I've taken a week off. My first days off since Christmas - and even then I appeared to be up against some deadline or other. I am determined to do no work at all in order to get a good view from above as to what's going on and where I should go next. Which I suppose is actually work, but not work in front of a keyboard, so it's not quite the same. I also decided that this week, I would spend at least one single day sorting out all the things that I hadn't sorted out for all the reasons stated above. Things like finding the kids passports and being surprised at when they ran out, how much they cost and how much they've changed and not changed at the same time in the last five years. Things like looking at the extremely long list of things they need for school when they go back and wondering why they need all this stuff when they never seem to do anything with it. Then there's the thing that I wanted to do which came slightly behind all this once I got going and that was opening proper bank accounts for them both. Did you know that from the age of 11 you can have a debit card? That's great. If I'd had one, I might not be so ill equipped (still) to deal with money as I am now. That's at HSBC. Fill in a form, provide some id and you get a current account with a debit card, a savings account to along with it and you can even manage your account online. If it all works out how I would like it to, at least they will have a decent grounding in how money can be your friend and not your enemy. I blame my old man. I didn't know it at the time, but tossing the coin for "double or quits" on your pocket money every week is not normal.
Anyway, I did a ton of 'life-admin' type things as well this morning and as usual - so I don't know why I always put these things off for so long - I felt much better about life. The only thing left to do now is to drop the car into the garage in the morning. I have a feeling I've lost an exhaust clamp somewhere along the line. What was once a smooth and quiet ride has turned into something a bit clunky underneath...
What else can I tell you - I picked up a copy of Maroon 5: Songs About Jane today. 10th Anniversary edition? Where the hell did 1o years go? If you'd pushed me on it, I would have put at around six at the most. Time can do weird things to a man. Still, if you're a fan, it's worth getting your hands on for the 17 demo tracks included with the original album. Intriguing, very cool and a big signpost for any band who thinks they don't need an external pair of ears to polish their sound.
I've also been tidying things up on the blog here and over at tumblr. It makes me feel better even if nobody notices, but things are moving forward at a reasonable pace and I hate the thought of being backed into a corner. It will only come at an inconvenient time. I never really looked over the import that I did from blogger to here properly before now and man, is it a mess. It needs going back over if it's to stay and have each posts picture put back in - either that or some posts deleting forever.
I went back to the very first post I made in February 2008. I thought it went back much further than this - I'm sure I made a backup somewhere so I'll check one day, but the first line of this particular post reads:
"I got up this morning and decided not to be broke anymore. I think that’s a mighty big step. I’m so used to either just about making it to the next pay day or hatching a skin of the teeth escape plan, that it’s become the norm."
Four years on, did I make it? Well, I guess I turned a big corner at some point. I actually earn less now than I did in 2008. I find that quite amusing - is amusing the right word to use here? - but my quality of life is inherently better for it. Some might find that to be living my life in rewind, but I've never been all about making money so it makes no difference to me so long as I am happy and the kids are OK. That's not to say, I don't like the stuff - not at all. It's just not my every reason to get up in the morning. Without trawling through hundreds of posts on here to find it, if there was one decision I made when I decided not to be broke anymore - and this might help you out if you're sick of it too - it was to no longer be a consumer. Simple equation. Not buying what 'they' try and sell you every minute of every passing day leaves a lot more money in your pocket for the things you do want. Honestly - analyse what you do with your money for just one week and you'll see what I mean.
Wow. How did I get onto that train of thought?