Category Archives: Creative Writing

A daily occurrence – the best of times, the worst of times

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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” -Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

For me this is a daily occurrence as planning for retirement or transition brings these emotions on a very regular basis.

I often describe my days as a roller coaster of mixed emotions, moving through a cycle of euphoria ( “the best of times”) to ambivalence and then to panic ( “the worst of times”). During a day I find myself excited about my future, a period post retirement from my firm, relaxed that I’ll be able to fill my days with gainful activity and then frightened that I am not properly prepared or ready.

In those times when I am looking forward to the next phase, it can be the best of times. No more time sheets, budgets, and relentless pressure to grow the business. My excitement also comes from the opportunities I have before me.

University the opportunity to learn, complete my Honours, start a PHD, research and teach. These are all things that over the last 12 months I have come to enjoy. I feel confident that my network of contacts will engage with me in a way that neither they nor I have before, providing me new and exciting opportunities. I’ll have more time for travel and riding my bike.

I then cycle through feelings of ambivalence arising from the assumption that it will all work its way through and I’ll be OK.

But then there is the fear of the unknown, the worst of times. Sheer panic!

What happens if I don’t like it. I’m moving from the cocoon of a very large firm where I am relevant to perhaps being completely irrelevant. How will I feel about that? What happens if I can’t afford to live the way I want too? What happens if my planning simply doesn’t pay off? What happens if I don’t continue to enjoy my study, it’s too hard and I can’t make a success of teaching? What happens if I my network no longer engages with me after I no longer have my Partner badge? It’s very scary!

So yes on a daily basis I experience both the best and worst of times.

Daily Prompt – Extreme Tale

It’s better to give than receive

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We had dinner with a friend recently. Someone my wife and I see through my work. It was a fabulous dinner with maybe more wine than we should have consumed for a work night with an early start the next day, however it was fun.

Whilst much of our talk with our friend has been about where I’m at with my life, this time as the conversation and wine flowed we turned to where my wife was at with her life.

Too often this involves running around after our adult children. Bluntly she seems to be their unpaid PA! Whilst I know she is happy to take on that role it seems that she doesn’t have enough of her own time. That was a theme we discussed at length.

Through the conversation my wife talked about writing.

Continue reading →

Who do I write for?

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Who is your Reader?

My blog is not a Dear Diary, however it is my own personal reflection. It’s not my goal to reveal my inner most secrets, but an opportunity to write about what matters to me.

It was as I have posted before a way for me to keep myself honest to my personal challenge of writing a thousand words a month. I have achieved that goal in each and every month whether through this blog, via my articles for The Adelaide Review or in my University assignments.

I write because I enjoy it. It’s both intellectually stimulating and relaxing at the same time, although as I am reviewing and editing a post the relaxation aspect can get lost in my desire to get the grammar right! That’s why I enjoy my personal fifteen minutes and then post challenges, of which this is one.

Also I think My writing has got better. Maybe that’s not surprising because it’s like everything – the more you practice at something the better you get. I’ve even tried to write some fiction which is a long way out of my comfort zone.

I haven’t written my posts to necessarily have them read by lots of people, which is fortunate because they haven’t been. That said, I have been gratified that sometimes my posts get some comment and the occasional like.

So when I answer the question who do I write for its Me!

They would never have believe it

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Paul was keen to get away from work as Wednesday night was band practice, and he needed to be there by seven. It was going to be difficult because August was always a manic month.

He enjoyed his work and was comfortable being defined by his role role, as a Partner of one of the world’s largest accounting firms, however he was thoroughly enjoying getting back into his music, something he had not really done since his high school days in Southampton. That was such a long time ago, pre Julie, the children, and his arrival in Australia.

A child of the sixties he felt a rich musical heritage, Continue reading →

Fifteen Minutes and One Post!

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One of the Daily Prompts last year was to spend fifteen minutes on a topic and then publish.

So hear goes…

It’s Monday morning, a work day, and I have my long black over ice and piece of toast and Vegemite for breakfast – hardly the breakfast of champions, but something I enjoy. Mornings are my time. Usually no one else is up and I can put the music channel on and browse the news websites or as I have been doing in recent weeks, browse my WordPress Reader which is so much more relaxing!

I have found so many interesting posts and blogs, my Reader is now being updated with some of the most fabulous content. Initially I was looking for posts on topics I was interested in, but in the last week or so I have been more adventurous and it’s been fun. I visited a cooking site, I never look at cookbooks! have been excited by the energy that so many fellow bloggers have, it’s so refreshing at a time when there is so much negativity around.

Then after my toast and coffee it’s a walk to work reflecting on what I’ve read. So much more enjoyable than being dragged down by the news!

Well that’s fifteen minutes my times up and so It’s time to publish.

Not my best post I am sure, but it does show that I can do it without my usual twenty five plus edits!