The Meerkat Muse: 12th of February, 2025
We’re back, baby! It’s the middle of February, where are we at?
Hilarious Food
My wife has a tendency to get creative with food, in a most unusual way, generally for the purpose of drawing a laugh from my daughter. Below is her latest effort:
I do rather love my wife’s unique takes on these things!
Going up North
I’m staring down the barrel of a lengthy trip up north, for reasons that may be of benefit, but equally, it may be a colossal waste of time. I could do without it, but on the other hand, train journey. It’s all to do with training on install sales, and to be fair, there are elements here that I think could be of value, but it feels like a very long day is ahead of me, and I honestly don’t know how much I’ll take from it. I like train rides, so there’s that, and there’s a hotel stay, which is always a bit of a novelty, but what with other considerations, do I really need this hassle?
I spoke to my wife about whether I should stick or twist, so to speak, in terms of employers. She is risk-adverse, so believes I am better off staying put, and that is the guidance I will go with, unless new variables give me cause to rethink. This also means this trip up north is unavoidable.
I don’t know precisely when it will happen. It might be later this month, or it might be in March or April. I guess I should be prepared, one way or another.
Tolerance
It sounds paradoxical to complain about company on a day of lone-trading, but sometimes, I really don’t mind the alone time. In fact sometimes, I prefer it. Not all the time, of course not, but there are occasions where I do not want or need human interaction. It is typically those occasions where I wind up with interactions I do not want or need.
This is not to say I do not like the people I work with, because I consider them to be friends, but there are times when I really just want to be left alone, times where I am not in the mood to be chatty, and times where solitude is my friend. I am frustrated by the way in which sometimes, people do not understand or grasp this. My tolerance for certain aspects of human behaviour is occasionally stretched very thin.
Love
I dare say my wife and I have a particular love language. In this instance, as we approach Valentine’s Day, it involves a mutual passion: tattoos. There is a word, used in Star Trek, Imzadi. It is a Betazoid word, meaning ‘beloved’. What better way to reaffirm our relationship and our love, than a permanent reminder of what we mean to each other, based on something we are both passionate about?
My tattoo is the black ink, my wife’s is in blue. I think they compliment each other rather well!
Love is an interesting, challenging, at times infuriating emotion. It can drive you absolutely insane, and there is a lot of truth in the old saying, about the ones you love hurting you the most, and vice versa. Still, love endures. What also endures is my love of tattoos, and having now reached nine, I am pondering how to mark reaching 10.
Stressful Days
Work continues to deliver, well, a lack of satisfaction. I feel somewhat awkward, because we have just taken on a new starter, who certainly strikes me as pleasant, but in the midst of doing so, here I am, actively looking for new pastures. Still, I have to do what’s best for me and mine. With that in mind, I also do not want to leap at the first chance, because that may not be the best chance. I also have to consider whether or not to stay in some form of retail sales role.
Fraud
Part of this journey up north means I had to book hotels and trains the other day. My understanding of the hotel is that they would take payment either a few days before I arrive, or on the day itself (payment on arrival is quite a common policy). I was therefore surprised – to put it mildly – by a text from my bank, warning there had possibly been fraudulent activity on my account. The peculiar element to all of this? The value of the supposedly dodgy payment was exactly the same was the cost of the hotel room. However, when I spoke to the hotel, they told me they had not tried to take a payment, and to their understanding, I would pay on arrival.
With that in mind, I called my bank back, and they put a stop to my existing bank card. This is a bit of a pain, since that card is tied to quite a few services! Still, I would rather get a new card, than risk further fraud attempts, particularly fraud attempts that manage to succeed. It is better to be safe than sorry.
Book Three
So, The Schism is on the way, and I will happily update all you good ‘kats as soon as I have more details, but in the meantime, I have submitted a new book to my publisher, which I have referenced a couple of times. The Forest (a working title, not set in stone) is a story of ruthless ambition, and the cost it can exact. That’s all I can give away right now, and there’s a long way to go before it’s ready, but it’s great to have it out there. In the meantime, I have started work in earnest on part three of the Chon’ith Saga. The Reckoning (again, a working title) will hopefully serve up a thrilling and dramatic conclusion to the journey I started, some six years ago this year.
It’s kind of emotional to think that I am now in the process of closing out this saga. I have some tough decisions to make, and some considerations over whether to stick to the original plan. In the first run of this story, certain characters met with certain fates, but now I am undecided as to what direction to dive into. It is impossible to not grow attached to your characters. They are, in some respects, extensions of one’s self, creations you pour your heart into. On the other hand, the story is also something you develop and grow, and fulfilling the story can only happen through the characters. One thing is for sure, there are some tough choices ahead of me!
Oh, speaking of The Schism, the final, beta-read version arrived in my inbox on Monday. We are definitely moving closer to publishing!
Thus we come to the end of another Muse cycle. There’s a few activities of intrigue due up next time, but no fast-forwarding, stay tuned!
