The morning after

I met my friend J for our weekly walk at 9am. We hadn't seen each other for a couple of weeks as she had  been to Italy (lucky lady). We soon got into a good natter about recent events.

Everywhere was very damp from the previous day's thunderstorm and some of the paths that run down the hill had washed their surface mud and sand down into the crossing roads. It was a bit of a mess. There were even small areas of congealed hailstones that still hadn't thawed. And the morning had a damp hungover feel to it. The photograph shows a section of path covered with washed-down blossom; such a shame.

After a restorative cup of tea I set to, working my way though a morass of volunteering paperwork. I had a conversation earlier in the week with blipper Libra about volunteering https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/3102371070347316753 . Libra was asking what has happened to all the volunteers. Well now I know the answer - they drowned in a sea of forms - a long application form with searching questions, a 76 page manual on the volunteer's tasks, a 23 page manual on safeguarding, two forms for equalities monitoring with 17 categories for ethnicity and a set of data protection policies to read. All in all it took most of the afternoon with just an hour off for my creative writing group meeting to wade through the paperwork (second time reading the handbook). I understand how careful everyone has to be these days but I can also see that many volunteers will just say no.  Six o'clock I logged in to Zoom for a volunteering meeting. That went on until 8 and by then I was bushed.

Talking of bushed, I am still ploughing on with Spare. It's a really curious read. J. R. Moehringer, who ghost wrote the book, writes well. His style is engaging and readable but a lot of the time it doesn't sound like Harry speaking although I have just about got used to that now. The descriptions of Harry's time in the army and his many camping trips to Africa are interesting and insightful.

But I have been astonished at the amount of drug taking that gets described in the book. Not just an occasional spliff but cocaine and magic mushrooms too. And regular use, not just one off experiments. I fear he will regret being so forthcoming with the 'truth'. I have sympathy with the boy who lost his mother at a young age and the man who has suffered a lot of press intrusion but I have to say he did bring a lot of it on himself. No small wonder Carolus Rex looked so sad at his coronation. I am at the point where Harry has just met Megan... I may need a bucket