One of the least (and most) endearing parts about keeping a journal is that the past remains in the present. The words I (or you) wrote last week when you (or I) felt depressed or happy are still there in the present and re-reading them can bring back the moment and wonder at what made me (or you) feel that way. Such are the tricks the mind plays.
Two thoughts come to mind this morning.
1. In order to live fully in the present one must leave the past where it is.
2. Reading about what you (or I) did last week/month/year is stopping me (or you) from doing something interesting today!
I'm off to work now. I shall observe and interact with my tiny world and make the most of every minute of this sunny, windy day.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
One thing leads to another
The reason people "never have enough" is partly due to clever marketing but mostly because one thing inevitably leads to another. Sometimes I think I must be an advertiser's dream customer because I subscribe to several email "notifications" from online retailers and frequently I click on the links to "shop now" or "save money now". I would save a lot more by not clicking in the first place, but click I do, and the click becomes a browse which leads to an "add-to-cart" which sometimes (but not always) leads to checkout and payment. I'm a spur of the moment shopper and actually my most successful shopping has been done that way.
So last week I clicked, browsed, added-to-cart and purchased (with a coupon code for discount and free shipping) a delightful spring jacket in periwinkle blue, the cross-country progress of which I dutifully tracked. (Inexplicably it spent a full 36 hours less than five miles from my home while it was transferred from FedEx to the USPS so it could be delivered as slowly as possible and thereby justify the free shipping.) Anyway it eventually arrived with the mail. I opened the package, hoping it would be what I hoped it would be. It was, and I loved it. Of course, online shopping does have its drawbacks and one of them is that the colour turned out to be rather more leaning towards purple than blue with an intensity that wasn't obvious in the photograph. No matter, it was a lovely colour and I put it on. Beautiful!
Of course that isn't the end of the story. As I looked in the mirror an inkling of doubt began to grow. That gorgeous colour.... will it go with the much admired new handbag I'd nabbed recently at a bargain price? The bag itself was an impulse buy occasioned by the loss of another bag which I left in a restaurant in New York. It is of a style and colour I wouldn't normally have considered buying but it was only $6 and would serve the purpose. I've grown to be rather proud of it though because everywhere I go, women stop me and say how much they like it! Really, they do! In the course of three days it was admired at the high school, the hairdressers and the mall. So I've grown to love it and want to make use of it until it goes out of fashion.
So back to the jacket. And the bag. They do not look good together. The jacket does not look good with my new royal blue top nor the rest of the clothes in my closet either. The only thing it looks good with are jeans and black or navy bottoms and white, black or navy tops. The bag is a non-starter unless you're one of those who thinks that bold clashing colours look good together, but while I've adopted and accepted many of the clashing colour combinations which were unthinkable twenty years ago, turquoise (with strong yellow tendencies) and periwinkle (with strong red tendencies) are not a happy couple.
One thing led to another and within the hour I was wearing both the jacket and the bag (if one wears a bag) and set forth to find a couple of T shirts to go with the jacket and a replacement bargain bag for use with the jacket. I managed to visit five different shops in the space of an hour and a half and found hundreds of bold and brash bags in every colour and price but nothing I liked as much as the one I had. I couldn't find any tops either. Then I went to BJs and to my surprise I found two very nice shirts for $6 each: one white and one periwinkle which was a paler version of the colour of my jacket! What luck I thought. Until I got them home and tried them on and found I could only button them if I pulled and breathed in. Not a pretty sight.
So the quest continues, but until I have some success I shall wear my clashing jacket and bag, because I need them with me to compare colours in the shops.
So last week I clicked, browsed, added-to-cart and purchased (with a coupon code for discount and free shipping) a delightful spring jacket in periwinkle blue, the cross-country progress of which I dutifully tracked. (Inexplicably it spent a full 36 hours less than five miles from my home while it was transferred from FedEx to the USPS so it could be delivered as slowly as possible and thereby justify the free shipping.) Anyway it eventually arrived with the mail. I opened the package, hoping it would be what I hoped it would be. It was, and I loved it. Of course, online shopping does have its drawbacks and one of them is that the colour turned out to be rather more leaning towards purple than blue with an intensity that wasn't obvious in the photograph. No matter, it was a lovely colour and I put it on. Beautiful!
Of course that isn't the end of the story. As I looked in the mirror an inkling of doubt began to grow. That gorgeous colour.... will it go with the much admired new handbag I'd nabbed recently at a bargain price? The bag itself was an impulse buy occasioned by the loss of another bag which I left in a restaurant in New York. It is of a style and colour I wouldn't normally have considered buying but it was only $6 and would serve the purpose. I've grown to be rather proud of it though because everywhere I go, women stop me and say how much they like it! Really, they do! In the course of three days it was admired at the high school, the hairdressers and the mall. So I've grown to love it and want to make use of it until it goes out of fashion.So back to the jacket. And the bag. They do not look good together. The jacket does not look good with my new royal blue top nor the rest of the clothes in my closet either. The only thing it looks good with are jeans and black or navy bottoms and white, black or navy tops. The bag is a non-starter unless you're one of those who thinks that bold clashing colours look good together, but while I've adopted and accepted many of the clashing colour combinations which were unthinkable twenty years ago, turquoise (with strong yellow tendencies) and periwinkle (with strong red tendencies) are not a happy couple.
One thing led to another and within the hour I was wearing both the jacket and the bag (if one wears a bag) and set forth to find a couple of T shirts to go with the jacket and a replacement bargain bag for use with the jacket. I managed to visit five different shops in the space of an hour and a half and found hundreds of bold and brash bags in every colour and price but nothing I liked as much as the one I had. I couldn't find any tops either. Then I went to BJs and to my surprise I found two very nice shirts for $6 each: one white and one periwinkle which was a paler version of the colour of my jacket! What luck I thought. Until I got them home and tried them on and found I could only button them if I pulled and breathed in. Not a pretty sight.
