The past few months have brought changes to the Daligan household, some of them personal and some physical. However, in contrast to my former life, none of them have been other than beneficial. The overall result has seen a greater contentment alongside further achievement. There is still a little way to go in both these areas; however, the former seems to be aiding and abetting the latter. And that ain’t no coincidence!
We started with the garden, particularly the lawn, which had resisted our attempts to get it to grow properly for as long as I can remember. However, as I explained to it before this latest attempt, if it didn’t work this time, I would concrete it over. That seems to have done the trick, along with relaying the path so that more of it and the plants were in the sun; plus, of course, the tons of horse manure I put on the garden some years ago. This was followed by a new boiler after the (16 year old one) finally expired. This, itself, was then followed by renovating the bathroom. This was looking a little the worse for wear and now looks bright and new. Finally we move on to having the flat decorated; something that is nearly finished. As I work from home and we don’t have too much in the way of extra space, this has involved moving stuff from one room to another (including 2,000 or so books) overnight so that the decorator could continue his work in the morning.
In addition, my fourth book, “Why Don’t You Just Support Arsenal? The Life and Times of a Spurs Supporter” has now had its final edit and should be ready for printing soon. In the meantime, I am in touch with a number of sporting literary agents to see if I can get one of them to take it up. I also have the various Spurs’ fans message boards and a list of celebrity supporters to contact. Lastly, on the personal front, I’ve managed to break down some of those internal barriers which have prevented me from doing what I’ve long wanted to do. Among these has been, courtesy of a Guardian Masterclass, writing a novel which is helping me to turn a short story, that I have, into my first work of fiction.
It’s just a pity that I spent until my 30’s allowing life to get in the way. No longer although, to quote Loudon Wainwright, I do “Need a Double Lifetime”.