Following a conversation I had earlier this afternoon, tonight’s blog might seem a little bit introspective… I’m pondering the reasons for people asking each other questions… I mean, I know there are lots of reasons people ask questions – f’rinstance, you could be asking someone for directions, or asking a shop assistant if a certain item is in stock, or asking the waiter what the Fish of the Day is in a restaurant. However, I’m talking about the sort of questions people ask eachother in their personal lives, and why they ask them. Here’s a second sort of f’rinstance: when you’re interested in a subject, and would like to know more about it, there are two ways you can go about it. You can Google it, and research it online, or, if you know someone, or know of someone involved in that subject, you could ask them – depending on how well you knew them, of course. If you knew the person you were asking fairly well, you would expect them to be only too happy to answer you, and to point you in the right direction to learn more if they didn’t, wouldn’t you. And if they were busy, or wanted to go and do something else, rather than talk to you, you’d expect them to say something along the lines of: “look, not right now – I have to go and wash my hair” (or whatever) “remind me tomorrow (or next week, or next year), and I’ll fill you in then.” Well, as I said, if you know them fairly well, you’ll realise that they don’t want to talk to you right now, so you take the hint and say “Oh! OK, we’ll get together for coffee next week sometime, OK?” and you both go your separate ways until both of you have the time and the inclination to sit down and have a chat, and that’s perfectly normal and alright – you both know where you stand, and you can feel comfortable about it.  And now here’s yet another f’instance – Julian does this a lot (in fact almost all the time!) , and it annoys the hell out of me. It goes like this: himself comes in through the front door “I’ve just been talking to our neighbour, Oodles McSwish* – poor guy’s having a rough trot – his daughter’s run off with milkman’s niece and the cat ran away last week and hasn’t come home yet” “Really?!” says me “How’s he coping with it all?” “I don’t know,” Julian replies “I didn’t ask him.” “Why not?” says me in total astonishment “Because if he’d wanted me to know, he would have told me..” says Julian. I just look at him. Most people I know, don’t want to burden other people with their problems – on the other hand, I do, I tell everyone who’ll listen if I’m feeling miserable, or sick, or tired – or whatever! But then, I’m not “most” people, am I? – however most people don’t. The thing is though, that they really do want to talk about it – they need to talk about it, in fact. I’m sure you’ve all felt like it from time to time – sometimes you just need to vent. To rant and rave and yell and jump up and down and cry – but of course, unless you’re me, you can’t do that uninvited; someone needs to offer these people a chance to “vent their spleen” by saying to them “do you want to talk about it?”. Sometimes you only need to indicate your willingness to listen, and out it’ll all pour. ‘If they wanted you to know, they’d have told you?’ Hell would have to freeze over before most people would unburden themselves to someone else, uninvited! The main thing to bear in mind though, is that these types of questions and responses occur between friends! and they occur because friends are interested in eachother, in eachother’s well being, and in eachother’s hobbies and/or interests. If you weren’t interested in those aspects on their lives, you wouldn’t be their friend would you – you’d just be an “acquaintance“, with no thought or interest in them apart from immediate transactions. Personally, I’d prefer a friend to tell me to shut up and go away if I was irritating them (and I don’t blame them – I irritate a lot of people – it’s in my job description!), rather than wait until they were about to explode with annoyance, and then tell me – in my not so humble opinion, that’s really hurtful to both sides… Having said that, I can also truthfully say that I don’t give a damn if friends hurt me – I’ll still forgive and love them because they’re my friends – and that’s what makes the difference between a friend, and “just an acquaintance!”. Oh, and please feel free to ask questions! 😉

Weigh-in this morning. If only the rest of the day had gone so well! 🙂 Well, I didn’t go up, as I expected to, and I didn’t stay the same, as my second guess would have been – I went down, four whole points, to 96.2kg! I think I can feel relatively safe there – I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to suddenly errupt back into the 97kg zone from 96.2kg… (if I do, it’ll probably be because of that very small, toasted, Hot Cross Bun, with only a smidgen of butter on it, wot I had for breakfast yesterday, anyway, and there’s only one more day of Easter left, and therefore only one more very small, toasted, Hot Cross Bun, with just a smidgen of butter on it, for me to eat… so any weight that I might put on will only be “temporary”) Uhhh… and I had a “normal” breakfast this morning… 🙂

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and the kids will be over, it’ll also be the very first Easter Sunday in my entire life, that hasn’t been “Chocolate Coated”! No Easter Eggs this year, for anybody!! (well, we will get a small one for our cleaning lady, cos she loves chocolate too) But quite frankly, I’m not missing all those chocolaty delights that used to be the main (commercial) raison d’être for Easter – that made Easter, Easter! I get my “chocolate fix” every day – my bars are choc-coated – and that’s enough for me. I am sorry to be missing out on the roast lamb with all the trimmings tomorrow, and the white chocolate cheese cake that himself got for dessert, but this diet isn’t forever – next Easter will come, and I rather think that this year we’ll be starting a new “Family Tradition” – Chocolate-Free Easters! 🙂 (mind you, if anyone does give me an Easter Egg next year, it won’t be wasted – I will eat it! 😉 ) So drop by again this time tomorrow night, and find out how our Easter Sunday went, and please feel free to send in comments about your own – we’d love to hear from you! What will my weight do tomorrow, with that very small, toasted, Hot Cross Bun (with only a smidgen of butter on it) for my breakfast (ackshally, that probably won’t show up on the scales until Monday or Tuesday!) Will there be chocolate in the house tomorrow, despite what I just said, above? Will I just look at the White Chocolate Cheesecake, or will I lick the knife that cuts it?! (hopefully without cutting my tongue, as I did once before when I was a small child – I licked the knife Mum had been icing a chocolate cake with, and cut my tongue rather badly (but we had lino, not tiles, so the blood didn’t get into the grouting!) My tongue didn’t stop bleeding for ages and ages, despite sucking on ice blocks… so let that be a lesson to you all! – don’t lick sharp knives! I speak from experience!) Anyway, until tomorrow night, please… bee good, don’t eat too much chocolate tomorrow, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

 * Oodles McSwish – not his real name!