Eeek, nearly missed the blog again yesterday.  Must get more disciplined, particularly as I have signed up to #juneathon, where I will exercise and blog every day.  Amazing what a bit of peer pressure will do...

Yesterday, I spent in helping someone else, cursing cars and negotiating.  All in all, an odd day. All had a common theme though: when something is ours, we get so into the detail and become blinkered.  When it is someone else's thing (possession, idea, view) we can look at it clearly and without prejudice and get to a better decision.

Organising someone else’s life, it’s so easy to sort the wheat from the chaff.  Seeking same detachment in my own life, to filter treasured detritus junk.

I went back to work yesterday, for the first time in 6 months.  Partly economic, partly to keep my brain from turning to mush.  First consequence?  I missed the blog yesterday, not a good start.  I need to find a way to get mobile, which would be a leap forward for me as, technologically, I am only just into the 21st century (my PC was bought in 2003).  The challenge will be making sure I do not let the writing slip.  The aim is still to get 2 collections of short stories published by the end of June.

After 11 years in the same company, it is also interesting to walk into somewhere where you know no-one, particularly when people have expectations of you.

Twenty faces looking back, expecting wisdom.  She’d been hired to change their world.  She stretched her mouth into the shape of a smile and began speaking.

When there is so much gloom in the world, it is best to take pleasure in simple things.  So, most of the glorious weekend was spent in the garden.  If there is more to life than sunshine, picnics and taking time to read, then I am not sure I need it.  Reinforced when the electricity went off from approx 9.15 to 3pm on Sunday.  However, a new week starts here and reality is intruding.

The weekend had been a haven of peace, the build-up of pressure unfelt in the background.  Now there was one more day before the storm broke.

Yesterday was the wonderful day, previously predicted for Wednesday.  Lots of affirmations of things I have been trying for ages.  And the sun shone.  What more could you want?  This story is nothing to do with any of that, it was just an idea that sprung from a conversation heard on the train about holidays.

She wanted to go to India.  He committed their savings to a timeshare on the Costa Brava.  She eloped with the handyman at the apartment block.

I am a sucker for signing myself up for things.  That means obligations.

A morning spent doing something she did not want to do, but had no choice.  The afternoon doing things she needed to do.  An evening respite.

Another glorious day in the sunshine.  The writing goes in fits and starts, but generally making progress.  I am happy to be on my own, but occasionally it is good to meet up with others.

Three people sitting in a garden café, sharing stories, coffee, sunshine.  An awkward introduction broke the unity: she could only remember one of the two names.

Yesterday, it was six months since I was made redundant.  I was never worried that I would get bored because I had a lot of plans that I had been meaning to do for some time.  What have I found?  That my mind now goes off in different directions - rather than the logical, problem-solving aspects, I find myself absurdly interested in the politics of my husband's job ie about the people as that is perhaps the one thing that I miss about not being at work.  But, the upside is that my mind is free to roam more creatively and stories come more easily. 

Since the redundancy, she had dreamt more.  The mind, freed from the rigid framework of nine-to-five went down peculiar pathways – brain churning.  Mind-yoghurt commented her husband.