In the mire …

The good news is that I had a night away on Monday with my ex-Army mate Kenn. Kenn is the same political persuasion as me, which is a surprise as he’s a hard-edged Aussie. (You may also be surprised how many of my ex-Army pals are as disconcerted with this govt as me.) Which means I’m not going to bore you with the current thoughts of Chairman Roland. Hurrah, I hear you say. But I must mention one thing … I think pressing Ladley-only issue at the moment, other than all of the wider issues affecting everyone here, is whether the Korean government puts the UK on a ban-list due to covid rates any time soon. That would mean Bex, Steven and Henry won’t be able to come home for Christmas. Steven’s not been home for two years and his grandfather is v poorly. It would be v sad that, and I have to say it, this government’s mismanagement of the crisis creates that additional sadness.

my mate Kenn

Personally I’m in a bit of emotional mire at the moment. Leaving aside the heavy weight of the more wider mess, which does play on my mind, I think that semi-retirement is beginning to confuse me, especially heading into deep autumn. I have felt this way before, so I’m not surprised, but the fact that I have dropped most of the Compassionate Leadership stuff (I’ve taken three calls so far this school term, and I don’t think I’m going to have many more) has removed a focus which, I guess, used to make me feel fulfilled – in a way. But with that responsibility came stress which, whilst I am more than capable of managing, was something I no longer wanted. It was a double-edged sword. There were benefits and disbenefits. I can see that. And, having had this period of reflection, and now pretty pressed with writing book 8, I’m absolutely convinced I don’t want to go back to that sort of work. So I have to live with feeling slightly underfulfiled.

Of course, it would all be better if the books were selling. Which they’re not, in any numbers. My bad, of course. I had another fab review the other day, from someone I don’t know, so the market is there … I just need to do something about it. I know, I know. Use the spare time thrown up by not doing the CL thing and spend that on marketing your books, Roland.

Got it. Thanks.

That’s not going to happen. Not yet.

Kenn and his partner do a lot of house-sitting … and a dog comes too

Book 8 is going well. I’m at 33k words and sprinting a little. I have some plot issues to sort over the next couple of days and that will fill in the time. As Kenn said to me on Monday, ‘Don’t you consider the writing as a full time job?’ He may be right.

And, for the record, I’m not complaining. I’m just talking. We have the v best of lives, we know that. We’ve sort of booked skiing in January, we’re away on Monday seeing C’s middle sister, then a weekend with Mary and then mum, and we’re helping out with Jen and James’s house after that, as his father (ex-builder) comes down to knock a couple of walls down. I’m going, not necessarily because they need another pair of hands, but more because it will be fascinating to see how it’s done (J&J are making downstairs open-plan).

So all is good. Apart from Brexit, Covid, the divisive and hateful political discourse, and having a clown in charge of all of our destinies. Apart from that. Oh, and we’ve just come back from having our flu jabs. So that’s an hurrah!

Stay safe … I don’t need to say anymore.