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May 23, 2006
My bud
I don't know what provoked this sudden urge to blog after such a long hiatus. I guess it's the fact that I'm talking to my bud Mark on msn right now and he's forcing me to read his blog. Not that I don't like reading it, I do, but I don't particularly enjoy reading MSN Spaces, I find them hard on the eyes. And, besides, he tells me everything he's been up to every day anyway so it's old news in a way... to me at least.
So anyway, this is Mark, and he's my little bud (yeah Mark, I know, not so much of the little....)
Mark lives in Bombay - not Mumbai, he tells me, Bombay - he shares a house with his sisters and possibly one brother and at least one friend (Cyril). You see there are so many people in his life, I find it very hard keeping up but I do try.
Mark and I "met" when I was working as an admin at Castlecops. I was i/c the Special Response Team and we'd earmarked him (no pun intended) as a potential recruit. It fell to me to make the offer.... he nearly bit my hand off. I've never met anyone quite so eager to give up all their free time to help others in that way (except of course the rest of the SRTs).
At the time, he was working as a technician with Dell in one of their call centres and he was one of a very rare breed - a call centre guy who knew what he was talking about. That of course was the reason we asked him to join the team, and he fitted in really well. He took all our stick about being the baby of the team (22) and having to make the tea. One of the nicest things about him was that he would PM me or ping me on MSN every day just to say Hi, how are you?
Pretty soon, our brief chats turned to lengthy confabs and every day we would debate, discuss, argue and generally put the world to rights. He would regale me with tales of his weekend's faffing; share the ins and outs of his life with his billion friends, he even introduced me to several of them. We talked a lot of rubbish and laughed a lot, we also shared our secrets; our hopes and our dreams; talked each other through bad patches and cried on each other's shoulder; we even got drunk and sang badly together.
I'm saying this as though it's in the past, it isn't. He's still there everyday (well most days), still prattling inanely, still sharing his secrets. I've known Mark for over a year now and, despite an age difference of 18 years and a distance of thousands of miles, he's one of my very best friends. I love him to bits.
I just wanted you to know....
Posted by lilliebet at 12:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 05, 2006
The Thief of Time
Procrastination. Well we all know that old adage don't we? And it's not the first time I've talked about it here. I am a world beater.
For the umpteenth time, I've given up my valuable weekend writing my latest assignment for my diploma. For two days now I've been feeling the repercussions, I'm physically as well as mentally exhausted. Every time I promise myself I won't leave it until the last minute but, every time, I still do. What is the matter with me?
Eighteenth months ago, I remarked on the fact that we, as a family, are inveterate procrastinators. We make all the right noises about getting together and keeping in touch and yet we never do.
I said back then that my cousin works in a bookshop only minutes from where I work. I promised that I woud go and see him; to catch up and yet I didn't. For eighteen months I procrastinated.
Today, I took the bull by the horns. It was a beautiful warm day, I had nothing better to do at lunchtime and I needed a book anyway. So I went up there and, as luck would have it, he was working. He looked as pleased to see me as I was to see him. We chatted, shared a hug (which elicited a few odd looks from customers - perhaps they thought they would have to hug the staff too!). And we made plans to meet up for a drink. I came away from the book shop feeling great.
Time rushes past us so quickly and there's nothing we can do to stop it. We have every opportunity to make the best of it but, so often, we don't. I would like to make a promise here and now that I will never let opportunity escape me again but I know it would be a false promise.
I can only do my best but, today, I took a step in the right direction.
Posted by lilliebet at 12:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack