Day four
Tesco Shop – £13.41 (essential)
Total = £227.34 (£188.88 essential 83%)
Archives for category: Life
Day 4
2
Day Three
I’ve realised that my formating for this experiment is not constant, however I feel that this is unimportant.
Tesco shop – £18.88 (essential)
Craft materials – £3.83 (non-essential)
Night out – £12.50 (non-essential)
Damn good value for a night out!
Total £213.93 (175.41 essential – 82%)
So on some page they suggested that it’s a good idea to keep track of the money you spend in a month. So I’m going to give it a go:
Day one
Gym membership – £40 (essential)
Barclaycard payment – £91.71 (essential)
Food shopping – £10.32 (essential)
Hair cut – £14.50 (essential)
Running total – £156.53 (156.53 essential – 100%)
Worrying start!
‘Connect’
One word, the best kind of resolution. Not a new years resolution because it came to me a few weeks after… fancy that.
The idea of having one word as a resolution actually came from some of the personally development websites that I read (I’m just interested). At first I scoffed, I’ll admit it. Now however the idea is growing on me, I think it’s good.
So why connect?
Well firstly I have to point out that the intention is that it’s in relation to other people, not computers or technology. I’ve got enough of that kind of connection already 🙂
Modern society is suffering from the speed of life, people flash past and they don’t even register as actual real people. How many times have you almost looked through random strangers that walk by? I know I do it all the time, and that’s one of the things I want to change.
So I’ll be trying to keep the word ‘connect’ at the front of my mind as often as possible, smile and connect. Thats the plan (loosly) I’ll let you know how it goes!
This is a post about my career, prepare to be astonishingly interested. I started off in a small company (not including work placements) of about 30 people. Then I moved to another small company of about 50 people. This in many ways is good, working in a small company means that you generally have to get involved in more aspects of the business and work life is more interesting. There was however a nagging feeling that perhaps I should try and get into a bigger company at some point in the future.
Then we got taken over, by Radstone. Radstone would probably be described as a medium sized business, a few hundred people as far as I can tell. Still however things haven’t really changed here.
Then, on Tuesday it became official. Radstone has been taken over by GE Fanuc, part of the GE monster company, over 300,000 employees and an annual turnover of roughly 160 billion dollars.
To be honest I don’t know what kind of change this will actually make to me here, but I’m certainly interested to find out!
And of course the beauty of it is that I’m now working for one of the largest companies in the world without actually having to put in any effort. Score!
Both with who you trust and with people that trust you.
I went to the dentist last week, he said I needed all my wisdom teeth out and it would cost over £800. I said it would take me some time to get my hands on the money (wondering exactly how to ask dad if I could borrow it 😉 ). This meant that I didn’t book or sign up for anything. I’m damn glad I did too, because it gave me time to think. I’d been too trusting, I don’t need my wisdom teeth out!
Sure things are a bit cramped in my mouth, but it’s not causing my any problems! The only reason I went to the dentist was because it’d been over five years and I was worried about some repeatedly sore gums (I have no idea what gum disease it like). This dentist hadn’t even picked up on anything gum related, and I’m not sure he even checked.
I’m going to get me a new dentist, hopefully they’ll gain my trust. It’ll be hard for them ‘cos I’ll be on edge, not willing to trust too easily again.
Giving yourself time to think about these kind of important things is an essential skill that is very hard to remember in the heat of the moment. It’s something I definately need to work at.
So today marks the day; I’ve been t-total for two months. The remarkable ease with which I’ve given up alcohol confirms that I’m no kind of alcoholic, while something I’ve always suspected it’s nice to get it verified. In fact throughout the entire period the hardest times where not when going out with friends who were drinking or any other social drinking occasions, as you may expect.
The only time I really found myself thinking ‘Ooo I could really enjoy a drink right now’ was while I was relaxing in the house. I’d just rented a DVD and wanted to sit down and enjoy it, there were beers in the fridge that Mike had openly offered to me. One chilled beer while watching a film, the only temptation I suffered.
So I’m going to continue not drinking. I will have a beer every now and then, but it won’t be a weekly drinkfest like it used to be. Seven years of hard drinking is enough for one liver in my opinion.
It’s not going to be a difficult decision either, on the one side we have improved health, large savings of money, no more hangovers, improved self esteem. On the other side we have peer pressure.
