Don’t mind a bit of rain

We lived in a van! Where has the summer gone?

Don’t mind a bit of rain

Do you know what? I’m not sure I have much of an idea what we got up to last week (since Henry was delivered to his other grandparents last weekend). I have started some new work with my pal which will finish at the end of this week and, I hope, not be as intense as the previous three week package. It is professionally really interesting and, I sense, I am helping. Who knows? We have, like you I guess, been beset with some weather … but not as inconvenient as say, living in southern Europe (heat dome), southern USA (heat dome), Canada (wildfires), much of China (heat dome), Korea (floods), and I could go on. I think the planet may be telling us something.

How luck are we (between thunderstorms)

But you don’t want me to go on about that? You’d much rather talk about the fact that if I avoided a court order I’d definitely be given some jail time. Not so much His Borisness, who has still failed to handover his original mobile phone to the Covid enquiry quoting that ‘he can’t remember the password’. Popularist politics, hey? Johnson and Trump. Two sides of the same coin. Both worse than reprobates; both criminals in their own rights, with Trump easily taking the biscuit. Whatever, the three upcoming by-elections will see really poor Tory results, which will spark another Conservative leadership contest … whilst we get bombarded with ‘Stop the Boats’, ‘War on Woke’ and ‘we haven’t fully embraced Brexit – it’s all the remoaners’ fault’. When I look at Henry and think deeply (which doesn’t happen v often as I’m mostly smiling to myself) and I combine the wasted decade with the difficulties we will face in the future, I could weep. A few deeply flawed people who were devoured by personal gain, catapulted into power by a media which enjoyed and encouraged the spectacle. What a chapter.

Anyhow.

at home in the countryside

We love it here. I popped out last night before bed and there was just enough light to marvel at the expansive views. It wasn’t raining, which was a novelty, and I sat down on our bench and soaked it all in. The kids arrive tomorrow and it’s fabulous that we have the room to soak them up. Henry will cycle around the tennis court, continue to dig up the menage, terrorise the cat and pull at the dog’s tail. He will sit on the tractor and help C water the plants. Bex and Steven will run (as will we), we will go out for coffee and generally all will be well with our world. And I completely get how lucky we are.

The sale of mum’s house, which had kicked off, has fallen through. You’ll remember that she died (bless her) in April, so the fact that we have got probate and put the house on the market in quick time is good … but it would be fab if we could sell her. But these are tough times for anyone trying to sell property – thank goodness for Liz Truss’s short spell as PM. Without her interest rates would probably be a couple of % points lower and we all wouldn’t find ourselves where we are. Another triumph.

Greggs … hmmm

Book stuff! Hurrah! Sales have been rubbish, but I have gone out of my way to do absolutely no marketing. Sorry.

However, thanks to our Jen we are close to finishing the four remaining covers of the series. And, once I have them, I have made the decision that I will try and find a young person who loves to read and gets social media … and I will then pay them some money to see if we can get this thing rolling. [If you know of anybody please let me know]. At the same time I have book 9 in the series ready to go. I’m going to start writing in September the moment we get into Doris and head off for Spain. And, having reread some of my non-fiction work I did for my pal (with Parkinson’s) who drove his camper to Cape Town, I’ve started a conversation with him to finish the book next year. He does have a non-fiction book coming out – a biography. But my work is different. We’ll see.