Lazing in the sunshine

I spent this last weekend doing very little. I'm not sure exactly why but it was one of those weekends where I was seriously lacking in motivation or energy and I was generally very lethargic. However, don't run away with the idea that it was a bad weekend. Far from it.

On Friday night my sister cooked a fantastic meal. She made my favourite - chicken fajitas - and we slobbed out in front of the weirdly fascinating Fringe. On Saturday morning my brother-in-law and I went shopping for wood to make shelves. This may not sound very exciting to a normal person but I get very enthusiastic about wood and DIY stuff. We went to a timber yard. This was my ideal Saturday morning shopping trip. After all, you don't have to worry about whether a plank of wood is going to fit you, or make your butt look big!

Then on Saturday afternoon my sister and I gardened. Correction, she gardened, I watched! This is not usual for me. I like getting my hands dirty and planting things that grow. But on Saturday I just sat in the sun and daydreamed. My sister planted her vegetables and I acted like one! I was joined in this exhausting endeavour by my sister's cat, Pixie. Although technically she can at least claim to have chased a few dancing shadows and the odd insect.

On Saturday evening my sister and I went to my parents for a barbeque. I suspect you're seeing a pattern here by now. On Sunday I was so worn out by all the eating and daydreaming that I didn't do much. And now I'm back at work.

What I learned this weekend is that I carry a lot of guilt around about not getting things done. It tends to eat into my enjoyment of the weekend. Sometimes it's OK to do nothing. I would even say that sometimes it's necessary to do nothing. I didn't achieve anything but I do feel recharged.

Sunrise on a misty morning

I spend a huge amount of time commuting by bus. I get on the bus at 6.45 every morning and get off it at around 6.30 every evening. I actually don't mind the travel, although it makes for a very long day and I'd rather skip the work bit in between. Some days you get a sunrise that is so beautiful (picture taken through a very grubby bus window - trust me, it was a gorgeous ball of orange flame), the pheasants, deer and rabbits are all out in the fields at the moment doing whatever they do at 6.45 am and life seems pretty much OK. Cheesy I know, and I now have an image of Disney's Bambi in my head! But you know what I mean. I so often find myself bitching and moaning about life that it's nice to appreciate those moments when it makes you smile.

I have made a pact with myself that I will do at least one hour's writing every weekend and I'm pleased to say that I managed more than that on Sunday. I started work on a children's novel that has been lying dormant for almost four years now. I had a whole two sides of A4 typed up before I abandoned it but it's been nagging at me to be written and I need to get it out of my head.

So, all in all, I haven't been doing too badly with my fortieth year plans. My tattoo is now four weeks old so I can start swimming (that's one I'm really going to have to push myself hard on). I'm writing again. I have plans to swap my bike, a mountain bike that I don't get on with at all, for a second hand town bike, which I hope to use around the very hilly town I live in. I figure I can work up some enthusiasm for a bike ride that has a country pub and a long cold pint in the middle of it!

That's how things stand on April Fools' Day. It's not a plan that's going to set the set the world on fire but it's mine and it's progressing.