The Meerkat Muse: 17th of June, 2026
Here we go again. After a very eventful Muse cycle last time out, how has June progressed?
Light and Shade
I mean this quite literally. As a country, we lurched from the scorching sun at the end of May to the official start of summer, and torrents of rain. It was still warm, but it was warm and wet (get your minds out of the gutter!), though fortunately mostly on occasions where I was inside.
It’s typical that when summer officially begins, the weather turns damp. It seems the weather gods have a keen sense of irony. Would June continue in this vein? Well, we’d find out…
I ought to mention, there’s another meaning to the heading. Work has been somewhat intense, with a manager stepping in from another store a couple of weeks ago, and basically blitzing the place. The showroom does look a lot better, and it needed a fresh pair of eyes. I dare say my manager – as much as they are a friend and a valued friend too – did not really instill much desire to maintain the showroom. Nor did I push for that. We all grew somewhat lazy, or perhaps blind to certain things. New eyes brings new ideas and a much-needed kick up the backside.
Setting Aside the Date
At the end of June, my daughter will have her second operation on her thyroid, and hopefully that will draw to an end the rather scary set of circumstances that led us down this road. Work granted me the time off, despite the weekend in question being an end-of-sale weekend, and now it’s a case of making sure we’re all prepared. At least my wife, daughter and I have the experience of doing it once, so it may not feel quite so stressful this time.
Revels
The other weekend brought a rare, but much-needed and long overdue gathering of the Clan. My cousin’s daughter had turned 18, and my cousin and her hushand had come over from Australia to be with her half of the family, so a celebration was arranged. As I have no idea when – or perhaps even if – I shall see my cousin again, I was desperate to go to this family do. Originally, one of my colleagues was off work that weekend, so I couldn’t go, but when they resigned, I was able to put in holiday, get it booked, and voila!
My extended family is quite large, and quite boisterous when we get together, and I would not have it any other way. It’s what I am used to. It feels like home to me. We’re a close-knit bunch, sometimes dysfunctional but we’re all acutely aware that we are family.
I couldn’t stick around as long as I would have liked, but to mingle and chat and generally have a laugh with the faces I grew up with is always a rewarding experience.
Podcast Promotions
To hope to make it as an author, you need to ABP: Always Be Promoting. Having a publisher helps, but any author will tell you that you need to do the work yourself. Social media is both a blessing and a curse. It grants easy reach to anyone and everyone, absolutely anywhere, but it does that for everybody. Yours is but one voice among many, hoping to be heard above the din.
This is where this blog is useful, not that it started life as an author’s blog, and I wouldn’t really describe it as such now. What’s also useful is getting onto podcasts, and I was able to arrange to make a guest appearance on one the other day. Living The Next Chapter is hosted by Dave Campbell, and he generously donated some of his time to giving me a platform, so many thanks to Dave. Once I know when this will happen, I shall surely let you all know, along with links on where to find it!
Finding Jesus… Sort Of
No, I haven’t suddenly converted to Christianity. I refer instead to a peculiar dream (there’s a shocker), which involved rugby, sci-fi conventions, gardening, and a quest to find lost scrolls attributed to Jesus himself.
Now, quite what led me go to from attending a rugby match (not on my immediate agenda), to ending up at a sci-fi con in Italy (which the players helped get us to) with life-size daleks roaming about to entertain guests, to a deadly mission to find some sort of lost artifact, is beyond me. It is however rather normal for my dreams! It concluded with discussions about gardening. Not for the first time, my dream did not make any sense. If you’re wondering, the grand reveal about Jesus’ lost words turned out to be a damp squib.
Pollen Pain
It seems my hay-fever has gotten a lot worse over the span of the past few weeks. The medication doesn’t seem to be touching it, aside from making me very drowsy. I don’t recall it ever being this bad. It’s definitely doing my head it, but aside from the medication there isn’t much I can do. I might have to invest in the injection you can get, because this is proving very tough.
Turning Down
I was offered an interiew with a company, but based on where I had to go for the interview, the type of interview, and ultimately the company’s practices, I decided to stick, instead of twist, so to speak. Don’t get me wrong, I am far from thrilled with my current employers, but honestly, I think they’re the lesser of two evils here. This particular application was one I made in desperation, not out of a genuine interest. There’s no point in taking it further unless I have to, least of all for a job I don’t think I’d enjoy.
As I have said before, the move has to be the right one. I don’t want to end up somewhere I really don’t want to be. I’ll keep looking, and see what happens. In the meantime, I will soon have a companion at work, in the form of someone transferring from another local store. They happen to live within five minutes of the showroom, but have been getting the bus to the other store. They may not make as much money in terms of commission, but they’ll save a heap of time and money on transport.
