22. ( Mic drop )
20 April 2026
Didn’t expect to be back so soon, but here we are.
I’d been umming and ahhing about the photo memoir idea for ages. If I still worked in advertising I’d explain my faffing around as refining the offer.
Shit scared was the real reason. Any time you put a stake in the ground it could easily go through your foot.
It wasn’t failure that frightened me. We were old friends. It was success. We’d only ever passed each other in the hall.
Geoff, who is sharp as creases and a huge cheerleader, reckoned I was onto something plausible. This was another problem.
Implausibility is a great safe hiding place. There’s lots of nooks and crannies where you can’t be seen. Implausible allows you to give something a good college try, and when you fail, you can claim victory for giving it a go.
Plausible was new to me.
It’s good to try new things. That’s what I’m told.
Not like Kale or Oysters though. Especially not like Kale. Don't try that. It’s the devil’s playlunch.
But plausible. I could give plausible a crack.
I had to.
The photo memoir idea uses words and pictures to capture very personal moments in life that matter. A graduation, retirement, a birthday that ends in a five or a zero. That sort of thing.
Lots of photographers capture these moments well. So does the iPhone.
But none of them write.
Then there’s milestones. They go a little deeper to document a significant life event. A career change. A break up. A failure. A diagnosis. The big stuff. The messy stuff.
The stuff where you don’t wear white because the stains mightn't come out.
Milestone memoirs aren't for the faint of heart. They won’t be an easy sale. They’re for people who want the story told regardless.
They’re stories that need telling honestly but kindly, so they can be remembered accurately.
Stories written from the middle, told in much the same way I’m telling mine.
All of this was just an idea. Still safely in my head. Before I could do anything, I had to come out of hiding. I needed to tell you.
I was up at 5.14.
See? New things.
I read the website copy one last time. Maybe two last times. If you make 144 revisions 146 won’t hurt. Did the payment system work? It did. On the 147th, I tweaked the bit about travel expenses. On the 148th go I double checked the privacy statement.
Details are where the devil waits. Quietly eating her playlunch.
There was literally nothing left to faff over. Fuck. Unfortunately we were good to go.
I’d post at 7.30, since you all seem to be up by then and looking for something to read.
I made a coffee. I took off my implausibility cloak and put it on the chair.
A tui landed right outside my window and was nattering away - everyone wanted to tell a story this morning.
Naked, I looked for matches.
7.32. I lit the fuse.