How Much Do You Forward Think?

Are you enjoying your lazy Sunday evening?  Are you comfy, feet up, maybe watching the GP, or reading a book, not really thinking of anything.  I’m sure there are a few readers out there chasing those last chores to be ready for the ‘paid job’ that calls on a Monday morning.  Me? I’m just strategising my logistics.

Before getting up to start dinner I had to plan, and plan in detail.  First put used dish, coffee mug and trash on the chair. Get up, off for a wee we go, whilst seated remember to roll up your sleeves (can’t do it standing up). Once in kitchen turn on grill as you pass taking dirties to the sink. Fill washing up bowl.  Move dry pots from draining board to oven top and put pork steak under the grill and set time for 5 minutes. Put pots away in the cupboard, get dinner plate out and rice packet.  Return to sink, start washing up (technical glitch, I forgot the sleeve rolling, sigh, options don’t do dishes or try and squish up sleeves keeping elbows at my side to hold them out the water). Beep beep beep, okay turn over steak, get rice pack ready to zap in microwave.  Stuff trash into bag ready to deal with tomorrow. Turn everything off, dish up, return to lounge.

Essentially, no journey is a single task, and you cannot back track or forget something, and you cannot drop anything. Get it right first time, every time.

Now I’m planning bedtime. Put cardigan on chair, get up and off for a wee, off to bed. Put cardy in laundry basket, get clean clothes out onto chair, put dirty wearings in the basket.  Hold that thought ……… I need to take the phone with me to put on the bedroom charger ……. put phone under cardigan otherwise it will slide off.  Contingency plan, if I cannot get up off the loo, leave phone in the bathroom, put cardy on back of chair (I sit on the chair and shuffle through to the bed).  Okay that should work.

In bed I’ll strategise tomorrow. Up, off to the bathroom, dressed and etc, return to the bedroom. Fold laundry put on chair (unfolded tends to slide off and I cannot pick anything up off the floor) make way to kitchen and load the washing machine and start, put dry bath towel on chair, put away last nights washing up and return to bedroom.  Fold towel and leave on chest of draws to take to bathroom next morning (haven’t the strength/balance to do it as its own job).  I have to sit and rest because I’ve not got the energy for the next bit as well. 

Right then, up, to the kitchen, make coffee and brunch/lunch sandwich, take out dinner from the freezer.  Waddle through to the desk, get seated.  Wheel to sofa and grab purse and note pad, check work list …… Hold on, hold on, I forgot something, I’m taking the phone through tonight, so must remember to put phone on chair before getting up and making lunch.

This is nothing special, this is everyday.  I’m constantly going over the next set of logistics, adding and amending, adjusting and revising.

And some people have problems solving the old fox-chicken-corn across the river riddle.

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Burnsy Woz Right

With Big Sis away for a weeks break, I decided to allocate this week to getting to grips with the video issues on the website. I had already googled and bookmarked a few how to pages and had mentally mapped out my productive days.

That’s where I went wrong, having a determined plan.

As some may know I’m pseudo consultant to the Resident Management Company that I used to run before handing it over to an agent when it got too much.  To say that the Agent have had ‘issues’ is a bit like calling pneumonia man flu.  Staff changes, lack of communication, confusing cross communication, time delays, etc have been adding to the general rumblings of dissension around here.  Consequently for every email sent, it generated two more, needing immediate attention. The Director and I decided to get to grips with everything and lick em into shape, we were going to go through the invoices of the past two years noting anomalies, we listed general running issues and we’re trying to get the next (already over-due) residents meeting organised.  

I did manage to list all the videos that need converting into three different file types (devices use different formats, desktop v tablets and phones, Apple v Microsoft v Android).  Apart from a couple of snaffoos that skipped along nicely, even managed to save the relevant back-ups.  This brought a recurrent issue, getting FileZilla to transfer the large files to the server. I’m three desk sessions into trying and I just cannot get it configured, nor find the instructions and answers online, it’s just something further than my limited knowledge and ability can handle.  So I’ll have to hope the web hosts ftp can cope with the file sizes.  It’s a time consuming process.

