And just like that, the Pretend Column becomes the Random Column

How are you? I hope that whatever you have been doing has been rather lovely, relaxing and fulfilling. 

I missed last week sorry, I was uninspired.

Our break has been exactly as described in my last letter, made of nothing. Like days repeating themselves again and again and ending with me heading for a late afternoon bath most days and telling the boys that their afternoon game time was over.

This was generally followed by making dinner with whatever was there, sipping on a glass of chardonnay and ending the days with a movie, that generally 3 out of 4 of us wouldn’t agree on watching but that we played anyway because we were done arguing. 

Most of last week has felt like nothing was really flowing but everything was catching a bump. It is funny how much I miss our routine when everything gets out of sync but apparently this is a normal occurrence.

Did you know that the reason we, human beings, love our routine so much is because our brain learns to automate most of our daily tasks allowing us to act without thinking? Our routine makes life easier so when we get out of it, having to make different decisions and plan different activities, although it offers our brain a chance to hit “reset” it also becomes challenging and eventually leaves us desperate for the routine to return. Hence, after 2 weeks in Punta Cana, all you want to do is to go back home, run the washing machine 12 times in a row and sleep in your own bed.

So although we have all enjoyed waking up later and not having lots of commitments, I have caught myself looking forward to going back to our 5:30 am wake ups more than once in the last couple of weeks and the rare lie ins until 8:30 am have left me dazed and confused for the rest of those days.

By the way, I totally geek out on Brain books. The way it works and Neuroplasticity are my absolute favorite thing to learn about at the moment. We are sooo clever, us humans!

Anyway, is it really 2023 yet? It feels like I have been expecting this to happen for ages but then I haven’t really processed that it has already happened.

I don’t feel at all like rushing into new plans. No New Year, New Me this year. There never really is if I am being honest. Some years I may come closer to believing that this new year could be THE year everything exciting and magical happens but then I quickly return to the left over chocolate and lose interest.

Although I do like the sense of “fresh start” that January brings, I normally feel this a lot stronger around September time. 

Right this moment I want to take it slow. I want to curl up under a blanket, ignore the laundry and the to do list and watch Emily in Paris which I still haven’t started actually. Well the last season, I am all caught up on the previous ones.

So here is something weird about me, that you probably don’t care about, but it is that I hate binge watching anything and I have this tendency to wait for ages before watching series I really want to watch.

Before I press play I want optimum conditions. The to do list must be ticked to a minimum and no-one or nothing must request my attention so that I can fully sink into the show. It also has to be during day time because I struggle with staying awake past 7:30PM. Unless it is a show we all watch together and in that case it has to be in the evening.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I also really hate endings. Especially endings of series I have felt really involved in. I think I build too much emotional attachment to the characters and that is maybe a sign of something else I need to deal with.

I still really miss Modern Family after 2 years or so of watching the last episode and I still haven’t watched the last episode of Shitt’s Creek or Call my Agent (super French and very good BTW) or The Split. Basically I would rather leave years and never have closure rather than end it. I totally need to dig into this…

Anyway, this random column is starting to be too random so I am going to leave it there and hope that next week I will have something a bit more focused to offer.

Have a great one Friends!

Peggy x