Addictions

The Sims is evil.

Driving aimlessly and op shopping are two of my favorite past times.

The former, driving just for the sake of driving gives me great pleasure.  We did not own a car while I was growing up and being mainly a city dweller it has never been necessary to own one.  Now that I do own a car, I love it.  I love the freedom of going wherever, whenever with whomever I please.

The latter, op shopping is an obsession originally born out of necessity.  Having been brought up by an older single mother who struggled to re-enter the workforce meant living well within our means, which was not much.  I say obsession because op shopping became a "must do" every Saturday morning. My mouth would salivate upon discovering a new store.  Each Saturday morning promised an adventure, a treasure hunt.  There was always the thrill of maybe or maybe not finding a Wedgwood or designer label jeans, retro blouses and amazing two hundred or three hundred dollar shoes for less than a tenth of hat price.

On one of these aimless drives I came across and obscure op shop.  Even though it was not Saturday, I thought I'd treat myself to a little looksie.  I cannot remember the name or the location.  I am certain it was south of the river from where I live because I crossed a bridge and drove for a very long time heading south.

In this obscure op shop I found a number of treasures, including Science books, biographies (including one for Obama which I unfortunately have not picked up), and some home improvement books for my partner. My partner is an avid DIY manly man who spends every spare moment renovating the house, himself, with no help from any professionals because "that would just be a waste of money".  I must admit it does amaze me, the number of things he is able to teach himself to do. All of these books under three dollars, I usually paid more in library fees.  I have a tendency to loose things, including but not limited to library books.

I steered clear of my usual weakness, self help books. I did, however, purchase a book on how to raise happy children- I have no children, nor do I plan to have any children, so this was a very interesting choice. Maybe something inside of me urged me to buy it out of curiosity ... had my mother brought me up to be a happy child and need I ask?

A SIMple game would answer this question anyway. On the book stand, for a measly five dollars was the complete collection of The SIMS.  Surely I could sell it on ebay for more than that, I thought to myself.  This is a fairly common thought whenever I spot interesting, ridiculously cheap items at op shops. In fact, this has led to a storage room of odds and sods destined for e-commerce sometime in the undisclosed most likely very distant future (the twelfth of never, according to my partner).

Cha-Ching, treasures come at me. Along with some other *knick-knacks and some work polo shirts (intended for the business I never get around to starting) The Sims, for the measly five dollars plus, I kid you not, an Ipod  for less than twenty dollars, was purchased. This Ipod was going to be my saviour from a life of unhealthiness, why, because now that I had an Ipod I would have the motivation to run to motivational music. Such as Katie Perry's Eye of the Tiger song, or Chariots of Fire, or the like. . * also spelled nick-nacks, nicknacks, knickknacks; this last one just looks ridiculous.

When I got home I dumped everything other than The Sims game under the house.  The books were too heavy to cart up the stairs and I did not really want the partner to see my spoils.

The Neon Run

A night run with lots of music, glow sticks and more music.

                    My friend and I waiting to cross the start line in a sea of eager neon runners. I am the bear, and no we don't really look like that. Note the people raving in the background due to the copious amounts of awesome music.

The people in front of us.

Amazing view and rave at the finish line.

Fat, Fired and not Forty

I have recently reconnected with a high school friends.  We were estranged after she came out of the closet of gayness. We were estranged not because she was gay but because of the *lady she had come out of the closet to be gay with.  *By lady I mean girl, we later found out that she was a lot younger than we thought- but legal, I want to make it very clear that she was very much of a legal age. Further to this, by my friends accounts of her actions and not by my personal experience, it would seem to be a stretch to refer to her as a lady in any sense of the word.

Fair enough, I respect people prioritising romantic love over friendship, in fact I am very very guilty of it myself. So I got on with my life and she got on with hers.

We re-connected during the time directly after their final break up.

While helping my friend throw out the ex's residual belongings I came across the book "Fat, Forty and Fired".  It had a very simple, not so eye catching blue cover with the silhouette of a slouching,  pot bellied man standing sideways. I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse at the title while thumbing my way through the book that was next to it on the shelf.

My friend yelled in from another room, "Take whichever books you like, as many as you like".

Having recently finished up a contract (currently happily not working, by choice), finding that I had put on over 25 kilos in the last year or so (maybe 30 kilos) and heading further into my thirties than I'd care to admit, the title of the book resonated with me.

I picked it up, turned it over, resisted reading the last page (which has become a bad habit-I want to know that the story / book that I am about to invest my time into has a worthwhile ending) and read the blurb.  My heart pounded as the words.  The author, Nigel Marsh, had decided to take a year out of the rat race after being retrenched to actually live.  I could not believe how serendipitous finding Mr Marsh' book was. More about Mr Marsh later.

In the weeks leading up to this moment  I had been toying with the idea of travelling or starting a business like I'd always wanted or finally finishing my study.  My partner, my mother and acquaintances had been looking at me funny when I explained that I was not sure that I wanted to go back to work, I had the feeling they thought that I could not find work.  My partner, understandably, wanted me to start earning some dollars asap.  He explained that although my bank balance was healthy at the moment it was very quickly being spent.  I was beginning to think that he had a point, Until. This. Book.