So the quest continues, but until I have some success I shall wear my clashing jacket and bag, because I need them with me to compare colours in the shops.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Me and technology
I am in love with technology. I'm not interested in how things work, building my own computer or pulling things apart but I do love sleek design. The affair began when I was a college student in 1975 and encountered my first futuristic Bang & Olufsen record player. It was love at first sight. I was told (because back then I had to be told what I should and shouldn't like) that really you were paying for the B&O name and it was all about appearance rather than sound. It's a bit like Apple/Mac today - people say that it's all about name and design rather than performance. But it isn't.
If any object is going to have pride of place in my life, it's got to have visual appeal as well as effectively fulfill its function. My favourite techno-thing, without which I could not do, is my iPod. What a genius piece of gadgetry it is. It's sleek, shiny, smooth, minimalist and a joy to hold and behold. My hands are as dry as paper because I stopped using handcream so as not to make finger marks on the screen.
Fond as I am of sleek and minimalist design, I'm not exactly a sleek and minimalist person. I crave cosy, warm and comfortable too, so the stainless steel, rubber-floored industrial look is not for me. I like the warmth of wood, the drapery of curtains, the softness of leather and the plushness of carpets. I want my walls to be a 'complication' of art and bric-a-brac so I paint the walls in a neutral background colour. (Why not use complication as a collective noun? It's a fitting word to describe my kitchen wall.)
But technology is a different thing. I got my first record player, made by Fidelity, in the early 1970's - it was given or sold to me by a friend who had got a stereo. It looked exactly like this:
In 1975 I got a white Fidelity stereo record player which cost £50 and was an 18th birthday present from my grandparents. You can see one here. I kept it for several years, until I saved up enough money and replaced it with a Philips stacking system. Now I was really getting somewhere. It played records and had a dual cassette player so I could now (illegally) record my records on tape and make tape to tape copies too. It even came with a chipboard wood-effect veneered cabinet with a glass door. Oh yes, I was at the very pinnacle of cutting edge technology - at least, that which I could afford. However, I was told that the very best stereo system was manufactured by Pioneer, so several years later, I upgraded once again to a Pioneer stacking system in a black cabinet. I am not a purist so I wasn't going to bother building my own system with seperate components. Besides, it wouldn't look good!
About the time I got that system I became aware of the existence of compact discs. At that time, in the early 1980s, shiny cardboard holographic versions of them were hanging tantalizingly from ceilings in a particular record shop in Germany. I wanted those shiny things more than anything. But they were soooo expensive and besides, I had nothing to play them on. So let's fast-forward (a technophrase that we all use now) to 1991 when I finally got the Holy Grail of stereos - a black and gold Pioneer stereo midi system with record deck, tuner, graphic equalizer, double cassette deck and six-disc CD player! I was in music-lover's paradise. Slick, classy and now that cabinets were 'out' I was definitely 'in' with this new display of electronics.
However, I've now had it for 18 years and it sits looking old, dated and big in our living room and I rarely use it. Hubby uses it for the radio and we do occasionally still use the record deck to play old LPs, but annoyingly you can't plug an iPod into it and the speakers are the size of small tables and have trailing wires. The once proudly owned CD collection hardly gets used either - I just bung the CDs on the iPod and then they sit there gathering dust.
For me the next pinnacle of listening lust is the iPod touch (which I have) and a Bose speaker and radio system on which to play it. I bought a cheaper Altec Lansing InMotion speaker/radio system which I like well enough, but Bose is still beckoning. Or maybe perhaps Bang & Olufsen are making one...
If any object is going to have pride of place in my life, it's got to have visual appeal as well as effectively fulfill its function. My favourite techno-thing, without which I could not do, is my iPod. What a genius piece of gadgetry it is. It's sleek, shiny, smooth, minimalist and a joy to hold and behold. My hands are as dry as paper because I stopped using handcream so as not to make finger marks on the screen.
Fond as I am of sleek and minimalist design, I'm not exactly a sleek and minimalist person. I crave cosy, warm and comfortable too, so the stainless steel, rubber-floored industrial look is not for me. I like the warmth of wood, the drapery of curtains, the softness of leather and the plushness of carpets. I want my walls to be a 'complication' of art and bric-a-brac so I paint the walls in a neutral background colour. (Why not use complication as a collective noun? It's a fitting word to describe my kitchen wall.)
But technology is a different thing. I got my first record player, made by Fidelity, in the early 1970's - it was given or sold to me by a friend who had got a stereo. It looked exactly like this:
In 1975 I got a white Fidelity stereo record player which cost £50 and was an 18th birthday present from my grandparents. You can see one here. I kept it for several years, until I saved up enough money and replaced it with a Philips stacking system. Now I was really getting somewhere. It played records and had a dual cassette player so I could now (illegally) record my records on tape and make tape to tape copies too. It even came with a chipboard wood-effect veneered cabinet with a glass door. Oh yes, I was at the very pinnacle of cutting edge technology - at least, that which I could afford. However, I was told that the very best stereo system was manufactured by Pioneer, so several years later, I upgraded once again to a Pioneer stacking system in a black cabinet. I am not a purist so I wasn't going to bother building my own system with seperate components. Besides, it wouldn't look good!
About the time I got that system I became aware of the existence of compact discs. At that time, in the early 1980s, shiny cardboard holographic versions of them were hanging tantalizingly from ceilings in a particular record shop in Germany. I wanted those shiny things more than anything. But they were soooo expensive and besides, I had nothing to play them on. So let's fast-forward (a technophrase that we all use now) to 1991 when I finally got the Holy Grail of stereos - a black and gold Pioneer stereo midi system with record deck, tuner, graphic equalizer, double cassette deck and six-disc CD player! I was in music-lover's paradise. Slick, classy and now that cabinets were 'out' I was definitely 'in' with this new display of electronics.
