Schrodinger’s retirement

 

I have wondered in the past about whether I am ready to retire. Now it’s starting to feel as if I don’t have a choice. 

Officially I am still working. I update my business website every month. I sometimes post about work-related things on my social media (although I’m more likely these days to be posting about books and music). And I still go on LinkedIn, although I hate it.

And one day last week I went on LinkedIn and in just a few minutes I saw an ex colleague who’s been out of work for six months and is desperate for a job, and three freelances advertising their “availability”.

I have “availability” too. In the past everyone was embarrassed to admit it, because there was a stigma about not being successful. But when it’s happening to everyone, it has to be said.

I’ve been freelance, this time round, for over 12 years and I’ve always assumed I could continue for as long as I wanted. But maybe that’s no longer true.

Atypical Girl playlist: part 1

You can't just read a book about music: you have to listen to it, too.

My memoir Atypical Girl is in four parts so I've just made four playlists to go with it. Here's number one: the (partial) soundtrack to my life from 1976 to 1980. I hope you enjoy it. 

Book review: Teenage Daydream

In March 1980, the NME carried a major cover feature about “Women in Rock”. Dolly Mixture were not interviewed or photographed but they did appear – cited as an example of what not to do. Their “cutesy” image wasn’t considered feminist.

In fact, as bassist Debsey Wykes’s memoir Teenage Daydream makes clear, the all-girl trio (Debsey, Rachel Bor and Hester Smith) were as authentic as any indie rockers. They looked young and naive because they were young and naive. After all, the three friends were only teenagers when they formed the band in 1978, and still in their early twenties when it stopped (they never officially broke up).