Welcome and come on in. I hope your week has been as pleasant as mine has been. Before we start would you like a beverage – I have almost everything in the hot drink department and you are limited in the cold drinks to water, water or water with cordial. I do have fizzy water that you are welcome to try.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that my week has been pleasant simply because there were no important deadlines to be met. I am a goal oriented deadline driven person that is trying to let things go a little. I am resisting the urge to fill the void in my life caused by no longer having uni work to do and instead doing fun things which is primarily sitting down ( hard for me to do) and reading during the day. Do you have trouble stopping? I used to feel guilty if I read during the day as I felt as though I was wasting time. I know that is stupid and reading books is perhaps one of the best ways of understanding people and cultures outside your own experience. Today I finished the German Girl which I will review this week and plan on starting a book called Girt by David Hunt. This is a history of Australia which I am anticipating will be as readable as those done by Bill Bryson.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you we went to a quiz night with a couple of friends on Thursday night. We were the smallest table and we lost by 1/2 a point. I don’t think Roger will ever live down saying that Julian Assange was in the Nicaraguan Embassy. I thought at the time something didn’t sound right with it but he said it with so much conviction that none of us questioned him. I won’t live down not knowing that the Chachacha comes from Cuba. I would have done if I’d only been a little further on in the German Girl. It was a good fun night.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I am continuing on with my garden project. I have replaced one garden border and planted the bed out. Already it looks better but when the bamboo screen goes up I think it will be greatly improved.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you that I posted my first smile in ages for Trent’s weekly smile. I also reviewed He, She and It combining it with a 99 word flash fiction.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you after our regular lunch on Friday with my Mum, she and I settled down at the table on our new pavers and had a game of rumikub. We used to play this regularly and she and one of her friends also played it whenever they saw each other. It worried me when she said she had no recollection of ever having played this game before and I was relieved that it didn’t affect her capability to beat me in the first three hands.
If we were having coffee I’d tell you it is over to you tell me about your week. Books you’ve read, films you’ve seen. Thanks for dropping in and thanks also to our coffee host Diana, from part-time monster for having us and giving us a place to meet up.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
Thank you for the coffee, Irene. I am reading, “The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre; an anthology of explorations in creative nonfiction”, edited by Prentiss & Wilkins. It has brought you to mind as I read about memory and memoir. It is interesting and readable. I think you’d like it. Continue to enjoy your time, have a great week.
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I’ll keep my eye out for the book. I enjoy reading how people see creative non-fiction. In Australia it is not as commonly used and very misunderstood. It is much commoner in the States where most of the proponents of it originated. Hope your week is good also.
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Irene, I read recently, and in more than one place, that “being bored” is one of the best ways to stimulate imagination, and that filling up time with busywork can become drudgery. So maybe a different perspective on goals will help you get more accomplished.
I just finished reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles – an excellent book, worthy of all the positive reviews.
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I totally agree. One of my chapters in my exegesis examined the necessity of boredom “A consideration of boredom, the starting point of this project, was necessary for the discovery of the ingredients required to move the project along. If I had not experienced this lack of interest in myself and my story, which stifled my creativity and brought my writing to a halt, I would have continued penning my narrative without any desire to make changes that would renew my passion for my story. Magee (2006) states ‘Boredom is an indispensible moment in the experience of difference. It announces the presence of a way of being we do not, indeed cannot, know—at least for the moment. For boredom also signals the possibility of learning’ (2006:10). Mann, a psychologist, has tested subjects and concluded that boredom led to an increase in creativity, to an extent that she now recommends that we should actively seek out boredom in our lives (Williams 2015). Mann postulates that boredom allows a shift from the task at hand, an external function, to looking inside the self, examining feelings, memories and experiences, and shifting the focus of attention elsewhere allowing daydreaming to occur, thereby opening channels allowing a new, creative way of doing the task to be discovered (King 2002; Mann and Cadman 2014). Daydreaming is described as ‘a propitious mental state for creativity, insight and problem solving in which truly novel solutions and ideas emerge when the brain brings together unrelated facts and thoughts’ (Begley et al. 2009:36). (Waters Thesis 2017)
Thanks for the book tip Sharon. Have a good week.
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What I should have written is that a different perspective will help you SEE how much more you’ve accomplished.
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It may actually help in my creativity as well.
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That quiz night sounds like a lot of fun! I hope you have another easy week.
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Thanks Corina. It was a lot of fun. Hope your week is good also.
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I know what you mean about feeling guilty if you sit down to read during the day!
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Glad I’m not alone in that. A product of our upbringing I guess.
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