Welcome from cold south Wales. The above photo was taken while exploring Cardiff Docks in November. Living in a small town, I don’t often get the chance to do much urban exploring, but living in the hills has many positive aspects so I’m not grumbling.
Back in October, I lost my job at Volta Trucks. It was a shock but not surprising given the issues the company was having with money (the risk of a startup) Volta went into administration and looks to have found a new buyer, which is great for the concept of an electric HGV and a greener future.
But I have mixed feelings about how the whole thing was handled and having gone through many stages of grief, stress and anger, have moved on, managing to find and start a new job within a few weeks. Quite lucky really as it’s hard to find work over the Christmas period.
Which leads me to now. It’s the time of year when the country descends into winter. Memories of a warm summer slowly fade as the cold creeps into everything. Living in an old house has its many challenges, one being cold and condensation. It’s going to be an interesting few months but we’ve lived in worse over the years, and have plans on how to fix a lot of the problems next year.
The writing has been steady but sometimes I struggle to find the time to work on something and finish it off. I’m also finding I’m not growing the number of subscribers to the page. I get the odd follow via Substack but I do question the time it takes to polish off a piece of work versus the number of reads it gets.
I’m now off most social media, which doesn’t help. I deleted my Facebook account years ago, and Twitter sometime early last year, those both being big gateways to readers in the past. I have an Instagram presence but it’s not on my phone as I’ve found Reels is a big distraction. I had hopes for Threads but it looks like it’s going the same way as Twitter and Bluesky is just meh.
I feel like if my Substack is going to take off then it’s going to be organic and slow. All I can do is keep plodding on, writing about what I’m interested in and seeing how it goes. And YOU my dear reader, share anything you think worth sharing!!!!
Here’s a summary of the writing I’ve pushed out in the last few months.
writing | Run Repair Repeat - Why I started running and the impact it had on my body.
writing | Lesotho - A long read account on my time working as an expedition leader on a trip to Lesotho in Africa.
writing | I Have A Routine - A short bit of creative non-fiction about coffee and my morning routine.
music + words | Blue Lines - Thoughts on Massive Attacks debut album.
music + words | 1979 - How a song from Smashing Pumpkins enables time travel.
music + words | Patey - A sort of book review on the biography of Tom Patey.
vinyl | Pearl Jam : Vs - I received my vinyl reissue of Pearl Jam’s second album and thought I would give my reaction.
As ever, if you enjoy what I’ve written then please can I ask that you share where and when you can?
Thanks for taking the time to read and support.
Take care and until next time.
Paul x
Love reading your work. Congrats on finding a new job! Hope the winter isn't too tough in the old house, but I'm sure it'll be beautiful in the hills.
I'm finding it hard to grow, too, but I figure all I can do is keep showing up and hoping for the best. Not really sure sharing on Facebook or Instagram is helping either if it's any consolation. Fingers crossed more people stumble on in soon, though! Hope you keep sharing anyway.