the release. So you can have those to keep you going? and er... i did a remix for IAMX... you can hear that.... and erm... I will be vblogging still all the way... (ugh I just at an orange cream thinking it was a toffee one...ew, WATER!) Maybe because no-one's really blogged the whole process before to some of you this may come as a shock? How long it takes, why it can't just come out straight away and all that? This is quite normal. I'm not being difficult I promise! The thing which does take longer though is that there's no-one to fix a section, bass line, lyric, mix etc. There's no nice programmer who can spend a few days on something while I go off and do all the other stuff I gotta do... It's all done by yours truly and there's only one of me! Though my manager could do with about 5 more.

OK... I feel slightly better now that it's all out in the open... though slightly sick from all the chocolates I ate in the process of writing this.

So... where I'm at presently. I've got Tidal and Polyfilla all parts done. Just need to mix them (two days max each). I'm not far off with the other 8 that I've written and hope to get these all to pretty much done by end of the year. Then I need to finish writing and producing/mixing the remaining two. THEN .. i'll be done!

I'm going to get dressed and get down in the studio now until 8pm when I'm gonna pop my head out the basement for some dinner here by the fire with a few friends.
WIll be in touch one more time before the end of the year hopefully...

Love fluv to you all.
your immi
xxxxx