It’s been a rough old year here at Blessham Hall; bad health, bad vibes and far too much loss. In fact, I can’t recall a year quite like it. As Her Majesty would have called it, it has been our annus horribilis and no, before you ask, I’m not going to make any gags about a horrible anus. If you want that kind of cheap comedy you must look elsewhere.

So far this year we’ve lost 2 close friends, our next-door neighbour and a beloved brother in law to cancer and also our dear little cat, Sooty, who passed away a couple of weeks ago from a heart attack.

That’s a lot of grief.

I’ve also bid farewell to two podcasts that I worked very hard on, although I now see that it was the right thing to do.

Worst of all, I nearly lost the love of my life as Ange also had a heart attack at the end of January. Thankfully she recovered and is doing very well.

I could go on and on but I prefer to focus on the positives in life, of which there have also been many. Not least with the life streamlining I’ve been doing lately which I have detailed in this here blog.

Things are going extremely well in that particular area of my life. I’ve found more time for writing and blogging, I’m sleeping a lot better and I’m losing weight. I feel that for once I have a good work/life balance and it shows in my output. I’ve made greater strides with the current WIP (Work In Progress) in the last month than I had in the previous six!

Of course, there is also a lot of self-care going on. I know when I ned to rest and I know when I need to write. I know when I need to exercise and I know when I need to be still. All good.

It’s funny to think that even though I’m writing more I seem to have more time to myself as well. And rather than just fritter away my free time I’ve upped my reading quota considerably and I’ve taken up a new hobby…

I’m learning to play the ukulele.

It’s such fun, it really is. I’ve always been interested in stringed instruments but found the guitar too difficult due to my short, stubby fingers. I know my way roughly around a bass but that’s all. However, even after just one two-hour lesson with U3A and some practice at home I’m already coming on in leaps and bounds. I can play the Banana Boat Song so far. Ok, ok, so it might not be Stairway To Heaven but it’s a start. Jimmy Page started by learning nursery rhymes.

One great benefit I’m getting from the uke is that my fingers are getting some good exercise too. I do get monstrous pain in my fingers at times but I’m finding that by making chord changes and moving them on the fretboard its having a profound effect on them. Well, my left hand at least.

It’s quite a jolly little instrument is the ukulele. Makes a very pretty sound and even if you’re just strumming away practicing you can still make up nice tunes as you go along. It’s a musical instrument that’s good for the mind. Plus, it hardly weighs anything at all, unlike the bass guitar I had which felt like a lead weight around my neck. How those rock stars leap around the stage with one is unfathomable.

So when I do get proficient at it where will it take me? There’s always the possibility of me doing a George Formby tribute act. But as I recall, George wasn’t a hulking, bearded, long-haired ogre of a man with a voice like slow-moving treacle. Still, I would like to learn When I’m Cleaning Windows, just for fun.

Another wonderful thing about the uke is that practice doesn’t mean sitting for hours on end if you don’t want to. I find that many short ten-minute bursts throughout the day are more beneficial. I write for an hour or so and then I have a strum on the uke for a few minutes. Then a cuppa before getting back to the writing. Or if I’m watching the TV, whenever there’s a break, I pick up the uke and have a go. It’s great!

So, after what has been a shite year so far, there have still been a lot of blue-sky moments. I’m enjoying the ukulele, my wife’s health hasn’t been great but it’s meant that we’ve spent a great deal of precious time together, I feel more light-hearted having dumped a lot of the dross I was carrying around in my head and let’s not forget that I published my 6^th novel, Vole, in February.

Who knows, maybe one day I’ll do audio books where I sing the contents accompanied by the uke. Then again, perhaps no, I’ll stick with things the way they are for now because life is actually quite good at the moment.

And, as Mr Formby himself once said, “In my profession I’ll work hard, but I’ll never stop, I’ll climb this blinking ladder till I get right to the top!”