-
Looking back
Jul 7I apologise for the self-indulgent blog this week but sometimes blogs have to be don’t they?
I like looking back at the old diary I used to keep, it gives me a sense of how much and sometimes how little has changed. In the summer of 2005 I was trying to get a book published, not the Self-Sufficientish Bible, one quite unrelated. I’d also recorded a pop song with my friend Dom which I thought would storm the charts. Here’s an extract from 5th October following that summer -
“I was offered some work today, just crappy call centre stuff but it should be my first regular work since February. Shit, that’s seven months ago! The book was rejected by the publisher last Thursday and Dom’s decided the single won’t get released until January so I’m going to have to bite the bullet and just do it for a while. The pay is crap and I may jump ship if something better comes along. It’s for the quit-line for smokers, which is ironic as I am in a constant state of smoking and quitting at the moment.”Well, that particular book never got published and the pop song was shelved after EMI told us we couldn’t release it as it infringed on the copyright of one of their songs. It was a bit irritating as the tune was essentially Pachelbel’s Canon but they refused us permission, as it was too similar to ‘Go West’ by the Village People. Quite how you can claim copyright on a song from the 1680s is beyond me!
I’ve giving up smoking AGAIN, it’s been three or four weeks now, it feels like I might do it this time but I always say that. I’m not working in a call centre (thankfully); I did that job for about 3 or 4 weeks and then worked at the Soil Association for about three months. I then temped for a further year before getting the book contract at the close of 2006.
It is now 2009 and the last trickle of the advance for the book has just about to run out – the bonus about living like I do is I can stretch money quite far! At this time of year my food bill is almost nothing, the only energy I use is for hot water (washing myself and clothes), cooking, my laptop and the radio so bills are low.
People assume that if you have a website and a book then somehow you must be doing really well financially. Well the truth is I can work quite hard, writing, maintaining an allotment and garden, organising wild food walks, studying wild food and gardening (amongst other things) doing volunteer work, preserving and cooking food and skip diving. I seem to put the hours in but I get little financial reward for it.
What I do get is really, really great food that hasn’t been flown half way across the planet. I get the sense that I’m actually living rather than just counting the hours until I can leave work. I’m healthy, I’m happy and what’s more if someone asks what I’ve been up to then I’ve usually got a story to tell rather than just saying ‘you know, same old, same old’. Most days I can also have an afternoon nap, it’s one of the greatest pleasures in life, who needs caffeine when you can just snooze for 20 minutes!
What I don’t have is a flat-screen TV, a new computer (my laptop is on it’s last legs but still holding up), I don’t have a car instead I cycle around on my £30 bike.My mobile phone is rubbish but it still works (don’t go for the 3 skype phone –it’s crap), my clothes are okay but I’m certainly not in any fashion trend. I don’t eat meat, I don’t fill my house with brand new furniture, and I don’t pay a mortgage. If anyone was to look at my bank account on the surface I’m not very successful.However is success really earning £20K, £30K or £100K a year but never having time to enjoy it?
-Dave
One Response to “Looking back”
-
Succsess is what you make of it. A pioneering brain surgeon may be a success in his field because of what he does. A footballer might be a success in what he does and you might be a success in what you do.
Do you need a lot of money to do that ?
If the brain surgeon was paying for his own operation time then maybe, the footballer if he ran his own premier football team, he might, You, I think are a success at doing a lot with what appears little financial means.
Don’t forget the quote of my old carreers master who said.. Alan you are too thick to do A levels but the world still needs dustbin men….. Would I be a success if I was a dustbin man ( which I’m not ) and after 16 years out of school I went to colledge and done 5 Alevels in one year… Maths, chemistry, Human biology, environmental science and physics. 3A, a B, and a C ( I didn’t like physics.
