Rainy days and Mondays

Another rainy, cold and wet April morning. It has been raining for almost two weeks and the fact that we are officially in a drought is ironical. Despite all this rain we are happy because there is no need to use the hosepipe which in any case has been banned. Is that being obtuse? Our garden, (which was given a very dramatic haircut by Bob, our neighbour and handy man in the garden) has made a remarkable recovery with lucious greenery and fresh new shoots sprouting from every branch; is looking fantastic. The grass is the most beautiful emerald green and the birds are having lots of bird baths by the pond, our robin's breast looks crimson as he sits on top of one of the pond ornaments and the resident long tailed tit is nesting again in the conifer outside. All these activities can be viewed in our goldfish bowl conservatory. So not rainy days and Mondays anymore but lazy days and Sundays - reading the papers in my pyjamas, listening to the radio, cup of tea to hand and living in the present moment. Bliss!

The Englishman's Castle

In more contemporary times, there seems to be a wider use of the term Englishman's Castle to incorporate The Shed as the common man's Castle. The dictionary describes a shed as an, " outbuilding with a single story; used for shelter or storage". Nowadays when a man says that he is going to his shed, he realy means that he wants to get away from his wife and family and seek some quiet time by himself. When he gets there, he gets a chance to do whatever he wishes without anyone disturbing him. This may involve reading, smoking, having a nap, playing his guitar or whatever music he has and even to have a drink....so he makes the shed into a kind of escape venue and converts it into place where he is comfortable and where he can relax and be happy. So where am I going with this shed concept? The garden shed had it's earliest beginning as a tool shed for garden equipment but as people become more inventive with their free time, we now find all kinds of uses for the humble shed. Men in particular like to have a private space to ruminate and get away from the domestic routine in the house. If a woman wants to get away to a place she can call her own to pursue a hobby such as sewing or craft work, she rarely has the chance to do this as she has so many responsibilities so she tends to incorporate it within family life whilst watching the TV or sitting in the kitchen. But the man has to have his den, office, study, shed and even a bar! Yes, the bar has come into the home as an essential place to drink and be merry. So we find many homes now having a bar at home. As this is an adult pursuit and children are often excluded from drinking alcoholic beverages, the idea to take it out of the house has brought about the birth if the garden pub. The demise of the public house in recent times and the high cost of alcohol and fuel has created a market for home pubs and garden pubs. It is amazing how a past time such as going down the pub has now turned into home drinking, home brewing and drinks at home. Going out has become expensive and people tend to stay at home, invite friends round and drink away without having to worry about drink driving penalties. Brilliant! However, most houses are not big enough to have a separate bar so the idea of extending outside the house brought about the pub in the garden, in other words the bar became a shed and the pub shed was born! Check this link out and see what I mean! http://www.readersheds.co.uk/share.cfm?shedtype=Pub%20Shed

Day at the gym

Woke up to rain so no chance of an early morning walk today. In order to dispel lethargy and enertia, I decided to try out a new fitness class - body pump. It involved a variety of weights, step and dumbbell exercises set to music. It was good to challenge myself and build strength in my biceps, triceps and any other ceps I did not know I had! The instructor Nick did not flinch at giving us a jolly good work out, which at times felt like boot camp! I was pleased that I stayed the course and held my own with the other women in the class who were much bigger and stronger than me. I stayed focused and concentrated on the movements and worked to my own level. At the end of the class, I felt that I had achieved something that I had never done before and felt quite proud of myself. So the lesson I learnt was that in life we have to set ourselves goals and new challenges so that we can reach further into areas that we thought were out of bounds. Women so often lack confidence partiucularly in sports which were deemed to be male dominated. I wa s listening to a female boxer on Women' Hour the other day talk about her aim for an Olympic gold and she gave me the incentive and motivation to try weight training such as body pump. The other lesson I took from today's class is that we have to listen to our bodies and know how far to push it and understand that we have to take small steps at first and build up over time in order to reach the goal of good physical fitness. Furthermore it is important that i pace myself and to attune the mind with the body. The journey towards achieving good physical health will bring a direction in my life which i know will slowly unfold as I make choices and decisions about my work/life balance in the coming months.

What about London?

Oscar Wilde was famously quoted as saying, " if a man tires of London, he tires of life". I spent a day in London yesterday to catch up with my childhood friends Juju and. Lu Ming. Getting to London was easy and arriving at Kings Cross station was a nicer experience than before as the station has been modernised and platforms, travel information easily accessible and rail staff n bright new uniforms. Central London was congested with tourists and as it was the school holidays there were even lots of children and young people about, many being entertained by street artistes pretending to be statues. I walked into a Lloyds TSB branch in Covent Garden and spoke to a bored customer service officer who told me that more and more people are now moving into the west end to live in order to cut costs. The Seven dials area which includes, Covent garden and Soho have always been residential areas and here there are a multitude of shops, bars, cinemas, theatres etc - every amenity to meet any need. London has always attracted people and if you like city dwelling and living in a built up urban area with every amenity at hand, then working and living in a vibrant quarter of a pumping city like London is the place to be. I was fascinated by the people on the street as I sat and observed them from Jubilee Market and surrounds, there were young executive types walking with mobile phones deep in conversation with their mobiles jammed against their ears, students using the free wi-Fi in Starbucks and Cafe Nero, market traders plying their wares and bright young sales assistants in posh up market stores like Orla Kiely and Gudrun Sjorden strutting their stuff. Then it was happy hour and all the streets were packed with people leaving work for a drink or a quick meal, pre-theatre goers and those who were wending their way home waiting at bus queues and crowded tube trains. What an amazing place London is and even more what about it when the Olympics 2012 comes to town in July? Will it be able to cope with the onslaught on its already challenged transport system, congested roads and pavements? Not to mention increase in volume of people using its toilets ( there were only two cubicles in the one female public loo in Covent Garden) and what about the rubbish generated by all these people. These are only some of the few observations I made on my day trip to London. I have to admit that I was thoroughly enthralled by London for those few hours I was there. It has so much to offer and it is feast for all kinds of tastes and needs - pastry lovers, gourmands, retail therapy, drink, music, arts; anything and everything but is it? London epitomises our fast moving, instant gratification materialistic society that we all love and resent at the same time but we find difficult to reject because that is what we have become as citizens of a capitalist western world where we need to feel connected and involved as a group or as individuals in order to know that we belong.

After Easter

Easter is over and our different ways of experiencing it - religious and secular versions have moved on... Church goers have fulfilled all their holy week and Lenten commitments and celebrate the risen Christ. No more chocolate and alcohol abstinences for those who now revert to their old ways. What was all that about? Do we feel any more virtuous or better individuals? For those of us without a religious belief and celebrate the secular version of Easter, they view Easter as the first long holiday since Christmas and a chance to sit back and enjoy the spring weather. Alas that was not to be because the weather played up and rain and cold weather came down over the Easter weekend. Never mind, we rejoiced that our gardens were well watered as the hosepipe ban had just been imposed. I guess all that can be concluded from this is that Easter is a celebration of dark over light - days are longer, animals come out of hibernation and plants spring forth new shoots and growth. New beginnings methinks. I look forward to new ideas and inspiration to move into a new phase of life. By being more mindful in my thoughts and actions, direction and purpose will follow.

April Showers

The last few days have been wet and cold after mad weather March. We were thrilled because it rained heavily the day before the hosepipe ban began on the 5th March. It was what the Scots call a " dreich" day - evoking dull, depressing and cheerless emotions but hey, the garden needed the rain because the trees, shrubs and grass have come alive! No need to water the garden now. Bring on the rain but please God give us some sunshine too!