Hello, Finningley!


For the past two weeks we’ve been moving house (again!), and now we’re in the village of Finningley, which used to be in Nottinghamshire but is now in South Yorkshire. It’s amazing how borders can change like that.

There’s an airfield here that used to be RAF Finningley and for 35 years the airfield hosted a famous air show. During the Second World War, Finningley was briefly associated with RAF Bomber Command where the air crews finished their combat training.

On my first walk up to the duck pond today with the dog, I was surprised, but shouldn’t have been, to see this notice outside the parish church. Of course there will be Commonwealth war graves here, and for someone who does a lot of work for a military publisher, what a great place to live!

Today, then, is my first day back at work. I’ve had nearly 3 weeks off and I need to get back into a routine. I heard from my Greek client at the weekend to see when I’m available for work, but I also have plenty of other work to be getting on with.

First thing every day, after breakfast, is the dog-walk. I really need to get back into this. We couldn’t take the dog out very often during lockdown due to hundreds of people not adhering to social distancing. And then when we could take him out regularly, we started to house-hunt instead.

I’m starting with the 1 mile walk to the duck pond and back. My ankles killed for most of the way there (it was only half-a-mile!), but they were fine coming back. I think the walk to the duck pond is slightly uphill. I took a few photographs this morning, but the weather was drizzly and the pictures aren’t great. So I’ll keep on trying with those too, until I get them right.

The dog-walk, along with having stairs again (we’ve moved from a bungalow to a house this time), will hopefully help improve my fitness levels too, as well as help me lose weight.

Monday to Thursday mornings will then be “my work” with “client work” after dinner. On Fridays, because the Greek client is 2 hours ahead of us and usually waiting for me to return the work before he knocks off for the week, I’ll turn that on its head.

I have plenty of “my work” to keep me busy, starting with the diary for this week and my new month spreadsheets.

Then I have The Life of Richard Cadbury still to proofread, as I ran out of time before we moved and I think we’re still awaiting the foreword. I have a Catch the Rainbow draft still to finish and the first draft of The Fool to complete. And I have 52 Books in 52 Weeks and Diary of a Pussycat to finalise.

These are the jobs that need updating on my 10-project planner.

This afternoon I want to catch up with the jobs board and hide all jobs that are older than a few days, and I want to have a quick look at the jobs that are in from the editing agency, to see if any of those take my fancy. If a job comes in off the Greek client, then I’ll be formatting that and printing it off to work on.

I’m reading a book for NetGalley, which I’m really enjoying. I’m trying to alternate a NetGalley book with a book from my own library, and then I’m alternating a NetGalley book I’ve had for a while with one I’ve just been awarded. The one I’m reading right now is an old one.

So that’s the plan. Let’s see how the week unfolds …