Cardboard furniture

It poured with rain on Friday night, and we woke up on Saturday to the sight of brimming full dams - the first time in a very long time they’ve been that high, judging by the tall saplings and trees whose roots are now underwater. I wandered out to take some photos, and compared [...]

Feels like further north

It is so wet at the moment. I occasionally hear a tapping on the window of my office, and look out to see rain thudding on the window, the fig tree below my window lashing about in a wild wind. The forecast for the next week reads: “Sunday - A shower or two; [...]

Hair dye, here I come

“Oh! My! GOD!”
“What, what’s wrong?”
“What is THAT?”
Prince Valiant briefly examines the object. “Huh.”
“Is that a white hair? Have I got a white hair?”
“Actually, you have one, two, three… hey, you’ve got quite a few back here. Look, this one’s white halfway down.”
“I’m going GREY? I can’t be going grey! I’m 25, for god’s sake! I [...]

Myths about the self

I went back to the doctor today to get my blood pressure checked (as it was a little high the last two times and they keep making me go back). I finally got a different doctor, which was good, because the thought of Dr Coping Skills tut-tutting over the results was stressing me out, and [...]

Massage

The Rider gave me a really tough massage yesterday, telling me loudly above my complaints that my muscles were really tense, and they needed a strong massage to relax them. It felt good afterwards, but today my upper back and neck feel almost bruised. Youch. I am sitting delicately in chairs today, and wincing whenever [...]

Pushy

I was rude to a pushy woman in a jewellery store last night. At least, I didn’t really mean to be rude at the time, but afterwards I realised I was. This is one of the problems of being naturally introverted, I think - being less aware of how other people react to you. Or [...]

Returning to reality

I go back to work tomorrow, after two glorious weeks of holidays. I know matters will have been building up in my absence, and I’m not particularly looking forward to sitting down in my office tomorrow morning and plunging in.
However, I’m trying to develop a new and improved approach to work and the workplace this [...]

Dodging traffic

Finishing work for the year was such an enormous relief. I sat through a few hours of a work lunch, and then dashed off to meet The Rider. We joyfully screamed at each other for a bit (”Finished! Finished! Holidays! Arrgh!”), and mused on how far we’d both travelled in the last year - god, [...]

Blisters

I have a blister and a bruise on my thumb from bottling beer on the weekend. Could I be more of a weakling? My mother and I used to compare our hands - hers are brown, wiry, narrow, and strong, because she’s outdoors most of the day using them. Mine are pale and soft, with [...]

Public indignation

I like the shared indignation that pedestrians all share at traffic light when a car goes through the red, just as our light goes green. “For shame!” we say. “Honestly!” And we frown and shake our heads at each other in righteous grievance. In fact, I think shared irritation is the instigator of most conversations [...]