The Meerkat Muse: 25th of February, 2026
Good day to you all! What’s been happening in this meerkat’s world over the past couple of weeks?
More on my Shoulders
I am already getting tastes of doing more. As the assistant manager I am going to be burdened with the glory of conference calls for the immediate future, and let me tell you that conference calls are the bane of my life. They are tedious, and they make me feel self-conscious. I often wonder what the point is of conference calls. They distract from other duties, and if any given showroom is not performing well, they feel like they’re put on the spot. Alas, I will be facing calls throughout March, so I guess this is good practice for this particular horror show.
Being Smart
I don’t consider myself to be the sharpest tool in the box, but sometimes I’ll do smart things. Following a spot of health-related bother, I decided to book a doctor’s appointment, went along to it, and had my immediate concerns alleviated. There is an unfortunate tendency among men to be awkward about going to the doctor, and I’ve certainly felt that stubbornness in myself. However, between my responsibilities to my wife and daughter, and my concerns, I forced myself to go along. Being afraid of possible bad news is one thing. Ignoring a situation until it becomes a serious, irreversible problem is quite another.
One outcome of the appointment was that I had a blood test scheduled. More on that in a bit, but for the benefit of my American friends and followers, I did not have to pay a penny upfront for the appointment, or the blood test. Food for thought.
Friday the 13th!
Yup, that’s right, February has a Friday the 13th! Of course, the question is whether there is any substance to the bad luck theories about this date. It is said to tie to Norse legends, specifically about Loki no less, but do we actually experience more bad luck on Friday the 13th, or do we merely perceive that we do? My own particular Friday the 13th was average, as far as days go.
Valentine’s Day
Hot on the heels of a supposed day of bad fortune came Valentine’s Day, a day meant to be all about love and romance. When you’ve been with your partner for 22 years, sizzling romance isn’t the love language. I remember my old drama teacher once speaking about how love is about far more than that dizzying, madcap, heady sensation of falling in love. If, once the excitement of a new relationship has died down, you have something tangible, a sense of comfort and satisfaction in one another’s presence, then you know you have found a deeper connection.
My safe space, so to speak, is my wife’s company. It is found within the walls of the home we share. The need for grand gestures of romance has passed, and behind all the fluff, we have each other.
Alas, the first phase of Valentine’s Day was spent at work, and it featured one of the least-engaging customers in recent memory, followed by a family with a kid who wanted to do nothing but leave. To be fair, I shared the kid’s wish to escape!
The Cold Snap
Alright, granted, it’s winter, so the complaint is meaningless, but this meerkat is seriously fed up with the cold, and it seems to be getting colder! Not only that, we’ve had to endure a lot of rain. In fact, it rained somewhere in the UK for 40 consecutive days since the turn of the year. Near-freezing temperatures and rain produces ice, and that equates to treacherous conditions. Having slipped over on ice before, I do not relish sliding across it in any circumstances.
The Sunday after Valentine’s delivered still more rain, and on an epic scale. Rain was to be expected, but this? This felt ridiculous. It was nearly Biblical in its persistence. It takes me all of around 10 minutes to walk to and from work, but that was more than enough time to get soaked to the bone. I’m honestly surprised the country isn’t underwater!
Creepy UFO Games
A couple of years back I wound up traumatised by a game called The Greyhill Incident. The game was atmospheric and creepy, albeit with clunky controls and mechanics. The concept was built around alien abduction, and my daughter enjoyed watching me torment myself as I tried to play it. Flash forward to now, and there is a new alien game, called Ufophilia, which my daughter insisted I buy and play. I can confirm this game is equally terrifying,
The idea is to seek out signs of alien activity in homes and parks, and then take photos confirming that activity. However, as you sneak around dark houses, with nothing but a flashlight, some alien tracking tech, and a camera, the lights will go on and off, the camera will become distorted, and strange noises will confuse you. On occasion, an alien will appear, and you’ll have a brief chance to snap a pic. With each pic, the chance of abduction rises.
I don’t know what it is about the Greys and their media depiction, but they terrify me. There is something deeply unsettling about them to this meerkat, so as much as I want aliens to be real, I am in no hurry to experience an abduction! Well, if it was a sexy alien, I might reconsider!
