Saving the world, planning for your retirement and Barnaby Joyce’s driving habits.
Technically, I probably have bigger endeavours to focus on. Like maybe going to Pilates so that I can be supervised to do exercises which seem rather easy to do but never seem to get done.
Instead, I do this. And yesterday, for Valentine’s Day no less, I received the loveliest letter. Not a love letter mind you, but just a really sincere and generous note thanking me for my blog. Inspired by the sweetness of someone saying, “thanks for being out there”, I sent a couple of thank you messages to fellow bloggers whose sites I really like. Just friendly pay it forward thank yous.
Sometimes this whole “blog-osphere” seems rather strange. Empty and unreal. Other times, it feels crucial and personal. I don’t know exactly where I stand on things. I like a few blogs a great deal, a whole mess of them I read for the sake of it, and others I follow in a strangely “scab-picking” kind of way: I know they annoy me, and yet I read them all the same. I might ditch that final category. Seems a bit over the top.
Anyway, inspired by Lady Fe and her kind words, I took my camera out again, with just one card and hoped that the universe might provide.
And there she was: little lady in a cute snowboarding lid. I wasn’t looking for her, I just turned around at the lights trying stretch my back (I’m so sorry Dominic, I keep forgetting to get risers.) And there she was. Ping! I just liked the nice combination of tan and neutral and black. Girls with baskets are pretty cute when you think about it. Some nice morning matching, a short friendly chat, and a lovely beginning to the day. Nothing can bring you down if you start the day being friendly with a stranger.
Go forth! Smile at strangers. And tell them they’re cute. Feels great.
And even if you’re travelling alone, it somehow feels less so. If you ever move from mental pictures to real ones, Fe, I’d be honoured to have them here. I always kind of wished someone else would send me cute shots of their fellow travellers, but the groundswell of helmet appreciation has been rather slow to form. I have yet to give up hope entirely.
(ps Is that dude behind her wearing a lot of yellow? It seems he is.)
eleanor j jackson 