A blog a day keeps the psychiatrist away... No 1.

To keep me from becoming a totally introverted nut-case, which I am already on the road towards regardless, I have decided to write a blog a day for the next 30 days. It will be on any topic and of any length of my choosing. This rule is to keep me from making excuses not to do it. The point of it is to get me out of my own head and sharing something.

Since I have given up smoking, and yes, it is for real, I was helpfully informed I would need to find something else to do with my hands. The ritual of rolling my own was all part of the attraction for me, and I do really miss it. But this tale has a happy ending. I am now the proud owner of two, woolly crocheted hats. I chose the blue and white mixed colour myself and even taught myself how to crochet. At first I tried following a pattern but gave it up after it kept coming out the wrong shape. So I started in the middle and worked my way out into a perfectly shaped hat, which I wear proudly around the town and even feel is giving me a certain air of respect from some of who I consider to be the 'cooler' members of the neighbourhood. (all around my age and older, shabbily dressed types with lots of hair and reading- glasses) Ok, they are all a little like me.

When the novelty of hat-making wore off, I turned my attentions to the key-board (of the musical persuasion) which was lying idle in the corner of the living-room-that-never-gets-lived-in. In only 24 hours I had taught myself the first half of Fur Elise, a tune I have always wanted to be able to play properly. I also polished up on a few other little tunes I had been learning over the years. Those couple of hours a day are really my most enjoyable.

Apart from these two creative asides in my life, I have managed to re-paint the front door, the back bed-room and do a reasonably impressive amount of gardening, considering there is still a chill in the spring air.

Meanwhile there is a large bumblebee in the sun-room sharpening his sting for the next time I attempt to put him in a jar. He will then be transported all the way out of the back-door and set free in the wilderness of my small domestic back garden.