Happy New Year

Hello dear reader, whoever you are (sings tune from The King and I)...

New Year's resolutions don't come easily to me but this year I seem to have several that are tapping on my skull. One is to get this damn historical novel (a) completed and (b) knocked into a readable and saleable shape. I'm sort-of telling myself that I must complete it before I start the spring tune-up of the ponies for carriage driving. (So what am I doing wasting time on here!)

Another is to play more music. I've de-bagged the guitar and shocked it into tune and am suffering with red-hot fingertips on my left hand from practising every day after years of not playing. But I am also struggling to find a comfortable playing position and so I'm waiting for the arrival of a kit harp from Backyard Music in America, who are very approachable (as though, shock horror, they really want you to buy their stuff and enjoy it) and despite the impression given by their web site's order form they do NOT charge the earth for mailing kits across the Atlantic. You just have to email them and discuss what you want them to send. So now I've joined a couple of harp forums and am wasting yet more time reading about and watching videos about how to play. How did I ever have time to go to work?

In the meantime the nags are pottering round the yard getting filthy, and the hospital appointment for my knee operation looms closer, and occasionally I do some web design and argue with precious photographers about the presentation of their posh and expensive books (Wave at me if you're buying expensive books at the moment? Can I sell you some of my cheap ones please?)

Then I waste a bit more time blogging...