Oh, be calm, dearest reader! I know you can barely contain yourself because, yes, the time is almost here. The time when you can relax into the magical surrealism of twenty four days of unique storytelling leading up to Christmas Day which means, of course, that I shall be thrown into twenty four days of angst ridden writing frenzy trying to churn out something half-way readable each day. Bambino has already said he will assist in the writing process by stomping all over my keyboard in an egotistical attention seeking way so if anyone would like to adopt him now, speak up and save an enormous black cat from the Wrath of the Author.
Anyway, after my abject failure to deliver a story last year, I said I would make amends this year and amends I shall make. Actually, I’m already six days ahead of myself which gives me a bit of panic leeway time, so excuse me if I feel a teensy bit smug as we head towards 1st December. However, I am fully aware of the saying, ‘Pride comes before a fall,’ or in this case, ‘S comes before a Mug’ so I shall continue writing with due diligence and not become too comfy resting on my laurels.
It’s been a Bit Of A Week. Bits include 1) being beset by an angry cow 2) having to retrieve bits of our front fence from the road following Storm Gusty Pants the other night, and 3) travelling through a blizzard after a jolly nice jaunt to Blenheim Palace for their Christmas Market and Nutcracker Story. I’ve also had to tolerate a four hour Zoom training course on safe-guarding, a subject on which I’ve been trained at least five times in the last six years. Plus ça change, although I did learn how to use more features of Zoom, so that was helpful. Poor Granddaughter Number One had a bout of coronavirus - she is okay though. When I chatted to her she said she felt like she had ‘a bit of a cold.’
I continue to find myself having lots of conversations with random people when I am out and about. People stop me in the supermarket or in the street, or at work, and just start chatting about all sorts of things. Mostly, I think, they just want someone to listen to them. I can do that. I’m good at listening. I don’t know if loneliness is an issue. Not for me - I am quite content being alone. But I might be the only person someone speaks to all day. Or I’ve just got one of those faces that people feel drawn to talk to. I never instigate these conversations - as you know, I tend towards introversion and keeping myself to myself.
A couple of weeks ago, a woman I’d never met before stood in a car park and told me her entire life story in twenty minutes. I couldn’t get a word in edgeways. Once she started, she didn’t stop. And when she did finally run out of words and I said, ‘Well, it was nice to meet you but I really need to go now,’ she said, ‘I knew when you smiled that I could talk to you.’ Note to self : stop smiling at people. Seriously though, I think this increase in RSC (Random Stranger Conversations) has a lot to do with my ongoing Energy Healer and Spiritual Friendship training. It’s the vibes, you know. The vibes. And that is a GOOD, if time consuming, thing.
Day 1 of the Much Malarkey Annual Christmas Story then tomorrow. I’m warning you now that it won’t be published until the evening because I’m at work all day and if tomorrow is anything like today I shall need a couple of hours of COMPLETE silence when I get home just to rest my mind from the constant and inane chatter that comes my way. But the story WILL begin tomorrow. Be prepared for murder most horrid…
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KJ