I am conscious that I particularly want to avoid talking about what’s going on outside my little bubble. Trying to comment on the political world in previous iterations of this blog just made things worse for me and my mental health. I am about to touch on things happening right now, but I do not plan to make it a habit.

Writing a blog regularly is hard. I’ve already written about it. It doesn’t get any easier as time goes on, because the small pool of ideas rapidly evaporates and I forget to replenish it. I have ideas, but they need time to set seed and germinate – and I have to remember to actually care for those seeds so I can harvest the fruit.

(I’ll stop that analogy right now. Sorry.)

The world is undergoing several types of massive convulsion. Not much is of a good kind. It is not easy to see a bright side, and I admit my mental health is taking yet another battering. I try to do the self-care thing, but it’s not easy.

How about, then, I write a bit about what’s going on here at Snaptophobic Towers? You may find it interesting, you may not. It’s my party and I’ll do what I want.

Life

My father died at the end of 2024. My Mum is coping well, with her siblings and my sister mucking in to help where they can. I’m a bit too far away to be of much use, unfortunately. I’d probably not be much use anyway.

The events have rather brought into sharper focus things that have been wandering around my head in a vague sort of way. Problems, caused by Dad being the one who “did the computer things” and not making cogent records of passwords and so on, have made me realise I should prepare a sort of “digital legacy” document. While being aware of the security implications of writing everything down somewhere, I really need to prepare something for my relatives so they can access my Mac, phone, tablet, online life, and so on, when the need arises. I might have a think about how to do that securely. I have an idea, but it involves more of that damned adulting.

I am not good at adulting.

I had a bit of good news the other week. I received a pension statement from a private pension I didn’t know about! Last year, I thought I’d sorted out the mess of private pension schemes, and discovered I wasn’t all that badly off if I wanted to start taking a small stipend. Now, that new pension pot has just had a further several tens of thousands of pounds added. I think I’m going to be financially okay when I am properly retired. I won’t be rich, but I will be able to pay the bills – I hope!

Home

Best Beloved is, frankly, not well. He’s been poorly for several years. He has many ailments, but they are currently under some sort of control. As I type, he’s actually doing pretty well. We both know, however, he won’t be around for ever – I mean, none of us will, but you know what I mean. Going away on adventures, holidays, visiting exhibitions and so on, well, that’s not an easy proposition any more. We can’t just pack a suitcase and hit the road. 

We’ve talked about what happens now, and it’s been decided we should seek a respite care home to look after Best Beloved while I get some time to myself. That self-care thing, you see? I need to look after myself so I can look after my husband. That is a priority in the coming weeks.

The house is in dire need of work. There are numerous jobs that need to be dealt with, indoors and out. I need to do some serious adulting to get that sorted out.

I am not good at adulting. I think I mentioned that.

The car is also in need of some TLC. It’s mechanically sound, but some of the electrical systems are starting to fail, and it is looking particularly shabby. I’m not that bothered about the appearance, but I do need to get the electrical bobbins fixed – which is becoming something of a task for a car made in 2008.

Hobbies

Sadly, with Best Beloved’s health situation and everything, several of our hobbies have been shelved. Model railways, for example, is no longer a keen focus for either of us. I’m not particularly bothered by that. I am bothered by the fact I need to decide what we do with all the stuff we accrued over the years to support that hobby. Most of it is now utterly worthless, and we disposed of the best bits some years ago. I suspect I will be making several trips to the local recycling centre with a fully-laden car.

I need to do a recycling run soon. Lots of dead electronics need to be encouraged on to Silicon Heaven.

Speaking of silicon, my new Mac has settled in. Oh, didn’t I mention it before? I got a new Mac in November last year, an Apple M4 Mac mini. I still need to sort out external storage, and I’d quite like to invest in a higher resolution screen, but for now it’s all happiness and joy. Even my aged Wacom tablet is working well. I’ve got ideas for some creative things, like some form of zine and a new web site, but they’re currently taking a good while to migrate from the “I’d like to do that” to “I’m actually doing that” stages. It’s a problem of making, photographing, writing and so on. Chicken and egg, as it were.

Then there are my own interests. I seriously considered disposing of my Big Camera and associated gear a while ago. It’s not worth much now, frankly, so I’ll keep it. Lenses, lighting, tripods and other ancillaries are stored in a cupboard, so they’re not in the way. The worry, really, is consumables. My SLR uses CF cards, and they’re getting a bit scarce. I think it would be wise to invest in a few new ones while they’re still available. That will see me out, anyway.

Trips out, even to the local places I frequented in the past, are currently not happening. I can’t really leave Best Beloved to his own devices for more than an hour, and most adventures to the Medway estuary take three or four hours, sometimes more.

I’ve been taking photographs since my late teens, so I’ve got quite a lot of negatives and prints stored away. A very long term plan is to sort everything out, store the negs in proper folders, ditch the prints, and begin to digitise the best stuff. My scanner is sitting there, patiently, waiting for the call. I just need the time… 

Audio is another hobby currently in abeyance. I have a dream that involves digitising my record collection. I don’t need to do all of it, just the bits that I haven’t already replaced by CDs or downloads. The problem with this dream is I haven’t anywhere to set up the turntable where it’s close to a computer, or vice versa. Occasionally, I toy with the idea of buying a new turntable, one of those fancy ones with USB and Bluetooth built in, but the problem of where to put it still arises, let alone finding the time. This dream may remain just that.

My 1940 obsession is my main focus as far as hobbies are concerned. When I finally retire (later this year would be nice), I’ll be able to devote more guilt-free time on building plastic planes. Let’s not think about displaying or storing the finished models right now. I am writing an ongoing series of articles about the models I’m making, and they are being published in the IPMS UK magazine. Apparently, my wittering is much appreciated, too. That’s nice.

Conclusion

So, that’s the “state of the nation” here at Snaptophobic Towers so far for 2025, and it’s only a month in. There’s plenty to keep me gainfully occupied for the coming year and beyond. All we need to do is make sure the civilised world doesn’t collapse before I’ve finished.