Hi! What kind of a week have you had? I should mind my manners and offer you a cup of coffee or tea if you’d prefer. I’m having peppermint. I’ll do my best not to make you a cup like I made yesterday. I forgot to remove my husband’s coffee pod from the machine so my tea ended up part coffee, part peppermint. It smelt like a stale ash tray and tasted worse but I had to drink it. It will teach me to pay more attention to the one I make for you.
If we “Were having Coffee” I would of course have to fill you in on Muffin’s progress.She is getting bigger and better behaved. When she puts my hand in her mouth she tends to roll it around rather than chomping down with full force. We haven’t been that successful with the legs although I learnt at puppy school on Thursday that you get an old tea towel, put a knot in the end and whenever she tries to bite the leg area or hang from your trousers gently swing it in front of her face. It does work. She lets go and grabs the knot. The idea then is to drop the tea towel immediately so it doesn’t turn into a game of tug of war. That was the best thing to learn and has made my legs appreciate her that much more. She is learning quickly – she comes and sits. She will drop to a down position but only with a treat in hand. She is so good at sitting that when we go for a walk often that is all she will do. Consequently she gets carried a lot of the way. Toilet training – well we won’t talk about that this week. We all have to have a weakness. A short video to bore (you were warned) any that aren’t Muffin fans. My husband is struggling but Bundy has been successful in letting her know who is boss. She loves running at his side but those sharp little teeth don’t seem to come out that often.
If we “were having coffee” I’d tell you how sad I was at the events in Paris today. My heart goes out to those victims, their families, Paris and the world. These people are nothing but monsters. I’d tell you of my fears that reprisal attacks will be carried out on ordinary moslems who also would find the actions carried out in Paris abhorent. The thought of that makes me sadder still. How can we stop these fanatics who do monstrous acts claiming it is in the name of religion. It isn’t anything to do with religion. It is pure thuggery and we just don’t know how to deal with it.
If we “were having coffee” I would also tell you that I had a non paleo meal last night. We went to a birthday party at an Italian Restaurant. The rain poured down but it was a fun night. However, for the first time in I don’t know how long I had a pizza, and chocolate cake. The first sugar I have had in months and the first flour as well apart from a total of 4 sour dough little rolls and they were spread out over months. I know it could be psychological but I can feel it this morning. My mouth tastes yuk, I didn’t sleep well and my stomach feels full and bloated. I’m now convinced that I will stay on this diet for good. I made a lovely lemon slice the other day that whether you are paleo or not I think you would like. In a blender chop up a cup of almonds, then add 1/2 cup dates, zest of 2 lemons, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 cup shredded coconut. Press in a tin. Put in the fridge. Yummy.
The Rain Comes Down © irene waters 2015
Finally, if we “were having coffee” I’d be asking you for tips on motivation. How do you get lost passion back or is when it is gone it is simply that gone. When I talk passion I’m referring to that for a project. In my case the editing of my exegesis. This is the final run before it is submitted. In the last three weeks I have managed to get from page 20 to page 26. I have a headache at just the thought of working on it. I probably should just take a holiday. I should also be preparing my powerpoint for the conference I am presenting at in Melbourne but for someone who is normally prepared and practiced for these events I haven’t even looked at it despite being petrified at presenting this particular paper.
Anyway, talking about it makes me think I should go and do it. Hope you all have a good week. Thanks to Diana for hosting our coffee and there are others who’d like to meet you so pop over to meet them,
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Compared to me, you are getting a great deal accomplished.
The attacks in Paris are horrendous I worry about the future for our children and grandchildren, but fear there is no reasoning with instigators of such madness.
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I agree Sharon. I don’t see an end but my husband is a bit more optimistic and believes that Paris is the beginning of the end for groups such as ISIS. I hope he is right.
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Is there a very tight deadline on the editing? If not, put it in a drawer and forget about it for a week or two.Our brains are working away when we’re not looking and the back section of yours (note the medical terminology) will have processed things when you were busy walking, cooking, enjoying your new puppy and having coffee. When you go back to it I promise you’ll have insights, but they can’t be forced. That’s my experience anyway. OK here endeth the lesson…I’m off to make a delicious lemon slice someone told me about. Cheers, Angie
PS thank you so much for inviting me to your book group. It was absolutely delightful. Please keep me in the email/reading loop. I’ll be back! x A
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Thanks for the advice Angie. I have done just that and am working on another challenge which has to be completed by end November. Then I will come back to this.
It was good to have you at book club. We enjoyed the discussion the other day. You’ll get all the emails but we know you will be off having a dreadful time in the UK wishing you were here. haha. You’ll need your winter woollies. See you before you go.
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If time is of the essence, you just have to buckle down and do it. Set a daily goal for number of pages to go through then when you get there, reward yourself with a break or a cup of tea or some kind of small treat or outing. I hope you get through it on time.
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Thanks for the advice Corina. I do use this technique and it does work. I’m giving it a break this week and will come back to it with new eyes I hope. There is always plenty of other stuff to be going on with.
