The last 'normal' essay I wrote was before Christmas, and I feel as though I have forgotten how to write one! The assignment I have done since Christmas was a Plan for the long 4000 word essay we have to do in April, so that was very different.
Assignment no.4 is due on March 14th and I feel slightly in denial about starting on it, but thankfully I have a tutorial on Saturday so that should help!
..........................
One of my work colleagues recently had a 'chat' with the boss about her production levels. Her response was to come into work early and leave late the last couple of days (unnecessary for getting the work done) and note down how much she had invoiced (we don't work on commission and this is irrelevant information). I was interested how her interpretation of what would 'fix it' is totally different to mine. If I had been given the same 'chat' I would look at my time management and priorities. But I suppose that difference is the reason that she gets The Chat, and I don't.
Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Balancing act
Recently I have noticed that I have been spending more time at Shape Up Studios, and less time studying. At least, it feels that way.
The studios are good fun and I have unconsciously increased my evenings there from 3 times a week to 4 or 5. During the week I usually go straight from work, unless I'm doing a 6.30 class in which case I go home first. It's my equivalent of going to a wine bar to meet friends, chat and have a laugh.. only more healthy and less expensive!
I thought that I was missing out on early evening studying time, but actually when I think about it Mr H and I spend the first 45 minutes after work sitting having a cup of tea and ranting to each other about our days at work ;) OK it's not always a rant, lets say 'we tell each other about our days'. So perhaps going to the studios isn't interfering with the studying after all, it gives Mr H some chilling/guitar playing time, and we still catch up on our day's news when I get home.
In the mornings Mr H takes Django out for half an hour for a constitutional, and I have started spending that time studying, and leaving the washing up until he gets back since I can talk at the same time. I still need some longer study periods especially as I will soon be working on my next essay, so I will need to fit that in to my day.
I nearly wrote 'schedule it', but I wrote on Twitter recently that 'I abhor routine', and I do. I particularly hate it in other people who can't adapt because they *always* eat at dot on 6.30pm and the dog *has* to be walked at 4.15pm. The mornings are the only time we do have a routine, because it works for us. In the evenings we do whatever needs doing and at some point remember that we need to eat.
Everything is adaptable to find the right balance.
The studios are good fun and I have unconsciously increased my evenings there from 3 times a week to 4 or 5. During the week I usually go straight from work, unless I'm doing a 6.30 class in which case I go home first. It's my equivalent of going to a wine bar to meet friends, chat and have a laugh.. only more healthy and less expensive!
I thought that I was missing out on early evening studying time, but actually when I think about it Mr H and I spend the first 45 minutes after work sitting having a cup of tea and ranting to each other about our days at work ;) OK it's not always a rant, lets say 'we tell each other about our days'. So perhaps going to the studios isn't interfering with the studying after all, it gives Mr H some chilling/guitar playing time, and we still catch up on our day's news when I get home.
In the mornings Mr H takes Django out for half an hour for a constitutional, and I have started spending that time studying, and leaving the washing up until he gets back since I can talk at the same time. I still need some longer study periods especially as I will soon be working on my next essay, so I will need to fit that in to my day.
I nearly wrote 'schedule it', but I wrote on Twitter recently that 'I abhor routine', and I do. I particularly hate it in other people who can't adapt because they *always* eat at dot on 6.30pm and the dog *has* to be walked at 4.15pm. The mornings are the only time we do have a routine, because it works for us. In the evenings we do whatever needs doing and at some point remember that we need to eat.
Everything is adaptable to find the right balance.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Gold stars?
I feel like a kid going to report to the headmaster, as I have my annual 'MOT' check-up at the doctor's this afternoon.
This time last year I was still a bit discombobulated from Mr H being away and then being home, he had been back about a month at that point. I was on 2 painkillers a day and was 71kg, the heaviest I've ever been.
This year things are settled down with Mr H home and everything's going well. I've been going to the gym since May and am now just about 65kg, and more inches than that smaller (since I have put on muscle which is heavier than fat). I stopped the painkillers in January for a couple of weeks, but found I needed them to cope with going to the gym! I am now on 1/2 or one a day depending on what I am doing that day. I'm certainly happier than I was this time last year and hopefully won't burst into tears in the surgery as I have the last 3 or 4 times I've seen her, when she's asked how I am. That will be progress in itself.
