New Year New You? And this time last year ....

Jan 5th 2021 Christmas was coming and we were all getting excited - at last, an opportunity for a social occasion albeit with the 'bubble' limitations.  Then 4 days before, Boris Johnson, reacting to alarming rises in covid numbers basically cancelled Xmas, by putting us all into Tier 4.  I'm not going to say much more about that, because me and my daughters cut back our plans and our time together. We had Xmas lunch and opened presents etc.  But most of the fun of all the anticipation had been doused with a large bucket of ice on our heads. I drank too much Baileys and Bucks Fizz, had a headache by 5 pm (I should have known) and went to bed and fell asleep for 2 hours.  Let's leave it at that. The New Year's eve small social event was basically cancelled - the covid news had got even worse.  

I've kept my spirits up with daily walks in one or other of London's amazing parks - Finsbury Park, Waterlow Park, Alexandra Palace and Park, Downhills Park - all within a 2-mile radius of where I live - lucky me - here's a selection of views and winter trees in different parks. 

and continuing contacts with my Buddhist community, with meditations, devotions(puja) or     interesting talks, as well as occasional meet-ups outdoors for walks with friends.  Plus working on my book sporadically of course - that's my second memoir covering a 6 month period in 2003 when I found myself flying to Indonesia to rescue my ex  who was in a rat and cockroach infested jail,  with 10 grand hidden in the bottom of my suitcase.  It's called Beyond the Bounds - watch this space.  I'm hoping it will be finished by March/April and published soon after in 2021.

Feb 3rd 2021

Well, I started this a month ago.  Now here we are in February.  We've had one day of snow, looked pretty for 24 hours - went sledding with grandson and his Mum (my daughter) and his dad.  That was fun.  Since then it's rained a lot, been cold a lot.  But slowly slowly the daylight hours are getting longer and the bulbs in my garden have put up an inch or two of green shoots.... 

Feb 12th

Well, the big freeze started, - snow, ice and a freezing wind. Brrrrr...  I've been busy  They tell us it's ending on Monday 14th Feb and a warmer week is coming.  Thank goodness - I won't have to sit in my flat with Central Heating on full, plus an oil heater on full, plus 3 T shirts and a jumper.  Plus a fleece over my legs.  my writing is coming along very slowly, with lots of distractions, prevarications and of course the inertia we're all experiencing from lockdown. Last week I went to an online poetry evening with Enfield Poets and performed at last some of my poems.  After no performing for more than a year, it was lovely to read some poems and to hear other peoples.  

On Sunday my poetry group is meeting for some feedback on our new poems.  Only a few of us left still attending on Zoom sporadically.

I'll stop now and next time I'll add a short podcast - about my book on Writing Memoir and give you some tips.  I'm going to do a series of 6 podcasts.  If you're serious about writing a memoir (or any sort of true story or even a novel, there are lots of chapters in the book that you'd find interesting.  Here's a sample:


... and please, if you buy my book - either in print or as an ebook, do write me a review on Amazon - I don't mind how many stars you give me but be nice 😀😀