Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

The G20 summit is coming up. And it was today that Barack Obama landed in the UK to get settled before it all kicks off; before the meetings, and the phone calls, and dinner with Her Majesty. It feels a more important visit than usual – not only is it his first major foreign trip since becoming president, but it’s also where the world’s most powerful men are going to have to come to an agreement on all sorts of things, not least of which the horrible financial situation we find ourselves in. Interestingly, on top of all the meetings, it looks like Obama’s wife Michelle has got all sorts of lovely stuff to look forward to with our prime minister’s wife as well.

I had heard earlier in the day that the president was flying into Stansted, which, for those of you outside the UK, is a modest airport outside the centre of London – and since our house is somewhere under the flight path, I decided to sit outside and see if I could spot Air Force One in all its splendour.

I was outside on the patio with my dog, eating and watching the ripples of the pond when the mighty jet flew overhead. The light was fading, the slight hum of insects was in the air, and, low, loudly, the plane cruised over us. In a surreal way, it was quite magnificent. There was something about looking up and knowing the president was up there, flying gently along before endless meetings. It was pretty cool. The dog was only interested in the toast, of course.

In a different manner altogether, this story is also rather surreal – and, I think, worth mentioning briefly just because it is so out of the ordinary.

Anyway, that’s enough for now. I didn’t get much sleep last night, and it’s now time to remedy that.

Well, I started work on a short story the other day. It’s getting there now, but for a long time there was something missing. I knew I wanted it to revolve, in some way, around a miracle. But the trouble is, I didn’t know much more than that. When I write, it’s kind of like going on holiday without a map – I have a vague idea of where I’m going, but often it’s very unfamiliar territory, and usually there is no real plan in place. In fact, it’s often rather surprising where the story goes, and to see how it changes, what the characters do, or say, or feel.

I started browsing the web for inspiration, and stumbled upon a news article on, of all things, Lily Allen and the car crash she suffered through paparazzi harassment. And it occurred to me that perhaps a crash would do for the story – I could have a character suffering severe whiplash or back pain. Of course, being set quite far in the future, the piece would involve some sort of spaceship or craft, but I wanted to maintain some sort of realism – I wanted to ground the science fictional elements in the real world with realistic details.

Around the same time, I also watched Big Fish, a lovely film about a dying man whose life is depicted through a series of tall tales. And after this, I recalled a story called “The Time-Lapsed Man” by Eric Brown, in which a man suffers from having his senses delayed. I realised that, yes, actually, my story could benefit from some sort of suffering character – although I didn’t really want it to be fatal.

So with the Lily Allen article in mind, I started looking at car crashes, which turned out some pretty horrific images like these ones. Of course, it would only take a small crash to warrant someone filing a whiplash claim, but whatever caused such a large scale explosion would be a tad bit more severe than a small knock, or a dent. There must have been something in those flames, because my thoughts now turned to a burn victim … suitably horrific, and the perfect base to build a miracle story around.

As you can see, I had an initial bare bones idea, and after a few minutes worth of browsing the web it had suddenly become an entirely different story. After threading in a few details here and there in the first draft, I can safely say the story is already better for it.

I think that I certainly feel better for writing it, as well. Now I just have to stop procrastinating, wrap it up, shelve it for a while, and come back to it with a fresh view later for a second draft.

It kind of beggars belief, but according to the BBC seven local councils moved £33 million into Icelandic banks, days before they collapsed.

This is all the more amazing because concerns about their solvency had been raised long before and were reaching a head by the time the councils made their move.

It seems a typical case of council workers making decisions they are not qualified to make, and additionally a lack of accountability that means that there are no consequences for the individuals involved.

What’s more amazing is the rebuke made against the Audit Commission releasing this report, with Kent County Council retorting that the AC has £10 million tied up in Icelandic banks.

Arguing and recriminations aside, there’s little to be learned here, excepting that government bodies are inefficient and often incompetent at what they do – no surprises there.

In the meanwhile, the safest UK banks are still chugging along nicely, with the caveat that savings rates are now pitifully poor.