The Bounty Bar Question
In the midst of the calm before the storm (as a busy week lay ahead of me), I saw on social media a heartfelt lament about the Bounty Bar. Here in the UK, Bounty Bars are coconut bars, coated in either milk or dark chocolate. They often turn up in tubs of Celebrations, alongside the likes of Mars Bars, Snickers, Milky Ways, Twixes, and Malteasers. Bounty Bars are reported to be the least popular of the bunch, sometimes going uneaten.
My personal feeling is that this is absolutely correct. I cannot stand Bounty Bars. I do not like coconut at all, so that was pretty inevitable. Of course, each to their own, but I find Bounty Bars to be unbearably sickly sweet, and there’s something awfully off-putting about the texture too.
History and Magic
Last Tuesday was an extremely busy day, exhausting by any metric, and it certainly left me cream-crackered! It started with an early, um, start, and the train into London to visit the Natural History Museum. Seeing the sights of the museum wasn’t the primary purpose for going, as in fact the trip was for my wife and daughter to visit a Pokemon pop-up shop. They had this booked ages ago, but I couldn’t get tickets so I ended up milling about for a bit. This isn’t to say that didn’t explore the museum a little bit, because when in Rome and all that. In fact, I got some interesting pictures of some fascinating pieces of human history, the sort of stuff that rabid religious fanatics would foam at the mouth over, but for those of us who value facts and reason, it was amazing stuff.
When we were done with the museum, we carted ourselves to Covent Garden, so that we were vaguely in the right place for our next adventure. After some shopping – which I did not partake in and confess to finding tedious and stressful – we ended up at the Underbelly Boulevard in Soho.
Performing on stage was none other than Steven Frayne, aka Dynamo, who has dazzled audiences with his magic acts down the years. I dare say there was an element here of pre-planned audience participation (though I could be wrong) with some of the tricks, but others defied explanation, and were every bit as mystical as they have been on TV. It helps that Dynamo is also a thoroughly likeable guy, who engaged with his audience and had a laugh along the way. The trick with the calculators on the phone was particularly impressive, and I have no idea how he pulled that one off!
What Steven Frayne wanted to do was instill a sense of wonder, and he certainly achieved that. There are many forms of art in this world, and if you can leave your audience with a sense of amazement following your act, then you have succeeded in your task. There is something wonderful about magic, it never fails to prove captivating.
Getting Poked
I mentioned earlier about getting a blood test, and that was scheduled for the day after the very busy day of walking around London. As it was arranged for early in the morning, I could wave goodbye to having a lie-in, though in truth it was also bin day, so I had to set an alarm regardless. With the bins dealt with I set off to the surgery, and got seen quickly (in fact there was no one else there!). Having not had a blood test before (at least, I don’t ever recall having one) I wasn’t at all sure what to expect, save for a needle going into the skin.
It was over quickly, and didn’t really hurt very much. As to the results, well, I had no idea how long I’d need to wait, nor any clue as to what the doctor was hoping to rule in or rule out. What I did discover is that the prescription for anti-indigestion medication was ready, but the pharmacy had not bothered to let me know! Cue going into town, then waiting for the pharmacy to open. I may have taken advantage of this time for a McDonald’s breakfast…
From there, it was home, and then a visit from the folks. They brought pizza, chocolates and beer! Glorious!
Added Weight
On top of taking up the conference calls, I cannot help but fear that other duties are dropping onto my shoulders, right at a stage when I could do with less on my plate. I do get the reasons, and I don’t envy my boss one bit for what they are about to go through, but scheduling stuff to happen that is going to involve lots of extra physical lifting for me just feels frustrating. When we are reduced to two people for at least a month, my aim is to ensure we generate less grind, so we can focus on keeping the showroom tidy and selling. I’m going to do what I can to avoid getting deliveries into the store of anything but small items, and I certainly don’t want to be roped into bay changes! There will be enough to do without extra stuff.
Unfortunately, extra stuff is my employer’s motto, or at least it might as well be.
