Going Uphill but Still Going

 Hello Everyone, yes, I know it's been way too long since I last wrote to you but in my defence, things at chez Turner have not been going especially well. But before I bore you with the details, I hope your lives are filled with reasons to smile and you're awash with positivity. Oh, and before I forget, those of you who were kind enough to get in touch, I have replied to all your thoughts and questions now, so check those inboxes. Obviously, I'm not suggesting what you'll find there will be especially profound, but it could be potentially entertaining. With all of that said, I can now take a breath and explain what's been happening here...

Firstly, unfortunately my health has not been the best, I was prescribed some meds and told to implement some drastic changes to my diet which I have done. At the moment, although I'm assured it's all doing me good, I seem to have all the energy of a sleepy sloth but I'm hoping this is just a 'getting used to it' period and I'll soon be back to some kind of normal.

I've also been hard at work putting the finishing touches to the new book which will be released slightly earlier than I'd originally intended for reasons way too long to go into here but suffice to say, it's obviously for the best. Thankfully, 'Barefoot on the Grass' is still doing well so maybe readers will be inspired to try another of my books- we can but hope! I have been extraordinarily blessed to be surrounded by a very supportive group so fingers crossed, 'Turn Into Stars' will be a story that they enjoy and recommend to others.

Away from all that, like nearly everyone in the UK, there's no escaping the current cost of living crisis has not made day-to-day life particularly easy. Naturally, we are getting all kinds of 'useful' advice as to how best to cope, my personal favourite came from the energy companies who told us to save money by not switching anything on at all. Now, when you consider we are rapidly heading into Winter, the idea of having no heating, no lights and no hot food doesn't seem like a recipe for maintaining health and wellbeing - but as they're the experts, obviously they know best. Although I do have to question the reliability of the advice when the CEOs of the afore-mentioned energy companies are all unbelievably wealthy, including one who offered his thoughts from his luxury villa in Spain.

It seems very hard to believe, that in an apparently rich country, there will be countless people who will not be able to afford the most basic necessities. Families who will be forced to choose between feeding their children or having the lights on and older people reduced to spending the Winter in one room as they can't afford to heat their whole home. But it's not just the UK where ordinary people like us are facing tough times, it seems it's a global problem which is only getting worse. Only yesterday, I watched a harrowing documentary about the housing crisis in parts of Australia, where working families are reduced to living in tents as the rental costs have spiralled so high. Ironically, the programme focused on an area where wealthy people go on holiday, so the town is full of niche shops, artisan bakeries, numerous bars and restaurants. I was left wondering if any of the clientele of these establishments realised that a fair percentage of the people working in these places, went home to a tent or slept in a car, at the end of their day. One young mother with two small children would have been homeless if her boss, a motel owner, had not offered her a room which was obviously not designed to house a family but did mean they could sleep safely. Also, there are numerous cities in the USA where there's a chronic lack of social housing, mental health support and families living in grinding poverty. But while all this is happening to the majority of people, there are still those few with unimaginable wealth who do absolutely nothing to help and instead pour a fortune into having the biggest superyacht or building a rocket so they can pointlessly orbit the earth a couple of times. It's more than unfortunate, with all that money, they still seem completely unable to buy themselves a social conscience.

But as always, despite the hardships we are all facing, there are still reasons to keep going and I genuinely believe, if we can keep putting one foot in front of the other, we are moving which is infinitely preferable to staying stuck. There have been so many instances of communities pulling together to help each other, neighbours going out of their way to check on the more vulnerable and people staying connected through social media, offering a listening ear and supportive advice. I think we can agree, the real quality of any nation has nothing to do with who happens to be the leader and all about the goodwill and care of the law-abiding population. I do believe that just like good times can't last forever, bad times are the same, so if we can keep going, we will come out of this slump and start to feel more positive again about the future. I'm sure there's a saying about the only constant in life is that change will happen, so let's hope it's one for the better.

Anyway, that's probably more than enough from me, so please look after yourselves, try not to lose hope and as always,

Take very good care out there xxxx