However, I've now had it for 18 years and it sits looking old, dated and big in our living room and I rarely use it. Hubby uses it for the radio and we do occasionally still use the record deck to play old LPs, but annoyingly you can't plug an iPod into it and the speakers are the size of small tables and have trailing wires. The once proudly owned CD collection hardly gets used either - I just bung the CDs on the iPod and then they sit there gathering dust.
For me the next pinnacle of listening lust is the iPod touch (which I have) and a Bose speaker and radio system on which to play it. I bought a cheaper Altec Lansing InMotion speaker/radio system which I like well enough, but Bose is still beckoning. Or maybe perhaps Bang & Olufsen are making one...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Spring is coming!
Today has been another warmer day, with some early Spring sunshine. I heard a few birds singing in the still-bare trees and the sound of garden machinery could be heard in the distance. For the first time in months there is only the merest trace of the snow and ice that's been covering everything and soon the rest of nature will wake up to the change in weather. It's really a nice time of year in New England, especially after a long snowy winter. The air feels warmer, the birds are nesting and in the house it's time for Spring-Cleaning. I don't actually do a thorough srping cleaning in the old-fashioned, traditional sense, but I do try to create a cleaner, brighter, airy environment. I change the heavy red curtains in the living room for greens ones, wash down the paintwork, shop for flowers and try to clear away some of the clutter.
This year, I'm going to get out the paint and rollers and whiten the ceilings, freshen up the walls, paint where I've never painted before and get everything ready for a new carpet. I need to see a change here. I need to get rid of some of the stuff I've been storing away for years and the Spring is the time to do it. If I can achieve all of that by the end of May, I'm sure the summer will be all the more enjoyable. Perhaps I can enlist the services of the kids this time! It's time to brush away the cobwebs (literally!).
Sometimes it takes a kind person to point out that something is wrong and it's been suggested that I've seemed to be a bit down in my blog postings recently and for that I apologise. Life really isn't all bad, but I have a tendency to be somewhat melancholy when I'm alone and in quiet moments when I'm free to write, my thoughts wander and dwell in places that should be left alone. I thrive when I'm around people and there's nothing I enjoy more than to be with friends and have a good laugh but sometimes it's hard for me not to get bogged down in all the drudgery and dwell on what's wrong. I need to stop all the self-analysis!
I'm going to check in at Weight Watchers this morning for the first time in two weeks. Not so much to see whether I've lost or gained, but to remind myself of why I joined last October. I'm so pleased with the progress I've made so far. My clothes are getting baggy and those which were tight, now fit. I don't want to return to that size again, and even though my current weight is still considered "obese", I feel so much better and those are twenty-eight extra pounds that I don't want to carry again and as we all know, positive thoughts and positive thinking get us all a long way.*
Tomorrow night hubby and I are going to a local theatre to see a performance of Capitol Steps, a satirical political comedy group which originated in 1981. They became famous after their performance was broadcast on NPR (National Public Radio) and they've continued to perform ever since. I was introduced to them back when I was first married and hubby played a one of their early recordings for me. I'm sure it was funny at the time, but humour based on current events, requires the audience to know what is/was in the news at the time to appreciate it. This time, having been listening to the news, I'll know what they're talking about.
...................
Finally, I want to remind myself to count my blessings and remember that the squabbles, disagreements and tribulations of family life are not so important when faced with the sudden death of a loved one. I can only imagine the devastation and loss which Natasha Richardson's family are feeling. When someone close to you dies, the first thing you do is recall the last time you spoke to them and what was said. With luck the words were pleasant and kind; often they're ordinary, throwaway phrases like "see you later", "have a good day" or "don't forget the milk". Sadly, some final words are spoken in anger and the last thing heard is the slamming of a door amid shouts and tears. No matter what one's life throws up in the way of challenges, it's better to be loving and forgiving and savour all that is good. Happy memories are the best and to have no regrets is better. Take care to make each day and each action as positive as it can be.
......................
*11:50am - WW update: Total weight loss now stands at 31lbs. Big smile!
This year, I'm going to get out the paint and rollers and whiten the ceilings, freshen up the walls, paint where I've never painted before and get everything ready for a new carpet. I need to see a change here. I need to get rid of some of the stuff I've been storing away for years and the Spring is the time to do it. If I can achieve all of that by the end of May, I'm sure the summer will be all the more enjoyable. Perhaps I can enlist the services of the kids this time! It's time to brush away the cobwebs (literally!).
Sometimes it takes a kind person to point out that something is wrong and it's been suggested that I've seemed to be a bit down in my blog postings recently and for that I apologise. Life really isn't all bad, but I have a tendency to be somewhat melancholy when I'm alone and in quiet moments when I'm free to write, my thoughts wander and dwell in places that should be left alone. I thrive when I'm around people and there's nothing I enjoy more than to be with friends and have a good laugh but sometimes it's hard for me not to get bogged down in all the drudgery and dwell on what's wrong. I need to stop all the self-analysis!
I'm going to check in at Weight Watchers this morning for the first time in two weeks. Not so much to see whether I've lost or gained, but to remind myself of why I joined last October. I'm so pleased with the progress I've made so far. My clothes are getting baggy and those which were tight, now fit. I don't want to return to that size again, and even though my current weight is still considered "obese", I feel so much better and those are twenty-eight extra pounds that I don't want to carry again and as we all know, positive thoughts and positive thinking get us all a long way.*
Tomorrow night hubby and I are going to a local theatre to see a performance of Capitol Steps, a satirical political comedy group which originated in 1981. They became famous after their performance was broadcast on NPR (National Public Radio) and they've continued to perform ever since. I was introduced to them back when I was first married and hubby played a one of their early recordings for me. I'm sure it was funny at the time, but humour based on current events, requires the audience to know what is/was in the news at the time to appreciate it. This time, having been listening to the news, I'll know what they're talking about.
