What to say?

I leave Oxford in three days’ time to return to London. Back to work, back to real life. The novel will continue but I will have a lot of other stuff going on, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

I will be close to the river in London, which I am very glad about. In fact it is the same river I am living next to now. Wider and browner and named differently, but the same water molecules. I walked up the towpath earlier to collect my kayak from the club shed and paddled back down to the house, ready for the move.

I feel like a child who is about to have to go back to school after a long summer of freedom. Autumn is on the wind, and with it responsibility and the unfortunate demands of reality. I have bills to pay and bits to buy for my poor ailing bicycle.

Oxford will still be here though. And summer will be back.

Isis: the Egyptian goddess worshipped as the ideal mother and wife; patroness of nature and magic; friend of slaves,
sinners, artisans and the downtrodden; protector of the dead. But we could just call it the Thames.