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I’m a Muffin fan! What a bundle of fur and teeth! I mourn with you over tea (mine is nettle). Pure thuggary, indeed. No religion is served when blood is shed by killing one another. And no religion should bare the blame of violent fanatics. Passion? Revision? Come at it every day no matter how sluggish you feel about it. Something will break. Set the timer and even if you just stare at it, sit with it for at least one hour. Thanks for the shared cup!
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Muffin welcomes you to her fan club Charli.
Roger believes that Paris is the catalyst to change. I wish I could be that optimistic but I do hope he is right.
Thanks for the advice. This is a new week and I am going to get stuff done.
Thanks for joining me for coffee.
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Muffin is adorable! I see she likes toes, too. 🙂 The joys of puppy training, right? Puppy school? I certainly wish there was a school for puppies in my area. Goodness, I think we may be lucky to have a school for our children (who by the way would benefit from obedience training as well). If you find the cure for procrastination, please share. Because I am doing it right now. LOL
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Well I certainly haven’t found the answer to it today. I had thought I might go in to my desk tomorrow as there are no distractions (like puppies) to take me away from work. However an old work mate is visiting our town and I am now meeting up with her. A lot more fun but still no work will get done. Hope you work out a way around your problem (then let me know how to do it).
Yes puppy school was great. I had to laugh in agreement that children often need obedience training also. We played pass the puppy so that they would get used to being handled by strangers. On each pass we were given a different task to do such as play with their feet, put our hand under their collar. Naturally I got the oldest most uncontrollable puppy when it came time to put our hand in the mouth. I had a 4 month old staffy who pulled liked a sherman tank. A total ball of muscle and I didn’t think his jaw would be any different and I was literally scared witless. Still got some tips as to how to survive the teeth and grabbing of the clothes.
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I have found that Penny is intimidated by a paper towel tube! It must be the sound it makes but she stops in her tracks when I get it in hand. I didn’t start on house and sorting clothing…still really hard. Maybe today. Maybe not. What does it matter really?
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Its a hard job sorting and when you do it doesn’t matter. Perhaps you could get a friend to come over and do just a little together. Make it a nice time to reminisce. Sending you a big hug.
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Not sure how you kick start. Me, I always find a small task – say editing for typos over ten pages to be done by 10 am, nothing more. The sense that I’ve accomplished a little task usually means he larger task doesn’t feel quite so huge.
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Thanks Geoff for your way of getting going. I’m a list person and if I can cross stuff off a list I feel as though I’ve achieved something in the day. And you are right – if I were to do that the large task wouldn’t seems so large. Thanks.
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Your little Muffin is so sweet and a bit of an imp I see! She certainly knows how to get your attention!
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Yes she is a bit of a sweetie. Although I am looking forward to her getting her second teeth which will hopefully stop her desire to chew on everything.
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I seemed to lose touch with your blog. I’m glad I found it again. I so empathise with the feelings of lethargy you described in relation to your exegesis. The headaches. Look after yourself.
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Nice to see you again Maureen. I know you understand having been there yourself. I just can’t believe that I’m at the last hurdle and I have just lost all motivation to do anything. Thanks for the words of support, they help.
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Muffin is so cute, but a handful as are all puppies. All worth it in the end 🙂 Absolutely tragic about Paris, thuggery is the only word. We don’t know what to do…you are right. Well done on the diet Irene, but I have to ask, what is ‘paleo’? I’ve never heard of it. And so far as motivation, I wish I had the answer. Small steps I suppose. I got another chapter done yesterday and felt I’d climbed that mountain just a little higher. Once you get your teeth into it again, you’ll feel a bit better. I get overwhelmed if I look at the big picture, so focusing on the task in hand helps me not to panic. But I know you know this already. Love having coffee with you (but not the peppermint/coffee/tea mixture, if that’s okay…I’ll pass on that 😀 ) ❤
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The paleo diet is all the rage here and possibly in the U.S.A. It is also known as the caveman diet, the paleo coming from paleolithic which I presume is when the cavemen were around. The idea is that you only eat stuff that they ate, so no processed food at all, lots of coconut, meat and some vegetables but not any legumes. No things like rice or pasta. Sounds dreadful but in reality it suits me down to the ground and because I feel so good on it I’m quite happy sticking to it. When we go out though we choose the closest thing to it we can get off the menu and we haven’t become those difficult people that hostesses hate.
The peppermint chocolate is horrible so I don’t blame you there. 🙂
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Thank you for explaining that Irene, I must be really out of touch! The trouble is I don’t like coconut! And I’m not a fussy eater, trust me. Having said that, the real stuff is not too bad and I do like Thai food which has a lot of coconut in, so maybe I’d be okay. If it’s blended I’m fine. I’ll have to research it. I’m trying to elimate as many processed foods as possible. C is on a diet at the moment and that helps me too. And I know what you mean about being able to still choose off the menu…that makes it sound very attractive to me and keeps everyone happy as you say… 🙂 Yes..we’ll keep away from that for sure… !
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I think when it comes to diets you have to go with what suits your own particular body. This one I just was at home with from the beginning and the only diet I’ve been on ever that I haven’t felt hungry or craved for anything. 🙂
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That’a a fantastic result Irene…one I need to find! Well done, so glad you feel so good on it 🙂
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I agree Sherri.
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