We have to ask ourselves, am I where I want to be? Is my life following the path I want it to follow? If the answer is yes, well done, if the answer is no, then what can you do to get back on track?

I'm happily married, I have a lovely wife who I love to bits and I wouldnt change that for anything, but when I was young I never saw myself getting to the stage where money would be so tight that I couldnt pay off my credit card, or stay out of my overdrafdt come the end of the month.

The problem is, as I guess is the same for mny people I didnt make enough of an effert at school. I thought it was all a waist of time, was more interested in watching TV and playing on my Comdodore 64!!! If i knew then what I know now then perhaps I would have payed a little more attention in class.

As it was, i left school at 16 with no qualifications to speak of, and spent the next fifteen years of my life on minimum wage.

Eight years ago my Dad opened his art and craft shop and I went to work for him, but alas things didnt work out for the best, and business was slow, all we did was scrape by, mostly just about keeping even but never getting into profit.

Then things got worse, Marks and Spencer moved out of town to a big retail store about half a mile out of town. BHS, Matalan, River Island, TK Max, Dorethy Perkins. Burtons, WH Smith,Superdrug, Boots and most of the big chains opened here too, leaving just the small specialist type shops in the centre.

Now the council are working on a 25 year renaissance, which will bring river side cafes, theatres and bars to town. To make way for this, they closed down two car parks to build flats on, and turfed 25 shops out of their council owned units, forcing them all to close down.

Now, Rotherham town consists of a handfull of about 10 shops, (one of which is us but with takings now down by at least %50, and neither my self, my dad or my sister having had even minimm wage for the past eight months we may soon have to pack up), at least 8 charity shops, seven banks, numerous pubs and take aways, and at least 6 mobile phone shops.

Parking has gone up to extortionate rates, and with so few shops for people to visit, and Parkgate retail world and Meadowhall shopping centre both less than a mile away, both offering free parking all day, and all the high strrt chains there Rotherham seems to be ringing it's final death toll.

So, I have to start thinking ahead, deciding what path I want to follow next. Do I stay in retail, or go back to care work as I did for the fifteen years before we opened the shop?

What I would like to do is write, that is my dream job, to carve a living as a script writer. But, the competition for this is emence so i guess that will only ever be a pipe dream

I'll stop now before I send you all to sleep. :.