I've Been A Bit Busy

Well, folks, I find myself humbly apologising once more for neglecting my duties as regards this blog. I offer up no other excuse save the fact that I've been busy. It seems I am one of those people that never stops thinking or planning or creating, and that is compounded by my position as a person to whom shit continues to happen.

I live in a house where it is very difficult to find some space and time in which to privately think quietly and write solidly. I can go up to my laptop with the best of intentions and inevitably too much other stuff is occurring within earshot, and this distracts me. Not to mention the pitfalls of Facebook, Gmail and Angry birds that conspire to make me procrastinate. Usually by the time I get to the point where I say to myself "OK Jeff, time to get serious" I'm usually too tired to bother and end up saying to myself that I'll do it tomorrow. And it doesn't happen.

Also, many of you will know that my partner Laura just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Rosie. Spending time at the hospital does not allow one to do much blogwise, and right now Rosie is sitting in her bouncy seat nearby and making little pseudo-cranky baby grumpy noises, so I know that it is just a matter of time before I have to quit this and give her a bottle.

Transition Town Tenterden has been consuming much of my time and energy recently, as I have been trying to design a local food map to print out and hand out to people that stop by our booth on October 6th and 7th (Harvest Festival/Folk Fest weekend). I have redone this map about 7 times. I'm still not sure it's complete but I am not redoing it again (at least, not for a while).

I've also been busy moderating Tenterden Freegle.

Last but not least is work. Work is irritating because where I work it can be either feast or famine. Most evenings behind the bar are painfully slow. Occasionally I'll work a Friday night, which can be busy, or a function in the upstairs bar, which can be a nightmare of drunken young folks shouting "givvus six, no wait, seven, no wait, fourteen Jager Bombs mate and a pinta lager top!!" and people that come to the bar after we've called time and we're clearly cashing up, wanting a drink, then resort to attempted bribery when we tell them that the bar is closed. "Come on, I'll buy you a drink! I'll pay double for it!! C'mon gissa drink!"

So there you are. My life is not a dull and empty one for sure. I have a baby and a lovely woman and three lively boys and three idiotic mutts, a job with odd hours and unpredictable business, an environmental group that I spend time working on, a Yahoo group to run, lots of great ideas, and issues with laziness. So if I'm silent for weeks on end, please don't think for a second that it's because of something you did or said. I'm still here, and one of these days I'll be back on a more regular schedule.

NB: As I was typing the title to this post, my finger slipped on the last letter, causing me to hit two keys at once. It came out as I've Been A Bit Busty - and I considered keeping it like that for a moment.