It's much easier now..

I have been SO pleased with the response to my first post about India. Many people have got in touch and been so enthusiastic and positive, and given advice and tips and contacts and charities... But all to my email, so not be be shared. Not many actual comments ..

I can't tell you what a meal I have made over setting up this blog... it has taken ages. Insufficient courage chiefly, and lack of the correct neural pathways to tackle setting the thing up. (Thank you Kim for coming round and we set the thing up in about 10 minutes.) Like so many things that you think are going to frighten the life out of you, it really wasn't so difficult.

Then lots of people were unsure about what to do with the blog ("what do I do with all the boxes and symbols").. and I thought 'Aaah! come on, it really isn't so difficult.' Being such a pro, I decided to write helpful hints on how to comment/follow and help everyone along step by step. But I couldn't do it either..  Now Hayley has been round (she's 21) and showed me how to make it easier.. and hopefully by the time I leave for India (first week in May, date to be confirmed) my neural pathways will be crystal clear and I will be completely cyber-confident.. Otherwise Hayley will have to come too.

Meanwhile.. if you want to comment, go to the bottom of a blog and press 'Comment' and fill in the box. And if you want to follow the blog, go to 'Follow by Email' on the right hand side and fill in the box. Simple.

My quarter-of-a-Gap-Year in India

I am going to India in May for three months. I will start in Delhi and plan to travel around as much as I can, and hopefully find something worthwhile to do. I have written to a number of charities - 3 so far, so please let me know if you know of any organisation who might like me to work for them. And any other advice will be welcome, except if you are going to say that May is the worst possible time to go to India - because I know that. I don't plan to take my best shoes.

Doesn't your Mother live with you? you may ask... Yes she does and my priority now is to get care set up for her.  This week I send off for my visa, the following week I book the flight. Things are under way...  it's so exciting.

The trip will provide rich pickings for this blog - I will keep you up to date during this planning stage.. Helpful hints are welcome.

Guilt - the sticking plaster of life....

The sticking plaster of life.. it strikes me as such a brilliant phrase, because feeling guilty is just so time-consuming.

So I have resolved to banish guilt. It is the most destructive and paralyzing of emotions and I don’t have time for it any more. Without guilt I am going to have so much time in my life for doing the things I want to do (write a novel, redesign the garden, make my fortune, travel, the list goes on.) I don’t have the luxury of thinking “That’s probably something I will do .. one day..”  because, whatever happens, I am way past the middle of my life and I need to get on with it.

I am advised that this is the way to banish guilt:

Write a list of the things you worry about - that you should or should not have done:

Broken your diet

Shouted at your children

Been vile to your mother

Told a lie because you thought it was kinder than the truth

Overspent
Start a Blog :)

Committed yourself to doing something and not done it

When the list is done – it won’t be done for ever, this process may have to be repeated frequently –it must be read several times, and I’ll will myself not to be so unpleasant/insincere/rude/unfair in future. Then I will take the piece of paper outside with a box of matches, set fire to it, and watch it go. Alternatively  it can be put it on the fire (not so dramatic) or through a shredder.

It isn’t that those crimes don’t matter, because they do – but it’s a waste of time to go on fretting about them for ever.