The next wobbly step

So, what have you been doing, I hear you ask. Or rather, wishfully think that you might ask.

It’s been a long three months since my last blog post and truth to tell, I must admit that I have missed the weekly distraction – and often frustration – that accompanied my frantic scribblings. But that’s not to say that there hasn’t been much frantic non-blog scribbling, often accompanied with hair-pulling frustration.

Okay, so the last bit is something of an exaggeration these days. Not for want of frustration, but more for want of sufficient hair. I’m far from bald yet, but there again I can recall the names I have given to each of the remaining ones.

What I’m trying to say is that the three month blog hiatus has been filled with similar activity – lots of scribbles and research. Also, something which has disproved the adage about old dogs and new tricks. Or in other words I have been focusing on the love of my creative life – writing.

A few months back I mentioned that I created a new website for myself (JohnMoneyWrites.com) which is to be the base for my nefarious literary plans. The two strands have now started to bind together in that the website now supports a new page called ‘Books’ which (fanfare, please) now holds the links to the shelves at Amazon where my new novel and new novella now reside.

I’ve done it at last, you see? Both finished the writing of the books and learned how to get them published. I’ve even been re-learning the joys of Photoshop in order to create designs for my own book covers.

First online was Charlie’s Tale (The Novella) which tells the story of how an ARP warden, Chaz Jones, believes, at first, that he has discovered a ghost in the bombed-out remains of a house destroyed by a Doodlebug. He hasn’t, of course – but there again he has found someone rather unusual… This is the story told from his perspective as a very old man, and retains his native cockney speech patterns along with his rather dark cockney wit.

An aside, given that I’ve already been asked the question more than once – the cover is actually based around a photograph of one of my daughters, Melody. Thank you, M.

Second to hit the shelves was the first part of a much longer piece, The Diary of Horace Wilt (The Novel), which has been split into two on the grounds that there’s already 115 thousand words in this first part and 210 thousand in total. The story also lends itself to a natural break at that point and the two halves of the story could probably sit alone as stories in their own right – although the second half would certainly need considerable additional material so that everything made sense (always assuming anything makes sense anyway).

I’ve described it as tragicomic, but the emphasis is firmly on the comic element within that description, albeit that much of the humour is somewhat dark. It’s the story of a rather dysfunctional guy who goes to college and in the process discovers himself. And quite a few other things.

One of the things that was discovered by this poor author is that if you give one of your characters a speech impediment on page one – a feature that is central to many of the themes within his story, and therefore something that you need to keep present at all times – then maybe a little more forethought could be employed. You see, Horace has a stutter which affects him whenever he tries to pronounce the letter ‘W’. With a surname like Wilt, perhaps that’s not so surprising, and I reasoned at the start of the tale that this would provide some comedic opportunities.

What I didn’t quite realise is just how often we English speakers actually use a pronunciation of that particular letter sound. There’s his surname, of course. And five of the six questions. But then there are the ones that sneak up on you. ‘Anywhere’ is a bit of a sneak but ‘anyone’ really is starting to creep around like a politician meeting his accountant. Call me a masochist but there’s a speech given in the second part of the book (to be published later in the year) which is given by the hapless Horace when he is chosen to be best man at a friend’s wedding. I thought it would be ‘cute’ to have Horace come up with a wordy speech that didn’t include a single ‘w’ sound… Three days later I was inventing new swear words. I couldn’t use ‘welcome’, ‘wishes’ or even ‘wedding’, of course, and was starting to thank my ‘lucky’ stars that the part of the story in question was set in the eighties – prior to the ‘www’ era…

All of which should explain my absence from your inboxes during the recent past. And all of this is just the start, as well. Later this year – and there isn’t that much left of it really, is there? – I will be publishing the second part of Horace’s tale alongside a few other odds and ends (with the emphasis on the odd, I’m sure) as well as performing the official launch of a new venture which will see me teaming up with a number of other writers to offer what appears to be a unique service. More details will follow very soon…

Of course, you might notice that my publication date was the 27^th August – and that was chosen for a mark of respect to the dear, departed Sir Terry Pratchett whose final Discworld novel, The Shepherd’s Crown, was published on that date. I’m in no way comparing myself to that incredible author – if only I had a hundredth of his talent – but I felt it was important for me in some weird way. I’ve now read his last book and it shows as much imagination and wit as his previous ones – it’s a thoroughly entertaining read and a fitting way to bow out (if one must). Spare a thought for him and spare a word for him, if you will because in his own words, “A man is not dead while his name is still spoken”.