So, I'm hoping this afternoon my doctor is going to pat me on the head and give me a gold star for progress!
This time last year I was still a bit discombobulated from Mr H being away and then being home, he had been back about a month at that point. I was on 2 painkillers a day and was 71kg, the heaviest I've ever been.
This year things are settled down with Mr H home and everything's going well. I've been going to the gym since May and am now just about 65kg, and more inches than that smaller (since I have put on muscle which is heavier than fat). I stopped the painkillers in January for a couple of weeks, but found I needed them to cope with going to the gym! I am now on 1/2 or one a day depending on what I am doing that day. I'm certainly happier than I was this time last year and hopefully won't burst into tears in the surgery as I have the last 3 or 4 times I've seen her, when she's asked how I am. That will be progress in itself.
So, I'm hoping this afternoon my doctor is going to pat me on the head and give me a gold star for progress!
Sunday, 3 February 2013
Marriage
I was chatting with a friend this afternoon, who is coming up to the first anniversary of her second marriage. We were discussing the 'official' anniversary gifts for each year as she said that they had agreed to have a big celebration every five years rather than wait for 25! I said 'What's the gift for 24 years?' as that will be our anniversary in April 2013. She didn't know, but asked me - what is the secret of a long and happy marriage?
I don't know why 'long' and 'happy' always go together, because when you've been married a long time, unless you are one of those horribly perfect couples on the inside as well as the outside, the chances are it hasn't always been a bed of roses. But anyway, getting back to the question....
I instantly said 'Communication'.
Over the last 24 years, things have variously been bottled up; written in a diary instead of talking about them; or simply left unsaid. At some point diaries were discontinued, and in fact destroyed - a clean sheet of paper, as it were. But with no paper involved. It was a good start to talking more.
I followed it up with 'Sending them away for a year helps too'.
We chuckled but it's true. There is nothing like not having someone around all the time to make you realise how much they mean to you, and perhaps how much you take them for granted. And the communication flourished for being on writing paper, in an envelope with a postage stamp. I'm not suggesting that it would work for everyone, but it was good for us.
'And lastly', I said, 'go through a traumatic experience together'.
Having to support each other, and in our case one being reliant on the other to some extent, is a big ask for a relationship. I'm sure in some cases it can cause massive strain, stress and resentment but in our case it brought us even closer together (at least, if Mr H resents any of it, he hasn't told me!)
So there you have it, my recipe for a long marriage: Communication, Absence and Trauma.
You could probably leave out the last two.
I don't know why 'long' and 'happy' always go together, because when you've been married a long time, unless you are one of those horribly perfect couples on the inside as well as the outside, the chances are it hasn't always been a bed of roses. But anyway, getting back to the question....
I instantly said 'Communication'.
Over the last 24 years, things have variously been bottled up; written in a diary instead of talking about them; or simply left unsaid. At some point diaries were discontinued, and in fact destroyed - a clean sheet of paper, as it were. But with no paper involved. It was a good start to talking more.
I followed it up with 'Sending them away for a year helps too'.
We chuckled but it's true. There is nothing like not having someone around all the time to make you realise how much they mean to you, and perhaps how much you take them for granted. And the communication flourished for being on writing paper, in an envelope with a postage stamp. I'm not suggesting that it would work for everyone, but it was good for us.
'And lastly', I said, 'go through a traumatic experience together'.
Having to support each other, and in our case one being reliant on the other to some extent, is a big ask for a relationship. I'm sure in some cases it can cause massive strain, stress and resentment but in our case it brought us even closer together (at least, if Mr H resents any of it, he hasn't told me!)
So there you have it, my recipe for a long marriage: Communication, Absence and Trauma.
You could probably leave out the last two.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Obligations
The little orange 'Blogger' icon winks at me from my Favourites bar. Come on it says, haven't you got anything to say, just a teeny weeny bit of something you'd like to share?
I'm too busy, I'm at work, I've only got five minutes, I can't think of anything interesting. I DID think of something but now I've forgotten it. Hmmm.
I'm not going to apologise, because this is my page. I can write on it or not, as I wish. I was going to say that one should never apologise for not doing something unless one is contractually obligated to do it, but then I realised that there are few things that we are contractually obligated to do. Employment, paying the mortgage, all sorts of financial things, marriage perhaps (especially if you are the sort of person who likes a Pre-Nup) - but probably nothing you couldn't buy your way out of.
