Tuesday, January 26, 2010

down



Time doesn’t always heel.

Time brings more pain, more hurt, more experiences that will make us stronger.

I think, for now, that I’m strong enough.

Bring me some up now please.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The butterfly effect



How life can change on the beat of the wings of a bird, the drawing of a breath.

The snow has all but left us. Small patches of white remain, yet to melt into the earth.  The soil below stretches up to the sun which is now shining upon us, warming the branches of the trees, preparing the ground for the spring flowers that will push through the dirt and smile at the sky.

As if the humans themselves have been hibernating, the streets are becoming busy again, faces smiling or determined, with long lists of chores and requirements that have been happily foregone over the snowed in days.

The temperatures have risen, the air clement enough to see people out without hats, scarves and thermal wrappings.

Snow boots are all but abandoned as fashion dictates our footwear now, at last.

Clothing choices are made by what we want and not what is most appropriate for the freezing conditions.

Rain has fallen on the garden and now the previously frozen ground is sodden and welcoming to sinking footprints.

For a while longer, at least, the grass and shrubs will remain strangers to my visitations.

Meteorologists have warned of further flurries and drifts to come, more turmoil and chaos to visit upon the Earth, or at least this currently green and pleasant bit.  Foreboding messages of doom that it isn’t over yet – and we haven’t even got to February when the weather normally descends into panic.

A new year, new butterfly wings have rout  new effects, new horizons open ahead, Mother Nature rises before us.

All is good.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

the end of the world as we know it

So, there’s some snow.  There’s probably going to be a lot of snow.  Of course the kids are in 7th heaven and I’m quite bored with it all right now; I have things to go and places to be that don’t involved wading through over a foot and a half (50cm in new money) of snow, however much fun it might be.


There are plans for social events on Thursday and Friday evenings that are likely to be snowed off, and I have to be in Madrid next week for work: three days in a fancy hotel for meetings, dinners and greetings; the usual new job, networking bollocks.  Not that I’m complaining you understand.  Lima Bean has just moved to Madrid, so I’m flying out on Saturday morning and spending the weekend on her sofa.  How cool should that be?


I’ll let you know if I get there, but it snowed there the week before Christmas too.


Possibly, there is a replacement for my old/current job, ready to start on 1st Feb. We live in hope.  I have more work in each job than is reasonable and I’m not doing either of them effectively right now.


I’m supposed to be in Swisscheeseland at the end of January, but can’t yet get a sitter for the kids.  And going back in February for a week or so to do handover/training with the new person – if they’re in place and ready to go and the kids can spend their holiday week with my mum or dad.



My dad has decided to spend some of our inheritance; but I’m not complaining.  The boys and I are off to Thailand for three weeks in the summer.  Obviously I’m terribly disappointed at his decision as are the boys *grin*


New Years resolutions are for those that know they’ll give up before the end of January; all the good intentions in the world won’t see the pounds fall off or the house redecorated, as a rule.


But this year I haven’t done it.  Haven’t made any life changing decisions that won’t change anybody’s life, let alone mine.  But I have had a thought.  A little seed of an idea to make 2010 a more thrifty life.  To spend less money on ‘stuff’ and more money on memory makers.


That seems to me to be a much more worthwhile investment than even the best shoes and handbags in the world.  Unless they’re in the sale, of course.