(Monday, 20 April 2020)
Yes, that’s right – Monday! With yesterday’s mammoth post for the weekend under my belt, I am finally writing this update on the day it actually happened, rather than filling my head with confusion trying to remember what took place on what day. It is so much easier! 😇
It got me thinking that one of the nasty side effects of procrastination (or faffing, as some of you might call it 😉) is what I call the ‘noise’ of the list of unfinished tasks that builds up in your head, dies down and then pops up again at the most inopportune moments. Like when, for example, you are trying to sleep, or when you sit down for a minutes peace and relaxation, or worse, when you’re in the middle of a conversation with someone and randomly find yourself blurting out ‘Oh rats, I forgot X… or I must remember to do Y’. 😳
Maybe it’s just me, but it drives me nuts. I find myself constantly trying to remember the things that I need to do… jobs, admin tasks, put this or that away, start sewing curtains 😉, important things like the VAT returns, upcoming events, messages I need to reply to**.. pretty much anything you can think of really. I quite often write lists, performing a virtual brain dump onto paper, which scares the bejeezus out of me with the length of it, but I find it does actually help and allow me to relax from the constant cycle of trying to remember. I still find myself interrupting the poor long suffering Mark with things I think of in the middle of his sentences, but that’s another story entirely. 😂
**Those of you who know me of old, will know how crap I am with messages… If I don’t reply to them straight away, then the chances are high I don’t get around to it. It’s not intentional, I was just likely in the middle of something else and thought I would come back to it after. Or maybe you’re one of the poor people who, at one time or another, had a message from me that was half written, I got distracted by something and never finished it… or sent it. 🙄 Please do always feel free to chase me up if I haven’t replied, I’m a serial offender and believe me, it’s not because I don’t care. I do, I just have noise in my head. 😂
Am I coming across as a complete fruit cake here… or do you know what I mean? 🤔 😂
Anyway, the point is that having finally caught up with my updates means that I have a rather nice feeling of calm in my head today. At least, I did have. Right up until I decided to update WordPress on the website this evening and crashed the whole thing in the process… 😱 I probably should have done this update first and left that one until the morning eh?! All I need to do is remember to add that to my list then… 😂
The rain had stopped overnight but the morning dawned misty and dull. It looked promising that it would clear later, but the mountains around us all looked like they’d been photoshopped out halfway up.. and badly at that. It always amuses us when that happens. It’s like someone just took an eraser to them and rubbed half of them out in a bit of a hurry. Sadly, I thought I had taken a photograph of it, but can’t find it this morning for love nor money, so you will just have to use your imagination. 🙄
This morning, I finished off the gift voucher I’d promised to make for our guest’s birthday surprise and sent it off. I immediately got a reply back, the friend loved it and was looking forward to giving it to her. We’ll look forward to seeing them here, it’ll be a fun visit I’m sure.
The afternoon brought visitors, English friends of ours from a nearby town, who had popped in to collect some baby tomato plants and a couple of other bits I had spare. We haven’t seen them in months, they’d been on holiday immediately before all this mess started and then straight into lockdown and quarantine once they were back. It was so, so lovely to see them.. even if it did involve standing miles apart and chatting in the garden instead of the more normal form of hospitality. 🤨
It really gave us a lift to see them and the dogs were beside themselves with excitement. They went mad, they were so happy! Maybe they were more bored by our constant company than we’d realised 😜 😂 It bodes well for a peaceful night, they’ve been out like lights all evening!
Mark had been working on straightening paving slabs ready for repointing in the morning and moved onto painting the balcony this afternoon. The wind blew up late afternoon, so he finished the bit he was working on and called it a day. Perched on a ladder, balancing a container of paint in one hand, down at the side of the house where the wind was blowing, was not the easiest – or safest – of tasks at that point. 😬
Abandoning work for the day was a decision I thoroughly approved of, not least as he then proceeded to make a cracking roast lamb dinner… and very, very nice it was too! 👍
On this day, 7 years ago, having previously met briefly a couple of years earlier at another event, Mark and I literally ran into each other again at a snowHeads ski trip in Val Thorens. Here are Mark’s words that he wrote for our wedding website describing that time…
“It wasn’t until the snowHead End of Season Bash in April 2013 that we met again. This time under different circumstances.
We bumped into one another, with the mayhem of arrivals and greetings, against the romantic backdrop of L’Oxalys boot and ski hire room in the basement of that fine establishment.
The Italians call it The Thunderbolt. An intense feeling and affection towards someone – a feeling that can’t be denied. I think we were both taken a little by surprise at how absolutely delighted we were to see one another, as we rushed to embrace.”
7 years ago?? Where did that time go??!! 😮 Happy ‘running into you in the boot room’ anniversary sweetheart, it’s been an amazing and somewhat adventure filled 7 years – I love you. 💕
Stay safe everyone xx
