So here it is….the Monkey returns …

Turning 60 you suddenly become aware that if you intend to get everything done that you wanted to do you might need to get your finger out, as it were. Whilst 60 might be the new black, the new sex, the new 40, all well and good. You still better get your finger out.

Exercising my writing muscles is still up there with visiting the gym but whilst I try to turn myself into Popeye my writing muscles have gotten really flabby. Gone south, so to speak. And as I occasionally check my viewer stats at Blog Central I think that any Blogger worth his salt really ought to lift his flabby writerly arse from the cerebral sofa and lift this body of work over the 100, 000 line.

To tell the truth, I’ve been scared of the learning commitment. I recently leapt over to the Dark Side (leaving Microsoft – since the dawn of time – to buy a Mac !) and am having to learn new menus and ways of doing things…. and then every time I checked into WordPress that had changed too. Damn, I’m right back to the start again.

(Inner Voice – No more excuses – get on with it….)

2015 has been an amazing year for me and I’m trying not to crow. But I do know how lucky I am and I am taking nothing for granted. But while you’re riding the crest of the wave any good surfer will tell you that you have to ride it as long as you can before you get dunked.

“So this is Christmas……..and what have you done ……”

Training for my ride and then the ride itself.. all up here elsewhere. Then 6 months of contract work. It’s nice to be wanted. We smashed our fundraising target for the Chaithanya Orphanage, reaching 2 and a half times our original aim. And Music Alive is stable and growing having come through it’s own rocky patch at the start of the year. I am not taking credit for the last two. Everyone around me has also worked so hard.

I have been so exercised (there’s that gym link, again) by so many things recently that I was sure I would burst back onto the pages of the Singlemaltmonkey with passion and insight. The treatment of Jeremy Corbyn by the media…. Cameron telling lies to get the air strikes through (ironically, we don’t have to wait for an enquiry anymore for the truth. He admitted that the 70,000 troops thing was a bit vague a week after the vote !) Trump-ton. The growth of Podemos et al. Syrian refugees and the UK’s shameful response. Jay winning Strictly. It’s all been going on.

I would like to wish my reader a very Happy Christmas, be it a pagan driven festival, commercial or religious one,whatever floats your life raft. Get the family and friends around and reflect on the positives. I bring you tidings of joy….. the Monkey is back. (Well, that’s the plan anyway.)