Living by Lists

Years ago I lived by a list that was taped to the inside of my wardrobe door, behind the scarves that hung there, hidden from anyone who came round. Hidden from anyone but me.

I used to check it almost daily to make sure I had done everything I needed to. The list had important items on it that made my life a thousand times easier, such as;

• Make sure there is milk and bread at all times.
• Make sure there are clean socks for the ex.
• Make sure his shirts are washed.
• Make sure you take the bin out before he knows it is full.
• Check for lunch foods. & Fizzy pop. There must be cans of coke.
• Have you done the washing up?

The list was longer than this, but I have forgot some of the terribly important points on it. But if I missed some of these items then I got the silent treatment, or there was shouting, or sometimes, things, like pots, got thrown. If we didn’t have bread from sandwiches, or milk for cereal, or cans of drink then the day started badly. When socks hadn’t quite dried yet from the last nights washing I have memories of hair drying them on the sly so that I didn’t the brunt of his anger. If there were no clean shirts. Well. There never were no clean shirts. No clean socks caused so much trouble I didn’t dare.

I kept to this list religiously.

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For the last year and a bit in the house I just moved from we had cleaning lists. The cleaning list that caused such upsets - it was rarely adhered to. And when it was followed, it wasn’t followed by all the residents – I mean, since when do the stairs need hoovering EVERY week?

For my first few months in that house, Sam and I got in trouble regularly for neglecting the hoovering of the stairs. We cleaned the important places, like the kitchen and bathroom. But the stairs……… After Sam moved out and I didn’t have someone to get in trouble with, I tried harder, and other people took over the neglecting of the cleaning o the stairs mantle. But the cleaning rota appeared without fail and occasionally a note was left for the people who had cleaned least.

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Now, I am trying to live by a more fun list. This list.

But I have to say, I have been neglecting it somewhat – I am now under 6months from my 30^th {GULP} and there seems to be quite a lot left on this list to be completed.

I keep looking at it in relation to what I have planned, and how I can steer what I am doing towards the list.

Going forwards there is a new point to the list;

NO.0 - make a concerted effort to try and ‘do’ more of the things on this fun list.

The boy started my panic in my decidedly uncompleted list by pointed out to me that I owe him 3 meals. That is 3 months whereby I haven’t cooked him anything. {No, that is a lie, I made him a bacon sandwich last weekend. Admittedly, he made me tapas, and paella and chicken kebabs this weekend, but who’s counting right?}

So;

No. 16 - This morning I dropped off 3 120mm films at snappy snaps to get developed. I know at least one of these films is from last summer. Maybe all of them are.

No. 13 - The bank holiday weekend will be spent on the boat.

No. 19 – Fingers crossed a London & Lizzie trip are on the cards soon. If we can make that happen it’ll be 2 get togethers in about 3½ months, which for us, will be an impressive feat! And I saw Katie at Glasto......

No. 7 Shaping up

At some point in 2009 I started to expand.

It was nothing unusual – I have a history of ricocheting between sizes – it doesn’t make me happy when I get bigger, it makes me pretty miserable if I am honest, but I know that it will happen.

I began to notice it when my skinny Baxter’s started to fit tighter and tighter, until my blue ones no longer looked acceptable and the black ones gave me the dreaded muffin top.

It got so bad, I did something I haven’t done before and just thought ‘screw it’ and bought the next size up. I though this time maybe I had expanded to stay……..

But I have some good news people – those bigger sized jeans are TOO big now. And the black ones, the ones with the muffin tops, I realised today those muffin tops aren’t there anymore.

You have no idea how happy this makes me.

All those days of dressing-less salads for lunch and dinner. Of annoying the boy with ‘is it healthy?’ questions when he cooks for me. Of not drinking those empty booze calories in the week. Of avoiding random midweek meals out. Of 6am runs. They have started to work.

Don’t get me wrong. I am nowhere near my university days of thin-ness, and I am pretty sure I will never reach that size again {and to be honest, I kind of looked a bit ill when I was at my smallest} but it gives me hope that when I am sat by the pool with the boys family in September, I won’t feel awful.

Now, I just have to keep up with all this good work………

No. 24 - See 10 bands I've never seen at Glastonbury

Done.

So without further a-do those bands were;

1. Corinne Bailey Rae
2. Willie Nelson
3. Snoop
4. The Black Keys
5. Gorillaz
6. Biffy Clyro
7. Editors
8. Muse
9. Jack Johnson
10. Toots and the Maytals.

The Black Keys were spine tinglingly good, Snoop rocked the pyramid, alone and with the Gorillaz, Jack Johnson was super Sunday chilling and Toots were just superb.

What a fantastic weekend………

*And I helped No. 19 along by meeting up with Katie during Jack Johnson and a little bit on Friday afternoon.......