“What shall I write about today?” I asked Belle.
“Write about Emily and me making a house in the shed and making a TV out of the cardboard box that the wine came in.”
It’s a rather sad fact that when I am feeling calm and relaxed and not overloaded with work (like I am now), that my brain goes completely blank, totally devoid of literary inspiration. If I sit down at the laptop with a whole evening in front of me to spare, I just can’t think of anything more interesting than the fact that the tasty snacks I won in a competition arrived today, resulting in my eating six Cadbury’s Turkish biscuits for my lunch.
Now if I was sitting down at the beginning of a busy day, knowing I had other deadlines to meet, I’d be bursting with ideas. Sometimes in the supermarket, when I should be concentrating on remembering to buy fruit and vegetables and not just jaffa cakes and gin, I find myself so distracted by a brilliant idea or an overhead conversation that I have to stop mid biscuit aisle and write things down on scraps of paper I find in my bag.
I guess I am just one of those people who is most productive when under pressure. When I’m busy it’s like I breed good ideas – the tasks bouncing around inside my head give birth to more and more tasks, spiralling out of control until I have filled page after page of my notebooks with lists of ‘Interesting Things I Could Do When I Have Some Free Time.’ I really should be grateful for some peace and quiet inside my head – I’m forever complaining about my overactive mind – yet I feel strangely floaty and surreal without the whirling mass of thoughts to weigh me down and give me substance.
As boringly self-indulgent as this post is becoming, I don’t think writing about Belle’s shed house is going to rescue it.
I ask Bee instead.
“What shall I write about Bee, I can’t think of anything.”
“Camels”
Hmmm
Maybe not.
Probably best just to accept that this evening is not going to be hugely productive words wise, and do something more suited to my still mind, like watching back to back episodes of Come Dine With Me.
Ooh I know! I will add a useful P.S. reminding people who haven’t already to vote for me in the MAD blog awards. That will give the post a sense of purpose, even if it hasn’t turned out to be the best example of why you should vote for me.
P.S. If you haven’t already, please consider voting for me in the MAD blog awards. I’ll let you have one of my special Turkish biscuits* if you do. Thank you!
*Biscuits available for collection only. Please phone ahead to check availability. Number of biscuits left at time of writing – two.
I noticed that ‘breeding and birth’ made their way into today’s post, perhaps that is a bit of residue from your previous post?
I for one would have found a story about the box house, or one about Camels to be a wonderful diversion. In fact, I challenge you to write a story about how much more difficult it would be to connect and network with people, if we didn’t have the internet or cars, but instead relied on camels for our primary transportation, to get from box house to the next.
I myself just moved into a lovely Viking refrigerator and freezer box combination. It has all the amenities including a TV made from, oddly enough, and old Sony TV box. The neighbor’s are exceedingly jealous. Ok, I need to give the camel a bath.
Good post,
Brian
p.s. I believe I have already voted, when do we find out if you won?
Gosh you’re right – how weird!
Right, I’m up for the challenge. Tomorrow my post will be camel based and incorporate box homes. I could easily live in a fridge I reckon. Yum.
P.S. I don’t find out until the glamorous award ceremony in…er…Butlins…in September. It’s too long! I want to know now!
You sound all floaty-like, do you think it’s an after effect on having the implant thingy out?Hormones flowing freely and all that. Are you still wearing that floaty floral skirt, maybe it’s that. I do love your posts Ms Middleton even when you just a little natter with us :)
I do feel very swooshy and as Brian pointed out I used two birth and breeding metaphors in that post without realising it. I am clearly awash with hormones :-)
Its like we’re ‘busy brain buddies’ completly get what you mean about brain being more productive when it should be busy doing other things!
After your post a few weeks ago about AADHD and then my subsequent post piggy backing off that idea I have devised a plan to try and help me cope…i think it’ll work…or at least i really really hope it’ll work-damn our hyperactive Monkey Minds!
Ah yes, the good old Monkey Mind! Did you read that article in the Guardian mag too? It was really interesting wasn’t it? I’m not sure I’m totally convinced that uni-tasking is the way forward – surely it’s ok to have the radio on, or eat a sandwich and listen to someone at the same time? It’s a good theory though, and certainly food for thought!