Wednesday 10 December 2008

Drinking tea at 5.45 in the morning: what does it achieve?

How apt it would have been on this, the birthday of Emily Dickinson, to announce that:

I started early, took my dog,
And visited the sea . . .

But, sadly, I did not. Instead:

I started early, groaned a lot
And made a cup of tea . . .

And then I climbed back into bed, thinking 'I ought to finish that book while I drink my tea', but failing to do so; and then thinking 'I must get up and put away all SD3's clothes (which, owing to her bedroom floor being so completely impassable, have been accumulating in accusing piles in my room instead of making their way into her chest of drawers)', but I didn't; and then thinking 'I could be at my desk clearing an hour's worth of work instead of lying here drinking tea'; and also 'I could, belatedly, be turning all that soaking fruit into a Christmas cake instead of lying here drinking tea', neither of which materialised. I continued to lie there drinking tea. And then I thought of someone else whose birthday is today, and someone whose birthday was yesterday but I completely forgot to pop a card through their letterbox, and then I thought: 'at what age, precisely, will I finally get to grips with all this life/work balance malarkey and turn into a domestic goddess?'.

Tea drained, I eventually got up and woke the rest of the household. In less than a month it will be time to make New Year's Resolutions. What will mine be? To get to grips with all this life/work balance malarkey and turn into a domestic goddess, of course.

I seem, hazily, to recall having made a similar resolution last time around. Has any progress been achieved on the domestic front in the last twelve months? I checked back to see how I was doing at this point exactly a year ago, and this is what I found.

I think that answers my question.

Onward and downward . . .

5 comments:

Jane Badger said...

Right with you there. My domestic chaos never really seems to get any better. It just moves from room to room. Have tidied house before vast family party, so back attic has now reverted to mess-clagged horror, having attempted to clean it out a few weeks ago. Study now clear-ish of books, but back hall now crammed with piles of unshelved stuff. Hey ho.

monix said...

I see that a year ago we (you, D and I) were talking about that planned trip to Devon. That hasn't changed either!

Juliet said...

Jane - just having a study clear-out myself. It's a good-sized room, but all the space is entirely taken up by me (larger than I'd like to be, but not of gargantuan proportions) together with piles and piles of books and paper and boxes of assorted homeless other stuff which people tend to dump in here to get it out of the way. 'This cannot continue', I declared at the weekend and set to. I gave myself an absolute unbreakable deadline of having it sorted by Sunday night. I'm still sitting in chaos!

M - oh dear, you're absolutely right. Top resolution for 2009. Absolute number one priority (ha! you'll wish you hadn't mentioned it now!)

Anonymous said...

One of the pleasures of getting older (I mean really old like me) is that I no longer feel compelled to make annual resolutions to become better at things that have defeated me for decades past. I'm hopelessly untidy and have never managed to run a well-organised home - although I have managed to run a business for twenty years - but I can cook (and sew and knit) and, on balance, I'm quite relieved that it is this way round ...

It goes without saying, I would far rather pick up a book or pick up my pen than pick up a Hoover.

colleen said...

Hear, hear.
C