Five Years...
...that's all we've got. As David Bowie sang, back when he was cool.* OK, so this post should have been about a month ago, but what they hey - I was busy or something. Either way, it's now five years since I scrabbled around for something to say and came up with this.
Five years. Blimey. I was young and foolish back then. I had more hair and a slimmer waist. I could run ten miles without puking. I didn't own a house that was sucking me dry with its endless renovation demands. I had a cat, and parents.
Much has happened in those five years. I've written some novels, gained myself an agent, been short-listed for an award twice, lost an agent, found another one and then lost him too. I've made lots of new friends, and lost a few old ones to the ravages of time. I've travelled to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Iceland, and even England a couple of times. Somewhere in those five years I decided that, since I didn't have all that much to say in English, there wasn't much point in learning Welsh anymore.
Sometime in the last five years I've taught farmers how to use the internet, designed and built web applications, even stuck my finger up a sheep's bum for money. It was still better than working as a civil servant, which I did for ten months before the mindlessness of the bureaucracy meant I had to leave, or be locked up for killing someone.***
After fifteen years of not getting around to it, I finally finished restoring a 1967 Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider, and drove it all the way to the north of Scotland and back, blithely unaware that one of its chassis rails could break in two at any time due to unseen rust.** I've not used it much since, which just goes to show that it's the tinkering that's important, not the driving.
There are many other things I've done over the past five years, and if you really want to know about them, a good place to start is the archive bar to the right. But there's one thing I had in mind, back in December 2004 - one thing I really thought I would have achieved by now and yet which still eludes me. Yes, despite the brilliance of my prose; the compelling nature of my plotting; the fact that I deserve it, dammit; and despite the help and advice of many professionals in the field, I still remain resolutely unpublished.
Here's hoping the next five years bring a bit more luck.**** Hell, let's hope the next five months do.
*I saw a photo of him in the paper a while back, and he looked healthy. Face chubbing up a bit, shiny white perfect teeth, smiling. That's just wrong on so many levels.
** it's fixed now.
*** I kid you not - five separate signatures from two different departments required to process a £25 grant payment. Madness, I tells you.
**** and I realise of course that you have to make your own luck. I just seem to have forgotten how.
Five years. Blimey. I was young and foolish back then. I had more hair and a slimmer waist. I could run ten miles without puking. I didn't own a house that was sucking me dry with its endless renovation demands. I had a cat, and parents.
Much has happened in those five years. I've written some novels, gained myself an agent, been short-listed for an award twice, lost an agent, found another one and then lost him too. I've made lots of new friends, and lost a few old ones to the ravages of time. I've travelled to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Iceland, and even England a couple of times. Somewhere in those five years I decided that, since I didn't have all that much to say in English, there wasn't much point in learning Welsh anymore.
Sometime in the last five years I've taught farmers how to use the internet, designed and built web applications, even stuck my finger up a sheep's bum for money. It was still better than working as a civil servant, which I did for ten months before the mindlessness of the bureaucracy meant I had to leave, or be locked up for killing someone.***
After fifteen years of not getting around to it, I finally finished restoring a 1967 Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider, and drove it all the way to the north of Scotland and back, blithely unaware that one of its chassis rails could break in two at any time due to unseen rust.** I've not used it much since, which just goes to show that it's the tinkering that's important, not the driving.
There are many other things I've done over the past five years, and if you really want to know about them, a good place to start is the archive bar to the right. But there's one thing I had in mind, back in December 2004 - one thing I really thought I would have achieved by now and yet which still eludes me. Yes, despite the brilliance of my prose; the compelling nature of my plotting; the fact that I deserve it, dammit; and despite the help and advice of many professionals in the field, I still remain resolutely unpublished.
Here's hoping the next five years bring a bit more luck.**** Hell, let's hope the next five months do.
*I saw a photo of him in the paper a while back, and he looked healthy. Face chubbing up a bit, shiny white perfect teeth, smiling. That's just wrong on so many levels.
** it's fixed now.
*** I kid you not - five separate signatures from two different departments required to process a £25 grant payment. Madness, I tells you.
**** and I realise of course that you have to make your own luck. I just seem to have forgotten how.
Comments
I'll celebrate my 5th bloggiversary in May and boy, did the time fly. I hadn't noticed I've blogged that long already.