...................
Finally, I want to remind myself to count my blessings and remember that the squabbles, disagreements and tribulations of family life are not so important when faced with the sudden death of a loved one. I can only imagine the devastation and loss which Natasha Richardson's family are feeling. When someone close to you dies, the first thing you do is recall the last time you spoke to them and what was said. With luck the words were pleasant and kind; often they're ordinary, throwaway phrases like "see you later", "have a good day" or "don't forget the milk". Sadly, some final words are spoken in anger and the last thing heard is the slamming of a door amid shouts and tears. No matter what one's life throws up in the way of challenges, it's better to be loving and forgiving and savour all that is good. Happy memories are the best and to have no regrets is better. Take care to make each day and each action as positive as it can be.
......................
*11:50am - WW update: Total weight loss now stands at 31lbs. Big smile!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Teen Angst
If there is such a thing I don't exactly know what it is. From my memories of my own teenage years I know that the biggest dramas occur in relationships: rows with parents, fall-outs with friends, break-ups with boyfriends and they don't even have to be one's own. A teenager can take all those emotions and transfer them on to the dramas of their friends, so they are able to wallow in it together. Somewhere down the list can be found 'trouble at school' and 'concern for family'. Obviously there are teenagers whose lives dictate that their priorities must be in a different order, but for the teenager whose home life isn't in turmoil (other than that which they cause themselves) and whose basic needs are met, this is the age of "Me and my Friends First".
My daughter mentioned in one of our less pleasant exchanges that her friends were all that were important to her and I remember saying exactly the same to my mother at her age. I wasn't inclined to give her the same answer I got, because I've told her before that "friends come and go but your family will always be there". At least we hope they will be. So-called teen angst is really more about the dramas that make up their lives as well as pressures both real and imagined from adults and peers. They absorb some of their friends' pressures as if by osmosis and pass them off as their own. It's empathathetic to the point where they practically live each other's lives - living in one another's pockets, as they used to say.
Psychologists have been telling us for years that the adolescent teenage years are the hardest and we must understand that there is a lot of anxiety and pressure involved as well as the teenagers having to cope with the psychological affect that body changes and emotions have on them. I even remember as a 14-year-old being told (perhaps in an "Educational Film") that "it's a difficult time" and thinking "is it?" and then (perhaps subconsciously) using that as an excuse for bad behaviour. When I heard it as a teenager in the early 1970s, I think the adults of the world were still trying to come to grips with their older children being hippies, taking drugs and rebelling as teenagers had never rebelled before. The parents of the hippies were often law-abiding and middle-class; having lived and possibly fought through the austere years of the Second World War they wanted their children to have luxuries and advantages that they did not. However, instead of receiving their children's eternal gratitude they were rewarded with drop-outs, riots, law-breaking, rebellion and quarrels. Society didn't understand them and tried to rationalise their behaviour, saying that it was "hard" for them. They didn't realise that giving them freedom to "be themselves" meant also giving them freedom to rebel. Like parents then, we also try to rationalize their behaviour. Surely we didn't make the mistakes our parents made? Surely we did. And worse. Our parents might not have been so good at boosting our self-esteem, but the kids now are so boosted they're deluded into thinking they can be anything they want to be. Ha ha. How will they cope with the real world? How will the real world cope with all those super-egos in a few decades' time? Who will care enough about the sick and elderly thirty or forty years from now?
Teen angst is a myth. What we have is kids who follow the rules and kids who do not. Most of them make their own rules. Hurrah! for those whose rules coincide with ours and bad luck to those whose don't.
To be continued...
My daughter mentioned in one of our less pleasant exchanges that her friends were all that were important to her and I remember saying exactly the same to my mother at her age. I wasn't inclined to give her the same answer I got, because I've told her before that "friends come and go but your family will always be there". At least we hope they will be. So-called teen angst is really more about the dramas that make up their lives as well as pressures both real and imagined from adults and peers. They absorb some of their friends' pressures as if by osmosis and pass them off as their own. It's empathathetic to the point where they practically live each other's lives - living in one another's pockets, as they used to say.
Psychologists have been telling us for years that the adolescent teenage years are the hardest and we must understand that there is a lot of anxiety and pressure involved as well as the teenagers having to cope with the psychological affect that body changes and emotions have on them. I even remember as a 14-year-old being told (perhaps in an "Educational Film") that "it's a difficult time" and thinking "is it?" and then (perhaps subconsciously) using that as an excuse for bad behaviour. When I heard it as a teenager in the early 1970s, I think the adults of the world were still trying to come to grips with their older children being hippies, taking drugs and rebelling as teenagers had never rebelled before. The parents of the hippies were often law-abiding and middle-class; having lived and possibly fought through the austere years of the Second World War they wanted their children to have luxuries and advantages that they did not. However, instead of receiving their children's eternal gratitude they were rewarded with drop-outs, riots, law-breaking, rebellion and quarrels. Society didn't understand them and tried to rationalise their behaviour, saying that it was "hard" for them. They didn't realise that giving them freedom to "be themselves" meant also giving them freedom to rebel. Like parents then, we also try to rationalize their behaviour. Surely we didn't make the mistakes our parents made? Surely we did. And worse. Our parents might not have been so good at boosting our self-esteem, but the kids now are so boosted they're deluded into thinking they can be anything they want to be. Ha ha. How will they cope with the real world? How will the real world cope with all those super-egos in a few decades' time? Who will care enough about the sick and elderly thirty or forty years from now?
Teen angst is a myth. What we have is kids who follow the rules and kids who do not. Most of them make their own rules. Hurrah! for those whose rules coincide with ours and bad luck to those whose don't.
To be continued...
Monday, March 16, 2009
What do you eat when you're thirsty?
