What a waste

So having been snowed in 2 days a week for 2 weeks I was getting quite excited about being able to leave my house this weekend and actually do something productive with my time. My car has had other ideas. On Monday it was revving too high so I called the AA in the evening when I got back to the station. After much drama (the AA seemingly no longer prioritise women on their own in vulnerable situations) the patrolman arrived to tell me that the idle air control valve wasn't working. Joy.

I booked my car into my local garage and the earliest they could look at it was Friday (yesterday) so I've been struggling with buses this week. When work is 40 miles away and the last bus from any nearby station is at 18.45pm the situation calls for comfy shoes and intricate planning. To cut a very long story short it is now 12.30pm and my car will not be ready before Tuesday, more likely Wednesday. The mechanic helpfully suggested I hire a car for the duration but car hire companies around here close at midday on Saturday and don't open at all on Sunday. This seems to me to be a somewhat peculiar commercial decision but hey, I'm no expert.

So here I sit. I'm looking at the consequence of a multitude of overdue chores and feeling quite guilty about being lazy, and yet even that's not sufficient to rouse me from my pyjama-and-blanket cocoon on the sofa. I even have biscuits.

Tomorrow. There's always tomorrow. I know, I'll make a list of all the chores I should do.

Hibernation doesn't seem so bad

This snow is now beginning to try my patience. I was snowed in for 2 days last week and I have been snowed in today. In fact today is worse because I tried driving out, got stuck and had to abandon my car so I am now sans wheels for when the weather clears, which, if the forecasts are to be believed, will be tomorrow. With a positively toasty 8 degrees by the weekend. Hmmmm.

Whether you believe in coincidence or fate you couldn't fail to see the irony of a recruitment consultant friend letting me know about 2 available positions in Dubai on the day I'm shivering indoors ruing not buying a gas-guzzling 4x4. It's very very tempting.

I do however have my plan for 2010 set, although the timetable is slipping somewhat. I'm now aiming to move out of my house during the first week in June, meaning I have around 10 weeks before I need to worry about anything. In the meantime I'm going to try to be more positive about the current living arrangements. True, a small faction of my neighbours are quite painful but that means that around 75% of them are fine. I may be in the middle of nowhere but it's peaceful... And the best bit? I'm on my own (cat excepted) so lounging in polka dot pyjamas slurping tea from oversize Eeyore mugs is perfectly acceptable.

Africa Cup of Nations shooting

This is quite shocking. I suppose if you think about it, with all the troubles over the years, perhaps not as shocking as first thought but quite out of the blue and potentially so so damaging to a continent that seemed to be shaking off a lot of negative history.

There's bound to now be knee-jerk reactions about the World Cup later this year. My geography's not brilliant but Africa's a large continent - does this automatically impact South Africa? Should this awful attack really affect something that could be so positive? Personally I'm firmly in the camp of not letting the terrorists "win" by wreaking havoc. A poor turn of phrase given the situation but life, certainly in some respects, should go on.

Resolutions

I set some every year and I break them all by February, still that's tradition isn't it?

1. Lose weight (obv) - this entails all efforts usually undertaken on the path to slimness such as more frequent visits to the gym, healthier eating etc etc.

2. Work harder - I'm easily distracted and I need to stop being like this, I've a career to build on and I'm thinking of perhaps branching out to some part-time work which won't happen unless I can focus.

3. Be more money savvy - I'm actually quite good at this if you disregard the actual spending, I shop around for insurance rather than plump for my renewal quote and so on, but I must stop frittering away the pennies on things that then clog up my stairs. Bringing me neatly on to....

4. Keep a beautiful home - not necessarily show-home perfect but clean, relatively tidy and unembarrassing should anyone pop over unannounced.

5. Be more social - including, but not limited to, being nice(r), going out more, talking to more people.

I reserve the right to add to this list should I think of any other ways I can improve myself. I know they're meant to be New Year's resolutions but must we limit ourselves to once a year? That's akin to restricting diet start-dates to Mondays. But worse.