Time to stop being retired

Time to write that book.

2019

I'm thinking it might be time to stop watching the news.

Time to catch up and start blogging again

Well hello; long time no hear.

I retired in January this year. I miss the people and the clinical problem solving ... BUT ... I do not miss the committees or the politics that plague the NHS. Time passes quickly. I've made a clean break, choosing not to return to do endless locums. Time to move on.

I'm lucky. I chose when to retire. And I choose not to become a 'retired person'. I'm a student and I enjoy writing and reading. I'm a third of the way into my last module for my Open BA degree with the Open University, taking Advanced Creative Writing. This includes learning how to dramatise stories for a variety of media. I'm running down a steep learning curve - a little too fast to experience any depth, but it's a blast. And I'm taking a course at Tate Britain - 'Inside the Museum' - which keeps me grounded on Thursday afternoons.

Santa on the Run

Last weekend Judy and I ran the Santa 10 km Fun Run in Southsea for the RNLI. We got a bit lost towards the end (really) and ended up running 11.1 km in 67 mins. The weather was overcast and a bit windy. The high tide splashed us a bit but we had a lovely day, made even better by going on to
a nice lunch at the Royal Oak at Langston with Jon, Catherine and Joe .

Christmas Greetings, 2013

Our year started with a plague of mice, attracted by Christmas chocolates and Aga warmth. The ‘aren’t they sweet’ phase did not last long.

Judy seems to have spent the year running for Age Concern, Diabetes UK, RNLI and Race for Life. In October she came first in the over 50s women group running the Pieces of Eight (8 miles) Southsea Pirate Race and she completed her third ‘Great South Run’. Judy entered the lottery for next year’s London Marathon and was so disappointed not to get a place that she phoned up a few charities and is now running for Crisis. If you want to sponsor her please go to the following website, and if you are in London on 13^th April next year please come along and watch: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JudithRussell1 

Phil continues his studies with the Open University. He is currently taking a Creative Writing module and enjoying it. Our Southsea flat is now his writing den.

Work for both of us has been ‘interesting’ this year. Judy’s South London Trust was dissolved and Woolwich Hospital, where she works, has merged with Lewisham Hospital. In August Phil, having ‘had it’ with trying to remain honest in the world of NHS reforms and remodelling, pulled out of all clinical management duties and had himself job-planned into going part time. He refuses to ever serve on any committee again and is a lot happier for it. He intends to retire from healthcare in two years’ time.

Tom (nearly eighteen!) is now in his second year of sixth form at Ravensbourne School. He’s doing really well with his BTEC in Media Studies and hopes to carry on in Media at University next Autumn. He has also taken up motorcycle riding and is doing fine.

Sarah (nearly sixteen!) is working hard for her GCSEs next summer and has discovered music. Reading Festival next year. In May she competed in the National Fencing Finals in Sheffield. And in November she won Gold in Sabre, Silver is Epee and Bronze in Foil at the Kent Fencing Championships.

Cultural highlights over the last year include: Seeing Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Seven Wilson and Steve Hackett at the Royal Albert Hall, Peter Gabriel at the O2, and Colin Blunstone at the Cellars in Eastney (a converted pub venue just opposite our Southsea flat). Phil becoming a friend of the British Museum and seeing the ‘Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum’ and the ‘Shunga: sex and pleasure in Japanese Art’ exhibitions. Visiting the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield and seeing Barbara Hepworth’s hospital drawing in the Pallant Gallery in Chichester.

Family and friends highlights include Jenny and David’s wedding in February, and Janet’s 50^th birthday bash at the top of the A1 in July. Judy and Penny’s dash to Toronto to surprise Frank on his 80^th birthday. And seeing the family at Peggie’s 90^th birthday celebration in Gosforth was just brilliant. Peggie you are a star!

Merry Christmas

Just a brief post to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year.

I'm still writing, busy working on a piece featuring Mephistopheles (sorry, no spoilers!); you'll have to wait for 'Volume 2: Red' from Cafe Three Zero to find out more.

I'm e-published!

Since finishing a short creative writing course with the Open University I've kept in touch with several e-friends that I met on the forums. Throughout the course we provided mutual encouragement, reading and criticising each others efforts, and I found this strangely intimate interaction to be the most valuable part of the course. Thirty of us have kept in touch and formed an e-publishing group, Cafe Three Zero. Last week our first collaboration, a collection of 23 short stories was published. It's called 'Tales From the Cafe: Vol 1' and is available on Amazon's Kindle store and at Smashwords.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006584WHS

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/103508

Of course the moment you release something you can see loads of things you wish you'd done better. I suppose that is an inevitable, and a refreshingly welcome part of the creative process; evolution in action.

To find out more go to http://cafethreezero.wordpress.com/