I should ask that question and heed the advice more often! Today I've had one drink plus the milk on my cereal and have had a substantial lunch without a beverage. I'm still looking for something to eat when actually, the problem is that I'm thirsty. So why aren't I drinking, I hear you ask... well the truth is that the only hot drink I like is coffee but I've already had a CV today and I am too cold for a cold drink. Somewhere the answer is out there....
I can be a bit of a talker myself.
If I were on a long-haul flight and had to sit next to a talkative person with a really irritating voice, or a quiet person who keeps staring at me, I think I'd choose the former.
The irritating talker probably has nothing to hide. I could always attempt to excuse myself by saying I have work to do, and plug into my iPod while I read. The quiet starer is an unknown quantity and who knows what he/she is considering during those prolonged stares. Perhaps it's that fear of the unknown that makes me uncomfortable. It would certainly make me want to look away and try not to notice, but failing that I would probably eventually start to stare back.
I enjoy chatting with people but I hope I know when to stop - I can read body and facial language, as long as people aren't pretending to be interested. If they are good at pretending, I'm floored and they only prolong the agony for themselves!
I hope that if I was next to a persistent chatterbox that I would be able to respectfully extricate myself from their attentions. But that creepy starer? I'm not sure about her at all. Or him.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Coffee Shop
I really should come here more often. It's cosy and friendly and having people around me while I work is far more inspiring than sitting at my kitchen table. From my seat I can see a couple of men at a table discussing the affairs of the day, a couple of women in athletic gear talking about their kids and my husband sitting at another table working on something and listening to NPR on his headphones. Ah the joys of coffee and technology all rolled into one! I'm waiting for my friends to join me for coffee and catch-up time but I don't think I'll have enough time to finish this blog entry before they get here.
................................................
Well I'm home again after a three-hour coffee marathon. It was good. I will go there again to blog though because all my kitchen makes me think of is mice and madness! I've been enjoying the Urban Sketchers blog and it's kind of sort of inspiring me to take up sketching and painting again. I keep thinking big because I'm still looking for that one perfect big striking painting to hang on my wall, although Big isn't always Practical and I'm not sure my talents are sufficient.
I like the paintings and sketches that capture the essence and feel of being in a cosy coffee shop. There's something about them that makes me feel warm and comfortable inside. I dont know - the palette of colours associated with coffee and muffins is comforting I think. Or maybe it's the actual coffee and muffins!
Oh well - the day moves on and so must I.
................................................
Well I'm home again after a three-hour coffee marathon. It was good. I will go there again to blog though because all my kitchen makes me think of is mice and madness! I've been enjoying the Urban Sketchers blog and it's kind of sort of inspiring me to take up sketching and painting again. I keep thinking big because I'm still looking for that one perfect big striking painting to hang on my wall, although Big isn't always Practical and I'm not sure my talents are sufficient.
I like the paintings and sketches that capture the essence and feel of being in a cosy coffee shop. There's something about them that makes me feel warm and comfortable inside. I dont know - the palette of colours associated with coffee and muffins is comforting I think. Or maybe it's the actual coffee and muffins!
Oh well - the day moves on and so must I.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Keep Calm and Carry On
After not watching ER for several years, I've been drawn to it this evening - lured you might say by the promise seeing George Clooney, Eriq laSalle and Noah Wyle and ten minutes in, I'm not disappointed. Ah those were the days... A cast to be reckoned with - and we have Susan Sarandon to boot. And speaking of trauma, it's been a bit of a traumatic week at home really, but some of those issues are being resolved so it's calming down.
First there was the mouse incident. We saw a mouse scurrying back and forth at different times during the day so traps were set and a mouse was caught. A day or so later we realised that there was another one so it was caught too. This morning we discovered that we had more rodent visitors on the kitchen counter, as evidenced by droppings and missing peanut butter which had been left out to see if there were any more four-leggged visitors. I spent the morning scrubbing the counters and have now cleared them off all but the bare minimum of appliances. Hopefully we'll be able polish off the rest of them tonight. I know I know, my animal-lover friends will say that we should be more humane in our disposal of the mice but I'm not really prepared to deal with them and hubby prefers the trap method - and death is instantaneous.
In light of the week I've just had, I'm thinking of ordering something with the slogan I've used for today's title. The poster is a bit too big to be of any practical use in my house, but Im rather drawn to the idea of buying a mug or some other small item. You can see it here.
First there was the mouse incident. We saw a mouse scurrying back and forth at different times during the day so traps were set and a mouse was caught. A day or so later we realised that there was another one so it was caught too. This morning we discovered that we had more rodent visitors on the kitchen counter, as evidenced by droppings and missing peanut butter which had been left out to see if there were any more four-leggged visitors. I spent the morning scrubbing the counters and have now cleared them off all but the bare minimum of appliances. Hopefully we'll be able polish off the rest of them tonight. I know I know, my animal-lover friends will say that we should be more humane in our disposal of the mice but I'm not really prepared to deal with them and hubby prefers the trap method - and death is instantaneous.
In light of the week I've just had, I'm thinking of ordering something with the slogan I've used for today's title. The poster is a bit too big to be of any practical use in my house, but Im rather drawn to the idea of buying a mug or some other small item. You can see it here.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Winter woods
This is either my backyard or my neighbour's. Without barriers, one runs into the other and the boudaries are less clear.
Late Winter Snow
I went out this morning to photograph this lovely sunny day. Much as I can't wait to see the end of the snow, scenes like this are real treasures. A few hours later most of this snow had melted away.
Friday, March 6, 2009
My addiction
I might have said "hobbies" but that's so Valerie Singleton, don't you think? I have recently weaned myself off genealogy but I'm afraid it might be only a temporary weaning... I can feel the pull already and it's hard to resist going back. The truth is I haven't found a substitute for it yet and it's all oh so interesting and important. I have been forced to look at my surroundings today for the first time in a long time and I realise that we need to get some home improvements done - especially the paintwork. However I'm probably not going to start on this today, but I'm thinking May might be a good month for painting. I wonder how much I can get done in a month.
