No Longer Part of the Real World

It’s getting on four years since I retired, and I now spend most of my time writing. This morning, whipping round to the local shop for vital supplies like tobacco and inessentials such as bread and milk, it suddenly dawned on me that I am no longer a part of the real world.

There’s a small building site opposite the shop, and the workmen are coming and going, doing their individual thing, nipping over to the shop for the same luxury items as me (bread, milk and crisps in their case). On top of that, there are contractors working all over the estate, upgrading the kitchens and bathrooms in the houses, plus the usual doings of a residential area on a sunny Wednesday.

I spent nigh on fifty years as part of that reality, but not any longer. I’m no longer a participant, but an observer.

As if to reinforce this message, I’ve been in Filey most of the day. Not physically, of course, but in the virtual reality created by my first STAC Mystery, The Filey Connection. When I’m reading, or re-reading in this case, the reality of my mundane existence dissipates until I’m on the seafront, looking out over the placid waters of the bay, studying the red earth and green vegetation of Carr Naze, or watching waters break gently over the Brigg. This alternate reality is interrupted only occasionally by the need to take Joe for morning walkies or to go to the shops to ensure we can eat.

It’s painful to think about, too. I enjoyed work. Not the actual job. No matter what I was doing for my living, it was just as tedious and boring a sitting around the house doing nothing. But the crack (or craic as others seem to be spelling it these days). The simple act of being with other people, taking your fill of the daily drivel, the daily gags, the daily gripes made me a part of the real world, and it’s no longer there.

What to do?

Dunno. Get out more, I suppose. Either that, or get back to the keyboard and see if I can recapture the essence of places like Filey. It’s somewhere to go when the weather’s turning.

By the way, if you’re wondering why I’m re-reading The Filey Connection, it’s because it’s just appeared on Laurence O’Bryan’s Books Go Social site and I’m reminding myself what I’m letting those potential readers in for.