Where do you live?

Tonight, on facebook, somebody foolishly asked 'who lives in the best town or city then?'
Well, of course they were met with a barrage of answers...

I was probably number 195 because I had been out at the pub all evening, hence that is why ESSEX was voted so late lol.

Anyway, I was really heartened to hear that many, many votes were cast upon the north. This of course, came after they slagged off London. I was disheartened by this because I tend to covet London as being without fault and with great affection in the hearts of many. I myself see London in such a way and tend to see it as somewhere that I would live, given the finances and the means, yet on the other hand it is also a scary place that I have been taught that is full of crime.

I worked in the city from the age of 17 yrs and had many happy years working in the busy capital and mixing with people that lived such a life that their income afforded them. I was of course, among the one's that earn't a lower income but were working with them and of course expected to socialise with them. I must add to that though that, it didn't matter what you earned, it was never an issue, you were all equal when you were in the Cock and Woolpack which was our local at the time.

Such good memories, however, I don't doubt that many people have many memories of many other pubs and towns throughout the country. I am so glad that this was brought up on facebook as it gave me the opportunity to share this little memory of my past life in the city.

Meditation

I've been curious about meditation for a long time but have never really given it a serious try and it's always been a case of giving it a go one day then forgetting all about it the next.

The last few days I've had a bit of a go at it again, nothing too serious just mainly when lying in bed trying to sleep. I know that's not necessarily the way to do it and it's not meant to get you to sleep but it seemed a good way at practicing the art or quieting the mind and believe me it is an art!

My mind it seems will not be quiet. I always knew that I think too much and that my head is always full of thoughts but I never knew to what extent until I focused my attention on it.

In fact I think it's got worse over the last few years. It's gone from a healthy curiosity to a constant barrage of chatter which includes questions, statements, jokes, quotes and just about anything else you can think of.

I was lying in bed in the early hours of this morning trying to get back to sleep after being woken by thunder and I decided to have a go at quietening my thoughts. Well, I think the best way to describe it is if you imagine a child constantly talking and asking questions when you're trying to sleep. You ask them gently to "go to sleep now", they stop for merely a few seconds then off they go again, you ask them again to "go to sleep now" and again the effect lasts a few seconds.

On and on this goes, over and over, the harder I try the more tense I get and it goes round in a vicious circle. I wonder what affect this must have on me mentally and physically. I can't possibly relax with that going on and all the times that I have sat down to 'relax' I have merely been sitting down.

I am really going to give meditation a serious try starting today and I believe that it can do nothing but good because lets face it it's bloody noisy in here...

De-cluttering update

The weekend was spent emptying and sorting the contents of the loft. 

My god what a lot of crap we had managed to collect. When I think that we have moved house and each time we have carted this crap backwards and forwards with us. Each time we have taken it from one loft to another! Madness, bloody madness!

Why would you keep stuff in your loft, knowingly not using it then take it with you to your new home and promptly load it all back up in the loft!

It is beyond me, yet I did this, not just once but over and over!

The minimalism bug

Minimalism is seems has become the latest buzz word. Well actually it has been for a few years but it's recently started to become more popular (in my experience that is).

Last year I made an attempt at becoming a minimalist and proceeded to clear our my kitchen cupboards. Anything that I didn't use or had two of was ruthlessly discarded. I felt a mixture of fear and relief at the same time. Fear that I may one day need these items and then live a long and regretful life as a consequence and relief because the process somehow gave me a calm cleansing feeling which made me feel lighter somehow.

However, despite my fears regret has only reared it's head once in the last year. One day I suddenly remembered the potato ricer that I had owned for many years. It had been with me through each house move. All the way to France to live for 5 yrs and all the way back again. In all those years I used the ricer once, once I tell you and that was the day that I bought it, which is far too long ago to remember, probably 1990 something, ish.

So, the day came that I suddenly yearned for my potato ricer, I even remembered who I gave it to (won't mention any names for fear of reprisal). I really needed this ricer because a recipe told me that I did... That makes me want to change to the subject of what we are 'told' to do and how we are programmed to live in a certain way and do certain things...

Anyway, the recipe stated that I required a potato ricer and as a result of this I felt regret at letting mine go. The feeling did only last a short while and I managed to talk to myself and realise that I was being irrational and that I really did not 'need' this particular item.

So, here I am a year on and have again caught the minimalism bug. I have again gone through my kitchen and managed to find loads more to chuck out. I haven't added anything since the last episode yet I have so much more that I feel able to let go of.

I have also tackled two junk drawers and was able to happily discard bits and pieces that I spent years thinking that I needed.

This weekend I hope to tackle the loft. That is going to be a big job because I tend to find it hard to make decisions about what to do with things so I just say to my husband "oh just put it in the loft for now" so as you can guess, there is a bloody lot of stuff in our loft!

Back to blogging

I used to blog regularly about living in France, it started off for family to keep in touch but along the way I gathered quite a following. We then moved back to England and I gradually stopped posting updates and eventually deleted it, something which I really regret.

Anyway, I have since made many attempts at starting again but the trouble is that I have many interests and I tend to flit between them all making it hard to pin down one area of interest. This has meant that I have started many blogs that I have spent hours designing and choosing names for, only for my focus to side step to another interest causing it to fizzle out after a couple of posts.

Yep folks, that's me all over, hence the blog name 'Likely to change'.