By James Mustoe

Blackmail & Audiobooks

It’s been a toss up deciding between working right up until the first day of SCA or quitting my job early. The job I was doing left very little time for me to focus on anything SCA related or anything at all, and I’d probably fall short of what I need to get done before the start of term 1. Quitting earlier than planned gives me a bit more time to come out of ‘work mode’ and plough into the reading list proper and other bits n bobs required.

My girlfriend’s voice was on loop and ringing in my ears, ‘what’s more important?’ She was right, I’d been doing a job for the last year I don’t care about in any way and I needed to focus my attention in the direction of SCA. So I decided to quit my job. OK I’d have a week or so less money but I needed the time to work through my to do list which has been looming. 

Thinking I’d have long, uninterrupted and peaceful days of reading books and working away on my ‘This Is Me’ project has been a far cry from actual goings on.
It began with the washing machine deciding to leak all over the kitchen and hall floor. We couldn’t find the same flooring to match what was there originally as it’s so old, so needed to redo the flooring in the whole flat! (thankfully it’s London and the place is tiny) 5 days of noise, dust and learning to fit a new washing machine later it was all done.

As I was now going to be home all day I was tasked with walking the dog. Walk the dog a few times a day, how hard can that be? I didn’t realise how emotionally blackmailing the stare of a king charles spaniel can be. I could take him on an hour or two walk with his favourite pink tennis ball and we’d get back and he’d look at me as if to say ‘we’ve been in all day, when are we going for a walk?’.

Now with the shackles of my job well and truly discarded and the extra freedom, finding moments to read and actually absorb what I’m reading is still proving to be quite difficult. Someone mentioned trying audiobooks so I looked into it. After downloading my first audiobook and giving it a listen, I liked it! Although it took a while to get used to, the benefits were apparent. My hands were now free, I didn’t have to sit down in one place I could move and do others things, all the while being read a kind of serious bedtime story.