Clever Clogs

Explain to me how one person can be such a disaster?

Last week I broke my laptop and my phone. Laptop mended, phone fixed.Then my Internet dongle gives up the ghost so used up all phone credit using phone for laptop hotspot, phone now has no Internet or calls as no credit ( but 'unlimited texts to all networks').

Then I blew up the iron, shorted the plugs (twice) set off alarm, etc. Ditched iron. Computer guy kindly looked at dongle and says 1) not my stupidity not working, 2) take it to vodafone. Vodafone say they'll send it off, be gone 10 working days and will have to pay for possible repairs. So I said I'd think about it. 

Is it cheaper to buy coffee every day for the foreseeable future to get free Internet or repair the damn dongle- WHICH I would like to say, has given endless and constant problems since I bought it a year ago.

(coffee 5days a week x 4 weeks month = €49.) 

Then.. I had to let painters in to school this morning and discovered that the relevant store keys are missing off the office hooks... and had to start phoning round to find someone who knows something. I phoned the caretaker who phoned me back and is trying to sort out his keys to be delivered as he is...wait for it...in POLAND. AAARGH.

Verily I say unto thou; no good deed will go unpunished. 

Is it just me?

Would anyone else like to join me in this soap-opera?

But then I looked at my emails and a friend has sent me this as encouragement:

MAKE SOMETHING WONDERFUL OF IT ALL

'...Make every minute count' Ephesians 5:16

The Bible tells us that there is a 'time for everything' (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NCV). What are you going to do with the time given to you? In the third stage of its life, a caterpillar forms a chrysalis and, inside, mushes all its body parts into gross bug goo (yeah, don't google 'inside a chrysalis'...) When it's strong enough, it pushes its way out of the shell as a butterfly and uses its wings for the first time. Rush this process, try to help the butterfly out by opening the chrysalis early, and you'll be releasing an underdeveloped bug hybrid with teeny wings. Also you'll be killing it, so that too. We must be wise with our time. It's tempting to take shortcuts even when you sense a chance to grow, but rather try to rush through everything, play the long game. Put the slow work into character-forming and you'll make something great out of your life. When life gives you lemons, it's probably God; so you should probably make, like, a delicious lemon cake. All of the ingredients we get in our life are given to us by Him. Some learning experiences we choose, and others, both good and bad, are thrust upon us. The story of who you are is written in your scars as well as your good experiences. They're not coincidences. God is crafting and making you - Almighty God! - so don't shrink back - make something wonderful out of it all. What now? God has '...made everything beautiful in its time' (Ecclesiastes 1:9 NLT).  Think: have you even considered that this might be you? Soooo....does that mean God considers me beautiful- sorry Lord, but yeah right. Or does he consider me a disaster with potential, as in potential to NOT be a disaster? Yes, I could go with that as a plausible outcome. So I will think present: mushy chrysalis, but future: ...I'll go for moth, no way will I ever be butterfly material. Best wishes from a future Moth.

Ha Ha!

Found this online but couldn't find the source...its just made to be shared:

Die Or Be Kilt?

Here's a question for the answering of:

Do you think small local business should be run on cut-throat lines, or benefit the community and with as much goodwill as possible?

Or should they not differ from the huge conglomerates, with toe-stomping being the accepted norm?

Is being as professional as possible in one's own small sphere enough, knowing that one is only a part of the whole, or should one be out to undercut and ruin the opposition in the name of self-promotion, profit and good business practise?

I guess you can guess where I stand on this one...live and let live. But I'm wondering whether I have the wrong attitude since we are talking income here? Should I join the nasty brigade in the interests of profit?

There's a quote which for my adult life I've tried to live by:

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

 

Matthew 16 v26...(have to admit I thought it was Shakespeare until I googled it to ensure I had it right...ooops!!!)

I've always believed that morals, ethics, kindness, honour, good reputation, were hugely important at whatever level one is working or living. But, as I am swiftly discovering, its easy to keep your ethics intact when you stand in the middle of the island; when you are clinging to the rocks at the edge of the sea-cliff its more difficult to honour one's own beliefs and to believe they truly matter, especially when you see others doing the opposite and reaping significant financial benefits as a result. Does that indicate they are more desperate or just more business minded?

The other day when I was grumbling Middlest informed me:

Karma's a bitch so I don't have to be!

I laughed, I really found it funny, and maybe I hope its true but not sure. Of course I don't wish confusion and destruction on others but neither do I any longer believe that what 'goes round, comes round'. Call me cynical but in business as in life it does not pay to have morals or ethics, to be generous, thoughtful, considerate, encouraging or to 'live and let live'.

Can success only be measured in financial ruin of the opposition? Is there no room for healthy competition and diversification? Why must we die or be kilt, why can't we go separate ways? Its not a small village we live in, its a city, much as we all call it a town and still live with a small rural town mind-set.
(I know I'm being vague here, but its on purpose for fear of saying too much, as several small business people are involved on each side of the equation, whether or not they are aware .)

Am I wrong? Naïve? Out dated? Not cut out to make a 'go' of my pathetic sewing?

The alternative, of giving up and staying on welfare whilst twiddling my thumbs, is humiliating. There's a happy medium somewhere but I need to find it, and fast.


PS I think that 'kilt' may be an Irish colloquialism. It does not refer to a Scotsman's skirt, neither is it short for murder. It is sort of being being in serious bother with someone, usually yer Irish Mammy, and receiving a verbal hiding, possibly a clip of the ear, and temporary banishment! Its a bit difficult to explain, but since I found it in the writings of Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) its obviously been in usage for a long time, and it really is in everyday usage.

Props Award!

Well I have just spent the afternoon photographing a 'haep o' shtoff' for the Etsy shop. Long overdue.

Much as I love taking photos, and trying to do them well, I'm always putting off doing the shop photos. I guess its the old notion of better to not do something than fail to do it perfectly- serious problem of mine, which I am addressing but...

Anyhow with the idea of adding verisimilitude to the photos I assembled a cast of thousands to aid the artsy-fartsyfication thereof...well, hundreds...well, put it this way, I scoured the flat to find items which looked like genuine props rather than just junk left on the counter!

And so, since we are entering Award Season here is my

Props Award Acceptance Speech:

'I'd like to thank my Apple and my Orchid, my Granny's Vase and Gardening Book.

I'd like to thank Youngest for not nicking all my cheapo bangles and leaving me one bead necklace (I'd like the rest back please)

and Home base for having a sale on tea-light holders at the weekend wave.

I'd also like to thank my lovely Address Book and Biro for being such good sports during a long and gruelling afternoon: I wouldn't be here without you kiss kiss.

And most of all I'd like to thank my millions of readers for putting up with

this preposterous guff sob sob.

Thank you!'

So whaddya think? Will I make it as a star???

Or just an eejit?!

Aren't the ridiculous posts the most fun to write?