Finally, it feels rather odd – and very welcome – to have my own Amazon author page now (My Amazon Page) (and yes, that is plug, plug), but that fits well with my longer term plans. It’s no new news that I have MS and quite apart from the lifestyle changes that have had to be made so far it has forced me to look into the dim, distant future and start to plan for the day when mobility issues (probably among others) mean that I will no longer be able to function to any useful effect away from a desk.

For now – and for the foreseeable few years – I can carry on with my normal (?) professional work, and much gratitude is due to my employers for the moves they have made to ensure that I can continue. In fact, my forcibly sedentary lifestyle now means that I am even better able to carry out the necessary. But that cannot last forever – and I’m not talking about the fact that I would only have a maximum of about 15 working years left anyway.

It’s no good ducking the inevitable no matter how that can make you cringe (and believe me, I learned things about cringing that I would much rather not have to know), and planning becomes an ever more serious concern. In my case that has become a focus on the written word and I’m in the fortunate (really?) position of being able to turn my spare time over to my scribbles. The whole publication thing is simply the next step on that path and I have just devoted a couple of holiday weeks to that cause – because I’m in no position to go rambling through some foreign woods or even trawling along some foreign beach.

I love my writing in any case – by which I mean I love the act of writing, not (necessarily) what I actually pen. So that’s good… Yes?

Well, it is what it is. And I have to admit that the past few days have been fun. I’ve already sold a handful of the books – another unexpectedly lovely feeling – and while I have no illusions about millions of the things flying off the shelves, it really does feel like a second string has been firmly tied to my bow.

Now all I need to do is check it for woodworm…

One Year

I guess that this week people will be celebrating (if that's the right word) the anniversary. More specifically, the first anniversary of me posting my drivel on a blog - or maybe VE Day, I suppose.

Both are, of course, momentous events although I will grant that maybe - just maybe - one of them affects the general populous more than the other. But from a personal perspective - as long as I don't think too much about the consequences of there never having been a VE Day (or at least, not one celebrated in the UK) - my personal first date of note has a much more significant feel to it.

In truth, I never expected to write more than a few words, maybe once a month or when something of note happened - but I had failed to realise that a) some people do actually read these things and b) enjoy them or at least react to them and c) I am so full of sh... words.

This is post number fifty-two - very nearly one for every year of my life (yes, very nearly, not 'still a dozen to go then') - and I have covered my original topic (Multiple Sclerosis) a few times but in the main I have looked at books, music, pets, cars, sport, television and even such meaningless things as General Elections and death.

Perhaps most significantly from my point of view is that it has brought me an awareness of the power of social media in these interweb-thingy dominated days. To see your own blog post being read on a mobile phone at a train station is an eye-opener, to say the least (as well as being rather nice, especially as I don't think I even knew the person). It has even been a significant factor in my decision to build my own website and look to the written word as a potential future some day.

Even just typing that last paragraph makes me think that I should pop a link to my site into the text since that sort of thing has become the norm in these interweb-thingy enlightened days. My natural modesty (will you please stop giggling!) fights against such blatant  self publicity, though. But at least it loses... my website is there and my collected blog posts are also in the site and can be found here as well - my collected posts.

One or two of the posts do look at the rise and importance of modern technology - and for someone of my age, there is still an element of surprise at every development - and just how much I can achieve in order to embrace such things. Another evidently news-worthy item helps demonstrate that and ties the whole anniversary thing together with a neatness I find unusually odd. Just eight days ago our second-in-line to the throne of this country was delivered of a second child, the Princess Charlotte, and it brought home the fact to me that our current Queen will, later this year, become the longest serving monarch this country has ever seen.

Queen Elizabeth the second has been the monarch since not that long before I was born (eight years), and that was little more than seven years after the original VE Day. I have been writing my posts for less than 2% of the time she has been our monarch... time is a funny thing.

