Something I’ve come across recently is the eagerness with which people denounce the place they’ve grown up in and express their aspiration to move as far away as possible. It’s always been a distant goal for a lot of people and I can certainly appreciate that point of view but, now that we’re a bit older, I’m hearing it more and more, especially from some of my closest friends. Whilst my own friends are respectful and level headed about it, I see some people on social media actively belittling people who are happy to live their lives in the village or town that they’ve grown up in, and I’ve started to wonder why this is. Often I just think it makes people sound lonely and bitter because, whilst I understand a desire to move away and do your own thing, why do they feel the need to diminish the lives of others in the process? I think Derby is an extremely apt example – the city is rather underwhelming and overpriced and exciting opportunities aren’t exactly as plentiful as I wish they were, but as I’ve grown up I’ve come to appreciate the many benefits of where I live. Drive ten or fifteen minutes in pretty much any direction and you’re surrounded by some of the most picturesque countryside in the entire United Kingdom. There’s plenty of things to do if you actually look for them and, perhaps most importantly, if you do want to go away, we’re literally no more than a two hour drive to virtually every major city in England, so you couldn’t really pick a more ideal location. My objectives may change in the future and I’m open to that but, as things stand, what’s wrong with wanting to live in the comfortable surroundings of my home county amidst some of the best friends I could have asked for?

Anyway, it’s about time I provided the update on my life that I know you’ve all been longing for. Last Friday I had a few drinkies on Zoom with my good friends Sian, Lana, Elia and Sammy, in order to celebrate the launch of Sian’s new podcast, Putting the World to Equal Rights. It was an honour to appear as a guest on Sian’s first episode and a genuine pleasure to be a part of the process. Those of you who know her won’t need me to tell you how dedicated a feminist Sian is so, if the reviews the first episode has received are anything to go by, it’s nice to see how keen people are to support her and get themselves involved in the conversation. Without fawning too much, I’m extremely proud of her and I hope the episodes that follow in the next few weeks manage to be just as enjoyable and informative as her first, although I appreciate how tall of an order that is considering the monstrous intellectual capacity of her first guest. Sian’s tenacity and courage in putting her ideas out there like this are just another reason I’m so confident that I’ve surrounded myself with the right people. The Zoom drinks were rather amusing too and they left me longing for the days of smoking areas at 2am and completely bullshit conversations that you don’t remember the next day. Soon, hopefully, they will return. 

My days seem to have developed into a very consistent pattern; wake up, shower, coffee, eat, read, walk, PS4, SSM Fit workout, cook, eat, read, PS4, write, bed. It doesn’t always happen in that order but my itinerary very rarely deviates from these things and, perhaps surprisingly, I must say that I’m actually finding it quite enjoyable, for a multitude of reasons. I feel fitter than ever and walking with friends provides not only a great opportunity to catch up with them, but also to have interesting conversations we might not normally have. My cooking seems to continuously improve and, since she took the plunge and joined TikTok, Hayley and I have been trying all sorts of new recipes that we’ve found on there, some of which are utterly delectable. I recently finished Barack Obama’s new autobiography, which was absolutely fantastic – he is a magnificently talented writer and I’d recommend his book to everyone, regardless of your political views (or lack of). I’ve been watching golf, cricket and horse racing as usual, although I’ve cut back on my gambling due to a small budget overspend (some things never change). Two excellent golf tournaments this weekend, coupled with some test cricket, should be more than enough to keep me occupied. I’ve been listening to new music & expanding my playlists, and I’ve also discovered the wonders of Reddit, a website where you can find literally anything you could think of. 

I do realise, however, that my lockdown experience is far from typical, and I spend a lot of time reading news reports and articles on just how grim our current situation is. I have been just as surprised as everyone else with the efficiency of the British vaccine rollout and whilst this does offer some long overdue hope for a return to normality, it’s hard to escape the bleakness of our third lockdown, especially when scenes from music festivals and the like in Australia and New Zealand appear on my social media timelines. There will come a time when we will analyse the decisions of the Johnson Government and (rightly) chastise them for their numerous failings but, right now, I think it appropriate to focus on the future, keep working together to get through this and hope that the vaccines really are our ticket to freedom. If anyone reading this is feeling a bit glum, I simply urge you to reach out to someone, as I know from experience that having someone to talk to makes it much easier. 

It was Benny’s 21st birthday the other day. For those of you who don’t know, Benny was my childhood best friend who sadly passed away from a rare and vicious form of cancer at the age of fifteen. It’s an understatement to say that he was like a brother to me and our families remain extremely close – I like to think of Milly as my little sister, albeit an extremely high maintenance one. I spent ten minutes at his grave on the day, chatting to him as if he were still around. I told him what I’d been up to, how everyone is coping, what my most recent plans for the future are and how much I wish he was here to see them fail to materialise. I don’t believe in god or heaven & hell or anything like that but I do think it’s nice to believe that his spirit lives on somewhere and, even if he can’t speak to me, I can speak to him and he’ll hear me. I’ve never even attempted to put into words the sadness that Benny’s death caused because I know I won’t be able to describe it accurately or do his legacy justice, but I do hope that he is aware of how desperately he is missed and the pain I felt knowing that he should have been here with us, celebrating his twenty first birthday. I feel that sometimes, no matter how difficult it might be, it is important to reflect on how different life might have been if he were still around, and that’s what I tried to do that day, standing by his graveside. It was an awful lot better than it is currently.

I think that’s enough for now. Just remember that life is extremely precious. Stay safe.