Born in 1967
My wife said it wouldn’t work, running off to spend a year in a different country to find that novel hidden in me. Like so many things over the years she was dead right, not that I’d ever admit it of course.
Semi retirement sounds great, best of both Dashboardworlds – bit of extra cash and keeping your skills up to date plus the flexibility to do a few other things when I wanted. In reality at least for me it never turned out like that – my hours were part time but I used up my free time in a non-paid capacity. Work still ruled my life and I never did much else despite having a half a pay packet !
So the chance to house sit an apartment in Turkey seemed like a great way to find a new start. Free accommodation, great climate and cheap living – at least that was the plan. In reality I never quite took to it, although the other half did quite easily.
The climate was sunny but hot – too hot, that strength sapping heat that makes your one goal in life to become cool. My focus was not on producing the next great novel but merely where the shade was and which bar chilled it’s beer properly. The cheap living wasn’t that cheap either, Turkey has the highest petrol prices in the world and it’s reflected in the costs of virtually everything. The cheap Turkey I remembered from my holidays in the 90s doesn’t exist anymore.
What was worse was that I started recreating the UK in Turkey. I’ve never been the homesick type but I started visiting a German cafe for a British breakfast – the Germans always seem to be able to locate sausages and bacon wherever you are. In the evening I discovered my computer could actually stream Iplayer abroad, and also on my Ipad. So in with the Turkish sun setting behind the backdrop of a Greek Island off the coast I watched the BBC news. The stories of strikes and UK Press scandals beamed through into my apartment.
I never did write that novel there, the problem was I never really moved. My body did of course, but my mind was still back in the UK moaning about the weather and watching UK TV!
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