In all probability I will not live long enough to see the young princess's elder brother, George, become our king, and the jury is firmly out as to whether I will even see the coronation of her father, William. Mind you, at this rate I may not even live long enough to see Charles take the throne...

Anyway, for as long as I am around, I fully intend to keep writing these collections of drivel/thought, although starting this second year, I am considering altering the format so that they will appear less frequently but with greater depth. It has already been requested of me to write some longer pieces about specific subjects - prompted by my most 'popular' articles on another Queen (the band), and my days of hiding behind the back of the sofa (Doctor Who, not MS).

We shall, as they say. see - but the idea appeals, especially as it starts to better integrate with my long-term plans to take to my chair and write more, and more fully. I am certainly still full of words and, as I've said on these pages before, time lends better understanding and a better perspective (if you allow it the space).

I'm always open to suggestions, though....

Election Fever? (Yawn)

When I was a little boy (please note, in light of recent activities can I make it clear that I was NOT one of Two Little Boys...)... anyway, when I was 11 I first heard the song 'I Wanna Be Elected' - and it wasn't just gender confusion that I suffered.

The whole 'election' business seemed to be a quite frequent event back then - and stayed that way for much of the 70's - but I was a little confused as to what it all really meant. It was a gentle confusion because apart from an occasional Thursday off school, it didn't seem to have any affect on me. There was always a little inter-family conflict, but there again, that wasn't so unusual in any case. Other than really wanting to know why Alice Cooper was apparently a guy, nothing really fascinated me about elections.

By the tail end of the decade I was taking delight in playing to my stereotype and standing as the faux Labour candidate in a school 'mock ' election, whilst happily utilising my new-found electoral power and ticking an altogether different box when the real thing rolled around.

Not that I was thinking long and hard about the potentials of a Thatcherite government, let alone imagining that it might last a decade. My vote was garnered more as a result of several years of 'winters of discontent' and getting candle-wax all over my history homework thanks, I firmly believed, to the Labour governments of Wilson and Callaghan.

You must forgive my naivety - I might have spent most of the decade attending a half-decent school, but politics were never high on anyone's agenda there. I think one or two of the teachers were still card-carrying Whigs...

Oddly enough (you might think), General Elections always seem to have played a starring role in my life - and I'm not talking about the establishment of tax relief thresholds, After many grey years of post-Thatcher Conservative rule, the UK was becoming more established as a member of the European Union (a still relatively new term for the Common Market), but the economy was beginning to stagnate in a way that I had not witnessed before as a working adult.

Change was in the air, but it was my work and nothing to do with the political situation which saw me opting to work - and then move - abroad. And here's the neat General Election link - I took citizenship of my new homeland (Luxembourg) officially on the 2nd May 1997 - which happens to be the same day that the credit crunch of a few years ago began. Or the day Blair started saying yes to everyone as Prime Minister.

The fact that he was still there when I returned to the UK to live rather spoils the 'never in my lifetime will I live under his guidance' routine, but at least I missed most of the situation. Of Gordon Brown I will say nothing except 'ouch'.

Roll forward five years and we have all lived through a Conservative government (thankfully not a 'new conservative' one) where all we have witnessed is a valiant effort to undo the harm that befell us all before it occurred. If anyone deserves a positive vote now it must be Cameron's mob on the grounds that they inherited total dross but have managed to help us avoid international bankruptcy, and even got a few more people in work.

Of late, though, we have seen the emergence of a new political entity - not the first in my adult lifetime, thanks to the Democrat party and its subsequent merger with the Liberals - in the dubious guise of the BNP-lite... sorry, I mean UKIP. The fact that they have apparently appealed to  so many of the population - using a jingoistic, lowest common denominator approach - really is rather worrying. Even more than the thought of a yes-man occupying Downing Street.

