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October 23, 2008

Here I go again. Once more, I'm going to try to sustain a blog... Let's see how it goes...

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Escapology

(J'ai réécrit cet article en Français ici)

We recently got a place in the countryside. So we're now splitting our time back and forth between the house out here and the flat back in Wapping.

And so that means the guinea pigs come back and forth with us too. At first they weren't so keen on the idea; previously the cat basket had been associated with trips to the vet and the ensuing prodding and poking, so they didn't take too kindly to it. But now, after only a couple of months, they've settled into the routine of going back and forth between two cages.

Given we moved into this house when it was still cold, their cage was in the sun room. I wouldn't call it so much as a conservatory; it's just a simple building attached to the back of the house with lots of windows, and heating and lighting - so ideal for the guinea pigs in winter when we wouldn't really be using the room anyway.

Also in there are the gerbils. They don't always come back and fo…

What's wrong with being comfortable?

I like a good sofa. A nice big sofa which is squishy enough to mould itself to my shape as I relax on it and yet not so soft as to let my back slip into a position that's going to cause me grief when I stand up.

I've been sitting on sofas for a lot of my adult life, and never once has someone suggested to me that I should try sitting on something less comfortable in order that I see what it feels like, and maybe expand my definition of comfort.

And yet, there seems to be an obsession with "getting outside ones comfort zone" as reason enough to do things wouldn't normally do - even to spend vast sums of money on them.

Some people thrive on a thrill. Those are the people who enjoy the adrenaline rush of jumping out of a plane, or sticking their hands above their head on a roller coaster and enjoying the feeling of being upside down flying through the air.

However, not everyone is wired that way.

I've been on roller coasters in the past, and they don't r…

A Sober Year

It's now been just over a year since I quietly stopped drinking alcohol. I'm not the first person to stop drinking, and I won't be the last, but making the decision not to drink alcohol has given me some insights into alcohol, and how people view it - and how people view those who don't drink it.
Before I stopped drinking, I didn't drink that much anyway to be honest. I certainly wasn't someone who drank much in latter years. Back in my University days I could put away a whole bottle of Baileys, a fair amount of vodka and still not have a hangover the following day. It was one of the few benefits of youth. In fact it wasn't until my twenties that all those years of vodka started to catch up with me, and I started to feel what a real hangover could be like. I started to get home at night and lie in bed watching the room spin around me, close my eyes to make it stop only for the spin speed to increase. I just knew then that I'd regret it in the mo…

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