Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A PAGE FROM THE PAST

Al’s Diary 2006 April 10th
I confess the idea of a New Year in April has always vaguely befuddled me and no matter how old I grow I somehow seem to live in general ambivalence towards the idea. It doesn’t actually register as a New Year, no matter how much it should. Sure, there’s the heat, the tedious spring cleaning involved, the pilgrimages to visit hoards of obscure relations Down South (although they are lovely people , its tiring and this is supposed to be a holiday). And there’s that horrible raucous bird ….but New Year?

Well,ok, I’m not really breathlessly looking forward to New Year much; let me be totally honest with you. Its one of those times of the year where my inadequacy as a housewife really shines through, where my non conformity actually embarrasses me and the happy complacent spiders in my mahagedaera loom larger and hairer in their misplaced confidence that I find their intricate traceries of web-design actually esthetic. This is not the case, I don’t. It’s just that finding a broom and covering the furniture with sheets is so tiresome…

IN fact I confess I don’t know how to make perfect boorees in the Kavum or paint those wonderful patterns on the floor, and I haven’t done any shopping, in fact I don’t even have a pot to boil the proverbial milk in. I don’t like coconut milk its difiicult ,whine whine (ok-Very Bad!)
In fact compared to all regular housewives , I think I exist as a benchmark , a role non model against which you can all actually look really good set against! You good readers should be pleased that set besides me you all stand out as paragons of cleanliness, virtue and downright good habits , every last one of you !

All I can hope for then is that this time will pass very quickly and I can sink back into the pleasant idyll of a somewhat musty but homely house and happy but un-bathed pets and my usual hobbies and pastimes…as soon as possible! This is not to say I wont be happy this year…my happiness has never really depended on what season , area or circumstance I may be going through…happiness is not , I figured , something someone out there can bestow on us, or some circumstance can arrange for us.
Happiness is a state of balance and its something you decide you will afford your self regardless of the things you don’t have and the problems you do…its when you realize, not that your bottle is half full or not empty, but when you take it in your hands, hold it to the sunlight and simply marvel at what a gorgeous achievement of aesthetics a glass bottle really is in the first place !

So my friends, in spite of the spiders and the heaps of newspaper and old bottles that I have to lug, the serious expenditure I will have to incur on oily rubbish I cant eat, and the general embarrassment of not being able to afford to paint the old home….in spite of all of this, the traditional New Year will, I know , be a happy one for me because very simply I’ve decided I’m going to be happy.
And I do hope you decide the same too! :-)

Al's New Year Clean Up List 2006

  • all truce agreements with spiders have effectively expired
  • last years stringy underwear goes in a bonfire
  • the first aid drawer needs an overhaul .no matter how life saving they seem , all fungicidal tubes with an expiry date before 2002 need to go
  • only 12 pairs of footwear to be retained for daily purposes, the rest will be bagged and sent under the stairs with reference numbers ….

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