What remains unknown is how we will click as colleagues. It will be important to be on the same wavelength.
Wha?
Another weird dream presented itself the other night, and this one might have topped the previous one I wrote of. I was among a bunch of Disney and video game characters, when one of them went missing at some kind of party or event. There was much distress over this, but the party continued. There was food, chit-chat, and at one stage I was trying to hold up a guy who was feeling dizzy. There might have been Star Trek characters involved. It was a confusing medley.
Masters of the Universe
Last week, my wife, daughter and I saw the new Masters of the Universe movie. It was good, without being exceptional, and to me that’s because I wanted more of two elements. It would have been fun to see more of Cringer/Battle Cat, but more importantly, the film needed more Skeletor! He was the right balance of evil and camp, as befits his portrayal in the cartoon. If there is a sequel, he will hopefully be front and centre.
Local Wildlife
There’s not too much variety in the wildlife in my suburban neck of the woods. Essex does have a fair bit of wildlife, but not especially near me. I’m more likely to hear animals like foxes as they fight in the middle of the night, than I am to see them. Still, they do make semi-regular appearances up and down the path outside the house, and they are so used to people that they don’t tend to run away.
They are adorable, and they are intelligent, cunning animals that should also be respected. It is so tempting to approach them, but it would enormously stupid to attempt to pet a fox! They are best admired from a distance, and one gave me the perfect opportunity to snap a couple of photos the other day, as I headed home from work. I hope you like them!
A New Dawn?
Last Friday, my regional manager stopped by. It marks the first time I’ve had any interaction with him since everything hit the fan and I ended up lone-trading a lot. He was there to interview candidates for the manager role, but would he find one that he would find acceptable?
Would I have any input into this, considering I’d be working with whomever he chose? Don’t be silly, of course not! I’ll just have to make sure my new colleagues, whomever they are and whenever they join me, bed in quickly, and then we’ll see what happens. I would much rather have a new job to go to, but my efforts remain thwarted by a lack of decent options.
The trend of lone-trading is taking a bit of a toll, so regardless of whether I have new colleagues or go elsewhere, it will be nice to draw a line under it. On more than one occasion, that classic circumstance of hoping to have something to eat has been blocked by customers arriving at the worst possible time, then loitering for unreasonable lengths of time. It makes this meerkat snarl. Get outta the store, so I can eat!
The End of an Era
On Monday, my daughter had her last GCSE exam, and that was that for five years of senior school. Five years of early starts, some frantic and sometimes very stressful mornings, and battles to get support where we needed it, has all come to an end. It’s quite surreal; my baby is now a young woman, who has completed her compulsory education, and along the way matured into a thoughtful, kind young woman. She’s had to grapple with tough challenges – not least of all her cancer scare – but these have not changed her or fazed her.
I am proud of her.
It Begins
Later today, England get their World Cup campaign up and running against Croatia. A good performance will be met with excitement and expectation, whilst a poor performance will be met with excessive handwringing. Either way, the furor will be unbearable. If England win, everyone will be filled with hopeless optimism, and if we lose, there will be abject despair… over overpaid athletes kicking a ball around.
I get it, because football can evoke a lot of emotions, not least of all from this meerkat, but after so many years of false dawns, ifs, buts and maybes, especially where England are concerned, I’ve had enough. I cannot find the will to care.
An Update on The Forest
Last time out, I’d mentioned how the release date of my third book, The Forest, was slated for August. The latest update has moved it back to July! I don’t have a definitive date yet, but it goes without saying that I’ll be sharing the details as soon as I have them! This may be my most ambitious project, but I cannot wait to share it!
Too Much
As this Muse cycle draws toward its end, I am left thinking that there is too much going on right now at work. There are appointment requests coming in, left, right and centre. I am one meerkat, and not equipped to handle multiple enquiries at once. On top of that, there are customers of my departed colleagues who want help. Guess whose shoulders those queries wind up on?
I don’t want any of this. I don’t want to be in this situation. I want new horizons, a fresh start, a new opportunity somewhere else. Alas, the job gods have not so far presented the right chance to me.
The bottom line is, I am deeply tired of my current job. I am tired to my bones and soul. I shall keep putting feelers out there for alternative careers, because I sorely need a change.
Well, there’s no point in dwelling on it. The next few days and weeks will be hard. Respite in the form of newcomers is… erm… coming. With extra bodies will come the opportunity to divide the work and get back on track, though with a bit of luck I’ll have found an escape route sooner rather than later.
So we reach the end of this Muse. What chaos awaits over the next couple of weeks?!
‘Kat Comments