Time to dust down the parchment and take up my quill, again.

On By Mick CanningIn blogging, break, travel, writing

Oh, that was nice.

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I just had to get some time away – from the computer, from people, from work and noise and just about everything else that makes up my complicated twenty first century life.

I promised myself a few days away to work on my book, uninterrupted by anything else, and that then turned into a short holiday for the two of us, in a small quiet town in Shropshire, close to the Welsh Borders, in a small self-catering apartment. It was perfect. We went for a few walks together, and at other times I wrote and thought over parts of the book, whilst my wife went off and walked and mooched on her own.

From a writing point of view, it was a most successful trip; I developed a few of the main characters in a satisfactory way, I developed my primary and secondary plot lines, and I wrote a goodly amount of pieces to work together at various points in the book. The ideal, naturally, would have been a trip to the Indian Himalaya, since that is the location of the story, but failing that, then a hilly location with a lot of wooded parts and old houses and a feel of times past, is certainly the next best thing.

And it was a great break for us both. Just to have a break from day to day life, of course, is priceless, but in a quiet, peaceful small town is even better.

Naturally, back to normal life means dealing with stuff that wasn’t dealt with over the last week, amongst other things. So, online to sort out a bill payment, and…I notice by looking in my diary that I have passwords for forty seven separate sites. Is this unusual? Probably not. But, conventional wisdom says you should never write down passwords. So, who could possibly remember forty seven of the wretched things? And even I know that using the same password for different sites is foolishness beyond forgiveness.

More ruddy hassle. All of this is meant to make life easier, isn’t it? Yet my idea of making life easier is to make it simpler and less complicated. This just doesn’t seem to happen, though.

Ah, this is a bit of a diversion that I hadn’t planned for this post to take. It reminds me, though, that I must write a post on anxiety, at some time.

What I was intending to write, was that I now have plenty of material for the book, and so, as time permits, it’s Full Steam Ahead!

Now, then, back to these tasks…

34 thoughts on “Time to dust down the parchment and take up my quill, again.”

  2. Technology is always pushed on the pretext of making life simple…In reality it’s the other way around as you explained. And some sites will not accept password without numerical…others won’t accept with one capital and one special character…and we call this making life simple!! I’m sure standing in a line to deposit your bill would have been much simpler than punching in multiple passwords to make it more secure…and then add One Time Password process ..Phew!!

    Anyways, that’s the way forward!

    Good that you got some time off for inspiration!

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      1. Apologies Mick, but I’ve been away for a few days and have about 70 blog articles to catch up on! Meanwhile, there are passwords that need resetting, price comparison sites to survey, utility suppliers to evaluate, find what broadband and ‘phone deals are on, discover how to buy a train ticket without getting stitched up – you know, all these tasks that mean my life is now so bloody simple. 😉

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        1. I know indeed. I’d laugh at that, except for…well, perhaps I’ll just weep. I seem to spend a lot of time these days working out how I could simplify my life, and the only answer appears to be to become a hermit. Unfortunately, the paperwork required is a nightmare!

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  8. Glad you had a great time, Mick. Funnily enough, I read something recently about passwords because I’m also getting rather overwhelmed. One piece of advice was to use a password manager so that it’s only necessary to remember a single master password. I haven’t set up anything like that myself yet so I can’t swear hand on heart that it works, but on the off chance you’re interested, THIS is the page I was reading.

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      1. It could be. I never really got that far in my investigations. My first thought was, “That’s a good idea.” Then my second was, “Hang on, I’d have to look out all my old passwords to enter them into the system.” Somehow, things never progressed to a third thought on the matter.

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    1. What a great review! Thank you, Somali. I’m extremely flattered by your comments, too! Is there any way you might post it on Amazon (assuming you bought it through them)? It makes quite a big difference to sales!

      The current story is set in a fictitious hill station in Northern India, more of which later!

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  11. I’m glad you were able to take a break and work on your book! And I completely agree that so much of what is intended to make life easier simply makes it more complicated and frustrating. I have all my passwords written down in a book, because otherwise I couldn’t possibly remember them. And then I feel guilty for writing them down, because we “aren’t supposed to do that.” It’s just like our social security numbers: we are always told not to give them out. But just try getting medical treatment without providing that number, or opening a bank account, etc. I think anxiety and guilt are on the upswing these days, and it’s only going to get worse!

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  12. re passwords. That does seem a lot but maybe I am just out of touch. I use the same one for everything and even the people in the office know. So anyone can see my private e mail; log on and order from my amazon account and even post on my face book page. I know, its witless but it makes life easier for me.
    As for you writing something on Anxiety… I shall assume its from the opposite angle, as I cant imagine anyone less anxious in daily life than you. I always think of you like that advert about the Cadbury caramel…

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