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| RHS Level 2 Diploma |
I've been putting together this year's Christmas letter today. I know some people - notably 'Guardian' columnist Simon Hoggart - are distainful of 'round robins', but I generally enjoy those we receive from our friends, which are generally witty and not at all smug. I would much rather receive a printed newsletter than no news at all, and have binned out of hand a card which contains only a sticky label to say who it's from and arrived in a sticky-labelled envelope for the second year running!
I have to confess to some fear of getting nominated for a 'Hoggart' this year, though. If I've managed to tell my friends about my husband's MBE and cute grandson, narrowboating to London and back, completing my RHS Diploma and self-publishing two novels without crossing the smugness line, I'll be pleasantly surprised. I fear that Jon being asked to cut the ribbon to formally re-open our local B&Q store may be the final straw - but there aren't that many celebrities in this part of North Staffordshire, and with Robbie busy promoting his new album...
They're a friendly lot at B&Q and, as you might guess, Jon and I are regular customers for gardening supplies and bits and bobs for little DIY projects and the model railway, though our most recent purchase has been some replacement fence panels after another spell of stormy weather.
It is odd looking back on this year's achievements, especially finishing the RHS course without any plans to sign up for another. I would love to tackle the Level 3 theory course, and the practical too for that matter, but my CAB job really needs me to be quite flexible about the days I can work and the capacity to do some evenings, and while I could do the theory as an evening course, I don't think I would have the concentration for it after a busy day training or talking. And I still have a handful of loyal customers who need their plots tended, before I think of taking on another patch at Reaseheath. But it felt strange not starting back in September.
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| Snow in November |
The other recent achievement was completing the task I set myself of polishing the second draft of 'Limited Capability', sequel Social Security saga to the earlier books, into a finished text and publishing it as a serial with an episode (roughly two chapters) available for free download by Friday every week - for fourteen consecutive weeks. Only one - appropriately, episode 13 - was one day late: the rest came out on time, though a re-read has shown up some proof-reading errors which I can quietly correct, and a calculation error which I have uncharitably blamed on the character in the story responsible for the sum, rather than his careless author. The next stage is to re-divide back into chapters and typeset for publication as a paperback, and then see if I can manage something slightly more akin to a proper 'launch' for the book than my previous efforts received.
I have read a couple of 'how to...' articles on book launches which seem to involve i) being in London, ii) inviting large numbers of influential people and iii) plying critics and journalists with generous quantities of free food and champagne. There seems to be no model based on being in Stoke-on-Trent, inviting a modest number of friends and work-mates and plying them with tea and oatcakes, which is about as far as my budget stretches! Having said that, one generous colleague has splashed a recommendation for the whole series all over the front page of a CAB internal online magazine - doubtless the reason for a small spike in 'Severe Discomfort' sales at the end of last week - and while the ambition of shifting enough books to keep us all in tea and coffee at Stoke CAB has yet to be realised, there is now a respectable little fund which will provide the gang with a few Christmas treats and some goodies afterwards for those stressful months as we approach the end of the financial year, and the end of some financial support...
It will be a good time to take a break and take stock, and I certainly plan to do some gardening over Christmas - in fact I have promised a serious pruning session to one of our prospective hosts during the Festive Season - and with a clear week after Christmas before I'm back to work I ought to be able to catch up on some clients' work too, but I'll make sure I have my notebook to hand as I already have some notes for a new story taking one existing character and several new ones in a subtly different and quirky direction, before hopefully returning to the Solent Welfare Rights Project at some point in the not too distant future. There will be politics, humour and suspense.
And yes, there will probably be kissing too...