However, my addiction is still beckoning... When it comes to "hobbies" I'm an all-or-nothing person. I took up art because I was inspired to create a single painting but it escalated to the point where I had a one-woman show of some 25 paintings in a bookshop two years later. But then I was burned out and in the four years since then I've painted next to nothing. Genealogy was what took over, and I devoted hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars to discovering my ancestors. Twice I tried to give it up and twice I was lured back in. It's a bit unhealthy to spend so much time getting excited about the past when I have a young family in the present so reluctantly I've put it away again but if I manage to live into my 60s I'll be able to work on it again without neglecting the family who will all by that time have gone on their merry way.
Apart from realising that my house is in need of redecoration and restoration, I'm currently in search of a replacement hobby. I'm spending altogether too much time on the computer and my hands and fingers are uncomfortable or in mild pain almost all the time due to clicking and typing. (Mostly because I'm using a laptop with a touch pad, and an iPod touch, so there's a lot of finger-dragging.) I honestly can't get excited about cleaning and maintaining the home - the endless laundry, vacuuming, cleaning and such, so I must find something else to get excited about. I've tried various crafts on and off and usually I complete a project (or not) and then lose interest and try to find something else to do or make. I have a number of unfinished projects around too, which isn't helpful. Maybe I should have a grand clear-out of all the hobby stuff. If only I could make money with my hobbies the way I spend it!
I'm listening to music on my iPod at the moment. I don't have anywhere near my entire record collection on it yet (in fact I don't even have CDs of most of my LPs) but I have just enough to get a reasonable variety of music to listen to. I like the Genius feature very much. I selected Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams and let the Genuis take it from there. Predictably it has played tracks by Linkin Park, Coldplay and Nickelback, but it also selected Lady Gaga's Just Dance, Tom Jones, and now Bridge Over Troubled Water and all the songs are flowing in and out very nicely. I suppose it also helps to recognise just what one's preferred style of music really is. Trés cool.
I've been following Stephen Fry on Twitter recently - it feels more like stalking, especially when you end up reading the Tweets of other celebrity Twitterers. DD2 is receiving Ryan Seacrest's Tweets on her cellphone, and today I almost got involved in the lives of Jonathan Ross and Alan Davies, but thought better of it. It really is none of my concern what they are doing and they sure aren't interested in me. It would be much nicer if I could get a few more of my friends back home to start Tweeting but I guess they're too busy living their lives than singing about them. (Memo to self: Must get a life.)
Well the second bathroom beckons - it's supposed to be DD1's job to clean it, but she doesn't bother so I must get the job done myself. Only three more hours of solitude left....
However, my addiction is still beckoning... When it comes to "hobbies" I'm an all-or-nothing person. I took up art because I was inspired to create a single painting but it escalated to the point where I had a one-woman show of some 25 paintings in a bookshop two years later. But then I was burned out and in the four years since then I've painted next to nothing. Genealogy was what took over, and I devoted hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars to discovering my ancestors. Twice I tried to give it up and twice I was lured back in. It's a bit unhealthy to spend so much time getting excited about the past when I have a young family in the present so reluctantly I've put it away again but if I manage to live into my 60s I'll be able to work on it again without neglecting the family who will all by that time have gone on their merry way.
Apart from realising that my house is in need of redecoration and restoration, I'm currently in search of a replacement hobby. I'm spending altogether too much time on the computer and my hands and fingers are uncomfortable or in mild pain almost all the time due to clicking and typing. (Mostly because I'm using a laptop with a touch pad, and an iPod touch, so there's a lot of finger-dragging.) I honestly can't get excited about cleaning and maintaining the home - the endless laundry, vacuuming, cleaning and such, so I must find something else to get excited about. I've tried various crafts on and off and usually I complete a project (or not) and then lose interest and try to find something else to do or make. I have a number of unfinished projects around too, which isn't helpful. Maybe I should have a grand clear-out of all the hobby stuff. If only I could make money with my hobbies the way I spend it!
I'm listening to music on my iPod at the moment. I don't have anywhere near my entire record collection on it yet (in fact I don't even have CDs of most of my LPs) but I have just enough to get a reasonable variety of music to listen to. I like the Genius feature very much. I selected Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams and let the Genuis take it from there. Predictably it has played tracks by Linkin Park, Coldplay and Nickelback, but it also selected Lady Gaga's Just Dance, Tom Jones, and now Bridge Over Troubled Water and all the songs are flowing in and out very nicely. I suppose it also helps to recognise just what one's preferred style of music really is. Trés cool.
I've been following Stephen Fry on Twitter recently - it feels more like stalking, especially when you end up reading the Tweets of other celebrity Twitterers. DD2 is receiving Ryan Seacrest's Tweets on her cellphone, and today I almost got involved in the lives of Jonathan Ross and Alan Davies, but thought better of it. It really is none of my concern what they are doing and they sure aren't interested in me. It would be much nicer if I could get a few more of my friends back home to start Tweeting but I guess they're too busy living their lives than singing about them. (Memo to self: Must get a life.)
Well the second bathroom beckons - it's supposed to be DD1's job to clean it, but she doesn't bother so I must get the job done myself. Only three more hours of solitude left....
Monday, March 2, 2009
A Thousand Words
Feeling excluded
With the increased sophistication of individual websites, and improved technology I now actually have less access to some webpages than I did eight or nine years ago.
When I was an internet virgin, back in about 1999, I was only just beginning to learn how to send email. It was late in 2000 when we got 'proper' unlimited internet access via cable and I was finally able to search and find things on the internet in which I was interested. I started with the BBC (I guessed at the url) and immediately found a long wished-for window to my home and all that was familiar - or had been when I left eight years earlier. To my delight, with the installation of a "Real"player I was able to watch snippets of loved telelvision programmes, bits of the BBC news and even watch the Queen's Speech once again on Christmas Day.
