Wry Vita

Are You Hanging Up Your Stockings on the Wall?

What's your favourite Christmas song then?

I have never ever been a fan of Boney M, mostly because they wore weird sparkly clothes and sang nonsensical songs.  Not liking them because of the clothes they wore seems a bit narrow-minded of me but I once took a big dislike to a bloke simply because he had nail varnish on his toe nails so don't worry about it. 

"Brown girl in the ring, tra la la la la, she looks like a sugar in a plum (plum, plum)" - not to mention those other profound lyrics: "Hooray, hooray, it's a holi, holiday...". 

Well, who in heavens name bought these records?

But today I had one of those moments, just exactly like the one I had the day I heard Gary Puckett and the Union Gap singing "Young Girl" on a CD I'd casually slipped into the car stereo.

By which I mean that one minute I was listening to Boney M singing "Hark now hear the angels sing, a king was born today.  And man shall live for ever more because of Christmas Day" - and the next minute...

Blog Tag Update

I was so busy the other day choosing which secrets I could safely reveal without damaging my good name and reputation that I quite forgot to tell you which five fellow bloggers I was tagging.  But at least three of them have now posted their own secrets and as I thought they were all well revealed, it's time to share them here with you and give you a snippet of what's in store for you.

Thought for the Week

"We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?"

Jean Cocteau

I've Been Tagged!

Hmm, I see sending Judith Morgan off to the Caribbean for two weeks to give me - I mean, her - a break, is not enough to stop her pushing me around and telling me what to do.  She has this very day blog-tagged me and ordered me to reveal five of my legion secrets on my blog.

How very dare you, Judith!

Thought for the Week

"Success means fulfilling your own dreams, singing your own song, dancing your own dance, creating from your heart and enjoying the journey, trusting that whatever happens, it will be OK.  Creating your own adventure!"

Elana Lindquist via Tracey Turner's Daily Vitamin for the Soul

Get Big Fast - The Amazon Story

I've been reading Robert Spector's book, Amazon.com - Get Big Fast, the story of Jeff Bezos and his world famous internet book store.  Though the reviews of the book (on Amazon!) are not that good I thought it was brilliant, so compelling that I actually enjoyed my 4am unscheduled wake-ups as an opportunity to switch the light on and read a few more pages.  Read it if you enjoy ambitious success stories and are interested in outstanding customer service.

Bezos was a high-flying Wall Street vice-president in 1994 when his research into Internet business opportunities uncovered that web usage was growing at a staggering 2300% per year and that book sales were growing faster than any other product.  When his boss rejected the idea, he tendered his resignation in order to "do this crazy thing - start his own Internet bookselling company".

"The Pain Passes But the Beauty Remains"

Our new baby is now almost three weeks old.  Big brown eyes, long legs, funny little tail, born in a stable...  Gerry was just about to load the very pregnant mare into the horsebox and drive her to the foaling unit when he realised it was too late, she was already in labour.

There followed 40 minutes of tugging, a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears and finally they delivered the horse of a strong healthy colt.  Strange thing is, eleven years ago when I was pregnant, Gerry decided to forego the 'ringside seat' in the delivery suite on the grounds that "I'm no good at that sort of thing". 

Did he think he'd have to deliver the baby, I wonder?

Proof though that there is a God (divine retribution for his past misdemeanours) and that when the chips are down - and the waters break - we can all do so much more than we would have believed possible. 

My planned birth partner was my sister's boyfriend.  An unusual arrangement but Sue couldn't even wash out a chicken without feeling faint and sisterly love just didn't stretch that far.  Besides, Brian was a plumber and I felt he'd probably be quite an asset to the midwife. As luck would have it, he was out on call when I went into labour, ten days early so I ended up with a newly-qualified midwife and a sister so hyper that in between contractions I had to negotiate a deal: she got the gas and air and I got the epidural. 

But she was there for me when I needed her and she ended up actually enjoying the whole experience.  As I said, it's quite surprising what we're capable of when our escape route has been bricked up and plastered over.  And that's got me thinking of the whole area of motivation and what it takes to get us into action.

Free Hugs

Madeleine Giddens of Mad About Herbs sent me her newsletter today and right down at the end snuck in an anonymous little link that turned out to be about Free Hugs!

So take a look, get inspired and get hugging...

The Emperor's New Carrots

When the Emperor has finished parading naked through the streets listening to folk exclaiming about the outstanding elegance and style of his non-existent finery, and returns to the palace for dinner, might I respectfully suggest he gets Chef to include some Tesco Chantanay carrots on his plate?

I couldn't help noticing on today's supermarket trip that they are €5 per kilo, approximately three times the price of yer common or garden carrots, but worth every cent I'm sure because according to their packaging it's not just their "unique size" that is significant but their "traditional carrot flavour".

And there I was, worrying someone might mistake them for broccoli.

Thought for the Week

"You do not need to apply your will to things in order to compel them to come to you.  That would simply be trying to coerce God and would be foolish and useless.

You do not have to try to compel God to give you good things any more than you have to use will power to make the sun rise.

You do not have to use your will power to conquer an unfriendly Deity, or to make stubborn and rebellious forces do your bidding.  Substance is friendly to you, and is more anxious to give you what you want than you are to get it..."

Wallace Wattles - The Science of Getting Rich