Spac filler

I seem to have completely lost something last week - call it the oomph, the enthusiasm, the mojo, I don't know - I just lost it, and withdrew a little from "public life". I hit a wall of strange weariness and dragged myself around (maybe in the wake of a big day going to Newcastle last Saturday). That said though, I did all the usual - jogging, walking to work, walking half-way home from work, working on a couple of projects in the evenings - I just felt wrecked doing it. On Thursday I thought, how about I do something really crazy and just do nothing when I get home - I could just lie on the couch and not do anything at all. So I sprawled out with two books (after running an editorial eye through that little bit of text for somebody's website) - a theology one and a novel and decided I was just going to read the novel.

So I have now started Monkey Grip, by Helen Garner (which is a Popular Penguin for $9.95 - I love it that you can buy a book for scarcely more than the cost of hiring a DVD). It's another one of those books I hesitate to mention, because once again I couldn't finish chapter one without having to read about s*x and the language makes me wince. But I decided to press on with this one, because it's about a junkie who can't quit and the woman who loves him despite herself, so I'm hoping to glean something in the way of understanding that might be useful for Overcomer's Outreach (I've had a number of conversations lately with the partners of addicts - it's no fun - though they are usually married to them, which is a different scenario to voluntarily dating a known "junkie"). I think this sort of "modern fiction" is, however, to be taken in small doses.

Then I had a very pleasant, relaxing long weekend, and even dug out the leads to see if I could remember how to draw (I think I got the shape of things mostly right, but my technique is rubbish). On Monday afternoon I went to help some friends pack for moving and inherited some nice plants: five of them off their verandah, which I am quite excited about. They were a bit cumbersome, but only one of them was heavy, being the only one in a terracotta pot, so I didn't think anything of wrenching them out of the car (where the big, strong guy at the other end had put them) and lugging them upstairs and didn't notice that anything hurt. But, Tuesday morning, it was all I could do to get out of bed, and yesterday probably goes down as the most physically excruciating day of my life, in a pain that was just everywhere but seemed to be coming from somewhere on my left. I got through the day at work on Asprin, and today is a little better - and I have been trying to do some stretches since that I should have been more diligent about for the last ten years. I couldn't be sure I can blame it on the plants, but anyway, I am going to appreciate them when putting my shoes on doesn't make my eyes water. They need a little TLC (like a stake for the one that completely flops over) and I might even take a trip to Bunnings this weekend. I like going to Bunnings and feeling all "handy".

That's about all (for now) folks. Apologies for the lack of updates around here, but I quite like that I can let this blog be more "occasional", when I need/want it to be more occasional.