Secret Diary Club: On the Road
The power of a single word entry in a guest book, a rant at a union, and 5 years ago in the Pennines.
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Welcome to the Secret Diary Club!
This week’s three behind-the-scenes entries are focused chiefly on travelling. Two are from the last week; light-hearted experiences with friends balanced against the increasing tensions as pressures build up prior to my return to the UK. A little rant against the University and College Union, as I receive another slice of bad news. Substack comes up in both of the recent entries: why there was no Friday post this week for the first time since the end of March, and why it is becoming increasingly important to my viability as a writer. From archives I searched for the word ‘travel’ and found an entry that suggests to me that my experience now is hardly unique: I am never really fully on holiday. It includes some heartening light observations on humanity from the Pennines, and a brief comment on social media.
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Now grab a coffee, a herbal tea, or a proper British cuppa, and have a nose!
Saturday 29th June 2024
[Extract]
Context: We are coming to the end of three weeks of travelling, first in Holland, then in France (we being me, my husband Paul, and our 14-year-old lurcher, Zebedee). An usually long stint away from my desk, for me, and the pressures that face me on my return are building. M is my daughter. Ch is a long-time friend who lives in New Zealand but rented a house in the South of France, inviting us and other friends of his to join him. Also his 23-year-old son and his son’s friends from Birmingham (the ‘young men’ mentioned). C and S are new friends we met at the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship conference in New Orleans. We are travelling in a Saab convertible, hence the ‘up and down’ roof reference.