Jonathan Beckett

Relentless

This week has been utterly relentless so far. No one thing has stood out - each day has just felt like an endless train of one thing after another. It doesn’t help that I’m still recovering from whatever walloped me a couple of weeks ago (I suspect covid,

It begins with "hello"

I need to stop burning the candle at both ends. I think perhaps the key might be learning to say “no” more often. I find it really difficult though - saying no. I’m usually the idiot washing up at midnight, so I don’t have to face a sink

When the walls fall

It’s been a strange sort of day. After an hour clearing the chaos caused by the rest of the family making breakfast, lunches and hot drinks, I settled into an endless round of on-line meetings that took up most of the day. In-between pretending to be clever I started

Five Minutes to Midnight

The Universe seems to be playing games with me at the moment. You know those (completely unrealistic) ideas I had about making time to write early in the morning? Rather than writing I ended up emptying the dishwasher, clearing a sink full of washing up, tidying the kitchen and lounge

A Slippery Slope

I have just installed the free trial of Scrivener. I’m using it to write this. I don’t know how long I’m allowed to use it for before I have to pay for it. Let’s hope something new and shiny comes along to distract me before the

Life's too short

For the last several days I’ve been turning the idea over and over in my head about buying a copy of Scrivener. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a word processor expressly designed for long-form writing - and has become somewhat famous over the last decade

Forgetting to live

I’m watching the clock. Watching and waiting. Waiting for my phone to vibrate, and my daughter’s voice to ask when I’m picking her up. She works in a pub in town - running food orders and serving at the bar when needed. The temperature is dropping while

Marmalade on Toast

I didn't used to eat breakfast. Back when I cycled to work I would scrape myself out of bed each morning, have a shower, wrap up warm, down a hastily made coffee, then fetch the bicycle from the shed. Now I'm working from home, breakfast has become a "thing". The

You should write a novel

I went out for a walk in the woods with a good friend at the weekend - a much needed escape from "normal" for an hour - accompanying her dog as he wandered this way and that. Along the way we talked about anything and everything. She's a writer. A

A Walk in the Woods

After clearing the washing up, filling the washing machine for the second time, and preparing to walk into town to buy groceries this morning, my phone vibrated in my pocket. A good friend had invited me to accompany her while she took the dog for a walk. My first reaction

Midnight

While lying low for the last few days, fighting off a virus that seems to have been rampaging around anybody and everybody, I’ve come to appreciate those that have reached out. While it doesn’t seem like much, a few words from a friend on a quiet day can

Out of the loop

I signed myself off work yesterday, and "stayed at home" today. It feels ridiculous to write the words "stayed at home", because I work from home. At first there was a feeling of letting somebody down - of admitting defeat - when I called in and told those that matter

Another Day

It's been a day. Another day. There have been too many recently. I signed myself off work at lunchtime, but within an hour had been thrown head-long into a request from a client. I didn't finish until the rest of the family called me for dinner. The fourth day in

Words After Midnight

While walking through reflections in puddles, and through ink filled streets late this evening to escort my middle daughter home from work, the machinery of the universe turned it's gaze on me. The ticking heart of the universe. I hit play on my mobile phone without really paying much attention

Burning Up

After deteriorating through much of the day before, I called in sick yesterday - the first time I have called in sick in about eighteen months. Of course this is me though - at lunchtime I checked my work email "just in case", and within minutes had started my work

Hassled

Today was challenging - for all sorts of reasons. Hopefully you'll understand why I cannot and will never share any frustrations related to my work. Let's just say that the level of dysfunction that some people seem to orchestrate is a constant source of surprise and wonderment. Suffice to say,

Naked Dreams

I had quite the strangest dream in quite some time last night, and told my other half about it shortly after waking up. If not for telling her, it would no doubt have ebbed away from my memory. I was walking through town with a woman on a bright, sunny,

Lost and Found

I am perhaps the most rational, pragmatic, sensible person I know. I am also eccentric, whistful, romantic, and quite the explorer of rabbit holes and daydreams. Perhaps that duality present in me says something about balance in the universe. Ah, the universe. The vast machinery of anything and everything that

An Eventful Day

I'm not quite sure that I know where to start. While the rest of the family have been dropping like flies - suffering from various colds, flu, or possibly COVID, I seem to have become bullet-proof. Quite the turn-around after spending the majority of Christmas and New Year running a

Far from the madding crowd

It's been a strange sort of day. While the rest of the world went about their very important business I knocked around at home. Yes, I was working - but I was also doing washing, tidying the kitchen up, clearing the lounge up, going emergency shopping for a sick daughter,

One foot in front of the other

A few moments after 7am this morning the cogs of the internet firmament clunked forwards and filled the bedroom with the sounds of a local commercial radio station. I squinted at the clock and murmered "Alexa, stop". I promised myself yesterday that I would run today. A fleeting thought went

New Year's Day

It's mid afternoon on New Year's Day, and I'm piecing together the events of the night before in my head - smiling as each moment comes into focus - each friend, each smile, each laugh, each hug. While wandering home in the early hours with a close friend, tip-toeing around

New Year's Eve

I woke in the early hours of the morning with a cramp in my right calf, leapt out of bed and hopped around the bedroom like a demented one-legged race participant. Today my calf still hurts. Go figure. Perhaps this is a warning about sitting in front of a computer

Music, Movies and Books

I’m sitting in the quiet of the junk room at home, listening to “On Green Dolphin Street” by Miles Davis. I’m going to blame a good friend on the internet that once suggested listening to “Cafe Jazz” while working from home. I never really listened to Jazz when

The small everyday deeds of ordinary folk

It is done. I have just paid for this blog to be hosted by Ghost for the next year. I guess the goal now is figuring out how to engage readers without selling my soul. I’ve always been terrible at marketing. I publish endless stories about every-day life, and