Long Time, no C(lue)
June 28, 2024 / K.I.S.
I am convinced some wise man (or woman) somewhere has probably already written a very profound phrase regarding the inconsistency of the passage of time. Sometimes it rushes like river rapids, smashing you about and battering you with all the needs and requirements of your life. Similarly, it can proceed at a leisurely pace, the equivalent of cruising down a sluggish serpentine stream with no cares impeding your sunny tour.
It is also famously bandied about that a person can be in the difficult position of being up a creek without the necessary tools to extricate themself – a universally applicable truth, I have found. My difficulty, however, lies in the clearly delineated nature of these waterway images… Can you be relaxed and mosey along slowly, whilst still being bombarded by a tsunami of bad luck, bad planning, and bad service?
If there is an appropriate metaphor for this scenario, I’d very much like it explained to me so I can utilise it to describe the past 2 months of my life. Maybe if I list the positives and negatives, I can decide whether very little or very much happened?
Because when someone asks me “how are things going?”, I am genuinely like a cat on a hot tin roof – do I say: “I constantly feel like I’m going to drown in the known and unknown things flowing my way”, or “Smooth sailing – I don’t know what I’m doing half (more!) of the time, but nothing’s sunk me so far.”? Too much and not enough has happened, simultaneously:
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| 1. Moved up to B1 level German after 3 months of learning from scratch (Afrikaans helps — though sometimes it hinders too). | 1. Waited over 6 weeks for money to be paid out of an investment account (should have taken 2 weeks). |
| 2. Wrote some chapters for Trials, though very behind on my writing schedule. | 2. Thought my visa was expiring 1 July and could not reach anyone at the foreign office for weeks — caused significant anxiety. |
| 3. Met many new people, made new friends, and have been socialising more. | 3. Paid for book marketing that turned out to be unprofessional and not what was promised. |
| 4. Have been reading consistently. | 4. Struggling to get the cover layout for Assays correct according to IngramSpark specifications. |
| 5. Have been posting on social media consistently (a big achievement for me). | 5. Accidentally messed up the Amazon page for Trials and cannot create a new one for pre-orders. |
| 6. Arranged potentially promising author and book-related marketing and promotions. |
6. Still working through my MA dissertation — earlier hopes of finishing months ago have not materialised. 7. On the last English textbook I was contracted to compile; no response from the company about extending the contract despite follow-ups. |
Not to put too fine a point on it, looking at this table convinces me that I’ve been more on the maelstrom side of the waters… And sadly, a lot of the issues in the negative column were caused and escalated beyond all proportion because I don’t like to rock the boat.
I don’t complain or nag when it comes to official or professional interactions (generally), because we all know you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. In this case, the flies just kept buzzing aimlessly, despite my more and more urgent requests. It’s very disheartening, to say the least. But, being the list-person I am (no guarantees as to how thoroughly I stick to these lists…), I’ve decided to deal with the most pressing matters as follows:
- Get my documents ready for my meeting with the foreign office next week (always a nerve-wracking experience, as all South Africans know);
- Apply for a job as an English tutor locally in Regensburg (thankfully my visa allows for some work hours) to keep the pot boiling;
- Get stuck in my MA dissertation and deal it its death blow once and for all;
- Keep scaling ‘Mount Trials‘ one chapter at a time – we’ll get to the end when we get there;
- Keep paddling up the deluginous “Fluss” that is the German language;
- Slowly but surely expand my know-how on self-publishing, especially on the promotions and marketing side of things.
I reckon, if I buckle down and commit to this very doable list for now, my ship will eventually come in, but failing that: at least I’ll keep my head above water for the time being. As Dory sang: “just keep swimming”, so here’s a water-related song from me 
