A free woman in Dorset

The thing about so-called 'portfolio careers' is that, sometimes, an important document - which you've worked hard to produce - falls out of your metaphorical ring binder.

That's just happened to me - by choice - but it's still pretty strange not to be doing that particular job, which is one I've actually enjoyed very much.

Still, times change and we move with them, or risk being left behind.

So I hand in my keys and laptop and literally (yes, really literally) feel a weight lift from my shoulders, which is probably because I am always carrying said laptop in a tote bag over my right arm. At last, my posture comes back. I can walk again.

Onwards and upwards.

I go into WH Smith and get myself an academic diary (which runs from July 2017 to the end of August 2018) so I can turn over a new leaf. I want to start on a fresh page.

I shop in Waitrose for what probably will be the last time for a while and restrict myself to buying biodegradable dog poo bags and two lots of £1 pink grapefruit shower gel from their Essentials range. If nothing else, I'll be doing my bit for the environment when I take the dog out on the long march and smelling nice while we're walking.

In the alleyway outside, a girl with a guitar and a sweeter-than-sweet voice is strumming along nicely and sings the line 'you don't know what you've got till it's gone', sadly a song by the gravelly Cinderella and not my musical heroine Joni Mitchell.

Being one for signs and omens, the line could be a reference to the missing document in my portfolio ring binder or a challenge to get on and do what I can to keep them from paving paradise.

I turn back and give the busker a pound coin just to be on the safe side.

And then I get in the car and Simply Red are on the radio singing 'Holding Back The Years'. And I reckon my omen radar is way off beam and it's more to do with my taste in radio channels than a sign, because I don't want to go back there, no siree.

"The way I see it," he said, 
"You just can't win it

Everybody's in it for their own gain 

You can't please 'em all 

There's always somebody calling you down 

I do my best 

And I do good business 

There's a lot of people asking for my time 

They're trying to get ahead 

They're trying to be a good friend of mine."

There are storm clouds on the horizon but the sky's the limit.

That's about it.

Love Maddie x