Tag: Life

Yes, it’s definitely that time of year. The music has started to be played on the radio (where are all the NEW Christmas songs??), the first dusting of slush has plopped itself all over everything, and I’ve got a cupboard bursting with presents ready to be wrapped, not to mention cards to be written and posted.

Oh yeah, and this year I will have a Christmas tree.

It’s also that time of year when you look at your calendar and think… ‘right, when shall I fit in some sleep?’ because all of a sudden there are only a few weekends to go and you’ve got one or two nights out in a row and you start to feel old and wonder if you can manage but then you go out and it’s fab and you think ‘hey, I don’t really NEED sleep’ and then suddenly one day you sleep for 14 hours and are quite happy to do the same the next day, just as you are happy to eat trifle for breakfast, demolish a chocolate orange for lunch, and takeaway is a chore because it means getting up off the sofa to answer the door. Meanwhile your living room is strewn with wrapping paper, half-empty coffee mugs and wine glasses huddle together (you did start to tidy up but it was just too much effort) and you start to wonder if you are getting a cold.

Then the next night out comes along, you struggle out the door and whoooosh, alcohol happens and it’s fab and you think ‘hey, I don’t really NEED sleep’ …

Repeat until January.

I fuckin love Christmas.

I forgot to open my advent calendar this morning, I don’t think my brain is willing to accept that it’s already the 1st of December.

The year really has flown by in a haze of highs and lows, and all things considered I think the trend has been an upward one. Certainly finishing the year feeling good about me, good about Kirsty, good about Kirsty and I, and good about the future.

I’ve not blogged all that much this year, largely because the events took over my life and also because I’ve been writing occasionally in a private diary. It helps me process my thoughts and marks the true progress of the year.

And that’s the thing, it’s all just part of this journey.

One thing I’ve managed to achieve is to avoid negativity as much as I can. I’ve a few wee systems in place (at work, and elsewhere) and hopefully, for the most part, I’m a lot calmer and level headed. Mind you, I’m sure a lot of that thinking can also be attributed to some of the more crap events of the year.

Regardless, Christmas is rolling towards us, I’ve got ALL my presents bought and this year will have a Christmas tree as well. I’m looking forward to a few days off, some fun nights out, and the start of a new year.

Well that was a pretty, damn epic weekend.

Friday night involved mulled cider, lipstick on boobs, and other nefarious goings on including realising it was time to go to bed because daylight was returning. It was one of those unexpectedly good evenings of making new friends, and probably involved a little more whisky than was sensible but everyone involved had a great time. Not sure I could handle doing that every weekend mind you… getting old … but as you are only as old as the woman you feel… well I’m a lot younger than most of you 😉

Saturday involved not enough sleep, hangovers, chocolate Santas, an afternoon snooze, and an evening with a Mr. Bill Bailey who was tear-inducingly funny as well as bloody talented. I won’t spoil any of the jokes, although some of the funniest moments was him reacting to the Glasgow audience, including an (I think) off the cuff story of a Glasgwegian friend of his trying to order a pint of lager in Holland, in typical Glasgwegian brogue delivered at 1000mph. The tour was called Dandelion Mind, worth catching it on DVD when it comes out (if it comes out).

And finally a lazy Sunday which involved a bit more sleep, and a wedding reception in Perth. It was the wedding of the daughter of my parents close friends (close enough that they are ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’ by name). So good to see the bride so happy, she deserves it, and she even gave us all a wee song. Shame we had to leave early but some of us had to be in work this morning.

But wait! Even though it’s now Monday, Kirsty and I have decided to extend the weekend to include tonight, which involves poetry delivered by a friend of my sisters. He’s bloody good and I’m really looking forward to hearing him deliver his own material.

Alas, amongst the highs came the sad news of Gary Speed. A young man (he was 42), who was successful, universally liked and whose suicide came as a real shock. The presumptions (I’ve not seen it confirmed anywhere and it’s almost beside the point…) is that he was suffering from depression.

Long time readers and close friends will know I too have had my share of ups and downs with the dreaded D word. I was going to write more about that, and I probably will. But not today.

Today is for focussing on the highs, finishing the weekend of awesome (as it will heretofore be known) and counting my blessings, for I have many.

Having received a slow cooker for my birthday (rock ‘n’ roll!) I’ve been enjoying some tasty dishes, culled from a couple of recipe books aimed at said method of cooking. Meat based dishes are wonderfully tender, and full of flavour, soup based dishes are thick, wholesome and not laced with salt like most canned soups (speaking of which, erk!).

Last night was my first shot at using it without a recipe. I had some vegetables left over from other recipes and so decided on soup as a ‘foolproof’ offering.

Unless you are this fool, it seems.

Where did I go wrong? Here are the ingredients:

• 1 Onion
• 1 Leek
• 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
• 1 ‘thumb’ of ginger
• Carrots
• Potatoes
• Squash
• Red Lentils
• 1 pint of stock
• Crushed Cumin
• Pepper for seasoning

Boston in the fall. Lovely, even though I only had a few hours to wander the streets and take the duck tour. Gorgeous place, friendly people, definitely one to revisit.  I was a little bit spoiled by the fact it was around 21C in glorious sunshine but, nevertheless, Boston has a charm that is almost European (understandably so). Winding streets, glorious parklands, and an air of history. Yes, I liked Boston very much indeed.

Chicago in the fall. Grey, cold and regimental. Whilst it was nice to have the opportunity to visit (I was visiting some of our customers in the US of A last week) I was less than impressed with Chicago. Again, the weather played a part but the city itself seemed very anonymous. Again, I only had a few hours to wander so without doubt I didn’t get the best of what it could offer but I won’t be hurrying back.

It’s been a hectic month. Between struggling to build a website (I’m a month behind schedule, which I hate), things at work being even more mental than normal (which is a good thing, we are TOO busy), and the last week of travel (London, Boston, Chicago in the same week), suffice to say I’m reeling a bit.

Hopefully the next couple of weeks will ease me into December nicely, and then onto 2012.

I have a terrible memory, if I didn’t have access to a calendar (app/website) I’d be completely lost.

The flipside of this is that, because everything goes into my calendar, it’s easy for me to see that between now and Christmas I have something (a gig, a wedding reception, nights out and other commitments) planned every single weekend bar one.

This is not a bad thing, but does force me into having to plan more and more of the rest of my life to make sure everything that needs to get done, gets done (things like paying bills, cleaning, etc) and that I leave time to do things that I want to do, some of which are scheduled, of course, but many of which are less time constrained.

It does mean I struggle, at times, to “go with the flow”. Because my life is scheduled, part of me is always aware that there is SOMETHING that NEEDS DONE by a certain time or date. It’s hard to switch that off, but I’m learning.

In fact, I’m developing a weird sort of schedule where I’m marking days in my calendar as “do nothing” days (or evenings, if needs must). Is that weird? It seems weird…

One thing I am definitely trying to do, but struggling to schedule, is to keep up the cycling. I’m not all that keen in going out in howling gales and hailstones (as we had here last week) but I’m sure I can handle a bit of drizzle now and then. Alas with the weather being somewhat unpredictable at best, I can’t really schedule it. Can I? Should I?

We will see.