For the last two years I have had a useless phone that called the wrong people, crashed for no obvious reason and generally just made my life difficult. But those days are over (!) and I'm now the proud owner of an iPhone 5 (the phone company gave me a great deal since the 5s is about to come out and I'm a loyal customer) and an instagram account. It's my new favourite thing.

Follow me on @whereverwefindourselves  

wednesday weekenders

Tom was at Uni for at least ten hours a day for the whole (long) weekend, so we gave ourselves a mini weekend together yesterday. Just what the doctor ordered.

Tom made banana pancakes for breakfast with homemade butter. I made the butter out of necessity due to our having cream (useless) but no butter (useful) in the house, but it's so much lovelier than the stuff we get at the supermarket. We built a fort in the living room and watched a couple of episodes of David Attenborough's Africa (because he's Tom's idol) and Bee Movie (because kids films are the best). For lunch we made mini burgers & shoestring fries with the mandolin dad sent us as a surprise. It's my new favourite toy. I want to slice things all. the. time. 

It was the perfect day. Full of cuddles and laughter and time out in our silly little fort.

 Tom, I love you so much. I love us so much.

new habits for a new month

I've been meaning to write my usual monthly 'looking back & looking forward' post, but I don't think the format is really working for me any more. Originally the idea was to look at the last month, what I enjoyed, what I did well and what I'd like to improve and to then move mindfully into the next month. This is not, however, what the series has become for me. It's a burden rather than a pleasure and is not promoting mindfulness.

I've decided, therefore, to start each new month with an intention, a focus around which I will create and maintain new habits that will enrich my life. And for this month...?

In June, my focus is to document simple day-to-day joys

This month I want to focus on the way I look at the world. I've fallen into a trap in recent weeks of allowing the negative to overwhelm the positive, to see stress and fear and overlook the simple joys. Just before I lost my job, I ordered a bulk lot ten rolls of film with the intention of getting back into the habit of taking analogue shots as well as digital ones. I miss the simplicity of film and the value of each shot. Digital allows you to take thirty crappy shots of the same thing whereas film demands you take time to be mindful of the lighting and the framing of each picture. When the package arrived today, I knew exactly how I needed to proceed. What film photography represents to me is a way of seeing the beauty in the world.

This month I want to relearn how to see. To take notice of simple joys, I've decided I'll need to do a few simple things:

001. write daily
002. take more photos
003. be grateful

I'm going to write three longhand pages every night, take a roll of carefully curated shots throughout the month and list three different things every day for which I am grateful.

I'll keep you posted.

finally.

The assignment we thought would never end finally has. Even his thesis cannot compare to this ridiculously involved and time-consuming waste of twelve thousand words. (Most of which I had to type as he dictated. I honestly have no idea how he has made it through two degrees as a two-finger typer.)



Last night we drank wine, watched Game of Thrones and basked in the relief of some stress-free time together. Tom bailed on a game of Scrabble claiming that his brain was fried from the assignment, but we all know it's because I was wiping the floor with him. I finished the game against myself and he watched and teased me for being such a dork for enjoying having such an equally matched opponent for once.

We both agreed that we should instigate a new rule wherein all computers are off by nine and we spend time actually together and free from silly distractions every night before we head to bed. I'm not entirely sure that we're better off being so constantly connected and contactable. It's far too easy now to be in two places at once. We need to switch off more in order to be present. I do think that part of the reason life gets overwhelming at times is that it is non-stop - you can take work and study and every other stupid distraction with you. It's worth making the effort to step back from all of that and be mindful. An evening ritual that does not include checking emails and RSS feeds and googling the ridiculous questions I don't immediately need to know the answer to is a good place to start, I think.