I was going to publish a rather revealing video clip of the leader of said 'independence' party being interviewed on a non-UK mainstream TV show late last year when his terminology was very revealing - but have been persuaded not to on the grounds of the party's sudden apparent desire to sue nay-sayers. Which in itself should tell you a whole heap about them,

Anyway, come Thursday we will all (as in about two-thirds of us) troop off to the local polling station and make our private and hard-earned marks. This time next week, we might well have a new government - or at least, be seeing politicians of every hue frantically trying to befriend former sworn enemies. Who knows? Maybe we will all be being led by a temporary union of the Scottish Nationalist Party and the Monster Raving Loonies? Which are different entities, I have been told. And needed to be told.

All in all, we should be grateful that we live in a democracy - even if 'first past the post' is no longer such a marked differentiator of who we want to see at Number Ten - and it really is our duty to cast our vote. If you don't exercise your hard-won right, then you will be ruled by what the rest of us decide - and don't you dare ever complain, even if it's the SNP and a bunch of Loonies. And by 'Loony' I mean members of the party formed by the late Screaming Lord Sutch, and not just politicians in general..... Honest.

Little by Little

Finding sufficient energy - even when time allows - has become something of an energy-zapping struggle in its own right thanks to the wonders of MS (as in, I wonder what it will do to me next). And by 'sufficient', I mean anything more than the calories needed to breathe.

At least I can sit here this morning and thank the MS stars that I don't have to come up with any more, ever-more, silly excuses as to why I'm not out there with the rest of the London Marathon runners. It does, however, provide plenty of time to wonder just why people would don costumes to run in when surely even running vests and shorts are already unnecessary burdens...

Anyway, like the Marathon runners and plodders, I'm finding that much of life is reduced to a series of step-by-step, little-by-little, processes - and I'm getting used to canning my frustration at such things (much to the relief of my pocket and the swear jar). My latest 'project' is a case in point.

The move to downstairs living is complete insofar as my only trips (apposite word) up the stairs are for the shower, but, while a happy enough move, it has left me with a burning need to redecorate my new surroundings. I have drilled all the necessary holes - slowly -  in order to get shelves put up, but now I am about to set out my meagre collection of 'things' upon them, I find that I 'need' to re-paint the walls and so forth.

At the second attempt (don't ask) I have the right silky paint and an array of willing brushes (the latest ones shedding bristles a lot slower than I am shedding head hair, fortunately), and the wall redecorating is progressing as planned - albeit slowly.

Today, once I've finished prevaricating... I mean, building energy reserves... I will be applying the final broad coats to the eager walls and by this evening I will be able to return all of my beloved 'saved' books to their rightful positions. Along with Death on Binky and my ravens, of course.

I may even have time to drill more holes, this time for my very nicely framed maps of the Discworld and Ankh-Morpork and my (completed and framed) jigsaw of the Witches in flight.

Just how much I manage in the end will be firmly dictated by the aforementioned energy reserves though, and today will be a lesson to self in how best to manage such things. Sitting here with my coffee, tapping away at this keyboard, I feel as fit as a flea - but I know that said flea is likely to collapse with a tired buzz at the slightest provocation. Searching out the necessary energy reserves has become, as Milton Jones said of drug-fueled farmers, like looking for a needle in....

We shall see,

Tomorrow, somewhat unusually for a Monday, holds an odd sort of promise though since I shall be traveling to London for the first dose of my new guinea pig fodder. In desperation of the sort that only MS sufferers (and maybe a few others) can perceive of, I am searching for anything that might alleviate - or halt the worsening of - some of the worst symptoms of the condition. I have volunteered to take part in a new study into a range of medications that might prove to offer answers, if not results, and my chances of getting some of the new 'hard stuff' as opposed to the control sugar group are three in four. Not that I will know either way.

Add to that the fact that my personal variant of MS is progressive and I am not sure how any result will be measured and I think even Einstein might have struggled with that one - but I will try anything that offers the slimmest of chances of progress in medical knowledge.

Such understanding is slowly being gained - little-by-little - and I genuinely want to assist. If such assistance results in benefits - however slight - for myself, then that's a happy bonus.

And that really is the condition in a nutshell - everything slows to a crawl. The knowledge, the treatments - and the sufferer.

I have the strongest feeling I will be crawling come nightfall.

