To Do

To Do List:

1) Remember tonight at 20:30 local time, it is Earth Hour. Here's the deal:

On March 28 you can VOTE EARTH by switching off your lights for one hour. Or you can vote global warming by leaving your lights on.

I have also read people are being encouraged to blog live, Twitter like demented sparrows and upload their videos to YouTube just so everyone knows what you did in that darkest of dark hours.  And these very actions are powered by..? Oh, yes. How silly of me. Horses.

2) Here in the UK, the clocks go forward at 01:00 GMT to 02:00 BST, meaning there will be an hour of lost productivity or sleep - depends on how you view it. It will also officially be British Summer Time.

3) Can someone tell the weather about the "Summer" aspect of # 2?

Have a great evening.

2008 - Take No Prisoners

Here's one I wrote earlier...the 1st of January to be precise.  And forgot to publish it.  Ho hum. Back soon with more of an update.  Promise.

And there it went. Ta-ra to 2007; ay-oop to 2008.

Not sure what you all did but I spent most of the 'celebrations' mopping snot dribbling from The Kid's nose, cursing the fireworks that woke him up from his boy-flu-induced slumber, rocking him back to sleep in one arm whilst transferring the millionth file from Old Slaptop to New MacBook. Hours of fun still to have but I need to purchase a few bits of software so I can actually do things. Hours of fun, like I said.  Ah, yes, those will be the hours I don't really have to waste...

Well, whatever 2007 left you with, may 2008 only expand and improve.  Unless it was an STD - in which case I don't wish for your sake it expands, just improves.  

My goodness...

I have tried my hardest - and usually failed - to keep up to date with everyone else's blogs, but from what I have read, it looks like everyone has been really busy in cyberscribospace. I deeply apologise for the extreme lack of updates from this end. I am still alive - I think.

It's been manic. A learning curve. A waking nightmare. A total headf***. But he's gorgeous all the same. However, I have discovered the perils of having a baby - he has a social diary like I have never, ever had myself:

Monday - 'rest day' [i.e. yoga with Mummy, playmat with Mummy, singing with Mummy, repeatedly making silly noises with Mummy, sensory book time with Mummy, shopping with Mummy, cleaning with Mummy, hanging out the washing with Mummy, gardening with Mummy, "This Morning" with Phillip & Fern (and Mummy).]
Tuesday - Massage class (Baby Massage, of course)
Wednesday - Swimming class
Thursday - ante-natal mates coffee & cakes/general moan session/babies all cry together etc
Friday - Music class

Other times are taken up with the 'rest day' agenda - all of which are carried out in five minute intervals as The Kid doesn't have much patience beyond that. Notice I have dropped the Colic from his name? Well, he still suffers but it's mainly reflux-related. At one point, after a fairly terrible day of chaos everywhere we went, I christened him The 'Colic, Reflux And Pandemonium' Kid. However, I fear sticking to that acronym would create an unfair tag for his future, methinks.

At our Baby Massage class the other day, The Mothers were discussing when they were planning on going back to work: January for some, May for others, the rest in between. The thing is, I don't feel as though I have stopped to be honest. I have a little notebook next to my bed which is full of feed times, feed amounts, reflux times and nappy contents - the description that is, not the actual contents. At the other end of the aforementioned notebook, however, are pages and pages of one-liners, character notes, vague and not-so-vague story outlines, random ideas, snippets of dialogue, great 'newly discovered' words to use and a complete outline for a book which is, as I type, like my boy, in it's early infancy. There was some sort of method in my midnight madness when I decided to keep both in the same notebook - there is no way in the world I would lose the Sh*t, Eat and Sleep Log, so there's no way to lose the writing notes either. Smart l'il me. I also generally have a spare dummy attached to my mobile or purse these days. Ditto, not losing either. I always know where the dummy is.

So, The Kid - he's good. Looks more like a two year old, has been randomly teething for a month now, has a false 'look at me NOW!' cry, laughs uncontrollably at me when he wakes during the night (really not funny...) is desperately trying to walk, has a favourite toy he named Bebo, has finished his third PhD and probably logs into Facebook when I'm not watching. I have some great new photos, some of which I will upload soon for all the cyberaunts and uncs to see - I'm just waiting for his replica cover of Nirvana's 'Nevermind' to arrive. He is quite taken with TV - the little guy really knows what he likes - but I fear he may end up the youngest ever Daytime TV Controller. Now, don't get me wrong, he liked Ruth and Eamonn over the summer but as soon as he heard Phillip and Fern's voices again after their return from summer break, his little face lit up.

You know, coming to think of it, maybe he didn't shout "Bebo" at his toy all those weeks ago. Perhaps it was BBC?

Hope you're all well.

Calling Time

Today, I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Hours: At The End of My Tether" - I mean - "Part 3: At World's End ". I am so CGI-d out I will have to consider overnight what the film was actually about before I can commit any words to screen tomorrow.

To round up a very 'being' weekend and to ease you gently into the post Bank Holiday working week, here is that little, plaster-dusted down poem, "Calling Time", as mentioned in this post. It is about obsessively trying to control time (but time is actually controlling you) and then being able to laugh at yourself regardless. I hope you like it.

As I get older, and the days become shorter
The weeks seem to fly by, months ain't what they oughtta.
No longer in bed, passing hours do I lie,
For fear of a year that flits past my heavy eye.

So, alert I must be, checking last night's long list
Of 'things to do', in case today, I should miss
The opportunity of a lifetime thus presenting itself
In the guise of necessity wrapped up in sheer wealth.

And tonight I will ponder my day so spry
I'll audit the calendar, check a year hasn't gone by
During the whisper of an eyelash, as you never do know
When a decade or a lifetime may surely go.

Lara Greenway 2007

Human Beings Doing

We were having a rare old time today over at Lianne's place. One part of that discussion in particular, focused around people who are 'always doing rather than being' and is the basis of a favourite saying of mine, "Try to be a human being not a human doing". Essentially it means being busy, busy all the time is not necessarily the right thing - sometimes you just have to stop and 'be'.

This also ties in with a previous post of mine - just by 'being' and not 'doing', you can sometimes save yourself a lot of flailing arms and misspent energy because what is meant to be, is just that - meant to be.

In my recent poetry phase I scribbled a little ditty which sums up trying to control time - or was it time trying to control me? Not sure there. Once I have unearthed it (probably in folder filled with the last - yippee! - of the plaster dust) I will post it here.