Tag Archives: doing nothing

The Meaning of Life

I just wrote 380 words on the subject of new technology and the NHS appointment system. Then I looked at them, thought “I’ve written them before.” and decided not to bother.

So I didn’t.

That leaves me with a hole in my morning as I now have nothing to write about apart from my unsuccessful attempts to list things and then do them. I made a list two days ago and did little that was on the list. I did another list last night and item one – “Write a Blog post” – has just come to nothing.

Ghostly figures in the fog at Screveton

The most notable part of the morning apart from the phone call to sort out the NHS has been something concerning part of my life I don’t blog about. This isn’t meant to be as mysterious as it sounds, and it certainly isn’t as interesting. In fact, it’s very dull. And when you consider that a lot of the stuff I write is extremely uninteresting (though a potential goldmine of tedious trivia of 21st Century existence to a future scholar) you can imagine how banal the really dull stuff is. You could bottle it and sell it to insomniacs as  cure for all their sleep problems.

Anyway, it’s nearly lunchtime now. So far I have risen, dressed (which was reasonably easy this morning), eaten breakfast, treated myself to extra toast and marmalade, blogged, self-edited, received a parcel, spoken to NHS on the phone, sidestepped Julia’s several attempts to make me do stuff and blogged again. When listed, it looks like a full morning. However, virtually nothing useful has been done. Dressing and eating are simply part of life and even trousers are optional if I don’t leave the house.

Whitby Church

Even the NHS phone call was to correct an error they made and served no useful purpose.

That, in a nutshell, is modern life. We do stuff, but most of it doesn’t  need doing and some of it is to correct stuff that was done in error.

Some mornings it is hard not to question the meaning of life and sit, staring into the depths of a cup of tea wonder where it all went.

Today’s pictures? I just tried to capture my mood.

Whitby skyline

Friday Comes so Soon!

Yes, I missed a day gain, but I have  good excuse. I slept until just past midnight, woke up and decided to sleep instead of write. Mentally I feel better for it. Conscience-wise, I know I should have written last night, and should have made time to do it. However, spilt milk and all that . . .

The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves one, nor all thy piety nor wit shall lure it back tom cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it . . . Or words to that effect.  A quote from Omar Khayyam that  I nearly know by heart. I run into trouble as it gets to the end, so I checked this up and copied it to be sure.

It’s pizza for tea. Bought in bases. Sauce from a jar. Coleslaw from a plastic tub. After a day in the shop I really can do without the need to produce thinly sliced cabbage. I’m thinking of making soup for lunch as it’s better for me than sandwiches.

Tomorrow is Saturday and then it will be Sunday again. Another week gone and none of my plans put into action.

Later tonight I am going to return to my Open learning course on the Roman Empire. I decided to take a more laid back attitude this year. When I rejoined i was upset to find that I had forgotten 90%, perhaps more, of all the material I had covered.  Worse than that, I’d even forgotten taking a couple of the courses. I admit they aren’t long, but it was a bit of a shock. I’m going to go slower, repeat the reading and make notes this time.

Tonight I will re-read Unit One in an attempt to make it take root.

 Selection of Pizzas after one of the school sessions we used to do.

Pizza picture is because I mentioned pizza. Pig picture – well only a heart of stone would not fail to find a piglet cute.