Everything in its place

And so it comes to pass - the move to downstairs living is complete (give or take a lick of paint - on the walls, not me), all the junk is junked, my new website is published, I have a nicely organised 'to do' list, my car is replaced, and I have Quoth the Raven casting his ceramic eye over me as I sit at my (new) desk,

All is well with the world. Every item has its place and more importantly everything is in its place. Now all I need to do is sleep for about a week.

I put off sitting here to write this until I had completed all the little jobs that had been mounting up as the move took shape - on the grounds that having something to look forward to would ensure that fitting a new front door bell (and agreeing with my wife which chime to select), putting Death on Binky in his place, gathering up all the scattered tools I've been using every evening this last week, setting out my collection of 'books that inspired me...' on one of the new shelves (which, by the way, are still attached to the wall), and buying the lick of paint (35 quid a lick...) did not seem quite such onerous tasks.

Naturally, now I'm finally able to sit here and type, my mind is so frazzled I can barely focus, I must remember to offer a small sacrifice to the auto-correct function at sun-rise.

Talking of which (sun-rises, not fried nerves), I was going to scribble a few words about how we should all be looking forward to the days to come. Nothing specific (in my case anyway) but a more general look at how having some goals for the coming days can help all round abilities. For a few weeks now I've been in 'spring mode' - setting myself targets and organising my life in general - and I'm rather surprised at what I have been able to achieve despite my MS-related limitations.

The change of living arrangements has been the most 'drastic' of all of the things that I have been busily organising - and achieving - and to be honest, at first it seemed to me like some sort of 'surrender' to my condition. As the days have passed, though, and I have arranged the new rooms to my taste, I have come to view the change of elevation as a massive chance to get things sorted out to my own preferences.

The result is a living space that is full of the things that my diminished mobility allows me - sounds, visions, books, wall-prints, gadgets, whisky... all the things that are important to me these days (not that whisky should be though of as an 'important' thing. Vital, maybe, but not important.

One of the things I have undertaken which has been most enchanting has been liberating the twenty books from my old library of titles that have in some way or another been most important or meaningful to me at various points in my life (and no, none of them are written in Ogham script). It was one of the little organisational 'exercises' I set myself - an idea that I had for one of the shelves which I thought might be entertaining. And it certainly has been.

For the record, here are some of the titles...

The Light Fantastic - the Terry Pratchett book that got me hooked on 30 years of laughs from that author whose death few weeks ago left me feeling so sad. And whose works are littered all over my new living space (shaped a little like an 'L').

The Rats - a James Herbert novel set near where I grew up, and my first taste of the horror genre. It began a real admiration of his work and hooked the then teenage me almost as much as females did.

The Wasp Factory - my introduction to the amazing Iain Banks and the first book to truly shock me with its amazing - and yet horribly believable - twist in the denouement.

First Among Sequels - the book that confirmed to me that Jasper Fforde could do it again and again and again - make me laugh and make my brain try to turn itself inside out.

The Secret Lemonade Drinker - Guy Bellamy's proof to me that fiction could be as funny and as sad as life ever is.

The Day of the Triffids - My first 'grown up' book and one that proved to me, through John Wyndham's words, that a story in a book need not have a conclusive ending.

Twilight Eyes - Dean Koontz's lesson in how we should not view what we perceive to be normal as something safe (or even normal itself when you see beneath the surface).

Carrie - the first work of an American author that appealed to me despite the distance between our cultures - and how, as Stephen King so neatly demonstrates, stories can include references to the familiar.

Resurrection Dreams - a true horror by Richard Layman that introduced me to more extreme mental violence. Simply creepy from cover to cover.

Quite Ugly One Morning - the first of Christopher Brookmyre's thrillers I read, and which brought dark humour to the genre for me.

Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle's delightful 'real-life' drama which was, I'm amazed to say, included in some secondary school courses, despite the very 'natural' language some of the characters employ (all f*^"ing true).

Let's Go Play at the Adams - Mendal Johnson's eerie horror which taught me that children can be even more frightening than many adults.

Magic - the first book I read as a result of seeing the film adaptation first. The film scared me a little (who isn't creeped out by 'traditional' ventriloquists' dummies?) - but William Golding's book was even creepier.

