April '07 ... New Discoveries

This month I found out some new things about myself ... which just goes to show, we never stop learning.

■ Early in the month I discovered that I don't like waking up on the morning of my child's birthday, when said child isn't here. It made me wistful, pensive, and a bit downhearted. However, I was with her later and all was well - a happy birthday dinner, followed by sleepover party restored me to my usual perky self. I found out that 10 year old girls can easily talk until gone midnight, about the most bizarre and varied subjects. I found out that these pre-pubescents are women-in-training and enjoy watching 'Friends' whilst eating lemon cheesecake as much as any adult female.

■ I discovered that one of my friends got so drunk at a party, and carried away with pogo-ing, that she put her neck out and is now under the care of a chiropractor who is trying to gently manipulate her bones, muscles and tendons back into place. Isn't it great that grown ups can act like kids sometimes (OK, quite a lot of the time) and just enjoy the moment!

■ I found out that one of my childhood friends is thinking of moving back to the area, and that this pleases me. We've known each other since we were 5 years old (which is a scary amount of history ) and despite several mammoth arguments over the years, are still friends. What's more our daughters are close friends too, which is a bonus. She recently reintroduced me to a guy with whom we (both) went to college many moons ago, and with whom she'd stayed in touch - I discovered that he was exactly as I remembered him ... other than the fact that now he has no hair. He said I looked exactly the same, only with added 'character', which as we all know, is code for 'wrinkles'. Tsk.

■ I discovered that I really, really don't like mowing the lawn. I am a little ashamed to say that it had never been 'my job' before. I kind of took it for granted that it just involved walking around pushing a loud piece of orange plastic around the grass. I mean, it had never looked like especially hard work ... so it was a bit of a shock to the system to find out that it was! It made my back ache. My legs ache. It made me sneeze (freshly mown grass always has) and made my hands all green and grassy. I now know for sure that mowing is not one of my favourite things - yet I do like the way the grass looks when it's been done.

■ I found out that a close friend has a life threatening illness. She is dealing with it with astonishing openness, bravery and humour, and I have no doubt that she will emerge from this phase of her life with even more strength than she possessed before. She is a lesson to me, and I admire her enormously.

■ I discovered that I'm not half bad at building flat-pack furniture. My brother gave me some power tools for my birthday, and with their help, I have, this month built two bedside tables (with three drawers in each), a dressing table (with 6 drawers) and ... my pièce de resistance - a revolving tall mirrored 'thing' with shelves in the back. I keep going to look at it, and revolving it, astonished that I built it myself from the contents of a long, flat, heavy cardboard box!

■ Lastly, I discovered that I need a bigger cup size in my bras. As my daughter starts out on her lifelong relationship with the over-shoulder-boulder-holder, with the smallest cup size .. I find myself creeping further into the alphabet than I've ever been before! So you see - it isn't only my self awareness which is growing ;-)

# First posted at my LiveSpace blog - 30th April 2007

© Author