Saturday 30th November - Thank heavens for that

Calendar page for November with a miniature of a nobleman returning from a hunt, from the Golf Book (Book of Hours, Use of Rome), - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/11/a-calendar-page-for-november-2013.html#sthash.SSWQvaxE.dpuf

The LAST DAY of NOVEMBER

so don't expect any more DAILY posts for another year!

It's been a bit of a slog this time round with quite a few fails.

There have been phases in my life when I have kept a written diary - sometimes for as long as a couple of months. In the end, though, life, and time, and events overtake me, and the daily duty gets set aside in favour of more important things, like sleep.


Calendar page for November with a bas-de-page scene of men on a hunt, from the Golf Book (Book of Hours, Use of Rome), - See more at: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/11/a-calendar-page-for-november-2013.html#sthash.SSWQvaxE.dpuf

These diaries of mine are in various notebooks and journals scattered all over the house. I came across an old one recently - probably dating back to 2005-ish - I can't remember the details exactly. The thing is, so much happens, so much goes on, that within even just a couple of days I will have forgotten most of what happened last week or yesterday, or even this morning.

I have spent an intense day, today, working with a colleague teaching 30 children aged 8 to 11 years improvisation and composition skills. It's been a good time, and the children managed really well, especially considering that some of the younger ones had only been learning their instrument since September. I got home an hour and a half ago, sat and had a coffee and a biscuit, and already today is a distant memory, shoved to the back of the head as I am down for teaching Sunday School tomorrow and playing the organ at the early service and we still haven't done the weekly shopping and I must remember to fill the car with petrol and put a load in the washing machine and iron three shirts and pay my Barclaycard bill and do a zillion and one things before bedtime tonight.........

The good thing about keeping a diary, I mean the journal sort, not the appointment sort, is that you get a chance to go through the events of the day and remember what happened and take stock. The bad thing is when it becomes some kind of obsessive duty that takes over your life and limits your freedom to career through the day. You choose.