Life, etc.

I am sitting here on the bed, well, I say sitting but I am in fact lounging. Feet on the pillow and resting on my elbows, laptop balanced on the far left corner. Got that picture in your mind? Good. I'm not sure what to write about, but as we've seen in the past, some of my best posts start out in just such a fashion. A lot of stuff has been going on recently and maybe I'll just start out cataloguing them and see where that takes me. OK?

The thing I need to talk about first and foremost is my girlfriend. As avid readers of this blog will no doubt remember, I am in love with my lovely Laura, who funnily enough was my girlfriend back in 1987/88.

Adorable, no?

After I arrived back on these shores in January (has it really been that long?) I embarked on a quest to rekindle friendships and have a few beers with old friends, which I did. One day I received a message from Laura's daughter Amy on Facebook, and soon I was visiting Laura and family. After several visits and many long talks on the computer, Laura and I realised we were still in love with each other after all these years. We have been dating steadily for a couple of months and I am now at the point where I am due to move in with her. 

Jobwise I just finished my stint at Smallhythe Place when it closed for the season on October 31st. So now I am seeking gainful employment. I cannot remember the name of the person that said it, but there is a well-known quote that is quite apropos: "I used to think I wanted a career. Now I realise I just want a paycheck." That about sums up my attitude toward work in general. I think I'd probably be bored out of my skull if I had the same job year in year out. I'd rather do lots of different things and create good relationships and memories than be tired of the same faces day after day.

My dear daughters are growing big and strong and beautiful and I hear from them and their mother frequently, all is well within their camp and I am happy for them.

Charlie is studying in college and getting more handsome, like his dad, every day. He's a talented musician, too, and he just turned the ripe old age of 20. He lives with his grandparents who are still adventuring the world.

It is now the best season of all, Autumn. A very busy time for me traditionally, lots of birthdays and holidays.

It all kicked off in October with my son Charlie's birthday (see previous paragraph), then my Uncle Steve (who lives in Oz) on the 20th, then my friend Kev for whom I baked a decadently gooey chocolate cake, then Halloween, which is also my daughter Sue's birthday. Then we have a busy time at the end of November - my daughter Emily will be 11 on the 22nd, my dad's birthday is the 23rd, my friend Nick on the 24th, and me on the 25th. This will be the first November in 19 years that I have not celebrated Thanksgiving too, so it'll be weird. But I'll manage, I suppose. I always roll with it. 

That's the key to life, I think, to roll with it and not sweat the small stuff. Oh, and by the way, I tried reading the book Don't Sweat The Small Stuff by Richard Carlson, and it was OK, I mean, most of what he said seemed like common sense, but then about halfway through he had to go and bring God into it, and that is when I just switched off. It's OK.... the book was getting to be a bit 'up itself', you know? So even if he hadn't mentioned the G-word, I was getting fed up with it anyway. I just had a hard time believing this guy was as nice and calm as he was making out. I was longing for him to talk about getting really angry, just once, just enough to let you know the guy was actually human. Instead every difficulty was met with a placidness usually associated with a statue of an iceberg. My advice, if you haven't read it, is... don't waste your money (unless it's a gift, in which case, take it back to the store and buy something cool for yourself instead, like a nice teapot and some teabags, then go home and make a nice brew).

If you want a better book, try Charlie Brooker's Dawn Of The Dumb or Benjamin Hoff's The Tao Of Pooh. Both thumping good reads.

Anyway, that's my little update on things, a nice random read, and I think it turned out pretty well, don't you?