Month: May 2021

Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations

A global pandemic and a trip to the dentist

Like many others, I hadn’t been to the dentist for well over a year. In fact, when I asked my dentist on arrival into the room when I was last seen she told me it was November 2019.

I paused a moment to consider all that had happened in the time between visits. My gosh. A global pandemic. Nature taking over as the world stops. Numerous lockdowns. Restrictions on our lives that still remain. Mask wearing. No hugging. Lots of wine consumption. Relentless working. No holidays. The same news on repeat.

I was sure to have many cavities.

I didn’t expect to be so anxious about my first visit to the dentist. However, on the drive there which is about forty minutes, I tried to soften my anxiety with a podcast. I was in fact quite worried.

I’d read on the email the procedure to expect which wasn’t much different from going to a supermarket. Wear a mask at all times, except from when they are examining you, obviously. Take your own pen to sign. Sit away from others in the waiting room. They might take your temperature.

Well, that started a hole heap of worries.

What if I appear hot because I am running late and then I have to get tested and realise I actually have COVID-19? What if they find something horrendously wrong inside my mouth because I haven’t been seen for so long? In fact I think I can feel a root canal is needed at the back. Yep, definitely.

None of this was true of course and, by some miracle, I had no holes. The whole procedure was smooth and I couldn’t fault the surgery at all. They made me feel very comfortable, extremely safe and I was smug that I hadn’t got to go back for any work. It would have been a long wait if I needed anything done.

Until next time. I wonder what will happen in this crazy world between now and then. I wonder if I will be thinking the same as I sit in that chair next year.

For links to all of my writing related stuff, my link tree is below. You can also find published work in my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is available on Amazon along with the sequel Don’t Tell Jack. If you enjoy what you’re seeing here and are interested in following me on my writing journey, then please subscribe to my newsletter by dropping your name and email. There will be plenty of giveaways, news hot off the press and an honest insight into life as an author. Thank you x

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Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Stories

The People’s Postcode Lottery got me two more books!

I work at a place that demonstrates the uniqueness of people. Sometimes we have problems to solve, but mostly days are spent chatting to lovely people who come along to our shop and Post Office for varying reasons. I think lots of the time recently, particularly among the elderly, the trip is the first time they’ve left the house in a year!

Either way I feel our conversations help in some way.

The other day a lady I hadn’t seen in a long time came to me in the Post Office. It sounded like she’d had an eventful year. We chatted and I felt the sigh of relief lift off her to be chatting to someone in person. No screens besides that of the Post Office sorting her banking out. Her family live at the other end of the country so it’s been virtual contact for too long, she was saying.

Anyway she was telling me about one lucky aspect to her recent days in that she’d won on the People’s Postcode Lottery three times. £10 each time, but a win is a win. Not bad as luck goes. The latest win was for a book. She doesn’t read anymore so she gave me her prize.

How lovely. How kind.

Thanks to this lady, her luck, her generosity and her desire to have a real chat with a real person, I am now the happy owner of A Keeper by Graham Norton and I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella. Yeah I found the two for one deal!

I will be posting reviews in due course.

There are good people in this world.

For links to all of my writing related stuff, my link tree is below. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is OUT NOW. If you enjoy what you’re seeing here and are interested in following me on my writing journey as I self-publish novel number two, then please subscribe to my newsletter by filling in the form at the bottom of any page of my website. Thank you x

linktr.ee/HJMWriting

Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction Observations

Take another minute, always

One of my bugbears is always being in a rush. Or, more accurately, trying to cram so much into the little time I have that I end up running about trying to fit it all in. Stressing.

Take this morning for example. I start work at 10. I woke at 7:30. In the time between I have fit in:

  • a twenty minute workout
  • breakfast
  • a shower
  • 4 blog posts
  • feeding the cats, the dog and the birds
  • filling in the work health and safety sheet

All done in a panic because I am constantly against the ticking of the clock.

Why do I do it?!

