I remember adding up the number of houses and apartments I had lived in at that time, when I was around 30 years old. My father was a mechanical engineering, who worked on power plant construction. He rose to the position of site manager. As a family, we would move to a new place when a project was completed. Before I started my own travels, this was my life. I lived in the UK, Eastern Canada, Rhodesia and Central and Western Canada. It was 30 homes over the course of a year, or a ratio of 1 to 1. I added a few more countries to my original three “residences for 6 months or more” list, then got married in Georgia to start settling down. Thankfully, our frequency of moving has drastically decreased. It was enough, even though I am no longer young or single.
Moving has been part of my life for most of it, so it is not a big deal for me. However, certain things are worth examining. One is that I am a hoarder and a collector. This may be because I want to maintain continuity in my life, even if it means moving across continents. I also toss things that have served their purpose, or are technically redundant. For example, those bags of old computer cords which no longer connect anything. Old clothes that I haven’t worn in a few years. Even physical books! (At least those that I can replace with electronic versions!) The detritus accumulates and my wife insists on a purge. I agree.
Most of my writings are now gathered in one place. These are two short stories that I wrote in Rhodesia when I was seven and nine years old. They were heavily influenced by what I had already read, but they also reflect my own style. These were brought back from my last trip to Canada a few months ago. There are also decades of notebooks in different sizes, as I’m always writing something down with a pen or pencil. Newspaper articles for The Stony Plain Reporter, and later copies of my first set for Georgia Today.
One notebook that I will always cherish is one that my late father gave me: a small clip-open binder, to which you can add pages with hole-punched papers. The cover was made by my stepmother and him from leather, after the original had worn out. A slightly larger crocodile leather blank book that I bought second hand in Georgia. I intended to fill it with something special or valuable, but as yet it is waiting for its turn. This is the only book that has any real value, however small. I have a lot of pocket or A5 notebooks so that I am always prepared when inspiration strikes. Notes from my travels – especially the many trips I made to Svaneti, before I moved there late 2007. Notes on story ideas, fractal programming and photographs. Phone numbers, shopping lists, to-do lists. A flat titanium pen that can be used as a bookmark (a Kickstarter project that I supported) is inserted into a notebook for convenience.
I also occasionally make notes on my iPhone, but prefer the pocket-sized paper notebook. The inside cover is always inscribed with both my name and my email address in case it’s lost. Writer’s Block rarely seems to affect me. I am very grateful for that.
Stephen King is a prolific and successful writer who, in his book “On Writing”, says that to become a good writer or to improve one’s writing skills if you are already one, there are only two requirements: 1) Read a great deal. 2) Write a lot. This is the entire list. Since I’ve been doing this since my early schooldays I hope something will come out of my scribblings and my jottings down. It’s an important part of my life, even if I don’t have the brains to do it.
Tony Hanmer is a writer and photographer who has been working for GT since 2011. He has lived in Georgia and Svaneti, respectively, since 1999. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
Blog by Tony Hanmer
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