Category Archives: Thoughts

Tired, cold, and a cleansing ritual

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Tuesday and Wednesday of this week have been spent at our old house clearing up the remaining junk before the eviction date. In sub zero temperatures (or at least it felt that way!). It’s safe to say it’s been freeeeeeeezing! I’m also trying to recover from a nasty cold which so far has been hanging on for well over 2 weeks. I’d almost got rid of it but spending a lot of time in a freezing cold house seems to have revived it. On top of that, I’m feeling very, very tired.

There is an upside though, I’ve found lots of things I’d long forgotten about or feared lost. Three precious things in particular – the wedding and engagement ring of my late grandmother and a ring that my husband had bought me for our second anniversary. I was over the moon to find those. None of them have much monetary value but a heap of sentimental value, so that made the whole thing worth it for that alone.

Sorting through the past years of your life is strange but good. I got all gooey sorting through my daughters old books, remembering which were her favourite bedtime stories when she was little and how she enjoyed the book of silly poems I used to read to her. And then there’s the old school reports which almost always say the same thing – she’s bright, does very well in every subject but especially maths, and is shy in class. Ah the memories.

I also rescued my collection of Enid Blyton books which I’ve had since I was 6 or 7 and passed on to my daughter when she was old enough. I’m hoping any future grandchildren will also appreciate them as we both did. Some things are timeless and worth holding on to.

Of course alongside the good stuff was a massive amount of junk to be thrown out. I’m not sure how we managed to keep all of that stuff in one little 3 bed terraced house! As much as it was a drag to do it all, the memories were worth reviving and it almost felt like a cleansing ritual.

No turning back now. After some harsh lessons, the future is beckoning.

2008 – the year from hell

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I know, I’m very late with my end of year post, but christmas has been a very chaotic time for me.

So, as the title says, 2008 was the year from hell. We began the year trying to fight off creditors and prevent our house from being repossessed. Sadly by the end of the year we could do nothing to prevent it and lost our house. On top of this in November, having little other choice, we declared bankruptcy. By this time my husband was also unemployed. Having a very bad credit rating this also meant that finding a house to rent on the private market was out, so we applied for a council house. The local council seemed to delight in stretching this process, and thus our fear of homelessness, out as long as they possibly could.

Thankfully we were eventually given a house and it’s from a freshly painted living room in said house that I type this. It’s been an extremely stressful year, and I would certainly never volunteer for the mortgage ladder ever again. But we have a fresh start and are now finally able to start looking forward. Our lives currently aren’t perfect, or even comfortable (trying to live on benefits is a massive challenge in itself), but we’re certainly a lot happier than we’ve been in a long time.

There were some positives for me in 2008 – for one in May I got to see my lifetime idle in concert for the first time – Bruce Springsteen. I’m not one to go all gooey over celebrities, far from it, but this man is a saint. I’ve been to a fair few concerts during my lifetime but I’d never seen such energy and genuine passion radiate from one man on a stage before. It was truly spectacular and I hope I someday get the chance to see him again.

And of course the one constant positive in my life is my daughter. She turned 15 this year and it’s fantastic to see her blossom. She’s felt the stress just like the rest of the family but somehow has still managed to stay on top of things at school and do well. She’s now in the process of choosing a college and it’s great to see her enthusiasm about the future.

So all in all, 2008 was far from great, but despite the constant economic gloom and doom being shoved down our throats every day I have high hopes for 2009. I’m even in the mood for some blogging, that has to be a good sign, right? :)

Blogging history

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No, not blogging about history, but the history of my blogging. Despite this blog being only a year old, I’ve been blogging for a lot longer than that, going back almost 4 years I think. My old blog is currently stored over here, but I’ve been thinking about importing all the posts to this domain.

At the time I decided to start afresh and leave that old blog behind, it was mostly because I felt it had become a bit stagnant and that starting again would kickstart some of the blogging juices I’d lost. I’m not really sure that plan worked, but there are a few posts on the old one that have some personal importance to me. I’m not afraid to admit that most of it is rubbish, but I wrote it and it’s a part of my blogging history which I think is important to preserve. Probably not important to anybody else, but hey, it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to. :)

So I think over the next few days I’ll get to work on that. Not sure yet if I should import the whole lot or just the least rubbish ones.

*edit*

I’ve decided to manually import by way of copy/pasting the posts I want to keep, so I guess this blog will get a bit fatter over the next few days.

Catching Up

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So, it’s been a while. With that in mind I thought I’d write a general ‘catch up’ post.

At the beginning of this year I took an extended break from my regular online activities (including Jaiku, a rarity for me!). I went over a month without checking RSS feeds, micro-blogging, checking Facebook etc. It really did me a favour too, gave me time to step back and take stock a little. Anyone who knows me will realise how much of a ‘web 2.0′ addict I’ve become, and while I still find those things fun I’ve slowed down a lot.

There are changes coming in my life – my daughter will be 15 this year which means that being a full time mother isn’t quite so full time as it was these days. By that I mean in the sense of she is relying on me less and less. Which also means that soon she’ll be pretty much gone altogether, before I know it she’ll be packing herself off to uni, and I need to prepare for that and have something constructive to do with my time. Preferably involving money! Not that I’m expecting or even wanting to earn fortunes, but I need something. I have two choices in mind and I can’t quite decide between them, one of which is going to depend a lot on personal circumstances as it will take some initial capital to get up and running. At this moment in time said capital is nowhere on the horizon, but things may change in the next 6 months or so.

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Sometimes, even my life is busy

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Yep, it’s true. Even no-life little ole me sometimes has busy periods. During those times I’m less inclined to blog, though I do have a nagging little blog voice at the back of my head telling me to go write something. So here I am.

What have I been busy with? A number of things really. My personal life has had a few ups and downs over the past couple of months, which has left me a little stressed out. But it’s not all bad – on the 8 July I’ll finally be realising an ambition that I’ve had for a couple of years now, I’m doing a one day course (along with lots of ‘homework’) to get my first degree Reiki certificate. I realise a lot of you don’t even know what that is (go here for more info if you want to find out), and those who do often give me a sidelong glance as if to say I’m nuts – but hey, I’ve been used to that all my life and I no longer care! Suffice to say it’s made a huge difference to my life, and I’m really excited to be finally completing the first stage.

I’ve also been attempting to learn Ruby on Rails, though I’ve gotten sidetracked a little with that. It’s been great fun so far, and even though I’m nowhere near having a clue what I’m doing yet I’m determined to persevere. I doubt I’ll get to a professional level with it but I love learning new stuff, especially new geek stuff. Though if by some miracle I did become a RoR expert I wouldn’t object to being paid to do it of course.

I haven’t been completely inactive around the web though, I’ve just been using different mediums. My latest obsession is Facebook, and since they brought out their applications platform I can say for definite I’m not alone. If you’re also on there feel free to add me as a friend. Just do a search for Jackie Plage, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person with that name on Facebook. Twitter posts from me also appear semi-frequently, though in the last few days I’ve been exploring – and loving – Jaiku. There’s probably a post about the differences stored up in the depths of my mind somewhere which I may do in the next few days. Despite outward appearances, they’re actually very different.

I’ve been neglecting my blog I know, but I’m not going to promise it’ll get any better in the near future. I’m having far too much fun doing other things right now. :)