The more I found I could do and see on the internet, the more copyright and licence holders wanted to protect their property. So it was that one day my beloved BBC denied me access to snippets and full episodes of their wonderful programmes simply because I lived outside the United Kingdom and didn't possess a television licence. I even wrote to thm and said I would wilingly pay for the privilege of watching programmes online, but they stood firm and continue to guard their property jealously.
Ironically, in more recent years I've discovered more about what British people are watching by way of entertainment, through the [possibly] illegal uploadings of comedy snippets to YouTube. By this means I have learned to love Catherine Tate's "Lauren", Armstrong and Miller and enjoyed some of the better adverts. It's unfortunate though, that the BBC likes to exclude people from outside the country. Once when I wanted to order something from the BBC shop, I was directed to the BBC America shop. What's the good of that? BBC America isn't worthy of its name - read their schedule if you don't believe me. It's easy enough to find.
That actually brings me to iTunes. I am a fan of all things Apple and Mac so it annoys me that this is an issue which I can't seem to resolve. Being British and having spent my first 35 years in Britain, on receipt of my first iPod and on first opening my iTunes account, I eagerly sought all those songs of my youth which I no longer heard on the radio because they were not played in America. But what? iTunes didn't have a lot of them. iTunes UK had them but every time I tried even to look, I was redirected back to iTunes USA. When I had the audacity to try to buy a song in the UK, I was told I could only buy from iTunes USA. Would this happen if I was in the UK with my laptop I wonder? So according to iTunes USA, Status Quo hasn't recorded any songs since about 1969 so I can't buy one single Quo song from the 70s and 80s. Admittedly, their listings have vastly increased over the past couple of years so I am able to get hold of a few relatively obscure song titles from Europe now, but still no Quo! What's a girl to do?
I hate feeling far from home (even after 16 years, marriage and three children, England is still home to me) but even more, I hate being excluded in this way. There ought to be a way around this that's better than pirated clips on YouTube and flying to the UK to buy CDs.
When I was an internet virgin, back in about 1999, I was only just beginning to learn how to send email. It was late in 2000 when we got 'proper' unlimited internet access via cable and I was finally able to search and find things on the internet in which I was interested. I started with the BBC (I guessed at the url) and immediately found a long wished-for window to my home and all that was familiar - or had been when I left eight years earlier. To my delight, with the installation of a "Real"player I was able to watch snippets of loved telelvision programmes, bits of the BBC news and even watch the Queen's Speech once again on Christmas Day.
The more I found I could do and see on the internet, the more copyright and licence holders wanted to protect their property. So it was that one day my beloved BBC denied me access to snippets and full episodes of their wonderful programmes simply because I lived outside the United Kingdom and didn't possess a television licence. I even wrote to thm and said I would wilingly pay for the privilege of watching programmes online, but they stood firm and continue to guard their property jealously.
Ironically, in more recent years I've discovered more about what British people are watching by way of entertainment, through the [possibly] illegal uploadings of comedy snippets to YouTube. By this means I have learned to love Catherine Tate's "Lauren", Armstrong and Miller and enjoyed some of the better adverts. It's unfortunate though, that the BBC likes to exclude people from outside the country. Once when I wanted to order something from the BBC shop, I was directed to the BBC America shop. What's the good of that? BBC America isn't worthy of its name - read their schedule if you don't believe me. It's easy enough to find.
That actually brings me to iTunes. I am a fan of all things Apple and Mac so it annoys me that this is an issue which I can't seem to resolve. Being British and having spent my first 35 years in Britain, on receipt of my first iPod and on first opening my iTunes account, I eagerly sought all those songs of my youth which I no longer heard on the radio because they were not played in America. But what? iTunes didn't have a lot of them. iTunes UK had them but every time I tried even to look, I was redirected back to iTunes USA. When I had the audacity to try to buy a song in the UK, I was told I could only buy from iTunes USA. Would this happen if I was in the UK with my laptop I wonder? So according to iTunes USA, Status Quo hasn't recorded any songs since about 1969 so I can't buy one single Quo song from the 70s and 80s. Admittedly, their listings have vastly increased over the past couple of years so I am able to get hold of a few relatively obscure song titles from Europe now, but still no Quo! What's a girl to do?
I hate feeling far from home (even after 16 years, marriage and three children, England is still home to me) but even more, I hate being excluded in this way. There ought to be a way around this that's better than pirated clips on YouTube and flying to the UK to buy CDs.
More on clothes
I've been going to Weight Watchers for a few months and have successfully lost about 28lbs. This brings me far from my ideal weight or my ultimate goal (which is actually a good bit more than the "ideal") but it's enough to make me feel and look better than I have in quite a long time. My clothes have been falling off me so it's time for some replacements.
It's one thing to wear baggy tops when the weather is still chilly, but it's really uncomfortable to wear baggy flappy trousers. I can't imagine how those young chaps go around with their pants hanging down to their knees - they've probably forgotten how comfortable it is to wear clothes that fit! I've been thinking about moving out of trousers, but that's a big step for me. No I'm not a transvestite or seeking gender reassignment; it's just that I haven't worn a skirt or dress in years because I find that they are too uncomfortable to deal with and I can never find shoes to look good with them. It's really the stuff you have to wear underneath that's horrible. If you are a woman with lumps and bumps and are forced to wear not one or two, but three or four waistbands (eg skirt, slip, tights and possibly underwear) and then a bra and shirt above, it's not that comfortable. Waistbands and bras cause bulges in the middle (unless you want to wear some other foundation garment to squash it all up to your boobs or down to your thighs!). We've all seen the doughnuts that some people carry above their low-rise pants but in my case there are at least four of them and it's really not a pretty sight. So a dress might help.... if not for the stupid undergarments.