Each video page needs the HTML re-writing, all eighteen of them.  Some are videos I’m hosting, others are on YouTube, but I cannot start these until the video files are uploaded.  It’s already Saturday, that leaves a heck of a lot to go wrong right before Big Sis gets here at 9am Tuesday (her hubby’s car has a garage appointment first thing, so he’s using her car for work).  I’m polishing a draft for a new web article before coding that into a fresh HTML page as well.  BFF’s visit is coming up and I so want it all done by then.

Who was it who said, if you want something done, give to a busy woman, well if you find him, shoot him! 

 

Startember

My lists have broken, historically they helped me get organised, sorted and done, but the ‘meh’ apathy has set-in.  Is it because the list is on the iPad and a mere swipe deletes them as if they were never there, whereas writing them in longhand on a note pad and crossing it out doesn’t remove it from view, just reminds you of a failure?  It’s deeper than that, it’s a personality trait, accountability thing.

Sometimes success of getting stuff done is dependant upon the sense of satisfaction (personal and third-party) that comes along after the effort and struggle, it has to have a worth.  Sometimes it might be because someone else is relying on what you do.  Sometimes it’s something that is time sensitive.  I am fortunate that I don’t have things pulling at my time, I don’t work thus reducing the free hours for chores, projects and such, but because my days have no structure it’s neither here nor there what time I get up, go to bed, today is like yesterday and will be the same tomorrow.  Granted initially after ceasing work, having the comfort of so little pressure was so relaxing and reviving, and so needed after the stress and pressure of grief, work and deteriorating health, but now it has become a hindrance. Even enjoyable pastimes become things to merely fill empty hours, which takes the shine off the brightest activities.

But occasionally a spark of possibility needs seizing to try and wrangle the waining spirit, and ignite the motivation to get on and ‘do’, because it will bring satisfaction in a project successfully completed that others might just enjoy.  Give a sense of purpose and instead of time filling I’m being ‘productive’.

So, September is the month, BFF’s visit is the deadline.

1. Research and write the new article
2. Upgrade video player (current one doesn’t handle mobile devices)
3. Rework each video file/page
4. Upload everything to the server and publish
5. Update back-up drives 1 and 2 (I’m not loosing all that hard work)
6. Possibly pick up cat blanket crochet

I know, I know, I might be over reaching with the crochet, lol, but goals be goals.

Not being able to just get stood up from the desk is a major faulting factor, I could and should spend a couple of hours most days at the desk but the thought of shuffling on the chair to get to the sofa is a chore even though when I do do it, it’s not so bad, only some degree of hip discomfort.  It’s a mental tug of war. It is necessary to put myself in an outright absolute ‘have-to’ situation to give my mentals that extra decisive tug.

Right then ….. 2–6–heave!

 

Over Scorchio

Sorry it’s been a while since posting but, well, no excuses, just rather flagging.

How’s the summer been treating you? I’m a one for the heat, used to love driving the highways and byways, singing out loud, window down, just basking in the brightness of the days, feeling the sun kiss my pale skin. But you see I’ve become a ‘woman of a certain age’ and hormones have come into play.  

It’s been a very long time since we have had a summer like it, some seven to eight weeks without rain, only a couple of overcast days, others have afternoons and evenings of uninterrupted strong sunshine. Temperatures regularly hitting and staying in the high eighties.

Now for those unfamiliar, I have a serious lordosis. My spinal curve is more < than (. To stop painful discomfort I wear a support. Imagine double thickness granny girdle elastic, along with a foam pad covered in a suedette type material, tight against the skin from waking to falling back into bed. All too frequently I have trickles of moisture running down to my ordinary unpretty undies, I am constantly wet. I feel like I am cooking my kidneys wearing what feels like a heating pad.  It’s a dreadful sensation of a morning putting the dank cold pad back on, until the heat warms it up and cooks me for the rest of the day.  

Use a fan, I hear you cry, well that brings a new issue, cool drafty air movement does things to me, how to put it delicately, it accelerates my digestive transit, quicker than I can transit my delicate self to the loo!  Off to ASDA tomorrow, the coldest store in town, that might be fun, hope it doesn’t freeze my damp back pad. 

It truly pains me to say it – but I am so over the hot summer. Still kids break up from school next week, cue the rain!