That then made me think that argument was weak, but is it? Do we have to apologise for things that we haven't done, when nobody asked us to do it (or said we must) in the first place? Surely we should only need to apologise for things we HAVE done, which we shouldn't have. Or is there a moral obligation to do things, an unspoken code of society and when we break it by not doing something we are not obligated to do, we feel guilty and have to apologise. Especially if we are British.
Last night Mr H and I watched a video on Facebook which was a montage of clips of 'the general public' doing Good Deeds such as holding doors open for a blind person, picking up a toy that a child has thrown out of a pram, preventing someone stepping front of a car, or helping a bully victim up from the floor. In each clip there was a 3rd party wordlessly watching the Good Deed be done, we assumed that they were supposed to be thinking 'I could do that'. I complained that it was depressing that people made such a big thing (ie. making a film and spreading it around the internet) about what to me seem basic courteous actions and attitudes. Mr H, on the other hand said that it acted as a reminder to people just how easy it is to do simple things to help others out, things that are done on impulse in an instant and take no time or trouble out of your day. I can see his point but I still mourn the fact that those actions are an exception rather than a rule, allegedly.
I say allegedly carefully, because we can be told that society is now rude, unsociable, unfriendly and uncaring, but is that actually the case? or is actually the norm to not slam a door in someone's face, or to help someone push their broken down car off the road, but the internet and the media think it is better to paint a grim picture of near Armageddon where no-one cares about anyone else, and we're all going to hell in a hand-cart?
Are people actually regularly complying with their moral obligations more than we are led to believe?
I'm too busy, I'm at work, I've only got five minutes, I can't think of anything interesting. I DID think of something but now I've forgotten it. Hmmm.
I'm not going to apologise, because this is my page. I can write on it or not, as I wish. I was going to say that one should never apologise for not doing something unless one is contractually obligated to do it, but then I realised that there are few things that we are contractually obligated to do. Employment, paying the mortgage, all sorts of financial things, marriage perhaps (especially if you are the sort of person who likes a Pre-Nup) - but probably nothing you couldn't buy your way out of.
That then made me think that argument was weak, but is it? Do we have to apologise for things that we haven't done, when nobody asked us to do it (or said we must) in the first place? Surely we should only need to apologise for things we HAVE done, which we shouldn't have. Or is there a moral obligation to do things, an unspoken code of society and when we break it by not doing something we are not obligated to do, we feel guilty and have to apologise. Especially if we are British.
Last night Mr H and I watched a video on Facebook which was a montage of clips of 'the general public' doing Good Deeds such as holding doors open for a blind person, picking up a toy that a child has thrown out of a pram, preventing someone stepping front of a car, or helping a bully victim up from the floor. In each clip there was a 3rd party wordlessly watching the Good Deed be done, we assumed that they were supposed to be thinking 'I could do that'. I complained that it was depressing that people made such a big thing (ie. making a film and spreading it around the internet) about what to me seem basic courteous actions and attitudes. Mr H, on the other hand said that it acted as a reminder to people just how easy it is to do simple things to help others out, things that are done on impulse in an instant and take no time or trouble out of your day. I can see his point but I still mourn the fact that those actions are an exception rather than a rule, allegedly.
I say allegedly carefully, because we can be told that society is now rude, unsociable, unfriendly and uncaring, but is that actually the case? or is actually the norm to not slam a door in someone's face, or to help someone push their broken down car off the road, but the internet and the media think it is better to paint a grim picture of near Armageddon where no-one cares about anyone else, and we're all going to hell in a hand-cart?
Are people actually regularly complying with their moral obligations more than we are led to believe?
Friday, 4 January 2013
Breathe in peace...
My resolution of 'don't let people wind me up' is being tested now I'm back at work.
Not with customers but with the reminder that it is like living in a student house. Sink perpetually full of cold water with a teaspoon or two at the bottom. Coffee spills on the workstop. Half eaten packets of food that seem to spread. All little things that don't really matter but still irritate.
A friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook recently that said
Normally I take those sort of phrases with a pinch of salt, but that one seemed to stick in my head. Reminding myself of it helped me get through a few moments over Christmas when I was worrying about things, feeling stressed or thinking uncharitable thoughts about people!
Try it next time you are feeling wound up, and combine it with a deep breath in and a deep breath out, it works for me...
