The Meerkat Muse: 15th of January, 2025
So here we are, two weeks into the New Year. What has transpired in this meerkat’s particular slice of life?
The Sales Rush
As I mentioned in my previous Muse, work had ramped up over the traditional sale period. This has (as with most elements of life) pros and cons. On the negative side, being pulled from pillar to post, struggling to grab a bite to eat without interruptions, and feeling like I don’t have a spare moment to breathe, is all quite frustrating. On the positive side, this has been a great opportunity to fill my boots, so to speak.
What I have felt, beyond any doubt, is tired. The festive spell at the end of 2024 really took it out of me. The early stage of January took it out of me. Forging ahead with 6am alarms and 8am starts at work is definitely a chore at times. It goes without saying that I wish I could earn enough money from book sales to retire. Alas, I am a long way off such a milestone!
The Local Panto!
On the 2nd, my wife, daughter and I went to our local pantomime, along with my stepdaughter and granddaughter. This was a production of Jack and the Beanstalk, and I dare say there were plenty of occasions where it proved… shall we say… unique. I dare say I found it funnier than the Stevenage panto, but was it a tremendous, amazing retelling of the story? Well, it had its entertaining quirks, including a particularly hilarious – albeit for the wrong reasons – piece of audience interaction, with one very unwilling, deadpan bloke, barely humouring the traditional banter with the panto dame.
It was a night out, and a fun one, albeit a wet one too, when the actors brought out water guns to soak the audience! The jokes were groan-worthy, which is what you want, and there was even a dog on stage at one, um, stage!
Stellar Sights
Heading home from the panto, I turned my eyes to the heavens. The night sky was looking gorgeous, and as my eyes scanned the darkness, I saw two particularly intriguing beacons of light.
You’ll have to excuse my photography skills, but the bright dot in the top right of the picture is Venus, and the brightest dot on the left-side, and roughly in the middle, right above the street lights, is Mars.
It’s humbling to see other worlds in the night sky, and doubly so when you can see two of our nearby neighbours in the same sky. Venus and Mars are millions of miles away, yet they have inspired astronomers for centuries, and continue to do so. What makes this stellar spectacle even greater is that, on the 25th of January, four planets will be visible to the naked eye, and another two will be visible of you have the aid of a telescope, all within the same frame. Let us hope it’s not too cloudy, eh?
The Epic Downpour
Over the weekend of the 4th and 5th, there was a lot of talk about snow. Sure enough, swathes of the nation were blanketed in the cold white stuff. In my corner of Essex, we saw some flakes, but what we got, in earnest, was a torrential downpour of rain. The forecast suggested this rain might turn to sleet at some stage, but certainly in the morning, all we saw was rain, lots and lots of rain.
Now, you might argue that rain is better than snow, and in some respects, it is. However, snow can look magical, especially when it’s fresh, and it doesn’t tend to get you as damp as the bloody rain! Also, cold rain is utterly horrible. It seeps through every layer of clothing and gets into your very soul. Plus, if the temperature drops below freezing, all that standing water becomes an ice rink, and that is sorely unpleasant to navigate.
This weather coincided with the end of our Christmas Sale at work, which saw that most vital yet annoying element of retail sales: people, lots and lots of people. I swear the older I get, the more impatient I feel about people. Yes, I know that’s a crazy attitude for a salesperson to have, but here we are. It doesn’t help that in my line of work, you can do a lot of work, and put in a lot of time, only for a customer to say ‘thanks but no thanks’.
The Sore Wrist
I can already picture some of you, sniggering away, and no, my injury has nothing to do with that, thank you very much! Besides, it’s my left wrist that’s hurting, and let’s just say that I am not ambidextrous. I have no idea what I’ve done to it, but applying pressure to it, in any shape or form, triggers pain. I can’t even hazard a guess as to why, aside from the possibility that I slept on it in a weird way.
The Annoying Cat
I am loathe to describe my adorable fuzzy-boo-boo as being a pain in the ass, but lately, Castiel has decided the perfect time to want cuddles and attention is as soon as the humans go to bed. He’s been joining my wife and I, sitting on my wife’s back, purring away, and crawling over us. Needless to say, this makes sleeping that little bit more challenging. I’m not entirely sure why he’s chosen now to start this habit. Is it because it’s cold in the world, and he wants warmth? Whatever the reason, I always appreciate cat cuddles, except for when I am trying to sleep!
Growing Impatient
It is pretty obvious by now that I am a huge Nintendo fan. Two of my tattoos tie into my love of Nintendo, and I have owned virtually every major Nintendo console, at some point or another. Since the 3rd of March 2017, I’ve been the proud owner of a Switch, and with this rather excellent console now approaching its eighth birthday, Nintendo have been quietly talking of a successor for a while. They confirmed they were working on a new console back in May 2024, but since then details have been frustratingly hard to come by. Since this confirmation, Nintendo have unveiled a music app for smartphones (truly, the gift no one asked for), an alarm clock, and a museum. Leaks, purporting to reveal numerous details about the ‘Nintendo Switch 2’, have been popping up all over the place. I saw one commentator remark that Nintendo may have nothing new to announce, given that all the info is out there, in some way shape or form.
