Failure Chronicles Vol I Fall, wallow, stagger up: A story of Food, French and Music

Most "success" stories have a similar arc. Storyteller has a realisation that something has to change. He/she tries to change. They meet some first small success, then failure. Then they try something else. Fast forward months or weeks and hey presto, they have hit their goal. Those intervening months/weeks/years are glossed over. In this memoir, I'm going to take you through those months, the scrambling forward, the small successes, the repeating plateaus, of how progress happens by showing up, not showing up, of keeping going when it's boring and feels pointless and how sometimes despite one's best efforts, things don't turn out as we wanted but somehow that actually becomes OK. It's a story of how sometimes looking out a window can ease the bite of a failure, of how facing up to one's own limitations can have a sweet sadness to it. It's how learning that sometimes pastimes and efforts have an intrinsic value - even if they don't lead to "success" as we know it. It's about recognising that it's OK to follow the whimsies of our own souls even if no one else cares. This book explores what happens when you look to change your relationship with food. It explores what it's like to fall in love with a musical instrument and to try learning it when you don't know anyone else who plays it or how to learn it.