Not with customers but with the reminder that it is like living in a student house. Sink perpetually full of cold water with a teaspoon or two at the bottom. Coffee spills on the workstop. Half eaten packets of food that seem to spread. All little things that don't really matter but still irritate.
A friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook recently that said
"Breathe in Peace
Breathe out Love"
Normally I take those sort of phrases with a pinch of salt, but that one seemed to stick in my head. Reminding myself of it helped me get through a few moments over Christmas when I was worrying about things, feeling stressed or thinking uncharitable thoughts about people!
Try it next time you are feeling wound up, and combine it with a deep breath in and a deep breath out, it works for me...
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
Beating demons
Happy New Year to you all! Today the sun came out, it has been raining seemingly constantly for the last couple of months so it was lovely to see the big yellow sky thing.
Mr H, Django and I went off for a walk on the Forest, which is still very wet underfoot but with blue skies everything was feeling spring like. I decided that today would be a good day to drive That Bit of Road, which I haven't been on since June 2010; it coincided with the place we had chosen to walk and was one option for the starting point.
I felt a bit nervous going up there, but when we came to go home so were going the same direction as when the crash happened, it was actually fine. Neither of us mentioned it although we were both aware of it and I had said about going that route. The main thing I noticed was that I couldn't work out where exactly the spot was that we had ended up between the trees - nowhere looked as though there was enough space without hitting a tree. Something else (part of a LONG list) to be grateful for, perhaps.
So, I have started the New Year by beating that particular demon. I don't know if there will come a day when I don't think of it at least once, but at least this is a good start.
I wish you all a happy, peaceful and fulfilling 2013!
Juniper x
Mr H, Django and I went off for a walk on the Forest, which is still very wet underfoot but with blue skies everything was feeling spring like. I decided that today would be a good day to drive That Bit of Road, which I haven't been on since June 2010; it coincided with the place we had chosen to walk and was one option for the starting point.
I felt a bit nervous going up there, but when we came to go home so were going the same direction as when the crash happened, it was actually fine. Neither of us mentioned it although we were both aware of it and I had said about going that route. The main thing I noticed was that I couldn't work out where exactly the spot was that we had ended up between the trees - nowhere looked as though there was enough space without hitting a tree. Something else (part of a LONG list) to be grateful for, perhaps.
So, I have started the New Year by beating that particular demon. I don't know if there will come a day when I don't think of it at least once, but at least this is a good start.
I wish you all a happy, peaceful and fulfilling 2013!
Juniper x
Saturday, 22 December 2012
Humans v. Nature
For my next assignment we have to come up with our own essay title, further questions that come out of it, sources we will use to answer the questions, and evaluate those sources.
On the one hand it's a bit scary, but more than that I find it rather exciting! We can choose from the many different crime subjects we have covered, from corporate crime to state terror; people trafficking to cybercrime. I have decided to concentrate on eco-crime because it has grabbed me as a subject.
I've never seen myself as a tree-hugger, but reading about it both in my course book and other articles has a) got my blood boiling and b) made me see how things link up between 'the West's' demands and the damage caused to developing countries and the natural environment.
At the moment (it will probably all change!) my working title is "To what extent do transnational relations and global trade affect levels of eco-crime?"
Today the sight in the 2012 "Wildlife photographer of the Year" portfolio of a rhino with its horn having been sawn off with a chainsaw almost reduced me to tears. The things that humans are capable of and responsible for in a quest for money can be heart-breaking.
I'm off to see if Amazon sell tree-hugger t-shirts.
On the one hand it's a bit scary, but more than that I find it rather exciting! We can choose from the many different crime subjects we have covered, from corporate crime to state terror; people trafficking to cybercrime. I have decided to concentrate on eco-crime because it has grabbed me as a subject.
I've never seen myself as a tree-hugger, but reading about it both in my course book and other articles has a) got my blood boiling and b) made me see how things link up between 'the West's' demands and the damage caused to developing countries and the natural environment.
At the moment (it will probably all change!) my working title is "To what extent do transnational relations and global trade affect levels of eco-crime?"
Today the sight in the 2012 "Wildlife photographer of the Year" portfolio of a rhino with its horn having been sawn off with a chainsaw almost reduced me to tears. The things that humans are capable of and responsible for in a quest for money can be heart-breaking.
I'm off to see if Amazon sell tree-hugger t-shirts.
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