The trouble with Nintendo is also one of their strengths: they are stubborn. They will do things their way, doggedly at times, in the face of convention, and sometimes reason. They cannot be unaware of the enormous speculation about their new console, and they must be aware of the various leaks. Fans – myself included – are getting desperate to learn what this console will be like, and when we can expect to see it. Rumours have suggested a summer launch for this year, but the maddening silence remains. Hurry up and give us some concrete news!
More Stellar Marvels
Earlier, I shared a picture of Venus and Mars, sharing the same small segment of night sky. Well, here we once again have Venus:
We also have… Jupiter!
What’s quite remarkable is how bright Jupiter is, even though it’s considerably further away from earth than Venus is. It’s no wonder Jupiter was regarded by the Romans as the king of the gods. It remains absolutely magnificent to me that we can see other worlds, as beautiful points of light, right here on earth.
The Fact-check Conundrum
I’m preparing a video on this particular subject, but if you follow the news you’ll see that Mark Zuckerberg, chief of the Meta group that runs Facebook and Instagram, has recently said his social media platforms will no longer fact-check articles published to them. Who does this benefit? It benefits those who rely upon deception, and in the current political climate, whilst this could be argued it benefits everyone, I believe it benefits the political and social right more than the left.
After all, Zuckerberg’s move comes shortly after meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where the oligarch also donated to Trump’s inauguration fund. The signal from this is pretty clear: Trump and his supporters now have more freedom to say what they want, regardless of the consequences. They have greater manoeuvring room to lie and deceive. This is all in the name of freedom of speech, but the reality is that it’s about protecting those who lie.
Plummeting Mercury
I don’t mean the planet (this would be a much more urgent post if I did!), but rather the temperature, which in recent days has dipped into the minus range. It is getting quite nippy here in the UK, though thankfully not dramatically so in my particular portion of Essex. Some parts of the UK have been blanketed by thick snow, and other parts of the world have had it even worse, so I am grateful for small mercies. Still, meerkats are not cold weather creatures, and I am no exception. The summer months are what I yearn for, and I know they’ll return, but for now, it’s literally freezing. Come back summer, all is forgiven!
Stressful Days
When I arrived at work last Thursday, I knew I had two days of being quite busy ahead of me. What I didn’t know is that on Friday, work and home stress would combine to really get under my skin. Confusion from the NHS over free prescriptions was causing worry at home, whilst I was simultaneously dealing with matters about incorrect tiles, broken toilet seats, and room designs. The ceaseless stress, pounding from all sides, was not something I particularly needed! It does seem that if there’s something awkward or frustrating occurring, it will be paired with other awkward and frustrating moments. What’s also typical is that this will all literally happen in the same precise instance, leaving me pulled in several different directions at once.
This stress took itself to a new level, with the not-entirely-surprising revelation that a nearby store played silly games to take a small order from my store. I am growing sick and tired of the behaviour of the manager of this other store, and I think we need to stand up to these antics in a more forceful way. Unfortunately, it seems the antics of this other showroom are beyond reproach, at least judging from the ‘response’ our regional manager offered.
We’re not dealing with a level playing field, and that makes life so much worse. There cannot be two sets of rules in place, and yet, that’s precisely what we seem to have.
On top of all that, I was reminded as to how other people’s spawn can be a tremendous source of aggravation. I understand that young children don’t always listen, and sometimes lack a bit of self-control. In such circumstances, it is important to set boundaries, and be firm when they misbehave. Letting your child climb all over our showroom displays, and even switch our lights on and off, isn’t exactly teaching them a valuable life lesson.
A Long Two Weeks
It feels like the first two weeks of 2025 have dragged out. The chaos of the winter sale, the numerous queries and challenges at work, and the return to school of my daughter (which brings early starts, every day) has left me feeling a bit ragged around the edges. If it’s not been one thing, it’s been another. Normality would be appreciated, yet it has been fleeting in its appearance. I am tired, on what feels like a fundamental level. Part of the issue is how cold it is, along with how dark it is in the mornings, and how dark it is in the evenings. Combine that with feeling harried at work, and it has left me feeling a touch exhausted. I could use a lengthy break!
The Forest
My current writing project has breached 50,000 words, which is quite the milestone in any story. I am growing increasingly proud of this adventure, which I am inclined to describe as a swashbuckling scavenger hunt, featuring loveable rogues. What I haven’t settled on is how long this story will be. Am I going for 75,000 words, 85,000 words, 100,000 words? I do not know. That’s the thing about stories, they unspool themselves in their own way, and in their own time.
With that thought, I draw to a close this particular Meerkat Muse. I look forward to unfurling the next one!