That’s the only argument I can think of to continue getting plastered/battered/wasted/(insert socially acceptable description of over-drinking here) once a week.
I’ve learned a lot by not drinking. Firstly other people drink a lot less that I thought they did, I’ve noticed this through observation and through reading things like this. For those that can’t be bothered; social perceptions of university drinking habits are actually wildly exaggerated, but people try to live up to these exaggerated beliefs. Informing people of the actual social norms (65% of students have four drinks or less on a night out) reduces the alcohol abuse in colleges by over 10%.
Another disturbing read if you’ve left university (or never went in the first place) is this brief news report by sky news.
So, I’ve got a much healthier outlook on drinking, do you need one?
So how can a visit to bingo cause a sudden change of heart where the thought of eating an animal is concerned? Well ok the visit to bingo was an incidental factor. Bingo by the way is surprisingly fun, even for an active young adult like me.
Matt’s girlfriend Charlotte is a vegan. One of the people that was going to bingo had recently had a birthday and Charlotte had baked him a vegan chocolate cake that was actually very nice. With no eggs or milk I have no idea how that works.
Charlotte explained (after revealing the lack of animal in the cake) that she always hoped that people would turn vegan after realising that it’s not actually all that bad.
This is not the reason I have been considering the whole vegetarian aspect. What really impressed me was Charlotte’s compassion towards all living things, including flies. Conversations can meander and an anecdote came up to illustrate this point, but I won’t delve into that now.
You see this compassion got me thinking. I’ve always been interested in Buddhism, Taoism and general eastern philosophies and religions. Quite a few of these condemn or discourage the consumption of meat. So the thought came about that perhaps if I feel like taking any of these beliefs seriously I should give vegetarianism a go.
However considering vegetarianism from a moralistic standpoint raises lots of problems with my lifestyle. I couldn’t take the ‘moral high ground’ of not eating meat without becoming a hypocrite. I have leather shoes, and a suede jacket. I live far from work so my journey is probably quite bad for the environment. My job basically entails making it easier for people to kill other people. I’ve always taken a slightly patriotic and pragmatic standpoint to this; I can’t stop there being wars and I’d rather that ‘our guys’ had as much of an advantage as possible. All this would be called into question if I became a vegetarian for moral reasons.
There is a possibility that I would try it for a few months ‘just to see’, I can quite easily imagine my resolve crumbling the first time I had a meal out though. (Unlike with the whole alcohol thing, still T-total and three days to go).
So will I become a vegetarian? It’s still a thought that’s going to tumble around in my head, but in the short term is seems highly unlikely – i.e. not today.
So the police call again and I answer. Not quite a restraining order, but more of a warning/agreement. Any attempt by me to contact her will be seen as harassment.
At first I was quite upset by this, but after a few hours I realised that this actually changes nothing. I never had any intention of trying to make contact, and was actually quite worried about any chance meeting. Now I know exactly where I stand from a personal view (although there wasn’t much doubt there) and after saturday (when I’m going to the police station) from a legal standpoint. So if there is a chance meeting I no longer have to worry about how to act or what’ll happen because running away will be a perfectly acceptable response from me. Which to be honest would have been my natural reaction.
In fact you could see that as a good thing. I have no doubt about where I stand, I may even find out (from the police) what ACTUALLY happened, which would be nice. ‘They’ have peace of mind, which is good. Bizarre as it may sound I have actually worried at times that other people affected by these events would have difficulty continuing with normal life. So I know for a fact that that’ll be happening, don’t have to worry about the welfare of people I’ve promised (and am now legally bound) to not contact.
Not the best outcome you could imagine but in a slightly strange way everyone gets closure, that’s all I ever want when things go wrong… I was going to say ‘like this’ but I get the impression that this is quite a unique situation.
So, a case that was closed in my mind is now locked shut for good measure. Any further writing on the subject will not be released in the public domain and the status quo can return (not the band).
Well, the lack of contact from the police was bothering me slightly. Now I’m taking it as ‘when they said it’s not too serious, it’s really not’.
Otherwise they wouldn’t be leaving it over two working days to get back to me.
I feel I should point out that I slightly mis-quoted my answerphone message, it actually said ‘nothing too serious at this time’. Which is basically the same as ‘yet’ I suppose, but I like to correct my mistakes when I notice them.
randomtask 