Hooked

You know that feeling when you're reading a book that hooks you right from the start and you just want to keep reading it all the time and things like feeding children and going to work are mere distractions to get through as quickly as possible so you can get back to reading?  It happens all too rarely these days, maybe I need to pay more attention to the books I am choosing.  A Little Life and My Absolute Darling were the highlights of my 2017 reading but so far this year it was slim pickings until I came across Asking For It by Louise O'Neill. 

I flew through it, stopping only to throw the occasional after school apple to the kids.  It was brilliant and awful and terrifying all at once.  Forget Pride & Prejudice, Asking For It should be on the required reading list for secondary school students.  In this day and age, surely it's more important for young people to learn about consent than alliteration or pathetic fallacy.

The death of initiative

I am a practical person.  If I see something that needs doing I do it, without needing to be asked.  Common sense you might say.  I don't think of this as a particularly unusual personality trait.  Well I didn't until recently. 

In the last week I have encountered a staggering lack of initiative.  People complain about dealing with Millennials and their expectation that everything will be handed to them.  Well I can confirm that Generation X is more than happy to stand back and watch other people take care of the things that need doing too.     

When you have volunteered to help at an event, would you stand in front of an overflowing rubbish bag and do nothing about it?  Would you watch someone else come to deal with it and replace it with a new bag without offering to help?

When you raise the possibility of getting a small thank you present for someone and have even gone to the trouble of checking what he might like, would you buy a card and then ask what now?  What do you think now?  Buy the effing chocolates too and just let us know how much we owe you.

Figure it out.  Employ some common sense.  Use your initiative.  

I am well aware that I sound like a grumpy aul one and I will admit that it has been a busy few weeks and I'm tired so I am probably not being my best self today but I've also had a gutsful of pretty much always being one of the few people who are giving their time while the majority of people are happy to take without so much as a thank you.  

Volunteering is a verb, so by definition a doing word, something that requires action.  If you're not willing to do anything why even bother turning up?

Chancer

Is a half full glass a fool's errand or do I just focus on the fact that there is something in the glass at all?  

I've just applied for a job that I don't think I have much chance of getting.  It's a marketing, communications and events job and while I have plenty of events experience, I am sadly lacking in the other two departments.  I jumped back and forth between thinking I should apply and thinking it was a waste of time.  Then I thought well, it's only going to cost me my time to put in an application and sure if it's a no, then it's a no.  At least I can feel like I am doing something about the fact that I am bored out of my brain in my current job, even if it comes to nothing.

I have previously extolled the virtues of living in a small town but one definite disadvantage is that there isn't the same range of choice when it comes to finding a job.  There are jobs aplenty in hotels and while my current job does involve some exposure to the dreaded W word (weddings), I am holding firm in my refusal to work in hotels.  My other no no is sports events.  Not just because I have absolutely no interest in sport, it is also influenced by a stint volunteering for a sporting event and coming to the realisation that peeing al fresco is just not for me.

So I sent off my application with a healthy dose of que sera sera and we'll see what happens.

FOTA - Not just a wildlife park

Reduce, re-use, recycle is all well and good but there is a fine line between being an eco friendly upcycler and crossing over into hoarder territory.  The other week I experienced the vindication of finding a use for something I had been hanging on to because "it could come in handy some day".  Now we don't need to go into the details of how long it had been gathering dust for, the important thing is that it eventually got used.  

But let's be realistic, how often do we actually find a use for the random bits and bobs we hang on to?  If something sits in the back of a drawer for a year is it ever coming out again?  How many elastic bands is too many?  Is FOTA (fear of throwing away) a thing?  Am I going to end up on one of those programmes about people who hang on to arbitrary stuff and then have to crawl out their bathroom window as the rest of the house is full of things that "could come in handy some day"......??  

Sweaty Betty

I've never seen the appeal of running.  Unless you have a bus to catch or a serial killer to outrun, why would you bother?  When we had just started at school and I didn't know anyone, one of the Mums tried to convince me to join her running group.  At the time I was really lonely and desperate for some adult company but even that couldn't convince me that running is a good idea.  Now walking, that's a whole other kettle of fish.  Whether it’s a brisk trot or a sauntering stroll, I am a fan of a good walk.  You get a bit of exercise without getting all sweaty and you still have enough breath to have a chat.

