No jo mo umikumāhiku in Hot town, summery in the city - 2017

So, in what sector of the arts would I like to excel.

I have a Btec in General Art and Design as well as a City & Guild in Signwork (painting/creating signs) but I was never really quite good enough - not enough dedication to the cause I guess.

But the side of the arts I have always done, without thinking about it, is writing. I wrote my first book at age 12. It was awful, cringey and so embarrassing that I burned it when I was 16!! There have been others since then, all their own levels of bad. But I’ve been writing, whether pen pal letters, diaries, online journals, social media snippets - which are quite tough because things have to be summed up in a few, short sentences - my whole life.

There is one problem though. Earlier this year I was having dinner with my sister and we were chatting about this subject. My sister is a qualified, secondary school English teacher and was doing that job at the time, although she is now teaching primary, and we agreed: we both love writing but neither of us actually have a book in us. The ability to create a fictional story.

I have, for the past few months, been writing my running memoirs (for new readers: I started running in 1985 so there are a lot of them!!) which has been great fun. I don’t need to use my imagination as it’s all real, I close my eyes and take myself back to the period or moment about which I’m writing. I allow the sensory input of that time to take over and I can write and write. The trouble is, I need utter peace to be able to do that and my life isn’t filled with peace right now!! Therefore I am able to write when I’m sitting in the car, outside Lila’s football training, on Monday evenings and that’s about it!! Maybe one day I’ll finish the memoirs though.

I even have a title for them, but you’ll have to wait until they’re published for that (😂🤣😂🤣).