Conversation Locations
Why do people always manage to find the most irritating places to catch-up or hold conversations in shopping malls, always exactly when I’m present? Perhaps this is just a universal occurrence and I’m not the only one.
It has prompted me to compile a top-3 list of the locations people use to hold conversations and vex me in the process:
- Escalator approaches
- Till-queues
- Narrow toilette corridors
Missed it completely
Amazing how time just evaporates.
Thirteen months ago, I had a brush with death and the anniversary crept up on me and passed without me even pausing to consider it or even think about it much. To be true, my health has not been what it was prior to my encounter with the black-robed, scythe-wielding entity; but I carry on in my daily enterprises just fine and only occasionally am way-laid long enough to moan and groan in my own quiet space.
So why is it that I didn’t pause to remember and consider where I was at a year ago?
Well I think it’s quite simple. There is no point lingering unnecessarily on the past. We live in the present and the present is exactly that, a gift from ourselves to ourselves to make the most of and to make sure that we have a similar if not better experience of this amazingly challenging and entertaining life that we each must make the most of, the following day.
Last month, during the anniversary of my encounter (the one in which I levelled up due to the amount of XP I gained fighting death and winning [using DnD terminology]), a more important event occurred. The transfer of my house and the beginning of my new life.
For the first time, in a long time, everything is coming together. My personal life is on a high, I have made a connection and it’s really working for me (more on that some other time), business is picking up again and burdens long-held have been cast aside and freedom of life has been embraced. (Oh and I whole sale deleted the ex from all contact references, so liberating.)
OK, enough of the metaphors and spiritual rambling.
Now where did I put that bottle of wine?!
Charitable Moment
I can’t say I’m the most charitable person.
I give to those I care about without limit and without thought, but that does not make me a charitable person in the truest sense of the description. Though I did recently initiate a charitable moment.
For many years, at least 10 years, I have been throwing my coppers into jars. The two, five, ten, twenty and fifty, even the out -of-use one cent coins. Occasionally even some silvers, one, two and five rand coins. I even dropped a couple Euro currency coins into the jars. The jars easily could have exceeded 500 South African Rand in value.
With my move, I had decided that I was no longer going to keep these jars.
Realistically speaking, was I ever going to find the time to go the bank and have the coins weighed up to determine value? Was I ever going to seperate all the coins so that they could be weighed in the first place? The answer to that question dear readers is, no. I do not possess the stamina for the prolonged attention required for such a task.
So I decided to make a gift of said jars to someone destitute and relegated to survival on the streets, to a bum, a hobo or any other term available for such homeless individuals.
Sadly, I was not disposed enough to get such donation done myself, so I gave the jars to someone exceptionally near and dear to me. She delivered them to someone identified as worthy. The exact manner of identification is unknown to me, though I don’t question her selection process, even if it was based on intuition. This lady has intuition akin to that of a mind reader.
The joy of the gift, I am told, was tremendous. Many a “god bless you” was uttered in exuberance.
It made me feel good hearing that, and I wish I could have been on hand to witness the joy. It was my one, rare charitable moment. I hope the recipient uses the donation to good effect.
Milestone
Almost 23 months ago I was deeply depressed with my life, and as a vent I started this blog in this room.
Now, as I vacuum up the remains of dust post my vacation, I stand in this same room and realise how far I’ve come and much I’ve changed.
Today starts a new chapter in my life.
Good riddance to this house and good riddance to my depressed self.
At Long Last
Late in the evening, after having dinner with my friends at the Gourmet Garage for my solar lap celebration some weeks ago, I discovered the original printed copy of my Offer to Purchase that I had signed. I searched for the date to determine how long I had waited. It was dated 19 August 2011. That is 5 long months.
And now she is parked just outside. My volcano red drop top. Spec’d with all the bits and pieces I’ve always wanted in my car and never had, because the model up had that, and I couldn’t afford that.
Its a childhood dream come true for me to own a convertible and I’m as happy as a kid with a new toy. Everything works as expected. Except for one little detail.
Audi’s iPod integration is not evolved and a pricey option that I would never have chosen if I’d known how terrible it actually is.
- It doesn’t support iPhone
- It connects the iPod like a CD shuttle to the radio
- It only reads the first 5 playlists
- It can only display the last two digits of a track number; ie: Track 101 is displayed as Track 01
- It doesn’t do media tags
- The 6th “CD” selector plays all tracks, in my case all 4800 songs – i have 48 recurrences of Track 40 all different.
- Quick successions of car ignition causes the iPod to hang needing the hard reset procedure.
Speaking with a friend this has inspired me to consider buying a RNS-E SatNav unit, which will provide me with more options. The price on the price list is scary when you see it, but the investment is well worth it to have full integration with your portable musical accessory. The greatest pity is, that the sales people at the dealership have really very little knowledge about the details about the accessories and don’t offer any real valuable advice while your buying your car.