In a break from my usual low-key exercise choices, I recently started going to Zumba classes.  The search for a new yoga class was proving unfruitful so I thought I would go for something a bit different.  Who knew that a seemingly normal human being could be so uncoordinated!!  I did much better with the music I recognised, as at least if I knew the beat was about to change I could figure out we were going to change sides but with the songs I didn't know, I was constantly two steps behind or waving the wrong arm like a big eejit.  Then I made the fatal mistake of looking in the mirror.  Never look in the mirror.  The mirror is not your friend.  The mirror dispels the illusion that you are sort of keeping up.  It shows you just how red and sweaty you are and confuses you when you try to copy the teacher.  My advice is to stick with watching her feet and hands in real life and focus on breathing through that stitch in your side.  The first few weeks I left a dripping sweaty mess, a situation not helped by the humid weather.  Now that the evenings are getting cooler and dare I say it, my stamina has improved a bit, things are a bit less gross at the end of class. 

How is it that when you are actively looking for something it is nowhere to be found and yet when you have given up, it pops up when you least expect it?  The universe is a tricky trickster sometimes.  Not one but two evening yoga classes appeared in my Facebook feed recently after months of nothing, so I've booked in to a Wednesday night class as I figured exercising two nights in a row would be a bridge too far for a couch potato like me.  Really looking forward to getting back on my mat, though I may need to knock the dust off it first.

The long and winding road

Regardless of how young you may feel, there are certain tell tale signs that you are getting older.  Maybe it's a bit more salt than pepper in your hair, maybe it's a few extra laughter lines round your eyes or pounds round your waist.  Sometimes the signs you are aging are not quite as visible.  Like when the time comes to have your first colonoscopy.  Yes the C word that no-one wants to think about, much less talk about.  Thankfully not a rite of passage that everyone will need to undertake but for those of us that do, it is something that is all too easy to put to the end of the to do list (and we all know that things down the end tend to never actually get done).  Let's face it, there are much more pleasant ways to spend an afternoon.  But rather than die of embarrassment, I made the decision to just get it over and done with and so yesterday I did.       

In my post procedure sedated state I decided that a colonoscopy is a bit like a wedding.  The preparation beforehand is the worst part, on the day itself you get to wear a special gown and when it's all over you are left feeling a bit deflated.

All clear and 5 years till my next recall - result!

You know that check up you keep meaning to book?  That test you need to schedule?  

Put yourself and your health to the top of your to do list and in words borrowed from a wise woman named Mary, JFDI - Just F***ing Do It!

I blame Pinterest

Anyone who has ever spent any time on Pinterest and clicked on the DIY and Easy tabs, will have come across a multitude of things that you just know are not going to be quick or easy to make and will in no way resemble the picture you just pinned.  And so the term Pinterest Fail was coined. 

While tidying up last weekend I came across several half finished craft projects.  Right I thought to myself, one of these is getting done today.  I chose the beach art project I came up with on holidays last year which technically hadn't even been started but I had everything I needed and I didn't feel like knitting (a blanket project that will probably be finished in time for me to be a little old lady with a blanket round her knees).

The result, while not quite a fail, did not live up to the image I had in my head.  But hey, I managed to finish something.  So I'm calling it a Pinterest Meh.  

(It's a spinifex beach grass wreath, for those of you too polite to ask but who are wondering "what the *$%# is that?".) 😊

Crafty Conundrums

I am not generally a rule breaker.  I don't live on the edge or colour outside the lines.  I like order and clean lines and tidying up (not to be mistaken with cleaning, I could live the rest of my life and happily not clean my house ever again because I would much rather pay someone else to do it for me).  

But an orderly life can be a boring life and sometimes I feel the need to veer off course and shake things up a bit.  Sometimes it's a little thing like hacking up a pizza any old way.  Other times it's bigger, like moving to a new country without knowing anyone (or speaking much of the language) or deciding to dye my hair blue.

Since coming back after my trip home at Christmas, I have been feeling restless and unsettled.  Like something needs to change or start or I dunno, just something.  A recent trip to the library saw me drawn to the craft section.  Maybe this is what I need to start doing?  I have always liked a bit of art & crafts but have come to the realisation that while I like and appreciate art, an artist I am most definitely not.  The local arts centre is running beginners art classes and the thought of it filled me with dread.  

So I am sticking with the crafts side of things.  Over the last few years I have done a variety of workshops - wire lantern making, origami, crochet, silver clay jewelry, glass art.  While they were all quite enjoyable, none of them really grabbed me by the throat and screamed "this is it, this is what you should be doing in your spare time" so it looks like further pondering is required.  In the meantime, I will have to content myself with crafting slightly askew pizza...