Implementing my new discipline

I've decided if I'm serious about this writing thing I better make sure I do some every day and of course this is my most random blog so what better place to start.

I was reading an article in a writer's magazine yesterday about having a place to write and I have been thinking about that. I suspect my procrastination today will be cleaning out the spa room as one option and the front lounge is also pretty cluttered with Tash's stuff. It's my age old habit of clearing the decks before I create!

It's kind of frustrating in a way that I am not getting a lot done during the day - housework and busywork stretching to fill the available time. And it doesn't help that I dont have a strong sense of urgency about earning any money at the moment - the stillness of not having to be anywhere or do anything is a wonderful space.

Of course there are things to do and say - and that's why I want to get some space sorted so I can get into the habit of contributing and playing online again. In the back of the mind there is the thought that it will be easier once Toby is back at university and Tash is off to London and my house will be properly my space during the day. In the meantime here are two beautiful photos from my cellphone of Arthur's Pass in the weekend.

So its raining outside

My bag is pretty much packed for a trip down to Christchurch with Tash and I'm sitting semi watching Antiques Roadshow on the Living Channel. It's already 11 oclock and I should be finishing off a proposal which might contribute to my moving back into the world of gainful employment. Today was a bit of a late start as I didn't get back from the gym (that's four days this week!) until just after nine.

It's great having my laptop back! Not the least because it lets me capture random thoughts. Yesterday at the gym I was listening to a audio book version of Stephen Covey's The Eighth Habit. He was talking about the change between the industrial age and the knowledge age and how many businesses still operate under the industrial age principle where machinary and plant (capital) has value and people are replacable. Whereas in a knowledge economy the value of a business is in the knowledge of the people who are working there. He also talked about co-dependency of dysfunctional thinking that reflects that and how most people when hearing him talk about it tend to think how someone else should really be listening to this.

So to resist being co-dependent (as I was contemplating previous places of work as I listened) I thought about what that might mean if I applied it to me. It's quite difficult to put into words but it seems to translate that people aren't easily replaceable and in fact that I am uniquely knowledgable and valuable - there isn't anyone who can do what I do, the way I do it, because it depends on my brain and how I synthesise and organise information and ideas. This has all kinds of consequences as how we value ourselves and our skills - but given the pervasive dysfunction the cynic in me wonders if it matters that much.

Total distraction - there is this elderly lady on AR with two "odds and ends" from her mother's sewing cupboard. One is an engraved silver bodkin which she uses and the valuer has just said that it was made in 1649! And he can't identify the maker from the hallmark because the records were destroyed in the great fire of London! The other was a little tool for skeining thread which was dated at about 1720. (and the combined value was 700-800 pounds!)

To new beginnings

My plans to keep up with my blog were rather de-railed when a lightening storm blew out the Vodafone reciever in Arthurs Pass! So there went my internet connection and phone for several days. Then when I got back home and to work there was only three weeks to go before my contract expired which meant my focus at home was my CV and job applications. To compound it all I am still waiting for my replacement laptop which is cramping my style as well.

Anyway last Thursday was the end of my contract and after seven and a bit years I am no longer a public servant so I'm up to reflecting on what my next steps will be. I'm pacing myself a bit until Jon gets settled back into school and a planned weekend in Christchurch.