Mixed Bag

A bit of a mixed bag for this post...

If you read my vilification of modern technology from last time you wouldn't believe I was an electronics engineer for thirty years, working on wide ranging projects from automotive engine management to fibre optic communications. Maybe I was in the wrong job all that time. Maybe I was just a terrible engineer.

It's not that I don't believe in progress it's just that we seem to have become dependent, even addicted, to our state-of-the-art gadgets and when they go wrong it screws up our lives completely. I resisted owning a mobile phone until I became an exam invigilator and sometimes found myself in need of support but unable to leave the classroom. When a colleague recently asked me to text her if I needed help I had to inform her that I didn't know how to perform such a task. I'll never forget the pitying look she gave me. I wasn't even sure if my cheap Tesco phone had that facility. I've since been assured that it does.

Other news:

I had a story in The Weekly News in June and another one appeared this week. People's Friend featured one of mine last week and I still have another one due in Take a Break Fiction Feast soon. Then there is the one for Yours magazine Yearbook due in a few months.

My friend Carol won Nottingham Writers' Spring short story comp which was judged by another fellow blogger Patsy Collins. I'm looking forward to reading Carol's winner in our quarterly magazine Scribe. My own effort came third.

I'm currently trying to keep up my work rate with the added distractions of Test Cricket and the Tour de France. I hope you are all managing to keep cool and carry on writing.