Having visited my sisters recently I was suprised to see how shy my baby niece was. She is nearly two years old and full of life, and she gets on with me famously. It’s just that every time I see her it takes up to an hour or so before she comes out of her shell. I am naturally a shy person and so is my sister, so I know how debilitating this condition can be. Shyness has led to many missed opportunities throughout my early adult life which makes me wonder where I might be now had I been outgoing and bubbly. At University I didn’t join any of the societies I was interested in and only had the courage to speak to people when I was under the influence of alchohol which lead to many hangovers and regrets the nest day. Dutch courage is not the answer. When I left University I gradually lost contact with the few friends I had as I was never confident when contacting them. This has led me to feel depressed at times.
I have also noticed that some people I have interacted with who have sometimes given the impression of being arrogant or cold and unfriendly, were actually just shy. Only realising later made me realise that, that was how I must come across to people sometimes, in my desperation to end the conversation.
I used to think that shyness was due to nurture, not nature, but seeing my niece now I’m not so sure. My advice to any parents who see their child developing into a shy person would be to learn how to overcome shyness before it leads to unfulfilment in later life. Drama and acting classes can be a great way to bring people out of their shell, as can many other methods of building self esteem. I now know that socialising is a skill not a natural born talent, and like any other skill, can be improved with practise as I have learned with an online course and some reading.
It seems like a long while since Sherry and I were discussing her taking redundancy and us possibly moving to a lovely country cottage in Ireland, when in fact it’s really only been a couple of months. However there is no escaping the fact that so much time has passed in a blur it is quite frightening. We are still toying with the idea of moving, however with all the uncertainty in the economy at the moment we are just biding our time until we feel it’s right to make a move. The one great thing that has come of her redundancy is the fact that we get to spend so much more time together, and seem to enjoy eachothers company so much more. I did wonder if we would find it a bit much suddenly being thrown together, but of course my fears were unfounded. If anything we have got closer as a result of it which is wonderful, I think it is because we are just more relaxed with our time together and seem to appreciate eachother more, whereas before it would almost be a case of forcing ourselves enjoy the time we were spending together no matter how tired or stressed we were as we knew it was only a matter of hours before we’d be off our separate ways joining the daily grind.
On the downside we do seem to be very good at spending money these days, which isn’t actually a problem but when you look at the months spending sometimes it’s a bit like “wow, honey we really need to reign it in a little”. I have to say that we have had some one-off expenditures like the garden decking and the annual membership for the wine club, which are both sound investments in our eyes. I can’t complain, even with all the gloom and doom that is being bandied around in the media, I can’t help but smile to myself while feeling like life is good.
Some friends of ours recently joined a wine club and we have been lucky enough to help them sample their first delivery, there was an introductory offer of some sort that meant they got a mixed case of 12 bottles of wine for a bargain price. Never one to turn down the offer of wine I suggested that if they brought the wine we would provide suitable food and we could make an evening or 3 of it. The wonderful weather we have been having lately meant it was a great opportunity to dust off the bbq and have a bit of a “sending off” for our old patio, soon to be usurped by the fabulous decking we have talked ourselves into having done.
A few evenings of succulent fish & chicken washed down with a crisp refreshing white and melt in the mouth steak (the only way to eat steak is medium rare off the bbq) washed down with a fantastically heavy red we had all agreed that the wine club was a great idea, so much so that Sherry and I decided to join, which meant our friends would get a free case of wine of their choice for recommending us – win-win all round! It seemed only right that we share our introductory case with them as they did with us, so more bbq’s and excessive wine drinking ensued, then of course their free case of wine arrived – we were laughing that the wine club was successfully turning us into alcoholics and that was how such clubs stayed in business as we made our way through yet another delicious bottle of Chilean Merlot.
We are waiting for our first order to come through, and I have to say I am thoroughly looking forward to it’s arrival. We always used to pick up a couple of bottles of wine with our weekly shop, but this feels different, you can sit and sift through the seemingly endless selection of wines at your own pace and once you have placed your order the short wait for delivery seems to add to the excitement of it all – wondering if you have picked a good selection, or whether you will have a total clanger in there. We are still having evenings of wine sharing with our friends which is great as we get to try wines that we wouldn’t have necessarily ordered, and find are definitely going on our list and likewise for them. It seems so far the wine club is proving a good investment, I am already looking into suitable wines to christen the new decking with…..
I’m finding myself sitting on the sofa, wondering two things. 1) When the hell did my stomach get so big and 2) Where did my fitness go?? Last year I was doing well, going for regular runs, managing to get a half marathon and 10k under my belt both with respectable times. Then something happened, (more…)
Well, how things can change. Having found that beautiful cottage in Ireland on the internet Sherry’s mind obviously went into overdrive – she has always wanted to live in a country cottage, with fresh air, beautiful scenery and one day children running around causing merry mayhem. (more…)
As I’m getting older and watching my friends get older, I’m noticing it more and more as they have children. When I’ve visited family and met my younger cousins who we’re seven or nine years old when I last saw them are now sixteen or eighteen - they’re adults! Yet I feel the same as I did but it really makes feel like things are quickly moving on. (more…)
My Wife and I have been considering emigrating for many months now and recently there have been some developments. (more…)