The Gun Seller - Proof that a great comedic mind really can write a thoroughly entertaining book - Hugh Laurie is more than Doctor House, the Prince Regent or half of Fry & Laurie,

Lord Foul's Bane - the first in Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series, and the first 'fantasy' tale that got me really thinking (and learning), and transporting me to an incredible land.

Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury's creepy tale that had me constantly thinking back to my own childhood.

Books of Blood - my introduction to the extreme horror of Clive Barker in a series of tales that are both horrific and fascinating - car-crash fiction at its very best.

Rancid Aluminium - James Hawes quite brilliant thriller-cum-real-life fiction that is steeped in the darkest humour.

American Gods - the first book that had me reading non-stop from dawn to the following dawn and one that confirmed to me that Neil Gaiman has the most amazing imagination.

Roofworld - a book by the brilliant Christopher Fowler that nearly cost me a tooth after an incident with a lamp-post in London where I was working at the time I read this first. You need to read it to understand why...

So there you have it, the twenty that made it onto the 'shelf of literary meaning'. An eclectic mix, and one that will probably change over time (as in over the next week or two, never mind beyond). It was hard enough narrowing the list down to those particular choices - now please, please, please, don't ask me to choose the absolutely most meaningful one. Or three. Or five. Or nineteen...

I might just re-read one of them soon, though. If I can ever choose which one, that is...

Weekends (or tired feet)

They're not really homophones - weekend and weakened - but they seem to share the same sound in
my head these days, as well as having very similar meanings. And you can add 'weak ends' to that collection since it very much feels as is my feet are ready to drop off.

Regular readers (surely there must be something better to do? not that I'm suggesting you should) will know by now that I have been having 'problems' with my car. Now, not to get all MS on everyone, I must admit that my condition does mean that a car has become something of a necessity for me (I'd use one to get from the living room to the kitchen if I could fine one small enough) - so the 'prob;em' was becoming something of a 'situation critical' type of thing for me.

Anyway, the garage (bless) finally called on Friday to say that my little Rover is no more. She's expired and gone to meet her maker. She's a stiff. bereft of life, she rests in peace. She's... well you get the drift. And Python-esque or not, I shouldn't (of all people) really laugh about it.  But get this - the final, fatal, diagnosis is that the Rover has a major problem with its wiring loom. In all probability it is suffering from a series of damaging short circuits somewhere deep in that electronic brain - none of which is funny until you compare its symptoms with that of MS, a condition whereby the Myelin sheathes that insulate our nerves are eaten away, creating short circuits between the nerves themselves.

MS isn't contagious - but I think my poor old Rover has caught my condition...

So, Saturday was dedicated to finding a replacement vehicle and for once I had some immediate success. I'm now the almost proud owner of a second-hand (but very smart) Peugeot 307 - an ideal vehicle since I can get in and out of it without too-closely resembling one of the clumsier clowns at Billy Smart's latest circus offering; it's automatic, well-maintained, very reliable (or at least that's what the man selling it said, not altogether unsurprisingly), clean (for a few weeks anyway), and most importantly it's mine, all mine!

Be that as it may, though, it was still a very tiring experience. Half a weekend gone and nothing but yawns (and a nice car) to show for it.

And so Sunday arrives (ensuring that the calendar receives another successful brownie point for good, if predictable, behaviour). Today (always assuming I've stayed awake long enough to complete this and it's still Sunday) I am facing the last dregs of the move to downstairs living - the last new shelves, to be exact.

I left the start until after the Chinese Grand Prix - a tiring watch, of course - but then got stuck into the final three bags of  'miscellaneous' items, all of which deserve shelf-space and in one or two instances genuinely demand such respect (a collection of Terry Pratchett-inspired Discworld figures and some early scribblings from the pen of yours truly.- from back in the day when I could still work out which end of a pen was supposed to be used on the paper).

The two shelves were already in my possession, but of shelving brackets there proved to be a distinct dearth. Actually, more accurately there was just one bracket - and I'm fairly certain that I could never have achieved quite the same level of secure fixing with just the solitary prop, no matter how good my balancing skills are these days. And this is a guy that can trip over a level floor.