It’s definitely apparent to me that I am not a young meerkat anymore. The early starts for work are draining, and they feel increasingly so. I don’t think it’s all down to that though. The extra stuff to do at work, not to mention how it largely falls upon me to do the lifting, is sucking the life out of me. I feel bad for feeling frustrated, but I’m only human, and can’t help feeling that way.
Friday wasn’t exactly a demonstration of all of this, but between being largely on my own, and having the regional manager show up unannounced, and having faffy customers to deal with, it wasn’t a fun afternoon. I felt knackered by the time I was done. To top it all off, shortly before home time, the heavens opened. Yay.
It got worse. Right at the stage of leaving, my wife texted me. I wasn’t going straight home. Instead, I was heading to the local supermarket first, and thus my hope of getting home after a busy day was dashed. Following all of that, I had to then contend with a cat who was unusually skittish, chasing him down to put him outside. Yay. Eventually I was able to stop, and gain the chance to rest that I sorely needed.
Humouring the Possibilities
Well, I say humouring them, but it’s only loosely. As I was browsing a jobs site, up came the prospect of working for Disney Cruises. I think I am a bit long in the tooth for such work, and I also think it would drive me insane, given the experience of what would inevitably be many screaming, tantrum-throwing kids, but it did start a rather amusing conversation with my daughter, which included ramming the cruise ship into rival cruise ships, to reproduce epic Star Trek battle scenes. It was a decidedly random conversation, and rather appropriate for a Saturday night!
As to job searching, it continues but it’s rather subdued. There is only one job I particularly want, and to a degree, I am prepared to wait for it. It also doesn’t feel like the right time to abandon ship. This hasn’t affected my overall desire to leave, but it has to be the right move at the right time, not a kneejerk reaction to circumstances.
Inching Along
Slowly but surely I’m making progress with my co-authored story, having breachd 27,000 words. I’m also nearly at 10,000 words with the next part of my big multiversial adventure. At the moment the biggest challenges to writing would be the day job, but I am squeezing in time here and there. Such is the life of a part-time author! I am waiting to hear word on The Forest’s release date, and will hopefully have updates on the third part of the Chon’ith Saga before too long. In the meantime, for details of all my published work, please check out Meerkat Books!
Results Time
On Monday I will confess to a slight degree of anxiety, as I waited for a call about my blood test. My general view was that if they were asking me to arrange a telephone call, as opposed to urgently calling me in for a consultation, the odds were good the results were alright, and so it proved. This didn’t stop me from feeling a little nervous beforehand, which I guess is human nature. I certainly felt a bit lighter on my feet after getting the results! It was a useful exercise in ruling out certain issues, even if I still have a regular pain in my upper back!
Bold Statements
As this Muse draws to a close, it’s impossible to ignore some very big actions undertaken here in the UK against major political and cultural figures. The arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, was seismic, and whilst it was not directly connected to allegations about sexual abuse, it was nonetheless tied to his awkward relationship to Jeffrey Epstein. The arrest of Lord Peter Mandelson, over misconduct in government office (not too dissimilar to the charges brought against Andrew) is a further demonstration that actions have consequences, and whilst it may sometimes take years for those consequences to arise, justice can eventually be served.
Of course, an arrest is not a conviction, and it is worth repeating that these arrests have nothing to do with the various awful sexual abuse crimes to which Epstein was tied. Still, two important figures of the British government being arrested over ties to Epstein may yet pave the way for deeper, probing discussions, with all sorts of further consequences. We can but hope!
Ending as Beginning
Tuesday delivered yet another meaningless waste of time in the form of a conference call. I really do not enjoy them. It feels more like a means to single out showrooms, or to brag. The regional manager has this information available to them via all sorts of means, so why go through this exercise?!
Ah well. I can’t grumble too hard. It’s been a generally productive Muse cycle. There’s been some slow progress with books. We’ve had some unique and fun family adventures. I’ve taken care of an issue which was troubling me via a rare display of intelligence! Through all of that we draw this Muse to an end, and we also approach the month of March. With luck, the weather will gradually improve, and build toward something that come summer, might be pleasant. Until next time!
‘Kat Comments