Naan bread.

If today is just a repeat of yesterday, tomorrow will be either just as exciting or just as dull.

I want to try something new often, often enough that as I grow older, I have a broad repertoire and my actions of today (which ever day that may be) have been enhanced by my past experiences.

It doesn’t have to be something big, just something new and slightly different. So today, I made Naan Bread; yep, never made it before, and now my life is better for it!

Christmas.

WTF….

It’s not until you are in a position to notice, that you notice how fucked up the whole Christmas thing is; the list of what’s wrong with it is endless.

  • Spending crap loads that people don’t have on things that most don’t need.
  • Lying to children about about a big fat chap who makes and delivers all the presents for no cost (adding to the above dysfunction) except for the currency of blackmail; be good or else.
  • Overindulging on food and drink that you don’t need, but feel the need to buy and at least try to consume before it goes out of date or you grow sick of it and chuck it out.
  • Falling out with family (at some point) either because expectations were too high or too much alcohol was consumed or you just couldn’t keep your mouth shut any longer.

OK, I’m depressing myself now. I love Christmas actually, I love the warm feeling it brings in your heart. I love getting the present just right, so I see that look of surprise on my loved ones’ faces. I love the cooking, the creation of a great meal accompanied by a fantastic wine, the smells, the flavours. the log fire and the Christmas tunes.

I’ve learned to step back from most of the commercial aspect of Christmas and concentrate on the family and the love. It took me a while and it’s only possible now, with the amazing partner I have who totally supports the concept of ‘just enough’. Just enough to make it special, not too much as to make it fake, false and sickening. She is what I am most thankful for at Christmas… I hope she knows it.

 

Wasteful days.

So what have you done this holiday? I feel like I’ve not done as much as I intended… and there is of course a reason for that… I’ve sat on my arse for most of it… I’ve got into the habit of staying in bed until 8, 9, 930 etc…. it’s getting later and later, soon it’ll be lunchtime if I’m not careful.

Time seems to go quicker as you get older, the days fly by, before you know it, it’s time to go to bed again. I actually don’t sit on my arse, very rarely am I sitting around doing nothing. There’s always something needing to be done, kids to be fed, laundry, garage to be tidied, sleeping; always something to conveniently distract you from doing the things that you want to do, or at least aspire to do…

The last day.

31st December again… Another year gone, another round the corner. It’s just a date tho right, nothing actually significant, it’s a construct, just another day. Yet we make it into this thing where we reflect on the past and look to the future. We follow the rest, conform to the social norm, “it’s the last day of the year” and “see you next year” chuckle… But it’s just a day…

No matter how often I tell myself that it’s just a day, I still find myself getting caught up in the illusion, I catch myself reflecting on the past and wondering what the next year will bring. I even catch myself wondering what I’ll do differently this coming year…. Which is a load of bollocks, I mean if I want to do something different I can choose to do something different any day of the year, not because it’s a New Year…

Perhaps that’s our problem, we don’t want to believe that we could do things differently tomorrow, that would be too scary, we might actually have to do something about it if we believed that. So it’s easier to live with the compartmentalised construct of old years and New Years. It gives us an excuse to not do things until the New Year…. And there are about 82 New Years on average to rationalise our commitments away….