Ho hum. Things are changing apparently. Not so much here.
Own-working is me. Still. And I guess will be for a while yet given my personal circumstances.
I did pop out to experience Aldi's new traffic light entry system. Pity the hand gel had run out inside, as it had at Asda. I hope things aren't going to get slack in this area. We've all worked so hard at being good (except for the backdoor barbers, shame on them) and it seems to be working.
So I find I still have five packs of tea and three tins of corned beef. I didn't mean to hoard. My brain just couldn't remember one shopping list from another so I accumulated accidentally rather than deliberately stocking up.
It's been an ongoing affliction, this lack of brain equilibrium. And I'm still not through it, although I try and hurry it along; get sharper, get with it, buck up, get it together.
Not feeling it though, even if I am instructing my brain to pull itself together. It's not having it. It's not going to be pushed. No matter how much walking I do, or clutter clearing, or banana bread making etc etc.
Frustration is me. My work output is still decent, ie what I do is of good quality. But there's not enough of it for my liking. I'm used to churning out respectable products on demand. Seems I'm not a Channel though. I'm affected more than I choose to admit by the prevailing atmosphere. I'm not alone in this I know, but it's doesn't make it easier.
I have taken to going on Urban Scavenger Hunts with the girls next door to give both their mum and my brain a break. Together we trawl the neighbourhood for black cats, stop signs, the number 7 and a yellow car with a red haired lady driving.
The girls are now writing their own lists and copying them out three times (have you seen the price of printer ink?!), which is good fun in itself and keeps them occupied.
The best thing we’ve had to seek so far has been 'Somebody who asks "Are they doing their homework?"' as we were asked several times the first time we went out together, them with their pink clipboards and chewed-up pens, me pointing onwards, two metre distancing like Joyce Grenfell reborn.
Naturally this time we passed lots of interested-looking couples but no matter how much I engaged them in our scavenging work, none of them would come out with the requisite query. In the end I pretty much had to put the question in their mouths.
People are lovely though. Just smiling at them unloading their car or deadheading in the front garden was enough to get them involved in a chat or garner a genuine smile in return.
That and the stop at the Post Office for apple turnovers on the way home makes for a nicer day all round. Just what my brain ordered.
Jane Anderson PhD specialises in Sociospacial Reciprocity and Place Therapy. She's been working in wellbeing for nigh on 30 years and is especially interested in the people-place relationship and how it underpins all other aspects of staff engagement and wellbeing. Her Staff Wellbeing Framework Model is now charter-marked for quality assurance.
www.jcaconsult.co.uk / 07742942651
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