Thinking

What a difference a week makes.

Last week it was Christmas Day evening and we were all happily tired out. Shattered but happy. The day had gone well,we had survived,we had been surrounded by family and we had time off work to chill.

This week it is New Years Day and it's been raining. Not just a bit of rain but heavy persistent rain. The kind of rain that leaves rivulets of raindrops running down the the window pane at 100 miles a hour creating big puddly splashes when they make it to the window sill.

And some of the family were missing from the dinner table,either poorly or off jaunting around far from home and some people were feeling under the weather with colds and just plain tiredness after a hectic week.

And work loomed....

Such a different end to the night and it wasn't an improvement! The weather seemed to echo the mood. And this was the start to the year....yikes.

So. Things can only get better...right?

And as usual,in amongst the underlying feeling of grey gloom were bright splashes of happy.

The kids,yep it's always the kids. I swear down that if you look closely at any children nearby you will find happy. And if you open yourself up to that happy things will become brighter,if only for a short time. You see kids are infectious like that,if only us adults take time to notice them.

As I was saying, the kids were happy. They didn't dwell on the rainy grey day. No,instead they ate the yummy dinner all up and then they snuggled under blankets in their mammas front room and watched copious episodes of Spongebob,away from the prying eyes of their grown ups,time to do whatever within reason,what they wanted.

We only saw them when they were either hungry or thirsty and this left the grown ups and older teens to sit around the dining table eating jam tarts and drinking cuppa's and,yes thank you dad...listening to the top 500 songs on Smooth Radio. We chatted and put the world to rights as oldies tend to do. We discussed the rights and wrongs of the placings of each song,everybody had their own view,I was SO happy to hear Baker Street was much higher than I had originally thought,that made my day. I knew all along it needed to be higher than I thought it had been placed last time.

And my mums food was wonderful. Again,she produced a dinner for ten and still lamented about the missing people at the table! She then filled us up with mince pies,jam tarts and lemon curds and for tea we had a lovely nibbly buffet and trifle and chocolate cake for dessert. It was such a treat to be fed and looked after like this. I really appreciated it.

And then it was back home. In the pouring rain. And I had to drag the heavy,wet smelly chockablock full green bin to the bottom of the drive. And that's when reality set in and a flash of normal day to day life hit me smack in the face.

The thought of January,month of all birthdays and no money,month where my little boy would have to go back to school again,month where it would all start again.

And I felt ouchy,very,very ouchy.

After I had took my sopping wet coat off I sat on the settee with Chips and whilst he watched the darts final (his new love is darts) I wrote this. And I came to the conclusion that I need to think of something 'nice' to make the murk go away.... at the moment I'm still thinking.