 

Plastics Parasitical Paradox

The plastics industry does not want you to stop needing plastic products, it stands to simple basic business reason. Until such time as scrap waste has a commercial value, on a global scale, there will be no drive or strive for improvement.  Also, the reliance on plastic is a global issue, we may be doing our bit by putting our empty bottles in the recycling bin at home, but what about when you are out and about? Do you bring your empty bottle home to put in your recycle bin or bung it in the first available everything and anything trash unit?  Whilst we in the UK are ‘doing our but’, what about some of these emerging, growing, economic countries, we’ve seen the photos of the Mayan river choked with discarded rubbish.

Think it’s not such a big deal? Back about a couple of decades or so ago, before home recycling really took off, many charities would collect old newspapers, when they had a car full off they’d drive to a centre who would weigh it and give them a cheque – it became a highly lucrative income stream. Paper had a commercial value, it was worth collecting. Then all of a sudden it became worthless, a happenstance that could be attributed to the following. American was in an economic depression (what’s that to do with me dog eared copy of Pigeon Fanciers Gazette). Well you see folks, because the jolly US of A peeps weren’t out spending, there was less being imported, significant quantities coming from China, therefore less cartons, boxes and packaging were produced which were made from recycled paper. Old paper and cardboard was exported to China from many corners of the globe, for recycling and then used to produce more boxes and packaging.  

So you see, so much of things are commercially driven.  Currently there is a commendable movement to reduce ‘single use plastics’, there is hardly a product in our home now that doesn’t have a plastic element. It will take decades, a lot of joined up thinking and action before anything will change.  The general public consumer is being told to choose the non-plastic version, take your own country cup to the coffee shop, recycle your old/used items, but unless those items are readily available at a comparable price, it will be slow going, and incredibly minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Many more of our daily use items (I’m envisioning toothbrushes, food containers, picnic sets, children’s toys, garment hangers etc) are made of an un-recyclable plastic. This is where business needs to do its part, research and develop a recycling method for that plastic, find the market for the recycled plastic to be used or switch to a recyclable plastic version. All this is beyond the realm of we mere consumers. 
Until everybody, everywhere, gets onboard, we will still continue choking.

 

15 seconds of …..

Oh I say! One’s been interviewed!! A proper pukka author type lady who read my blog approached me and asked if she could feature me as a guest because apparently I’m interesting.  It’s been a week for it, another online bud referred to me as awesome and extraordinary.

I’ve been on tv (well a tv audience twice now), I’ve been in the press (local press, a couple of times), I’ve been interviewed on the radio (only local radio onboard a tallship) and now I’m a blog topic. I think I’m eking out my fifteen minutes in 15 second spurts.  Too much of me all at once surely cannot be a good thing.

Do we ever really consider how others perceive us? I know I don’t. My perception of myself is that I’m nowt to talk about, I’m muddling through, one step infront of the other, not achieving much. I’ve found myself in odd situations, with interesting people, but am I interesting … not to my myopic eyes.

You can read the result at … Pauline Barclay’s Blog

Fear not faithful readers, I shall not let this go to my head, I’ll still make time for you lovely minions, if you’ll just contact my social PA I’m sure I can squeeze you in between my daily hot stone massage with oils and lunch at The Ivy.

 

Lost All Logic

Once upon a few decades ago I was an avid puzzler, except crosswords I’m hopeless at them. Occasionally I’d buy a compendium of puzzles and eagerly work my way through the searches, fits, join the dots, silhouettes etc and logic grids.  With the World Cup taking over all sanity for the next few endless weeks my eyes were drawn to a book of logic puzzles to exercise the brain and fill some time.

Only thing is, I’ve lost my logic. I even made a mess of the three grid when once upon a decades ago I could handle a five grid with ease!  Maybe my concentration span has shrunk, or atrophied like my muscles, or am I just more easily distrac…….oh look, a red arrow trailing blue smoke just flew by, wow (for real, there’s an air show today at the beach).

Okay, okay, let’s get to trying again ……… do I need a pee ….. concentrate woman ….. hmm, I could go do the dishes ….. no they will be done while you’re poaching the salmon ….. concentrate ….. okay, humbug is kept in the sock draw, Peter asked the weetabix eater if he’d seen any sugar lumps.  Hmm.

The tennis at Queens starts tomorrow :o)