That smile that keeps you wondering

You know when you walk down the street and you notice someone smiling. You don’t see anything around them that would cause them to smile so you assume it’s some private joke cos really, could they honestly be happy?

I saw a lady with a very obvious smile the other week and realised, just like the AMI ad on TV3 prior to the weather, that it is in fact hard to be glum when looking at someone so obviously happy in their own wee world.

So I’ve been practicing. It’s not something that I’m doing just to toy with people. I realise that generally when I’m walking I have what I think is a fairly plain look on my face. What I really have I don’t know.

But I have started to smile because I realise there’s a lot to be happy about. I think of nice things, or look for good things in what’s happening around me.

And secretly, I wonder if people who notice me smiling, now wonder what I’ve got to be so happy about, and whether it’s contagious and they end up smiling at me smiling.

Here’s a couple of things that tickled my fancy. If you’re following along you know I’m away from home and up in Auckland. I had a wee gloat about the dish drawers in the apartment. Well last night I realised there’s under-floor heating in the bathroom. That was a very unexpected surprise.

Last night I had bought some fruit at the supermarket and had left it on the bench this morning. The nice person who serviced my apartment had placed the fruit in a bowl and put it on the table. What a nice touch.

And there’s the link into the next section – crockery would you believe.

Tonight I walked down to a Roast food outlet and ordered a “medium” Pork Roast. Being in an apartment I decided I’d be civilised and tipped the meal out onto a plate. When it was on the plate I realised just what a huge meal I had. That didn’t stop me from wolfing down most of it. Why do I do that?

On another note, I bought a small novelty bar of Nestlé’s Milky Bar. That was all I was going to allow myself to eat.

When I got into bed last night I realised that I had forgotten all about it and hadn’t had a single piece.

Never fear people, I did manage to eat the whole thing tonight, but not until after I gorged myself on my roast. However, I left it on the bench and would take just one section and let it melt in my mouth and not chew it. I was thinking this slow consumption would trick my brain into thinking that I had my fill. I managed to let about 5 minutes pass before it got the better of me and I got up for a 2nd, a 3rd and 4th piece. The length of time between each shortening until I was there eating the last bit.

I had good intentions. Does that count?

I have two slices of fudge cake in the fridge. I saw this last night at the supermarket and couldn’t help myself. I got them for Mark. A chocolate fudge slice and a Cafe Latte one.

When I told him about it last night I said I mentioned both to him so I couldn’t eat them. Well Cafe Latte isn’t my up of tea so there was never any thought of tucking into that.

Then Mark reminded me that I had made Chocolate Fudge slice in the weekend – Doh!! So I had. Still I haven’t eaten his piece …… yet.

All this talk of food – groan. Anyway, wont be long now until the final of the Biggest Loser. I can’t help myself watching that show. It’s amazing what people can achieve and in so little time. I get a kick out of seeing people’s whole demeaner change, they become more positive, they begin to like themselves and they feel worthy again. It’s not just a makeover of their outward appearance, but a makeover of self-esteem.

Okie Dokies, that’s me done. Off to read more of my book while waiting for the telly programme.

I made it people

Woo Hoo!!! It’s official, today is my busiest day on the blog. All past views for an individual day have been exceeded.

Finally I get to feel like I beat something, albeit unrelated to sport/training.

Thanks, it’s made my day

Making up for lost time

Ok, so I went a day or two without dropping by my own blog so I’m now going to make up for it. Boy, this will be my 3rd post in less than 24 hours!

Maybe I’m lonely and enjoy talking to myself

Actually, maybe I’m doing a “look at me, look at me” thing and hoping I”ll break my biggest day of visitors to my blog. I’m so competitive – even with myself. But hey, there’s no training right now so you’ve got to take what you can in the way of beating some earlier “best” something or rather.

On the 6am news yesterday they were talking about the number of words men and women on average speak a day. Men 2000, women 7000. Doesn’t sound like that much really.

I agree with one thing, men – or men I know – don’t think it’s necessary to share everything that goes on in their life, not in the same way I need to share anyway.

Of course I ask every day “how was work today”. And as expected, I get only the headlines.

I’m sure Mark speaks more than he would if I didn’t ask. I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t ask and wait and see if he wants to offer information about his day/life.

Nah, I’d get too impatient and look desperate if I held out

Unfortunately I’ve been out of bed since 5:10am. I’ve cleared my email, caught up on some blogs, checked out the new people on “Old Friends” who have added me as their friend – I’m not sure I remember everyone but oh well. And it’s not like my “old friends” actually contact me so no harm done I guess.

I even tried to access a training database on the network. I’m not really surprised I was met with silence. Now while I can access the network remotely, I’m guessing there’s only so much freedom I get away from the office.

I had thought my early rise this morning might allow me to catch up on other work stuff. Perhaps I should have been more organised before I raced from work yesterday for my taxi. You live, and I might learn

The traffic here is a lot noisier than I’m used to. I’m not right on the street front thank goodness, but still it’s noisy. Not enough that I didn’t sleep from 9:45 to 5:10. I guess that’s not too bad but more would be good. I hate waking and the first thing I do is yawn like I’m tired.

Oh, one thing I need to figure out is how to get photos in my blog and have the words warp nicely. I’ve seen it on other peoples blogs and it looks good. My effort sucks. Nevermind. Always good to look for improvements and learn something new.

Talking of learning something new. We have upgraded to Office 2007 at work. It takes some getting used to, and there’s a whole lot of different functions, and unfortunately a lot of shortcut keys that have changed. I’m all for shortcut keys and despise my mouse.

Anyway, back on track. I found out that in Excel you can have multiple workbooks in the same spreadsheet visible at the same time, and you can view multiple worksheets visible. Ok, so I’m not sure if any of this is new after all, but I learnt that you could do it, and I’ve used it twice in 24 hours so I must have needed it!

I will however not excuse Microsoft from changing the Insert File shortcut command in Outlook. It used to be Alt-F, now it’s Alt-N, A F and is in N for iNsert, A File. Cripes, why so many key strokes?

Okie dokie, that’ll do me for now. Time to read a chapter or two of my new book then get on with the day.

Take care out there everyone. Happy training!