Anyway, that gave me a good excuse... I mean, reason... to take a short drive to the local DIY store where I was able to gloat at the shiny 'newness' of my Saturday car purchase while a queue of lesser mortals wound back from the car-washing service to the entryway of the car park. With a little luck and some careful parking when I drive to the office (the seagulls there seem to take delight in repaying the employees of the company with the contents of their bowels, presumably because the company named its advertising seagull 'Steven' - Steven Seagull, I kid you not), the thin sheen of wax that currently dazzles me whenever I look at the car will last a few more months yet.

So it was though that I returned home sporting four brackets and one insufferable grin. I say 'insufferable', but if course mean 'justifiable' - from this side of the teeth, anyway. Just four hours, twenty holes, one drill bit and an overflowing swear jar later, and all I need to do now is set out the reserved contents of the bags and my weekend will be finished. And me with it.

Maybe it's not really comparable with the pre-condition days, but it's been a successful weekend. But a weekend that leaves me feeling weakened and with weak ends...

Moving on down

A relatively short post this week - stop cheering back there - because I'm still embroiled in an MS-related requirement. Nice word isn't it? Embroiled. And somehow, rather appropriate.

They say that moving is somewhat stressful - akin to being held responsible for the annihilation of an entire race - or to be less hyperbolic, the extermination of  a large proportion of one. And I can see why.

It's not even as if the address here is changing - I'm just moving from dual-floor living to a downstairs existence - but it's stressful nevertheless. I woke this morning to howling muscles, a missing toenail and blood-encrusted pinkie finger. Not exactly unusual for an MS victim and in the weirdest sense possible I was rather pleased that the roots were not relevant to the condition for once.

Broadly speaking, the move has entailed moving lots of things from various points upstairs to chaotic points downstairs, and vice versa - all with stairs occupying the middle ground. Given that my increasing difficulty with a staircase is one of the key prompts behind the move in the first pace, you might begin to understand how the stress-ometer's needle has spent a lot of the last 48 hours bent almost double.

Not that there hasn't been a few minutes here and there to pore through the detritus of the move and locate a few little - very little - gems that it has brought to light. Not all of you will appreciate the near-irony of the find, but the Death of Rats is now sitting proudly at the end of my new shelving down here in the living-come-bedroom-come-workroom. Given that he's accompanied by Death himself, Death on Binky and Gaspode, a few of you might understand the poignancy of his re-discovery.With the emphasis on 'disc', of course.

I've even located some stories I wrote many years ago when life was so much easier. There's one ratty school exercise book with the title 'The Alley Kids' which I penned when my age was still in single digits. And judging by the handwriting, when my ability to use a pen was with a single digit.

On the less fun side, I even hung a new door yesterday - probably my least favourite DIY task in all existence. But mostly it has been physical shifting of items from one room to another - and that's where the truth behind MS comes into play. You need to plan ahead because physical tiredness will take its toll sooner or later - dependent on the level of the illness. You know that at some point the legs (if you're fortunate enough to have any mobility left) will give way and you will be reduced to a quite literal crawl. I will try very hard to remember that when I next put up shelves and leave setting out my book collection on them to when I lose my leg-motive ability. Believe it or not I actually forgot that even standing, let alone lifting and setting things on shelves, would prove impossible... There's always tomorrow of course - always assuming a wardrobe doesn't fall on me.

Oh well, we live and learn (mainly learn new swear words in that instance).

At least most of the nasty stuff has been done now (including re-rooming two wardrobes that weigh approximately the same as a small family cat - always assuming you're mega-rich and everyone in your household drives either a Rolls Royce or a Churchill tank).

I've been writing this whilst sitting at my little desk (in its new location, of course) and letting my legs recover sufficiently for one more attack at furnishing, fittings and other f-words (and believe me, the swear jar is overflowing - I'd probably be cursing even more if I hadn't realised that needs shifting too at some point). So... I guess prevarication will get me nowhere and there's a shelf that needs liberating from its fixings... and apparently a table that needs re-assembling... and a rug that needs rolling up... oh, and moving from where it is to where it was,,, and a cupboard needs to have a new door hinge fitted... and... and where's the f*"!ing swear jar gone?

