Plan/Scheme

So... I've been a boring, repetitive, dull person for the last few... years probably.

This is going to change.

I have figured out (it has dawned on me) that when I am bored, I am tired. When I am tired, I do nothing. When I do nothing I get bored... so you see a viscous (not sure of the spelling between the word that means nasty and the word that means goo-ey, so I hope that's right.) anyway... a viscous circle occurs.

Basically, I reckon if I'm not bored then the rest will not happen. We shall see.

My plan is to do new things and keep busy. So... I am going to attempt to do something new every day.

Not always big things, might be something like:
try a new recipe
listen to a band I've not heard before
Start reading a new book

Or, it might be bigger things, like:
Try a new restaurant,
Do a new sport
Join a class or workshop

I don't know... suggestions would be gratefully received.

In doing this, I'm pretty sure I'll make mistakes and do things wrong and probably make a tit out of myself. But what's the point in doing nothing just to avoid doing stuff wrong?!

I've been miserable and pathetic, I'm getting divorced and have mental health problems. I doubt that watching a film on my own, trying avocado or trying out Kickboxing is really going to do me that much harm. In fact, it might just do me good. Unless I'm allergic to avocado.

Positivity is nice.

Exciting Purchases

I went to the Blindlemon Vintage Fair today to pedal my wares. Sold a few bits and bobs and my new resin and line drawing pendants went down well! 

I bought some exciting things! 

 A book of 1812 fashions, it's lovely! Some nice handkerchiefs and embroidery patches and three pretty jars with vintage buttons in!

 Purple Buttons

 Blue and black buttons

 White buttons!

Jars of buttons!

So much fun! I'll enjoy using these in future creations!

xx

Happy Stuff!

So, life might pile shit on you from time to time, but then (every so often) it reimburses you with good stuff! The balance of the universe etc.

So...

1. DLA payment came through, which takes the pressure off financially for a while!
2. Student finance have agreed that I'm entitled to the full Adult Learner's Grant, which means I'll be able to afford my course books and travel to college and placement!
3. I won third prize in a local competition for one of my photographs and for a card. Which makes me feel very proud of myself.
4. The gallery where I sell some of my jewellery have requested more items! Yay!
5. My idiot of a husband has agreed to sign the divorce papers.

There are lots of other marvellous things, but those are just the big ones at the moment! Sometimes it feels very good to come through difficult things and reap the rewards. We just have to keep plodding on, because eventually good stuff will happen.

Plans for today: eat my curry for breakfast/lunch, go to college with my passport so they can sort my CRB, get leaves and stuff for Brownies later on. Sorted!

It's looking up!

So, hello! 

I'm feeling very awesome, virtuous, accomplished and wise today. I shall explain: 

Awesome - I'm happy, and generally feeling pretty good about life.

Virtuous - I've done all the things I was meant to do today.

Accomplished - I dealt with a blocked drain (turns out grass is not so good for drains... and that rubber gloves are the key!) 

Wise - I'm watching Horizon which is about Nuclear Power and I am apparently not as stupid as I think I am... this is good. 

Can you be very awesome? Or is awesome already so good that you can't be any better than it? 

Things I have learnt today: 

Having a little giggle with someone who is trying to do a very boring job makes both of you feel a bit better about things (the lady on the phone from the Business Decisions Centre department from JobCentre who has to ask boring questions to frustrated people all day long was amused that I can't read my own handwriting and that I blamed it on the fact that my dad is a G.P.) 

Big things are much easier when done in small doses, for example tidying up the piles of rubbish all over my house. Thanks to my mother encouraging me on the phone I now have a clear(ish) living room floor and a clear staircase so I'm much less likely to break my neck in the night. 

Turn off the goddamn oven!!!!! This is the third time I've done it and it is NOT good enough to think 'oh the kitchen is very hot... oh... the oven is on.' Next time it may well set the house alight, and we do not want this! Post-it note on the fridge methinks. (on the plus side, I'm clearly not paranoid... in that I obviously don't check whether my oven is turned off and nor do I panic about it when I'm out. Although, I may start....)

A fact I learnt today:

Elephants cry saltwater tears just like humans. I think this is really sad. I don't like thinking of animals experiencing the sad parts of life in the same way we do, like losing a family member... elephants grieve. I think it's distressing. But also, they experience the positive emotions, like love and joy, which they demonstrate when family members meet again after time apart, they touch tusks and they wrap their trunks around one another, like giving each other a hug. It's good to know that animals experience love in this way. 

There you go! 

xx

Plans and so forth

Plans take various forms, there are plans of things you want to do with your life, there are evil schemes and plots and things which most of us would never actually carry out but it's often nice to fantasise about. There are the bonkers plans which start life as a flippant suggestion and end up being a really good idea... like a new year's BBQ for example, Laura! 


So today I am supposed to be typing up the plan for the term of Brownies, planning my route to college tomorrow, tidying my house and generally being virtuous. Instead... I am watching Jane Eyre, in my pjs while drinking tea and eating bara brith. Naughty naughty. 


