It's Never Like it Is in the Commercials

I walked the streets of East London, only vaguely aware that I was in a daze. My feet seemed to know what they were doing, and since the rest of me was tired out from from being on a ladder for the last four and a half hours, my slightly addled brain reckoned that trusting my feet was logical.

As I walked along, the chilly wind began to clear my fogged brain. Surely Old Street Station wasn't this far from Bethnal Green when I walked earlier? I blinked and looked around me.

I had somehow wandered all the way to London Bridge.

Today, I painted a ceiling in Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium. So far my contributions to the widely anticipated cat cafe have largely been in the digital world, helping to SEO and write things up for the website. This weekend was the first I was free at the same time as the Emporium needing some DIY work done, so I volunteered to help do some painting.

After a few minutes of making a fuss of the cats, I found myself in a boiler suit with a paint roller in my hand and a tall step ladder under my feet, ready to paint the room that would become the cat's quiet room. I throught of those adverts with smug middle class people painting their own homes. How hard could it be?

A few minutes in and I'd already given up on keeping my hands clean of paint, both now as white as the ceiling was to become, and there was already paint on my face and in my hair.

I say a few minutes in- I'm not entirely sure how long it took for me to give up on keeping myself clean. I'd left my watch upstairs with my belongings to protect them from getting painted. In fact, the combination of being watchless while concentrating on my work messed my internal clock up so much that, when I finally got round to asking Lauren what the time was on one of her trips through the room, the hour I thought had passed was actually three.

'Just a little bit more, and then I'm done,' I thought. I finished the ceiling, and did a bit of work on the walls for a few minutes. My legs had gotten a little wobbly, but I put this down to the weird position you have to put yourself in when painting on a ladder.

When I was done, another helper popped through and I asked him what the time was. My 'few minutes' was actually an hour and a half! At least I'd finished the ceiling, and done some of the walls too. I was feeling a bit light-headed though... maybe I should call it a day. I shrugged off my boiler suit, scrubbed up and went to tell Lauren that I was heading home. Lauren looked at me and her brows furrowed.

"Tash, are you feeling okay? You look a bit... out of it."

"Well, I do feel a bit weird," I said. Suddenly I realised that I had been so focused on my work, so unaware of the time, I'd not left the room once in the four and a half hours I was painting. I hadn't even opened the door.

"Er.. I think you might be wired on paint fumes," Lauren said, looking both concerned and amused. I may have smiled a goofy smile.

After assuring Lauren I was fine and wasn't going to pass out, I headed out with the intention of getting to Old Street station- just a ten minute walk away from the cafe.

...Of course, now we know I ended up walking from East London to the south side of the Thames without even noticing.

Just Say Yes

A weird thing happened to me at work today.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"... So Tash, we were wondering if you'd be able to pick up where the last blogger left off. How do you feel about taking it on?"

"...Er..."

"It's okay if you don't feel comfortable writing about that topic, I just wanted to know what you think?"

"I really don't think I'd be able to write about that topic with much authority. Sorry, it's a no on this one."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Why is this weird? It's weird because I pretty much agree to do everything, all the time.

It's a combination of several things, the main one being the loose 'just say yes' policy I adopted a couple of years ago to open myself up to new experiences. Not wanting to disappoint others is a part of it I'll admit, but it's equally about me getting as much out of life as I possibly can during my brief time on this planet.

There are a few downsides to the 'just say yes' policy. The first obviously being that I barely have enough time to myself anymore because I'm always Doing Things, leaving little time to just 'be' and leaving me often quite tired- at work and just as much at home. The second main downside is that sometimes adopting this policy is a bit expensive when it comes to social activities. Just hopping on the train, driving around, taking a bus already costs money to get to the place before you've even paid for a ticket for anything: and of course this is London, so few things are cheap.

The upsides, however, greatly outweigh the downsides. I have had so much fun these past couple of years, and I have so much lined up for the future, still. I've visited some pretty cool places, experienced ridiculous things, made some new friends, re-connected with old friends, and spent time brushing up my creative skills in the kitchen and through blogging. One of the things I'm most proud of is doing some writing work for Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium (soon to be London's first cat cafe), helping with mailers, SEO, blogging and the like.

So I may be a little tired, at times even a little frantic to pack everything into a day- but I'm living rather than simply thinking about living, and that's the most important thing for me.

Still, even though today was a surprise break in my track record of willingness to do everything, it also reminded me that I can still stick to my guns if I need to, and say no occasionally.

Even if I only ever say 'no' once every few months.