breaking rules

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.  Burns knew of what he spoke.  If one is to ship out the entire contents of a large Gin Gan (have you looked it up yet?) then one must empty the car of the 4454  envelopes currently residing there.

Quick advert break for The Durham Shopping Extravaganza (I know it seems very counterintuitive for a minimalist blog but stay with me).  We have been going for 25 years and have raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charities in and around County Durham.  For my sins I am joint chair this year and it fell to me to deliver the 4454 envelopes that we had stuffed with invitations and stamped with addresses to the the offices of the lovely Brewin Dolphin who are going to frank and post them for us.

But first I had to wait for the Singers to get ready so that I could drop them off at the station and then finally set forth to Teesside.  Reader Teesside is a very confusing place.  Even my sat nav was getting confused “Exit at the next junction, take the first left, keep right, turn left”.  How does one keep right and turn left without inducing the ire of every white van man in the North East?

Stage one complete and thence to Spennymoor to pick up the Dancer who is working in a GP surgery.  There are a surprising number of GP surgeries in Spennymoor, particularly bearing in mind it is really not very big.  They must be a poorly lot.  Four surgeries later I found her.  I returned home at 2.45pm  Clearly not a lot of clearing out was going to get done before I had to pick up the Singers…..

I am completely against multitasking.  I have done my fair share and I am pretty good at it, but as part of my mission to slow down I now ONLY DO ONE JOB AT A TIME (sorry about the shouting).  I do get interrupted, but that’s life.  If I must then I stop job one and complete the more important interruption, if not the second job waits until the first job is done.  Life has become much less stressful and I am getting more and not less done.

Today was a day to break the rules, for what are rules for if not to be broken?  I cleaned the kitchen and made the latest batch of rosehip jelly.  I cleared out the fridge and chopped up roast chicken for sandwiches.  I sorted out the clean washing and  cleared a “dumping corner” in the hall.  I sorted and wiped all the jellies, preserves and salves we have made recently whilst doing the washing up.

Sometimes needs must.  I will not be doing it again in a hurry though.  I have zero appetite tonight, I couldn’t eat supper if you paid me.  A sure sign of stress for me.  Tomorrow normal slow service will resume