I feel like the original night owl

I wish  I could blame it on old age ................ but I'm not old enough yet.
Wish I could blame it on too much coffeee...................but I do not drink it.
Wish I could say it's cos where i live is too noisy...............but many nights it's as quiet as a grave.


Whenever I tell people that I have trouble getting to bed early at night or falling asleep when I do get there, they tend to nod wisely and ask me what's bothering me, what's on my mind. They get a bit flsutered when I explain that for me, this is a normal state of affairs. There is usually not much that'll bother me to that extent.


Truth be told , if I'm being honest, when I'm up late at night, till the witching hour and beyond, it's simply because my body clock has switched and day is night and night is day.  Too many years of staying up late to study, to watch movies, to read novels, to engage in other entertaining extracurricular activities and this is the result. An adult female who rarely falls asleep before 4am in the morning. The endless cups of tea I drink during the day can't be much help either.  Not to mention my favourite caffiene filled soft drink.............Coca Cola. Yum!



It's not that I have trouble sleeping though,  far from it. I still get my daily quota of the sleep , just not at the regular times when one would expect  a normal human being to be asleep. When I do fall asleep I tend to conk out quite literally and very little wakes me up. You could cart me all the way to the Amazon and I wouldn't even twitch!!!



The plus side  of all this is that graveyard shifts are a breeze, I can ( or could) leave school work till late secure in the knowledge that I could sort out reports and assignments with one good nights effort. I have found I do my best mental activity in the cool of the night. For me, it's a good time to sift through the puzzles of life and try and make sense of it all. Of course , that's only if NCIS isn't on and I do not have a DVD to watch on my PC.  And if I am not chatting away to a significant or not so significant other in a land far far away.



On one such night recently, while reading my latest paperback by James Siegel , a track came up on the music channel Iwas tuned into and it's been sounding in my head ever since. Still catching up on the lyrics but I do love the parts I've made out so far and the melody is great. I hear its been a big hit round the world right about now and one listen will  definately convince you that it really deserves to be. Hoping I can get it on my MP3 player ASAP, for now its off to bed for me. Fireflies by Owl City is the headline track on Soundtrack to my life at 12:38 pm.

Names that start with the letter D

Delilah
                                                                                                                              Deborah
                                                                                                        Doris
                                                          Dorrit
Daphney
                                                                               Dorothy
                                                                                                                                      Dorcas
Davina
                                           Donna

It's a sad but true fact that we have no say at all when it comes the monikers we get stuck with at birth. If we're lucky it's something simple and reasonably pretty. If we're not so lucky it's dull and un-pronounce-able-properly by the majority of the population.

If you have kind parents, they avoid giving you names they wouldn't like to have had to learn how to spell when they were youngsters .(Seriously , any name over nine letters is taking things  a little tooooooo far don't you think?!) Sometimes its not their fault though. I mean, imagine th eplight of a copuple who have already named three infants successfully and then suddenly , along comes infant number four. What's a couple to do? Having expended all their  name-related creativity with names like Alexandre, Deidre , Fionella, for the first three, they may have to resort to looking for names that rhyme with their Last name, flipping through the phone book or  looking to the Bible for inspiration. And that , Dear Ones, is how people get stuck with names like Nebuchanezzer ( Don't blame me, even He can't spell his name right).


It's all well and good to suggest legally changing your name when you become an adult but the damage has already been done. Don't think  for a minute that people who knew you as Edwina - Davina for twenty-two years are suddenly going to go with the flow and call you Eva or Sasha all of a sudden, no matter how many times you tell them.  Plus there is the downside of letting your parents know that you think their judgement sucks- never a smart thing to do. God forbid you were named after a favorite aunt or something.

For moi, I just find myself not liking names that start with the letter D. Maybe its because people with a strong accent always seem to murder the names. Or maybe it's because I happen to have a D-name and I don't really like it. It's always funny when you tell people that you don't like the name your initial stands for cos they immmediately bug you to tell them. PuLeeeeZe don't. They will definately call you by it till their dying days - trust me, I should know. I've fallen for it more than once. Although truth be told , it isn't that bad a name, and I was named after My Nan so ...........


Anyway , enough about me. Hey there Delilah is a nice one that has helped me to start to deal with the D-name thingy. I mean it. The song actually makes Delilah a cool name for me , and the melody isn't half bad either. Catch up with the Plain White Tee's and their new music at http://www.myspace.com/plainwhitets .
And no, I ain't a Delilah, or a Debra, or Dorrit  for that matter if that's what your are thinking. If you are though, and you're cool with your name, then good for you. if youre not, endure Dearie, endure.

I feel like Ms Bradshaw

                  ' You're the one I cannot live without'

Over the years , we've all  heard these words in one variation or the other. At the valentine season, the love message gets louder and a bit more obvious ( sometimes a little obnoxious ) but for me at least, the true expressions of love that can be seen in our day to day lives are the ones that really count.

