Procrastination – a Primer

I watched a programme about alpaca farming earlier in the week. One of the farmers had been a professional writer all his life and had fitted in a career as a circus ringmaster.

He was now fitting in life as an alpaca farmer with his writing. He said, as it showed him settling down to type, that the farming had helped him focus, and that his writing had improbed as he no longer had time for writer’s block.

I feel the same way about procrastination. It’s so hard to fit in when you have work to do. I no longer have the luxury of sitting at the computer wondering what to do, if I’m going to fritter my time away I need to start frittering immediately.

Freecell isn’t going to solve itself, and who will stroke the vanity of all those Hollywood stars if I don’t click to see what they look like now. or click to see what that man found in his back garden.

After I’ve done that I need to read poetry, because we all know we can’t be successful writers if we don’t read the genre we are attempting to write.

Then the shopping list needs doing. I forgot to add breakfast cereal to the list last week and Julia is grumpy because she is having to eat bran flakes instead of Weetabix. To me that’s like the doctor asking if you’d rather have eczema or psoriasis. (I’ve toned that down for a family audience, and taken the opportunity to show off my spelling, in case you didn’t notice).

I’d rather have porridge, but I prefer lying under the covers until the last minute, whimpering about getting up on a cold, dark, morning. Normally I zoom downstairs late, splash milk on something that promises to deliver health and high fibre, and plough through it. Frankly, weekday breakfasts are a penance rather than a pleasure, but even after twenty years as a non-smoker I haven’t found anything to replace cigarettes and tea as the perfect start to the day. Apart from Sunday, when I favour fried food. Healthy choices do not come easily to me.

Time to serve up the tea now. It’s ratatouille served in the style of a pasta bake. I’m trying to sound enthusiastic, but it’s hard when you really want a Chinese takeaway…

20 thoughts on “Procrastination – a Primer

  1. Helen

    Oh no! Ratatouille is the best food in the whole world 😊

    Yes, eczema and psoriasis care a spelling challenge. Still, I’d rather suffer from these than some things which are easier to spell 👍

    Reply
      1. quercuscommunity Post author

        That happened to us once. Thirty years ago there was only one Chinese takeaway in the area and we used it happily for years. When another family member took over the meal was so salty that we couldn’t eat it, so we never went back. We’ve used our current one for 20 years and it has always been excellent. But times change and we need to become more healthy…

        We had a KFC delivered just after lockdown, which was a disaster , and a curry last month, which wasn’t as good as some we have been making. I’m hoping that this is a new era of health and economy. 🙂

      2. Helen

        Chinese can have thousands of calories in it – literally!! So home cooking is definitely the healthier alternative.

        Anyway, great that your own curry was better. No reason why it shouldn’t be 😊

      3. Helen

        You don’t need spice kits. Curries are easy to make: just fry an onion, add your preferred spices to taste, bung in any vegetables (including tomato) and when they are almost ready add any meat. If making daal curry, I’d suggest pre-cooking the lentils because one thing I have recently learned is that the acid in tomatoes makes cooking times longer.

        It might take a curry or two to decide which spices you like in which quantities but you can’t go far wrong with cumin, coriander, turmeric, a bay leaf and chilli powder.

      4. Helen

        I think I might have mentioned before about learning from my daughter’s dad, who is from Pakistan. Whatever, the bottom line is that curries are very adaptable. If you know how to make a stew, you can make a curry. As I said earlier, it’s just a matter of choosing the flavours you like 😊

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