I haven't written a post on the blog this year, mostly because I have been doing other things. Written some songs, recorded a few and more to go, but generally I have been de-cluttering. Having arrived in 2016 to rain, rain and more rain, I decided to give both my study at home and my study at the University of Winchester a major overhaul. Just as I had finished both, the sun came out (this is a picture taken on my way to work) and as a result of the ensuing catharsis, I caught a serious dose of cheerfulness. Though I was thinking this morning, it is getting harder to be cheerful. I'm okay, of course, I have a job, health, wealth and a head full of ideas - and indeed I am happy to report that the plan I made over 20 years ago to 'publish' something every year has already kicked in with a book completed (edited with Jen Webb and Jeri Kroll), a new contract to be signed and to be written with Glenn Fosbraey (thank you Palgrave), another article on The Boat Project commissioned and possibly a publication of some prose poetry (which isn't bad for me as the non-poet in the project) and its only January. But as I look out of the kitchen window, while sipping my early grey tea, I see the world is a less happy place than it has been; our government is continuing its kick the poor campaign; war still reigns on the less fortunate elsewhere; the 'boat' season has extended from the summer months and those looking for a better life are risking more and more through winter journeys; fences are going up all over Europe too and anti-immigration rhetoric is really taking hold and now the Church of England has kicked out the Episcopal Church in the USA because they are a little too liberal on the issue of the right to be loving and gay. I never held much of a candle to the Church of England, since the entire idea of it is surely an anachronism that should really die with the idea of a British Empire, but unfortunately, this says much about an organisation which has too much power and wealth in our own country and across the world. But I digress, my own new year's resolution is to do something good every month. I am not saying what it will be or how I have gone about it, but since I have nothing left to 'give up' in the way of the usual vices, I have decided to give. In the meantime, you know why this guy - takes me right back to the Edinburgh Empire, May 1973 - I sigh:
