In which Very Important Matters are contemplated

First of all, an overhaul of the Sock Department is about to take place. Despite the solitariness of my existence, and no other persons socks having been in washing machines I’ve used for the past six months to confuse matters, (I have returned the one sock that had somehow worked it’s way into my Sock Department from the last abode) I am once more at the stage of having several odd socks, and no partners for them. More importantly, the long, knee high socks for under trouser wear in these inclement weather times are showing signs of decrepitude. Holes are appearing where holes should not be in most of my socks.

Moreover, Best Friend has threatened to visit and attend to the overhaul herself if I don’t. As I wish this to be an overhaul, not a massacre, it’s becoming a matter of some urgency. Best Friend is somewhat outspoken in her opinion of my ability to make certain of my clothes last longer than I probably should. She would also have no qualms at marching me to my Sock Department and demand I do something about it.

Secondly, there are the Other Undergarments Departments. Both of which need attention, due to the slowly, but steadily Changing Shape of a Japes. Given this is likely to continue for a while to come, I’m reluctant to do much about this yet.

Thirdly, there is the extremely pleasing matter that the utilities bills were about a third less than I was expecting.

Fourthly, if I have done no other good for some time in my work place, I now have a deeply reluctant learner who’s grasp of basic mathematical concepts are seriously limited, but who can now recognise the difference between perimeter and area, and how to calculate both for a simple shape.

Fifthly – may turn into a separate post!

Success

Of all the things I hate about moving, finding someone new to cut my hair is pretty high on the list of the stress factors.

It was decision time this week… and this weeks stress started with me going to the hairdresser I’d been to before, one of the walk-in chain variety, to discover they now will only do dry cuts when it’s a minimal trim, otherwise you have to have your hair washed. Wetting it doesn’t count.

So, it was a toss up between taking myself off to the area I’m moving to in three weeks or so, and finding someone there, or looking in the local shops, which conveniently are on a direct bus route from New Area, to see if I could find someone I liked. Which I have done.

We chatted – which is really unusual for me in a hairdresser. I hate talking to people I don’t know when I can’t see them as I’m seriously short-sighted without my glasses on! She did as I asked, not as she wanted, and was complimentary about the state of my hair!! “Can’t remember the last time I cut natural hair!” was the comment, after she’d asked if I’d ever had it coloured/permed/used styling products, and I cheerfully replied in the negative to the lot, said I didn’t even own a hairdryer, and had only started using conditioner since the infamous Hot Chicken Fat all over my Hair Day. Which had necessitated 27 applications of washing up liquid and cool water to remove the fat… and luckily happened a day or so before a hair cut was due, which protected both my face and scalp from worse damage.

So, that’s that one solved!

Just got to get registered with a doctor asap now.

Silly Season is upon me…

The next fortnight looks ridiculously busy, on paper. I know, I’ve just written it all down. It’s one of those times if I don’t have a timetable on my wall, I’m apt to go horribly wrong. It’s not quite as bad as it looks, though, as for some of it I’ll just be sitting patiently, to do my little bit, then sneak out again!

I do wish ordination season was better organised, though. I think I’m kind of grateful they’re all roughly in the same direction, and not opposite ends of the county this year.

Then, it’s preparation time for the children’s holiday work stuff… This year, I am not getting dressed up as any character at all, for which I am truly and deeply grateful. I cannot guarantee I won’t end up either soaking wet, or smothered with shaving foam or some other delightfully childish substance, at some point, though.

It perturbs me that of all the things I could have remembered easily on a health and safety test after a three hour session, the one thing that seems to have stuck in my brain is the date of the Manual Handling Regulations. (1992).

Victory declared

I think I can declare the Grand Sort Out finished for now. I have achieved most of what I set out to do, and that which I haven’t managed this week, can wait until my next few days of solitariness. Which will be upon me very soon.

But, I have tackled the Top of the Wardrobe, the Top Cupboard, the Space Under the Bed, and dusted the Shelves Behind the Books.

I do have one small dilemma… my cassette tapes. My cassettes are not in their first flush of youth, some of them are nearly as old as me. But, they were my very first collection of recorded music, carefully purchased using limited Saturday job income, and some of my favourite recordings are on them. My cassette playing machine is distinctly newer, but was involved in a little mishap a couple of years ago during a Painting and Decorating Saga, and it’s never been quite the same since. So, I can’t quite tell if it’s machine or tapes, and there is no other machine in the house to test them on.

