New Year

And Back To Work

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

We had a good catchup on Monday with the Charleesi and boyfriend – who have both been working over the Christmas period like us. It was an excuse to get presents to them and spend some time – and to give our newly donated slow cooker a first go. Fair to say that the melt-in-your-mouth meat alone was a treat, especially when mixed with spices and coconut milk for a slow-cooked beef curry experience. It was a good start to the week.

Then it’s been back to the grind – and a strange combination of a slow start that also brought some tough managerial decisions. As is always the way with these things, compromise and conversation in person rather than the sole medium of emails got results and kept storms in teacups where they belonged. It also brought some improvements for some of the people being supported so I’ll take the wins.

I dropped by an unofficial munch (if there’s such a thing) over in Farnborough last night following all that to catch up with people and met some interesting new faces, including a couple of fellow D&D people so a lot of geekiness and sharing of silliness from our respective tables happened. Got some good ideas, and think I introduced one person to at least three new authors they hadn’t encountered before. End of the evening I gave Lady T a lift home and then promptly got stuck after that driving behind someone who barely drove over twenty miles an hour for most of the distance between Staines and home. So, that was fun. At least the new car is a pleasure to drive so as the route didn’t really give me any great overtaking opportunities I settled into my heated seats and pootled along behind until they turned off and cleared the way.

My added bonus today is that, by and large, I haven’t had much discomfort from my ribs. There’s still some tenderness near the sternum, but I’ve been able to take deep breaths, cough, even laugh, and not had stabbing pains for my trouble. I think my body has gone into healing overdrive today though as I’m absolutely shattered and drowsy as I reach the end of the afternoon. I logged off from work, and made the mistake of closing my eyes for a few moments and promptly lost a few hours – so I’m going to take the hint and just be kind to myself for the evening

Welcome 2023

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

Well, so long 2022. Let’s see what comes along next. My own little corner of the world is doing well on the work front, though there’s a lot of sickness in the polycule that we can hopefully all support each through.

Lady M and I had a quiet evening last night with a double-bill on Netflix of Knives Out and Glass Onion and a bottle of wine. Neither of us were in the mood for shenanigans so it was good to just switch off. I’ve also quietly carried on making tokens and portraits in Heroforge as that’s a great distraction.

Last night’s cuppa and book

Today has also been gentle. Some of us are unwell, some of us are hung over – and I am just very tired. I suspect that’s related to my ribs still healing. They’re definitely improving: I was able to actually sleep lying down in my bed for the first time in a couple of weeks. Lifting and shifting too energetically is still painful, but there’s less of it which is encouraging – as long as I dont slouch or lean too often.

I did at least get the group together on discord and roll20 to get characters set up for the one-shot. I still haven’t come up with a title for it – I’ll announce it here when I do.

The Yearly Round-Up

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’m somewhat torn between “good grief, that was a long year” and “wait a minute, it was just March!” as I settle down to write this. The blog has continued to grow – as of the time of writing there are 7,943 views from 4,075 unique visitors, 874 likes were recorded and 7 comments. By far the biggest draw is the main page for the new blog entries, while the rest of the traffic is split between old gaming writeups, a click-baity item I once wrote about almost but not quite having a polyamory tattoo, and a short story called Identity Crisis that I wrote back in 2017.

I’m not aiming to make a financial empire out of the site – there’s links to merchandise, true, but even that’s just artistic odds and ends and nerdy support for my friends and family – so while I’m sure there are bots and even SEO experts champing at the bit to offer me advice on how to grow and monetise the blog there isn’t any interest in doing so. The statistical figures are of passing interest in a “huh, that’s cool” way rather than a driver of activity. If they were, I’d probably not enjoy writing the blog so much.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t sometimes feel like a job or a chore, but I see it as good practice to keep in the habit of writing, even if it isn’t the rolling production of fiction that in my mind’s eye I would prefer to be doing. The real world, alas, distracts me far too often with maintaining the household, working the day job, and looking out for my loved ones – but on reflection that’s a good thing. It means I’m present for people, am keeping relatively active, and am looking after myself. That last one still feels a bit of a radical concept.

A lot has happened this year – including three months of boy s and the cub moving in while they relocated more locally – but there was also a promotion, a more active engagement with LGBTQ+ issues at work, and marching in Surrey’s Pride Parade with colleagues and clients. I’ve built a team of managers who are passionate about outreach and engagement with local communities. I even sold a few tshirts and started an erratically scheduled podcast. Editing of short stories and sharing those with a wider circle of people for feedback has occurred.

And I’ve started to feel less guilty about not managing to achieve absolutely everything all at once, let alone the illusion of productivity born of being busy all the time. Hopefully that will help me manage my health better as the doctors continue to prod, poke, scan, and probe. Fingers crossed, and all that.

That’ll do for the year in review I think. If you want more details, the blog is literally here to dive into – I’m going to make a cuppa and have a light lunch now. See you soon.

Happy New Year

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’m not going to fall for the expectations trap of saying here’s to a better 2021. Instead, as I recently said to a friend, here’s to new possibilities and shenanigans.

I saw the new year in, mostly because I couldn’t settle, with half a bottle of glayva and falafel. Lady M is deeply unwell with a chest infection so a day of covid tests and a hospital consultation wore her out. We’ve got antibiotics and plenty of supplies so we’ll be fine.

So here’s to humour, flirting, making the best of things, and looking out for each other.

Plot Twist!

Tim Maidment1 Comment

Oh, so as I was catching up on Facebook, not long before getting ready to get on a plane to come home from Florida, my eye was caught by a post by someone in one of the cosplay groups about how they were ready to start dating again after heartbreak a year or so before.

