happiness is...

it was someone's
birthday
(no, they didn't get
a puppy or a kitty)

When I was in primary school, each year group had singing once a week.  As far as I could tell, the main point of singing was to prepare for assembly, which we also had once a week.  Mr. Harrison, our principal, has an annual cycle for his weekly address to us, so by the time I was in Year 6, I was very familiar with his plate tectonics assembly, his didgeridoo show-and-tell and his candle in a sealed jar experiment.  Okay, I am getting a little side-tracked here.  Anyway, one of the songs we used to sing in assembly was, 'Happiness Is' and some of it went something like this:

happiness is... happiness is...

different things to different people

that's what happiness is

to a sailor, it's the sea-sea-sea

to my mother, why it's me-me-me

to a baker, it's lots and lots of dough

to a racer, it's the GPO

As fun as that song is to sing (the baker bit makes me giggle), I've realised over the past two days that it's wrong.  Happiness isn't always doing and having the things you love, it can also be loving the things that you don't.  It can be something you choose.

working 9-5

meet
jorge lorenzo villalobos
we named him after meet the fockers
(i didn't realise jorge lorenzo is an actual cyclist)

Hello lovebugs,

I'm sorry things have been a bit quiet around here and I'm sorry I didn't let you know I was going to be away.

CNN and I both had a difficult week at work last week. For me, part of it was the insecurity that everyone has (I think) when starting a new job and the other part of it was just something I had to manage and move on from. Poor CNN's is more complicated but I'll leave it up to him to write about when he gets his own blog.

It's funny how the activity we call 'work' - not LIFE - can dominate so much of your time and energy, even when you're not physically there. Although having said that, we do spend a third of our waking hours at work (assuming you work roughly 40 hours a week and sleep eight hours a night) so perhaps it is inevitable to have it on your mind.

I don't like the concept of 'work to live' or 'live to work' - I don't think I ever have. Given that we do spend so much time at work, it seems natural to me to spend that time doing something I care about (I am aware that this is the view of someone blessed with the qualifications and the luck to have found work in my desired field).

******

Wishing you all peace in your work whatever it is - paid, unpaid, self-employed, at home, in an office or outside underneath the neverending sky.

paper treats

two lovely somethings
from my sister and
one of my most favourite friends
(do you remember this?)

an old bus ticket
given new life
we left it to
brighten someone else's day