A return to my normal routine beckons tomorrow… (EDIT.. oops, I mean today! I hadn’t realised it was quite so close to midnight) apart from the extra plant watering duties, which cease the day after.

Confession time

I’m having a somewhat minimal Holy Week.

Oh, it’s still busy by many peoples definitions, but I am not feeling obliged to go to everything on offer. Holy Week is done pretty thoroughly in these here parts, and I’ve got an eight day individually guided retreat starting on Monday. (That’s eight full days, so I won’t be emerging until the Wednesday of the week after.)

Yesterday I was like a grizzly bear with a sore head and a toothache and any other kind of ache likely to cause the bear to be cross and irritable. I was ready to fight my own shadow if it flickered the wrong way. I was seriously fed up with myself by the middle of the afternoon, and it didn’t aid matters that I was awoken from the nap I was having (as an attempt to see if that would improve things) by someone who I very rarely get cross and snappy with. And I, um, got very short and snappy.

Luckily, that seemed to snap me out of it! I gave myself a severe scolding, reminding myself the world did not revolve around me, I was getting wound up about something that didn’t really matter, had I forgotten how awful self-induced migraines were, (as a teenager, when seriously stressed out by something, I could bring on a migraine, but learnt other ways of dealing with my stress when I realised what I was doing. I’ve not had a migraine in the 25 years since this realisation) and did I really want to revert to those, which at the point of the nap, I was in serious danger of doing.

I will apologise for the snappiness tomorrow… but it may not have been noticed! (It’s happened before, I think I’ve been really nasty, gone to apologise, and been told it hadn’t been noticed.)

In other confessions…

I have spent too much time hitting a Penguin with a Flamingo, and causing said Penguin to crash into trees, (and Elephants, and occasionally Giraffes) bounce off Snakes, slithered over Elephants, and been thrown by Giraffes.

I have cleaned my room, but am afraid to tackle the Area Under The Bed, the Shelf Space Behind the Books and the Top Of The Wardrobe.

I have failed to write two letters which need writing, but will now have to wait.

I am about to be late for the one bit of non-Triduum Holy Week I’m taking part in!

Don’t panic, Japes, just don’t panic.

Breath, and calm, and think positive thoughts…

Argggghhhhhh!!

I know I’m ready. I’ve done all the print outs, all the equipment is packed up and ready to trundle, I’ve practiced all songs, I’ve got enough Duck Tape and hazard tape, along with extension leads, to get us through a national emergency. I’ve organised everyone to within an inch of their lives…. Why do I get involved in creative liturgies?! Especially in these days of Health and Safety and Fire Risks and….

Finger is unbruised enough to cope with all tomorrow will bring.

My inner being, though, is fairly bruised from yesterday, and I think I’ve worked out why. I need to stick to the resolve I made never to let this particular friend rant at me about another friend. I had more of it than I can can cope with, at a time when I don’t need it, and I certainly didn’t need the brand of teasing I was getting either, I know there are some brands of teasing I don’t respond well to, (I’m better at covering it up than I used to be, but it’s still not great….) and I thought this friend was aware of it. But obviously not… and it’s one of those really stupid things where I feel I could well make matters worse by trying to explain it to her, when actually, she really wants to see something in a situation that’s just not there.

Then, the household returns to normal today, and I’m not sure I want to hear what might be coming back from this meeting.

Why didn’t I agree to plan B?

Assorted and unrelated bits of thought

Default setting is wilting feebly.

In the few hours I’ve been up today, I’ve managed another Humungous Discussion. Except, I couldn’t divulge the contents of the Big Decision Humungous Discussion of a few weeks ago, which will impact on today’s stuff, because I still need to have the Part Two discussion and then a Part Three Discussion…. I may need to do a Part Two of today’s to explain a few things.

It’s all getting very complicated. No wonder I keep relapsing to the current default setting.

I hate telling someone I’ve only just met that a mutual friend, who they knew 30 years ago but had lost contact with, died 15 years ago when they enquire enthusiastically after them.

I’ve got a Humungous Ironing job to do, but not today…

I’ve gone off chocolate and coffee. I have kept four large bars of chocolate intact for a week. I am not pregnant.

My Christmas Cards will be late.

I am in need of a retreat – which I will get after Christmas, if default setting has altered from wilting feebly….