This particular group is one that I met up with at MCM in October: SquadUK, and I’d gone to their visit to the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park – so I knew and had met most of the people in the conversation thread – a luxury you don’t often get online when you’re trying to visualise a virtual discussion.

Although the poster, Lady S, is open on her bio and in conversations, if it comes up, about being poly, it was quickly obvious that this was either something that had flown straight past people, or that had been discounted because she had recently got engaged to her girlfriend. A number of people began to ask what had gone wrong, and she had to explain that no, this wasn’t a break-up. She clearly explained her boundaries: basically that any new partner had be to public, no skulking around, and willing to attend conventions. Any longer debate was turned aside with a “I’m not debating this, if you don’t understand, you won’t.”

Which I had to admire. I also found it refreshing to see someone stand up in a public forum, and wanting to even the odds a bit also weighed in to support her in poly representation. I also said if she wanted to natter about poly things, I was there as an understanding ear.

So as I leaned on the balcony at the hotel, I got a message saying “Well at least I feel less guilty for perving over you.” and we started chatting. As you do. Meanwhile on the Facebook discussion, her fiance was reassuring everyone that she would have the head of anyone who hurt Lady S on a spike.

And between that and her chatting with Lady M, and not sleeping through jetlag, we seem to have ended up with a new partner – which was a rather unexpected way to ring in the new year.

Turns out she’d been carrying a quiet torch for me since the Winter Wonderland and I was, as usual, completely oblivious. So I’m not quite sure out of all the social anxieties and shyness quite who pulled who.

It’s a lovely way to start the new year though. Feels right, lots of smiles in both households right now.

Happy New Year

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

It’s tempting to say good riddance to a rollercoaster year, where I’ve started and lost relationships; managed to write a huge amount and yet hit crushing roadblocks in creativity, and where my mental health took a plummet, before new friends and a welcome from the cosplay helped me start to rebuild my strength.

Work has been challenging, especially with my health, but the libraries have been supportive even while I’ve had to put the writing to one side for a while.

I’m not going to go into the politics of the year, which have enraged and saddened me at so many turns.

There’s a lot of like to put behind me, but doing so would diminish all the good times, experiences, and people who have featured in life too.

So, it’s not so much “get out of here 2017”, as “hey 2018, up for building some awesome?”

A New year Challenge

Tim Maidment1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to get serious about writing again for a while, and regularly updating this site has been a step in that process. Now comes the next step: inspired by a challenge that Mre B set herself successfully last year where she set out to write a short story every day.

In a moment of enthusiasm I said if she was successful, I would match that goal this year, story for story with her. So here we are. Just as well I was planning to do it anyway.

I’m not making any commitments about story length or style – we’ll just see how they come along, won’t that be exciting?

New Year’s Shenanigans

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

We don’t normally go out on New Year’s Eve, but that’s usually down to a lack of planning rather than desire. This year though, we had a message from the Charleesi, inviting us out with the ex-Lady M down The Plough.

We headed out, suddenly realising that this would be our first ever New Year’s Eve out anywhere. It felt somewhat daunting, but I’m not exactly sure why. It can’t have been the company or the place, but nevertheless it felt decidedly odd. Perhaps it was just the change in routine.

As it was, it was a lovely evening. The Charleesi covered her mother in lemonade, fireworks were detonated, and loud people were loud without being too obnoxious.

I also chatted a lot with various people online between conversations – and so laid plans to see various people, plotted story ideas, arranged to see films, and generally set up the next few weeks of shenanigans.

I also renewed contact with a friend I’ve not heard from for a while, and we discussed in passing some of the oddities of my life. He contended that this change in routine was a good target for the year to come, and should be an aspiration for continuing to shake things up. It took only a small while to convince him that plans were already afoot to keep shaking things up – and that was before we got on to domestic arrangements.

A good start to the year, and a reminder to embrace changes in routine and live as awesome a life as possible. I may have lost track of that until recently.

Oh, did we start already?

Tim Maidment1 Comment

I heard someone on the radio today saying that it didn’t feel as if the new year had quite started yet. This may be because of leave taken this last couple of weeks but it certainly chimed with me, even though I returned to work on Friday. I’ve certainly enjoyed my time off, despite the chaos that the richer diet has played on my waist and health. Returning to a leaner diet and sparser meals is probably not something that many people crave, but I already feel brighter for returning to having two good meals a day rather than grazing my way through the week.

We had a belated staff meal for the festive season last night, so of course the topic of resolutions came up. I was a little stumped for a moment, before I remembered that I don’t do resolutions. Instead, prompted by Lady M’s practice, I set goals. So this year’s goals are:

1) To post something every day – which I’ve basically started these last few days, and which is already getting me thinking about how to manage my content and time more effectively.
2) To get my weight consistently below 15stone. I was about fifteen and a half stone before Christmas so there’s a bit if damage to undo. Not only am I enjoying being thinner, but it helps me manage my diabetes more efficiently.
3) To finish and self-publish a collection of short stories, because I’ve already started and it will demonstrate to myself that I can complete complex targets. If it sells any copies, well that will be a bonus.
4) To finish the novel and start trying to find an agent to help me sell it and the ideas for follow-ups that I have. I didn’t manage it last year through a combination of other work and distractions, but I did break the back of my projected word count so I need to press on both with new material and transcribing what’s in the notebooks. Current estimate is that I’m around the 80k-90k mark.

So there we go. Busy year to come, and I’m going to be awesome, dammit!