marathon performance

This morning I am writing whilst getting as close to running a marathon as I am ever going to get: watching it on TV. Yes, it is the London Marathon, that celebrated event when thousands of Brits chase a few black men all over London, but fail to catch them.
On Friday night we went to the launch of Richard Gwyn's new book, "The Vagabond's Breakfast", his "non-fiction novel", or autobiography if you will. It charts his travels in the eastern Med in the 80s, which saw his descent into life crippling alcoholism, and on into the 90s, where, a reformed character, but now carrying a shot liver, he seeks the replacement which will save his life. It is an astonishingly honest and revealing portrait of a richly talented, but fractured individual. After his readings, we repaired to his home to enjoy some tapas laid on by his wonderful, long-suffering, wife. Gathered there were the "fairly great" and "quite good" of this city's literary scene. Oh, how I long to be one of them one day!

Yesterday we travelled to Bristol to touch base with some old friends and to see a matinee performance of "The Comedy of Errors" at the Tobacco Factory Theatre. Shakespeare's tribute to the farces of Plautus, the play also seems to presage the likes of Beny Hill or "Are You Being Served?", packed as it is with puns and double-entendres. A solid production with credit to all those involved- great fun.

I contemplate work again tomorrow, with another opportunity to come to terms with my new reduced status as a mere salaried partner, being told what to do rather than calling all the shots myself. I am beginning to get used to it, and also relishing the much-reduced stress level that is the upside of my new situation. Now work feels more like a hobby than the never-ending drudge it was slowly transforming into in the last couple of years of full-time work. The key to all this is letting go, one of the hardest things humans are ever asked to do, but one of the most important in terms of developing any degree of peace of mind. And, albeit with agonising slowness, it is coming.