Week 49/2024: Falling apart and picking things up

Week of 2 December 2024

Another week where everything fell apart, and I know that’s black and white thinking and everything didn’t fall apart but at times it sure felt like it did. I was still recovering from the injury I did to myself last week, and a lot of things just felt a bit shit.

Falling apart

Uncensored

A thing about working at home when your young person has finished Year 12 is they get to sleep in while you’re working in the next room.

And you get to reflect back on what your life what like when you’d just finished year 12, before your exams results and uni offers came in, and you literally had nothing to do, and how wonderful it was, that liminal time.

And you wonder if 18-year-old you ever imagined that three decades later, you’d be sitting in a home office, in a room next to an 18-year-old mini you who had just finished year 12, working in a job you said you’d never do, reflecting on the choices you made that got you to this point.

And what if . . . What if . . . you had made different choices at the end of school. Where might you be now?

What person might you be?

If things could be different

Then

Then

Well

Then we would be different

I would not be the same

I would not be this person

I might be some other person

Who was different

Somehow

And that this life

My life

Might be a different life.

And I might be somewhere else

Someone else . . .

(Uncensored by Andrew Bovell)

And the thoughts keep swirling.

The 18-year-old in the next room might not exist. You might never have picked up a camera, never have written a blog, or even a short story, never have set foot on a stage.

And then you shake your head and return to your life.

Addicted to public transport

This article about 78-year-old Mt Gambier woman Daphne Robinson, who is addicted to public transport, made me a little happier this week.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

Week 49 summary

[H4] Habit tracker

So, I hurt myself last week, and this was the result.

• 15 minutes exercise sequence in the morning (7 days): 3/7
• Hip exercises (5 days): 2/5
• Go outside before 8 am (7 days): 7/7
• 2 walks or bike rides or a combination (6 days): 3/6
• Long walk (1 day): 0/1
• Walk 8,000 steps (7 days): 4/7 days
• Evening exercise sequence (7 days): 0/7 days
• 9.00 shutdown (6 days): 3/6 days

What was the best thing about this week?

Amazing food from Toni (Honeychild) as part of her Lovesgiving Feast on the weekend.

The feast included turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce, glazed ham, the MOST AMAZING spicy honey creole fried chicken. This was accompanied with a range of side dishes including candied pumpkin (so good!) and yeast rolls. And, best till last, a range of desserts. Cafe au lait brownies and the most delicious little cinnamon sort of cupcake.

We got berry jelly cups as part of the feast. Now I do not like berries. (Apart from raspberries, which are basically the only fruit I will eat.) My first instinct was to kindly give it to one of my family members who would have been only too happy to take if off me, but if someone goes to the trouble of making me something, I’ll be brave and try it.

I did and, to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. I’m not going to go out and deliberately seek out berries, but this was a really great way to eat them.

Thank you, Toni!

The candyman can . . .

I also absolutely loved Taroona High School’s performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Yet another thing I had no idea had been made into a musical.

This show was fabulous, and definitely retained the extremely creepy and disturbing feels of the movie. It was also hilarious. (Go and look up the Augustus Gloop song . . .)

It had to be believed to be seen.

And now I can’t get this out of my head

Off to bed now,

Counting sheep.

Hope we don’t die in our sleep!

What did I notice this week?

A cool cloud on my lunchtime walk on Monday.

What did I learn this week?

To defrost the freezer when it first starts needing it.

Not three years later.

What am I reading?

• Your Time Your Way by Carl Pullein
• The script of my play for my acting class (Uncensored by Andrew Bovell)
• Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year by Allie Esiri.