Though I do feel good when it’s done.

The other week I was at the caravan. My favourite place. I had given myself an extra night there which is always lovely and aimed to leave at around 10:30 in the morning to get back in time for work. To get back in time for work with a little bit of time at the other end of the journey to casually bring my bags in, put a wash on and ensure the dog has a pee.

STOP!

Of course my mind went into timetable mode and I had allowed myself until 9:20.a.m. (pretty generous if you ask me). That’s right, I’d allowed myself free time to read in bed, chill, walk on the beach and enjoy the last morning before tidying up and leaving.

9:20 soon came around and I had about twenty pages left of my book that I was loving.

Do you know what I did? I took another minute. And you should too, always.

It felt amazing just to say: “sod it I will finish my book, what’s the worst that could happen?” I doubt I’d be late for work. I felt good after having finished the book. That feeling is wonderful and so much more wonderful than shutting the covers with twenty pages left to go.

I wasn’t going overboard. It wasn’t another day or even hour I was giving myself. Just a minute. A short period of time that left me feeling so smug and so fabulous.

Just one minute, always.

For links to all of my writing related stuff, my link tree is below. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is OUT NOW 

linktr.ee/HJMWriting

Categories
Adulthood Non-fiction

Music through the decades

There’s this thing that I do most nights and it began in early 2020. That thing is drink. Wine mostly, sometimes beer but usually it involves alcohol.

As the weeks close and another Sunday is ready to be enjoyed I release a little on a Saturday evening and find myself getting drunker quicker. It’s lovely. I think it’s because the weight of the working week lifts and the excitement for a lie in begins to build.

Two magnesium tablets, a bucket full of red and I felt ready for bed the other week when I started doing this other thing. As I went to brush my teeth I put random songs on Spotify. I had overplayed the current tracks throughout the week that I wanted to take it back down memory lane. And back I went.

2016…

2013…

2009…

2007… I had totally forgotten about Nizlopi JCB! Tune!

I was loving life, smiling at memories and enjoying hearing songs I had totally forgotten about. I think it wasn’t until two hours later that I finished brushing my teeth!

Now if ever I can’t decide what to listen to, which is happening frequently, I do this. Music through the decades, try it. It’s fun!

For links to all of my writing related stuff, my link tree is below. You can also find published work in my portfolio. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is OUT NOW. If you enjoy what you’re seeing here and are interested in following me on my writing journey as I self-publish novel number two, then please subscribe to my newsletter by filling in the form at the bottom of any page of my website. Thank you x

linktr.ee/HJMWriting

Categories
Adulthood fiction Review Writing

The Midnight Library: a review

So I finished the book that lots of people are talking about – The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Thank you sir.

I loved it.

At the start I wasn’t sure whether or not it would be my cup of tea as I began it with – of course – a cup of tea. I’m not into fantasy or other worlds. I much prefer books firmly set within this world and reality. Ones that I can sometimes relate to or that answer my own questions I have about this world.

The initial idea of the main character being somewhere between life and death felt too sci-fi for my usual taste but, having loved Haig’s previous books, I read on.

Yes the concept is fantastical in that – well nobody knows actually – what happens after death. Yet the main themes, the settings of the many lives that Nora transports into and everything else about the book is very very real.

It is a book that focuses on perspective, something that many of us need more of. It has a lesson on every single page. I found myself constantly noting down quotes and staring wide-eyed at the pages in total I-had-never-thought-of-it-like-that-before style.

Some books I read, love and share with friends. Others I give to a charity shop or swap in the phone box in our village. They were good books but nothing special.

Well, in my opinion, this book is special. While it is currently with a friend I have asked for it to be returned and returned to my shelf. It will sit there forever. I will dip in and out. If ever I need a bit of perspective I will read a page or two.

Thank you Matt Haig.

For links to all of my writing related stuff, my link tree is below. My debut novel, Dear Brannagh, is OUT NOW!!

https://linktr.ee/HJMWriting