Back to work

Car still bust so bus for me this morning. And the icy pavements were not as kind as the bustop.

Following on from yesterday's roof-top timelapse video, here are 24 hours overlooking Swansea presented in just 6 minutes. Watch out for those rain clouds! 

Forget the Fireworks

Forget the fireworks displays that took place today to see in the new year. The best display was saved for the early evening when a rather fantastic burst of the Northern Lights illuminated the Swansea skies. Thanks to a really excellent piece of kit Mrs E got from Santa, which she set up on the roof outside our attic window, we didn't even need to leave the house to be entertained with this appearance:

Here are a couple of pics of it from my phone camera too:

Thanks to Mrs  E's technical skills, we can even present this phantasmagorical timelapse of the whole display for your delectation. Happy New Year!

New Year's Plans for 2025

Okay, here are my plans for 2025. No strict deadlines as I want as much of a stress free year as I am able to manifest.

Publishing Targets: 

Familiar should be published within the first half of the year. As I have already noted in my blog, this will be my 9th and final novel. I will still be writing, but will be sticking to more short-form work, such as guidebooks. 

Fiction-wise, I will be restricting myself to short stories for a future compilation of Christmas ghost stories. Going forward, I think one new addition to this project a year will keep my creative urges sufficiently fed. I am currently undecided on when the writing of these ghost stories will commence this. The Christmas of 2026 will probably see the first one see light of day, given the the heavy stack of projects I have already piled up for 2025. 

My x4 Explore Gower titles will each get updated this next year for their second editions.

Whilst on the topic of updates, both Avalon and my Guy N Smith zine will get significant updates. Probable publishing dates for these latter x2 projects is mid 2025. 

I will also be publishing a 2nd Guy N Smith zine in May/June next year. I'm not sure what I will be personally contributing to the book, other than collating its content. We'll see. The project will only get released though if enough contributors come forward and if the combined effort will make Guy's family proud of what he inspired in others. His memory deserves our best efforts. For any Guy fans reading this, please send me your contributions as early as you can over the next month or two. 

Oh, and look out for a new professional website to advertise my wares sometime soon... 

Pastimes: 

 

As my regular blog and socials readers will already know, I have a new hobby lined up for next year - one specifically designed to get me out into the world a little more - Magnet Fishing. For anyone not aware of how exciting this hobby can be, check out this guy's magnetic adventures on Youtube - bombs, bikes, safes, knives, guns, he has dragged them all from the water, and more. I wonder what my magnet will dredge from the waters during 2025. Folk following my blog and socials can to keep up-to-date on the adventures to come. 

Holidays: 

Finally, because the major fire that crashed our lives in early 2024, which took away the lovely Sooshcat from our company, we had to cancel all of our holiday plans this past year. They are now firmly back on the cards now, with a May Day visit to the legendary Glastonbury, a Christmas stay in Japan, as well as a visit to Norwich to spend more precious time with my lovely first-born, whose company I still constantly crave. See you soon Ambikin XXXX And that's kind of that. Let's just see how the year unfurls. But please, pretty please, make it better than 2024!

🫨

What a cracking end to a godawful year:

Back to Work

Back to work after the Crimbo festivities. Short day made it bearable, though the rest of the work day was taken up with a hospital visit to see the opthalmic doctor.

It wasn't the best of experiences as I had a syringe pushed into my left eye tear ductt and saline squirted though it into my right nostril-ugh!! Upshot of that and various other checks and tests carried out is I need a tear duct readjusting ing in my left eyelid, which apparently requires 10 seconds of surgery. 

If that doesn't solve my issue, then I will need to have the corner of my eyelid tightened at an even later date.

For now though, it's another waiting game as the required surgery is being classed as just routine. Tick Tock. Tick tock.

2024 Review - Part 3

2024 is certainly ending a lot better than it began. I left the department that was giving me so much grief just weeks after giving myself a push and forcing myself to leave my comfort zone. I now have x2 jobs with my employer - one where I can put my writing skills into practice and have time to actual engage with my work rather than a robotic data entry clerk, which is work that literally drives me to despair!! I work that job x3 days a week, whilst spending the other x2 days, in the PCS union office. And so 2024 ends with me finally enjoying my paid work 🙂.

On a personal level, I have never been as happy as I have been these past few months. Both my physical health and mental well-being and making me excited to be alive, which, trust me, is not something I though I would be saying this time last year.

Financially we are doing well (thanks to  hard-earned job). The unburdening of struggling with day to day living expenses is something we have only achieved recently, and it really feels good to appreciate this security.

Finally, and importantly, I am at a place creatively where I can look back at my personal work with pride. 2025 already looks busy, and I hope to find time in the next x12 months to consolidate my creative portfolio and squeeze my way into some new ventures - more of which you'll discover in my upcoming New Year's blog entry...

My New 2025 Hobby