Gripe 1. Why are slips/petticoats made of clingy sticky nylon? If they aren't nylon, they're something else which sticks to the fabric of the skirt or dress and impedes free movement of the wearer and the dress.
Gripe 2. Why don't they make more bra-slips of assorted sizes?
Gripe 3. Why is there no viable alternative to nylon tights (aka panty-hose)?
Gripe 4. Why do American women tolerate the ill-fitting tights that seem to be all that are available over here? Perhaps they've never had the pleasure of a comfy pair from Marks and Sparks.
Anyway. I prefer to wear natural fibres all over when possible, but it's very hard to find stylish, well-fitting undergarments in anything but man-made materials. I can't be alone in finding many man-made fabrics hot and uncomfortable, can I?
For now I'm sticking to trousers - long thick ones in the winter and thin cropped ones in the summer. My days of wearing shorts were limited to a few brief years in the early 1990s when I felt slim enough to wear them and before my legs started to resemble English road maps. I am seriously never going to expose my legs ever again but it would be nice to be able to wear something long and light in the way of a cotton skirt in the summer without the need for nylon to hide my modesty.
Perhaps this is all too much information for the faint-hearted reader, but hopefully someone will be able to relate to it and maybe someone out there will know of a place where I can buy what I'm looking for. But getting back to trousers for a moment... as I mentioned the other day, I tend to shop in Target for the sake of cost and convenience. I won't spend a lot on clothes when I'm heavy because I want my 'heaviness' to be temporary and therefore an investment in 'good' clothes would be a waste. So on Saturday I invested a princely $15 (about £10) in a pair of black chinos. They were two and a half sizes smaller than the ones I was wearing before and I thought they would be fine. They felt fine when I tried them on so I ripped off the paper labels and wore them for a day. BUT cotton being cotton, the trousers 'relaxed' in the wearing and loosened up to the extent that by the end of the day they were feeling distinctly too big and flappier than in the morning. Now instead of gaining a pair of nicely fitting trousers to get me through the rest of the winter, I have another pair of baggy pants to annoy me.
The only solution is to lose a few more pounds and try again in April, before I go to England. Watch this space....
It's one thing to wear baggy tops when the weather is still chilly, but it's really uncomfortable to wear baggy flappy trousers. I can't imagine how those young chaps go around with their pants hanging down to their knees - they've probably forgotten how comfortable it is to wear clothes that fit! I've been thinking about moving out of trousers, but that's a big step for me. No I'm not a transvestite or seeking gender reassignment; it's just that I haven't worn a skirt or dress in years because I find that they are too uncomfortable to deal with and I can never find shoes to look good with them. It's really the stuff you have to wear underneath that's horrible. If you are a woman with lumps and bumps and are forced to wear not one or two, but three or four waistbands (eg skirt, slip, tights and possibly underwear) and then a bra and shirt above, it's not that comfortable. Waistbands and bras cause bulges in the middle (unless you want to wear some other foundation garment to squash it all up to your boobs or down to your thighs!). We've all seen the doughnuts that some people carry above their low-rise pants but in my case there are at least four of them and it's really not a pretty sight. So a dress might help.... if not for the stupid undergarments.
Gripe 1. Why are slips/petticoats made of clingy sticky nylon? If they aren't nylon, they're something else which sticks to the fabric of the skirt or dress and impedes free movement of the wearer and the dress.
Gripe 2. Why don't they make more bra-slips of assorted sizes?
Gripe 3. Why is there no viable alternative to nylon tights (aka panty-hose)?
Gripe 4. Why do American women tolerate the ill-fitting tights that seem to be all that are available over here? Perhaps they've never had the pleasure of a comfy pair from Marks and Sparks.
Anyway. I prefer to wear natural fibres all over when possible, but it's very hard to find stylish, well-fitting undergarments in anything but man-made materials. I can't be alone in finding many man-made fabrics hot and uncomfortable, can I?
For now I'm sticking to trousers - long thick ones in the winter and thin cropped ones in the summer. My days of wearing shorts were limited to a few brief years in the early 1990s when I felt slim enough to wear them and before my legs started to resemble English road maps. I am seriously never going to expose my legs ever again but it would be nice to be able to wear something long and light in the way of a cotton skirt in the summer without the need for nylon to hide my modesty.
Perhaps this is all too much information for the faint-hearted reader, but hopefully someone will be able to relate to it and maybe someone out there will know of a place where I can buy what I'm looking for. But getting back to trousers for a moment... as I mentioned the other day, I tend to shop in Target for the sake of cost and convenience. I won't spend a lot on clothes when I'm heavy because I want my 'heaviness' to be temporary and therefore an investment in 'good' clothes would be a waste. So on Saturday I invested a princely $15 (about £10) in a pair of black chinos. They were two and a half sizes smaller than the ones I was wearing before and I thought they would be fine. They felt fine when I tried them on so I ripped off the paper labels and wore them for a day. BUT cotton being cotton, the trousers 'relaxed' in the wearing and loosened up to the extent that by the end of the day they were feeling distinctly too big and flappier than in the morning. Now instead of gaining a pair of nicely fitting trousers to get me through the rest of the winter, I have another pair of baggy pants to annoy me.
The only solution is to lose a few more pounds and try again in April, before I go to England. Watch this space....
Another snow day in New England
View from the back. 7:19am
View from the side. 7:22am
View of front window. 7:25am
It's now 8:45 am on Monday morning and a time at which I would normally be getting ready for work but today is another "snow day" so the whole family is home and another day is added to the end of the school year. There isn't the same excitement in March as there is when the first snowfall of winter comes and even that doesn't compare to people's reaction in my homeland to a few flakes of snow. At this point we are all thinking about Spring, especially after the milder weather we've had recently.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
