Right. I’ve done it again! Forgotten that my blog existed. My last update was back in Spring. I’ve had ideas for entries but it seems life just got in the way once again. As such I thought I would do a little half year (well 8 months) update for you all. Here goes…
To say 2022 has been an eventful one would be an understatement. Beth and I have been busy in both a good and bad way. Our biggest update of course is that we finally have our house! Hurray! Only took us almost year to finally buy. Eventually all the waiting turned into a frenzy of activity. The sellers and solicitors went from “hold on, wait a minute” to “we need everything right now this instant” in a flash. Though I must say, I did pretty good. Despite all this sudden madness I managed to get all the paperwork sorted and deposit transferred in the space of 2 and a half days. But yes we actualy have and own a house, with bedrooms, space, and a garden we don’t know what to do with. I mow the thing every so often but the patch at the end continues to surprise us. We currently have a collection of sunflowers growing. Plus with all the sun I keep having to trim my bush. The front bush that is. Got to make it tidy!
The stress though didn’t end with getting the keys. No we were in for a couple of annoying/nasty surprises. First we discovered that the dish washer they had left us didn’t work. Hurray! Great start! After a load of tinkering and prodding we ended buying a new one. So yeah, that got sorted nicely. Then the alarm system started doing a steady constant beep. It was complaining at us but we couldn’t do anything because they hadn’t left us with the administrator key code. Got that and sorted it after a few stressful evenings. Phew! But that’s not all. No the boiler decided to drip oil very very slowly. People in the know came round and told us it wasn’t good. The warranty had only just expired too. Luck however was on our side and thankfully it wasn’t all dead. No the part we needed replacing was still under warranty and we could get a replacement sent to us free. In the end we only had to pay for work. So yeah that wasn’t too bad. All in all a stressful experience full of annoying litte surprises. But we’ve made the place our home, got settled, and are slowly filing it with things.
Onto other non-house related news we’ve had some more stressful family events pop up this year. Right after Christmas my dad got admitted to hospital for heart problems. He had major surgery but it all went well. Rather the bigger scare seemed to be when he had to be readmitted to hospital not long afterwards. What they suspected might have been a fungal infection in his valves ended up being a warfarin resistence. A very rare condition that ultimately meant he wasn’t receiving enough of the stuff to help him heal up. He’s doing better now and has been back home for a while. He’s building up his strength again and has even slowly started going out for (gentle) runs. His driving license has been revoked so instead he has become the perfect (or should that be worst) back seat driver.
In other sadder news though my final grandparent, Paul Bolitho, passed away in June. He did well, avoiding Covid and living right into his 90s. His funeral took a bit of time to arrange and it ended up happening in July. He was a sweet, caring, intelligent man, who as a Methodist librarian from Cornwall, loved his books, helping people in need, and spending time with his family, He was an active member of his Warwick church community, and his two children (my mum and uncle) set up a donation page in his name for his favourite charity. Link provided below.
With both my Granny and Grandpa gone now their house in Warwick is empty. New homes are being found for their old belongings and it is slowly being emptied. It was a bizarre sensation visiting their house, an odd multi story thin building, with the garden technically on the second floor. It was a big part of our childhood. As kids we would rush up and down the stairs, go visit Warwick castle, and go for walks to the racecourse down the road with their dogs Sally, and later Trudy (the limping canine escape artist). It’s bizarre what memories decide to spring up when you’re going through an empty place you used to know so well. I distinctly remember renting the VHS of Disney’s Robin Hood (the best one) during our visits. It didn’t seem to exist anywhere else, we’d only watch it there, which in itself seemed somewhat appropriate with Warwick Castle just around the corner. Weirder still I remember visiting their local Methodist church with them on Easter Sunday, and, being the odd little person I was, deciding to eat the shell off my boiled egg at the brunch afterwards. That part of my life has now gone though. That connection, that, now empty, house, and the loving grandparents attached to it, that world has now finished, leaving me with many interesting, loving, and peculiar memories. My sister discovered a little notebook on her look around their house, one that was filled with each of their grandchildren’s school grades. They liked making notes of things like that.
In other brighter news though, up here in our new hosue in Prescot I have started a new money job. It’s called Alcotraz and it’s an immersive theatrical experience set in a prison with plenty of cocktails. It’s great fun and I’ve made a whole slew of new friends, one of which actually lives in Prescot as well and plays Warhammer. Happy geek friends! In a sense I have swapped unpredictable small children, for larger unpredicatble drunk people. Hen parties can be terrifying. That is all that needs saying. I have also continued recording audiobooks for people. Most recent project has been a beginenrs guide to trumpet playing. I have never played one before in my life, but now I know something, well a little something about that topic.
Also Beth and I have other tremendous news. We’ve generally been keeping it quiet but it has been in the works for a while now. It became more serious at the end of May. The final paperwork all got sorted. Sadly I was too busy to be there when my wife delivered them, but it delights me to announce that we have 2 new additions to our family. May I present to you Mario and Luigi – our two new fluffy boys. Unsurprisingly I am a dotting, super affectionate, mad cat dad. There will be more pictures and details in a future post I promise. My phone is stuffed to overflowing with photos.
But what’s that I hear you ask? How is your writing going? Well…. Errrrr…. Slowly? It is happening though but sadly that sort of productivity has reduced so dramatically it is almost non-existent. I have started writing book 5 of my main fantasy series bringing the beginning of the end for my Edimor series. New space pirates have arrived and an old character from way back at the start of When the World Falls Down has remerged. I have also started writing another more serious fantasy book, drawing from ancient greek, Roman, and Macedonian history, and inspired by Titus Andronicus. It is very violent and gory. Very different indeed. I am almost making very early plans to not only re-release When the World Falls Down, but its sequels too, with new artwork, fancy new covers, and a brand new focus. Nothing is going to happen for a while. I am still very much in the planning stages, gathering knowledge and information, and working out how certain things are done. So keep watch! At some point I should have some very exciting news about my writing. Though of course don’t expect it soon. Things take time, and I can be a very hesitant and nervous individual when it comes to big decisions like this...
With that it's bye for now. I'll be back soon!
Jon