Interweb

One thing that life always - or should always - bring with the passing of the years is the gaining of knowledge. It's not necessarily the same thing as 'wisdom' but it can certainly be a step or two in that direction.

My own life has seen me constantly drawn into the mystical world of information technology, although never as the 'It man' unless you count my twenties when the nickname 'cousin It' was bandied about occasionally. I used to have hair then, you know...

Anyway, my point is that all things computer-related seem so much simpler these days - and not just as a result of my long exposure to the underlying technologies. The days of computers being the size of a large room, water-cooled and programmed with punch cards is long past (thankfully), and these days virtually everyone I know carries a tiny computer in their pocket - the modern mobile phone. And that includes most pre-teens.

Some of us even write things like this blog post and receive comments (mostly nice ones) from like-minded or converted individuals from all around the globe. There are millions of websites available to us at the touch of a few buttons (and not every one of them displays the naked charms of young women. Or men. Or other animals...) and we are able to research the most esoteric topics if we so wish at next to zero charge. We can sell our unwanted possessions to people we never see let alone meet, and can buy almost anything and have it delivered to our door (something that is an immense blessing to this MS sufferer who finds carrying anything both tiring and downright dangerous).

These days we can chat face-to-face with relatives and friends on the other side of the world - even while we are travelling on a train, I noticed recently. We can buy and play music of all forms (apparently, that applies especially to the tinny garbage that appeals so much to those who can afford £500 for a phone but only 10p for headphones). We can carry a library of fiction and non-fiction in our pockets and add the very latest titles without moving from the comfort of our armchairs.

All of which progress and my IT background makes it seem a tad odd that it was only last month when I finally launched my own website (John Money Writes).

It is probably a place where I can focus in years to come - the only real future that I can look forward to as the MS progresses, and one that I can (and will) build gradually as writing becomes an ever more important part of my life.

It already holds all of my blog posts (almost 50 of them!) an is split into various topics (which has told me just where my true interests lie) and has pages for contacting me, the services I plan to offer (along with some friends), a tiny bit about me, and some samples of the stories I have already written or am writing.

It was high time that I embraced the interweb thingy properly, and now I find myself planning all sorts of extensions to my nice, shiny new site; there will very shortly be a submissions page where I will display the talents (so to speak) of other writers, many of whom will help with my planned services, and a news-y type page with latest information from around the writing-related world and details of where to find people who are buying or selling literature of all sorts. There may even be a page which displays, almost live, my latest fiction writing - the ultimate preview page.

Most of all though, it has helped me get organised like never before. My actual work has dominated my time and my life recently (well always, really - I'm just that sort of person) but in my 'own' time, I've been busy sorting everything out, raking through my old tales, planning new services and stories, and working on three pieces of fiction more or less simultaneously. Or rather, four now that one particular back-story has developed a life of its own and has provided me with enough ideas for a separate novella - or maybe even novel, given my rambling ways.

One new concept that fascinates me most is a feedback form. The opinion of others fascinates me - and sometimes even educates me (please, don't actually let me hear you say something about new tricks and old dogs...). It's amazing how much you can learn from the comments and views of others, and even though we tend - as humans - to pass over a lot of what people say to us in that respect, we will often take much closer note of what people write to us about. Well, I do, anyway.

I guess this post is something of a plug for my new website - and yes, I acknowledge that - but it's also meant to give us all a little pause for thought. We've come a very long way since our childhoods - even the teens among us - and I have little but praise for the leaps and bounds technology has cantered through during the past couple of decades.

Oh, and when/if you visit the site, yes, there's a very good reason for quoting Edgar Allen Poe (or ta least his Raven poem). Quite apart from the fact that the late lamented Terry Pratchett made me laugh aloud on a crowded train once when I saw that he'd named a raven character 'Quoth' (quoth the raven, indeed) - I find the 'Nevermore' theme so very appropriate to me these days. MS robs people of so many things - things that they will see 'never more' - but the term also provides me with a focus for the future. That which is taken is normally replaced by something else - and in my case that will be story-telling in all its many guises,

And I'm going to have it tattooed somewhere this summer. Any suggestions? I'll re-phrase that. Any polite suggestions?