Seems my little holiday turned out to be much longer than I had expected! When I took a sabbatical from Music Banter I said I didn't know whether I would need weeks, a month or more. In th end, it was more. Much more. Reckon it's about six months now since I trod these streets --- oops! Checking that out it's actually only just over three. Felt like six though! --- but I did need the break: I had explained that I felt tired and burned-out, overstressed and overworked, and was losing, or had lost, my incentive, inspiration and passion for my journal. So I stepped back for a while, to recharge my batteries, which were almost in the last vestiges of red, about to shut me down automatically.
For the first week or two I did nothing music-related. I wrote nothing, listened to only a little music, planned nothing. I did other stuff. But you can't keep a good journal author down, and soon I was listening to music and watching TV with ideas forming already. Even though I knew I was not yet anywhere near ready to go back, I was formulating reviews. When I listened to an album, I was thinking about how or if I would write it up, when I watched a telly programme or movie I was considering including it in The Couch Potato. It wasn't long, therefore, before against all my own intentions I began writing again. I guess, as the caption says, it's in the blood. You either enjoy doing this or you don't, and if you do, you find it really (and I mean really) hard to stop.
Though this time I could write without the added pressure of a) having to meet self-imposed deadlines and b) dealing with other MB-related material. It was quite liberating: I was able to write what I wanted, when I wanted, and stop when I needed to. I had no eye on the clock, or calendar. As a result, I got quite a lot done. I was, in truth, planning to return around June, then July, but kept putting it off. Why? I just felt that once I stepped back into that grind I would be caught up in it all again, feel I had to meet targets and the pure enjoyment and pleasure of writing would be lost in the maelstrom of updates, posts and threads. And yet, there was no point in writing all this stuff and not posting it.
And then there was Metal Month.
I had already announced that last year's special on Heavy Metal, which ran from October 1 to October 31, was going to be an annual thing, and if I intended to stick to that then I needed to be back at the very latest for that. But I didn't want to leave it so tight. Metal Month was great fun, but the lead-up to it last year was almost as much fun, and I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to signpost it. I'm writing for it now, and it should be, as the kids say (do they still say it?) epic.
So I've decided to come back soon. Not quite yet: I still have work to do. But I'll definitely be back before you know it. There will be a few changes in my journals: I'm going to be doing less in-depth album reviews than I did previously (well, that's the plan anyway!) and I will no longer be using YouTube videos in those reviews. Basically, I feel that if my writing doesn't get across to you how I feel about the album, there's little point in using a video to illustrate my points. And anyway, anyone who really wants to check the artiste out can do so easily.
Thanks to those who contacted me outside of the forum, and to those who “checked up on me”, especially Unknown Soldier and Janszoon, and of course both my equally lovely Jesses. Thanks as well to all who posted comments and messages of support here; it's really appreciated. (No Batlord, it's not gay...) I've had a good break and I'm ready to dive back in, so watch for me on the road, because one of these days very soon you'll see pale yellow headlights approaching over the hill, and the night air will be broken by the erratic honking of a battered old Ford Model T, signalling the return home of Trollheart... and I can't even drive!
