Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 March 2007 10:19:07
Since I got back from Iona to be honest not that much has changed. I came back with an action plan and I've started to implement bits of it, but largely I am still spending too much time on the computer, too much time working and not enough time enjoying people or places.
However, there has been one area that has changed - meal times. Before I went I would check my e-mails, surf around and catch up whilst I was eating; Third Party would be similarly multi-tasking, normally with a tv and mobile. Now though, the tv stays on (Third Party could not be pursuaded to go without the background noise) but the computer is switched off and if she is on the phone Third Party says bye, explaining, somewhat sarcastically it is family and food time.
We have found it is one point in our days when we can make time for each other. Also I have booked a series of tickets so atleast once a month we take time out to go for a meal and then to the theatre together. It's one of those activities that we both reasonably enjoy.
The point of telling you this is to say that whilst quality time is almost as rare as rocking horse excriment in our house we have found a way to build it in, sort of. Sometimes it really works; other times it doesn't but the point is that we have found that even in mad worlds we inhabit that it is possible to alter the routine slightly and build in time where there is the expectation that we will communicate on some level however superficial.
One thing that is quite interesting about it all is that this period has generally become like Christmas in the first world war, it is a time when hositlities tend to, atleast for a few minutes, be suspended.
**Note what I am talking about here is my own experience and what might work in "average" situations, I am well aware that this "average" is not the situation everybody finds themselves in***