|
Update.
I woke up the other morning feeling
vaguely disquieted. My unease developed steadily all
morning and I set myself to thinking about the possible
cause.
What had I to worry about? A lot of
things apparently. There was my health for a start.
The blood pressure and heart problems; the enlarged prostate
issues; the haemorrhaging that was such a concern as a
consequence of the minor invasive procedure at the Royal
Free and the anti-coagulation medicine that was preventing
its recovery.
Then there were all the hiccups associated
with the publication of my new book Metaphors and Matzo
Balls such as the typo on the cover, and the faulty internal
layout.
And then I suddenly realised that my
health issues had - if only temporarily - abated. I
had stopped taking the anti-coagulants and the bleeding had
ceased. So I could now think about going back on the
blood thinners. The new drugs they had given me for
the prostate seemed to be working. The cover of the
book had been revised and the internal layout improved.
Amazon had approved the book for sale both as a paperback
and as a Kindle product.
And equally suddenly I realised the cause
of my disquiet. I had nothing to worry about.
And this was the most worrying thing of all. I'm
apparently someone who needs to worry. Now I was
worrying about not worrying! Move over Woody Allen and
give me some room.
Health Champion Project
[Click to enlarge]
The picture shows Caroline Allison and me at the
Burnt Oak Costa. We have been paired as Health
Champion "buddies" and were "getting to know each other"
prior to an induction for the work we will be doing at the
Oak Lodge Medical Centre, where we are both registered
patients.
Several other activities are also being
organised and interest has been expressed by local authority
health personnel and members of HM Government. It's
getting quite exciting.
Friends old and new . . .
and family.
After a succession of bad hair days,
finally a red letter day.
I had had to cancel my intended
pre-Christmas visit (and gift delivery) to daughter Emily,
having developed a sore throat and threatened bronchial
attack. Emily, of course, having recently had a stem
cell transplant, had to avoid any exposure to infection.
Accordingly it had been almost three
months before I was finally able to visit Emily, her partner
Stephen, and my grandchildren Jamie and Katie. The
kids grow so much and so quickly. Not so much Jamie,
who is now approaching his eighth birthday, but Katie
astonished me. In her first school year she had
matured enormously, shows great intelligence, a wonderful
sense of humour, and an artistic ability that clearly
derives from her mother and her maternal grandmother.
Lunch at a local carvery - click picture to enlarge
As for my only male offspring, Philip is
currently in the Middle East and plans to be working out of
Dubai in future. Not my idea of the most peaceful and
safe part of the world. But what do I know?
Perhaps they thought the same about me when I accepted a
long-term position in Hong Kong in the 1970s. Truly,
the apple does not fall far from the tree!
Good luck Phil.
Metaphors and Matzo Balls.
[Click to enlarge]
It's been a real saga!
The initial problem was, I must confess,
of my own making. Three years ago, when I began
setting up my last book (my first collection of verse) for
publication, I did so by way of a trusted and user-friendly
item of desk-top publishing software. Adobe PageMaker.
I had published about ten books using this software, over a
period of several years, without any hiccups.
Then the software manufacturers (Adobe)
discontinued their product, but I was able to use the
programme that had been downloaded years earlier to my
computer, and was then re-downloaded to all subsequent
computers until . . .
. . . I moved from Cornwall back to
London, downsized accommodation and had to rid myself of all
unwanted computer equipment. Alas, this included my
old Windows XP PC, which had been replaced by a Windows 7
laptop. In the process I lost access to my trusted
publishing software and have been trying to get to grips
with Adobe's latest software, InDesign. Much improved,
full of splendid features, and apparently much too
technically advanced for my feeble and aged brain.
I set up a template for the new book based
on the specification of the last one. It didn't work.
The Amazon publishing service CreateSpace discovered that
the printing dimensions did not correspond to the page
layout specification to which it had been produced.
The result was an incorrect layout on the pages of the book
and a reduction in the size of print that made it almost
illegible without a magnifying glass. I hastily
stopped any further books from being issued (fortunately
only a few had been sold) and I contacted the buyers and told
them I would replace them free of charge with correct copies
as soon as possible.
But it doesn't end there. I decided
to publish the book separately at my own expense in order to
give it as a gift to various people. I ordered 20
copies from Print-on-Demand - a self-publishing
organisation. They failed to point out any discrepancy
between the files I submitted for printing and the printed
copies, which turned out even more awful that the
CreateSpace product. So bad, in fact, that they were
suitable for nothing but pulping!
What's that expression about teaching an
old dog new tricks?
To the readers of this blog, may peace
and joy be with you
|
.JPG)