Yesterday I went to the St Fagans Food Festival and had a fun walk around attempting to speak Welsh (badly). We decided it was fine to point at people and saying the colour of their tops is fine (blue - glas, etc) as long as we didn't point at anyone in red. Since the Welsh for red is Coch, pronounced with a hard c sound at the end, as they may not know we were speaking Welsh and therefore might think we were calling them something rude, or casting aspersions on their character! 


I bought fudge, bara brith, and a bottle of elderflower cordial, and a card which says "Gan Bwyll A Daliwch Ati" - Keep Calm and Carry On. Marvellous. 


Plans for the week then: College tomorrow, Craft club tomorrow evening. Brownies on Tuesday, Self-Help Group on Thursday, college on Friday and then going to see my mother for her birthday which is on Friday, during this visit I will also see my oldest friend Charlotte and visit her new house! 


A quotation I like at the moment: 


When asked how she should avoid going to hell like other wicked children, Jane Eyre replies: 
"I must keep in good health, and not die."


x

Sunday Sunday just another chillaxing Sunday!

TV you should watch which are all available on BBC iPlayer:

Donor Mum: The children I've never met
Nature's Miracle Babies

Donor Mum is a fantastic programme which really highlights the challenges faced by donor conceived people and donors themselves with the confidentiality laws which were in place pre-90s. I have a friend who is donor conceived and who works with DonorLinkUK who are the only charity working to connect donors with their donor conceived children or those who have donor conceived half-siblings. If I were donor conceived I'd want to know if I had any brothers or sisters knocking about! There are also much more serious things related to donor conception, what if your donor father or mother had a genetic disease or was a carrier, wouldn't you want to know if you were likely to have it yourself, or pass it on to your own children? Something I really liked about this programme is that it showed how grateful the mother was to her donor and also showed how well thought out the donors ideas were, she knew she wanted to donate to 'give something back' and purely to help someone else. That is admirable, whatever the failings in the system. 

Miracle Babies is just cute and the best bit is the baby panda being cradled by the presenter towards the end, check out how chilled out he looks (the panda, not the presenter). 

Today I have done homework, filled in forms I was meant to have done already and finally sent my W.I. report to the group secretary... only three months late... Better late than never though.

Plans for tonight: TV, Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake and a snuggle with my pussycats who are inside because it's raining.

Night night! 

The Magical Flowering Tea

This is the magical flowering tea! It is Jasmine flowering tea and it starts off as a little bud of the brown coloured leaves all bunched up, then in hot water it slowly opens up and shows you this lovely looking orange and peachy coloured flower! It's quite amazing! It also tastes quite nice. This was recommended to me by the nice waiter at Wagamama's Cardiff and Emma and I amused him greatly by then taking the flower out of the tea using chopsticks because we wanted to see what it looked like when it wasn't in water... turns out... not so nice. It sort of looks like it's dead when it's not in the water, not so good. But... you can actually buy the buds so you can have this magic event happen whenever you want it to! Amazing!




I also made this little guy today from some left over wire that I don't really like the guage of, it's a bit too thick for what I want it to do but waste not want not, so I decided I'd try something a bit different! I'm pleased with the effect and I've been wearing him for hours and haven't broken it or snagged any of my clothing so far... and he's pretty comfy. Maybe not an everyday ring... and I was thinking I could add some little green beads to be his eyes?!



I'm watching the proms now, 'Hooray for Hollywood', music from the movies, and the conductor who was just on was waaaaay to enthusiastic, he was bopping around! Nice to see people having fun at work though, isn't it?

So... stuff making me happy right now:

1. The fact that I have been appointed girlfriend/date by Emma and she has invited me to go see the Christmas lights switch on in Cardiff! 
2. My new Cath Kidston pattern sock monkey. 
3. Being myself and being pretty happy with that. 
4. The compliments and praise I got from other traders and customers (including three very giggly teenage girls) at the craft fair I went to today. 
5. Knowing that even though I have had a headache ALL day and really not wanting to get out of bed this morning, I did, and I had a GOOD DAY!!!

More exploits will surely follow, but maybe I need a day off... especially since I'm supposed to have written up a report for W.I. aaaages ago which I haven't done!!! Less blogging... more report writing!

xx

September!

I love September!

It is the first of September and the air smells like Autumn, the sun even seems different. I love Autumn and the colours that we get in Autumn. Because of the strange summer we've had some of the trees are already changing and there are even conkers about!

Things that are making me happy at the moment (as I've been instructed to document these things by the lovely Laura):

1. Autumn
2. My cats because they are being funny and affectionate and because one of them figured out how to use his pull-back toy hedgehog so that it wheeled itself across the floor yesterday.
3. My friends, who are amazing and make me feel very loved and cared for!
4. My bed, which is very comfortable and means I get wonderful sleep!
5. My general feeling of wellbeing and generosity towards the universe in general! I know that's not really a thing but it's nice to feel happy for the sake of feeling happy!

I have also noticed I use too many exclamation marks in emails, texts and writing... but I am enthusiastic about things! Oh dear, there I go again...

Today I am seeing my solicitor about the dreaded D word, seeing Bex later for some enthusiastic chatter about craft things and then W.I meeting tonight all about Aromatherapy which will be lovely!

See, Laura, Happy!!!!!!!!!