Walking down the high street with a loved one this weekend, we stopped at a shoe shop. I sighed wistfully at the lovely shoes in the display. Born with a set of extra large pedals, truely feminine shoes are rarely available in both my size and price range at the same time. Coupled with my tom boyish nature, lets just say that  sneakers and flats are more my speed than heels and frills. My collegues at work once called security cos they thought a guy had been using the ladies changing room . har har har ( that's so not funny, quit larfing right now).

 "God has not cheated me" ,  I said , "But.........." My face said it all.

"Never mind " she said with a laugh, "you've definately been compensated in other ways"

"I know , but I still wish ...."

Still on the hunt for the perfect Valentine sunday outfit we ended up in another store that was doing a sale . A pair of perfect six inch heels caught my eye, size 8 but looking more my size (9 going on 20) . To the amusement of  staff and other shoppers, I peeled off  my socks and sneakers and tried them on and tottled to and fro the department store. Lo and behold. THEY FIT. PERFECTLY! NO WAY!!! Better yet, I got another pair. Best of all , only one of them was black, the other a sexy concoction of green suede and lace or something. Just picture STC  or Strictly and you'll get  an idea of the type of heels I'm on about.

Getting the shoes was one thing, walking in them another story all together. Too long a story to get into here but bearing in mind I haven't been on anything even remotely resembling high heels in, like, forever rest assured there was a lot of amusement at ladies central that evening. Guess not having a broken ankle was one of the perks I had overlooked in my quest for sexy shoes.

Tracks for the moment are One shot  and Everybody in love by JLS rolling into Down by Jay Sean. Share the love People. Later.

Random acts of human kindness

I met a young lady today at the station. We got talking and as usual drifted into the usual mundane weather talk. She had just gotten into the UK from a relatively warmer climate and was still trying to get the hang of dressing to suit the weather forecast. When we shook hands after introducing ourselves, I noticed hers were colder than a slab of frozen meat. Now I am notoriously cold blooded  person and my hands and feet are always cold so to see someone with hands colder than mine......., Well, that seemed strange. I pulled off my gloves and offered them to her....."Take them", I said, "You need them more than I do." She took them without hesitation and soon we boarded our diffrent trains and that was that. I didn't even catch her name.

Hmm. I can hear you wonder........ where is she going with this? Nowhere exactly, the incident just set me to wondering. Random Acts of Human Kindness as I like to call them are few and far between but they still happen and indeed sometimes it is easier to be kinder to strangers than it is to folk you have history with.
I remember a kindly gent in Ireland who made me a cuppa just because he felt I looked cold. And a lady who gave me a handbag just because. Everyone has a story like this. The question is why? Why do we do the things we do is a puzzle sociologists and psychologists have struggled with since the dawn of time.

Many people believe that the saying 'What goes around , comes around' is true. So, if you believe in Karma, then you'll agree that to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction........... sometime somewhere our deeds , good or bad ,catch up with us. However there is a serious flaw in this argument ...........it simply isn't true and does not really apply to life as we know it. If it was, why would good guys finish last and bad things happen to good people? or good things to bad people??? Quirks of nature did  I hear you say? Nah. In my view, life is full of random acts and no one can predict the future so there is really no need to give yourself a headache pondering the inexplicable.

So if it's all doom and gloom out there,  if what is past is past , the future is uncertain and yet to be, then what may I ask is the point of crossing the borders of selfishness and self-interest to reach out to others with a helping hand or a kind word? If as the wise man said, it's all vanity , then why bother. What motivates people to support another who is in need?

Simple answer? Because we as humans are wired that way, it is part of our genetic makeup. Sure we have our fair share of weirdos and sociopaths but generally, humanity is happier when those around us are happy as well. Maybe it's to assuage guilt, or to buy peace of mind or maybe its a belief in a Higher Power that will hold us accountable or just a vague sense of karmic justice. Whatever.


Kings of leon's Use somebody is the track on my mind tonight, with Doughtry's What about Now


May you always have help when you need it the most. Peace People

It all comes together

This is real,

This is me ,

I'm exactly where i'm supposed to be..............

Sound familiar? I'm no longer such a great fan of the teen musical movie ( old age and a growing cynism no doubt are to blame) but I simply adore this song, or the bits of it I've heard on the more grown up channels I spend my time watching these days.

The wisdom that comes with onset of adulthood makes one realise certain things --mainly that not everything goes the way you plan or want it to so you get resigned to two basic truths:

1. You don't always get what you want

2. you may not always want what you get.

However there are exceptions to every rule and some days leave you feeling a little smug with a sense of pride and accomplishment, when it all comes together and the  nagging voice inside your head that makes you strive for  the better and grander things in life is tempoarily silenced. It's on days like this, when everything seems to be on track, all lights are green, and there is nothing else you can possibly want (for the moment) that Demi Lovato's collaborative single with the Jonas brothers is the track that's apt.

http://www.last.fm/music/Demi+Lovato/+videos/+1-miSiymrkb5g

No more pretenses , no more games : this is me