finding your feet with forgiveness

Recently I experienced the best day this year. On the morning dog walk, I found an unopened bottle of beer lying on the grass. Then the outlaw took us out for what Billy Bunter would call a slap-up feed.

In the afternoon, I saw some good shoes in a shop, at 75% off! Unfortunately these days I have slightly different sized feet - one is an 8 and the other's a 9. The last two pairs in the shop were sizes 8 and 9. So I bought them both, and told the sales guy I was planning to wear the right 9 and the left 8. He gave me a strange look. "People always get angry at anyone who chooses individual standards for his life" - Nietsche writing about der heisse Junge.

Later, in a bookshop, I saw a half-price book called something like "Forgive and Live," about the health-giving effects of forgiveness. I read a few pages. It made a lot of sense, but it made no mention of forgiving oneself, what's the point of that? So I didn't buy it. Besides, I'm forever buying worthy self-improvement books and then not reading them. Just out of interest I scouted around the shop, and found a general book on health. Wondering if it might have a section on forgiveness, I opened it at a random page - and it was the only page about forgiveness! But I didn't buy that either, since I've got similar books unread at home. And when I got home, I pulled one of my books off the bookshelf, and opened it at random - at a page on forgiveness!

As the god-bothering outlaw was leaving at last for the airport, just to wind her up I said "I forgive you for everything." Her face contorted as she prodded me in the chest and said "no, I forgive you!"

That night, I was about to chuck out the unsuitable shoe from each of the pairs I bought. One was too big, and the other too small, but I found that if I removed the insole from the too-small shoe, and added it to the insole already in the too-big shoe, it balanced up so that they were a good fit too. Two pairs of shoes for the price of half a pair! Okay, so they look a bit like the sort of surgical boot that lame guys in Glasgow used to wear, but they're very comfortable.

That night the free bottle of beer tasted fantastic, perhaps because of the alcohol. What a great day!

not a kangaroo

I am indebted to sydney wildlife for allowing me to reproduce this nature photo. You probably recognise the species, but do you know what it eats? Click it to big it, and you'll see its staple diet. One clue - Brian Wilson eats these as bar snacks.

new year's eve

I was thinking of blogging what was good about my 2008, then doing New Year's resolutions, but I can't be bothered. Don't care.

I've been crabbit as hell for weeks now, I think it may have begun when I started trying to meditate. In fact all the blissheids I know are bad-tempered, but it's chicken and egg whether they bliss because they're crabbit or the blissing makes them crabbit.

As usual after Xmas we drove down with the mother outlaw to stay at Spud's mum's place. But just one night there was enough for me. For one thing I couldn't sleep for the heat and the noise of the frogs outside the window.

So the next day I took the train back home, for everyone's sake. First night back - at 2 a.m. there was someone walking around the back garden trying the windows. By the time I got up and switched on lights, he was away.

Tonight, New Year's Eve I've had a glass of wine and that's enough excitement. I've got the camera beside the bed in case the garden guy comes back.

Tomorrow the partner and the mother outlaw are coming back. Happy New Year to you by the way.

There's just time to share this photo of one of the highlights of 2008 - our trip to visit Menzies in Malawi, when I had time for some swimming at Victoria Falls.