Every man needs a shed, everyone needs a sewing room. I don’t mean a physical place in which a man can tinker with motorbikes while his wife exercises her artistic abilities. I mean a place where each can go to be alone and recharge their batteries. I can imagine many loving mothers would be thankful for an hour of peace and quiet.

I’m not talking about having a physical space of one’s own, very few can afford that and I’m one of the lucky ones. I set up a virtual shed with a secondary account on Twitter, a place to retreat to if things were getting me down while still maintaining my primary account for campaigning (an account with less than 100 followers is useless for campaigning when my other account has 25.6k).

I’ve opened up the shed recently but I may close it again. I want to keep it as a politics free zone until such time as Twitter decides to terminate my account, something that’s happened to several comrades! It’s a form of insurance if you like, like being evicted from one’s home and having to live in the shed.

I’m using a metaphor but for many comrades it’s a reality! It has been for me. We all need somewhere to escape to mentally if not physically. I’ll give you a personal example?

I’d just returned from Australia and was living with my mother who treated me like a child although I was 50yrs old. She cornered me in her conservatory once and started haranguing me. That’s when the fight or flight mechanism kicked in.

Fight was out of the question, you don’t hit your mother whatever the provocation.

Flight was impossible, it would’ve meant using my body to smash through two layers of plate glass.

I was hyperventilating at the end of it took myself off to the place I would always choose if I want to be alone.

I’m alone now anyway, quite reclusive in fact. I rarely go out and my main contact with the outside world is via Twitter. It hurts me more than you can imagine when an old friend blocks me or simply disappears of my radar.

I’ve had a few good friends that I fear are deceased, but I don’t know! I’ld prefer to know the worst than be left in doubt. I’m making sure that doesn’t happen in my case, I have friends who will keep you informed.

To end on a more positive note, I was well enough yesterday to do a bit of cleaning while allowing iPad to recharge. I think I may have overdosed on my medicine, vodka at present 😅