Tick! Tock!
There are a few life skills that are unattainable, like catching up with time, reversing youth and cracking the caffeine habit ... and chocolate habit ... and I-love-hugs habit ... and procrastinating habit ... with these tempus is always-against-us: tick tock.
There are some that could be attainable with better organisation such as losing weight, getting fitter, slowing down, doing one's accounts on time, sending thank you letters before it gets too embarrassingly late to send them and weakly blaming it on the post, learning something new, getting through the growing pile of must-read-impulse-purchased paperbacks stacked on the bed-side table, washing the car and dogs with sufficient regularity to avoid the dirtiest little car/dog in the county label, learning my grammar better and whether the difference between practice and practise is the same as for advice and advise. Or not. At least, I usually get their and there correct - I also need to relax and not shout at the newspaper, email or blog that get their their and there and its and it's wrong, far, far too often ... ah! too and two and to ... too!
And there are a tiny number of skills that are attainable without any effort at all - for example, shall I eat this carrot cake before me? Give me a fork ... it's gone! Done! Ticked the box! Easy peasy! Also, relatively easy to attain is clean, unpolluted air - about ten paces away from Bertie Baggins's farting bottom. What has he been eating?
Pause as I move myself and netbook ...
Breathe?
Move further. Exhale - a long way. Breathe and sigh. Phew! ... where was I?
Ah, yes - boxes!
... As far as ticking the box - time passing - and possibly unattainable challenges are concerned, the viola is coming along scratchily, by which I mean less musically than I'd like, and distinctly less musically than the canine members of this household can bear - it would probably be kinder to put them in their kennel, up the garden, when I practise tomorrow. I've discovered what an alto clef looks like (pictured; somewhat fuzzily, a bit like my viola playing), not that that makes any difference to the noise I make. But my neck hurts less and I think it probably looks less like I'm trying to squeeze a grapefruit under my chin and more like a viola, now that I've got the spacing device - I think it's called a 'rest' - the right way round. I've spent a lifetime nagging my children to practise their scales ... so that's what I'm starting with. C major, two octaves - haven't a clue what most of the notes are, but I go up ... and then back down again, sometimes finishing where I started and sometimes hitting the bow on the ceiling, where it leaves funny little red marks - I'd always wondered what those were. Anyway, it's D and G majors tomorrow - I'll practise (or is it practice?) them and then work out which is which. If I remember correctly the strings are C, G, D, A ... or Call Girls Dance Appallingly, so it will be the Girls majoring first, followed by their Dancing to an impossible to define "tune."
practice = noun
practise = verb
So just like advice and advise!
There are a few life skills that are unattainable, like catching up with time, reversing youth and cracking the caffeine habit ... and chocolate habit ... and I-love-hugs habit ... and procrastinating habit ... with these tempus is always-against-us: tick tock.
There are some that could be attainable with better organisation such as losing weight, getting fitter, slowing down, doing one's accounts on time, sending thank you letters before it gets too embarrassingly late to send them and weakly blaming it on the post, learning something new, getting through the growing pile of must-read-impulse-purchased paperbacks stacked on the bed-side table, washing the car and dogs with sufficient regularity to avoid the dirtiest little car/dog in the county label, learning my grammar better and whether the difference between practice and practise is the same as for advice and advise. Or not. At least, I usually get their and there correct - I also need to relax and not shout at the newspaper, email or blog that get their their and there and its and it's wrong, far, far too often ... ah! too and two and to ... too!
And there are a tiny number of skills that are attainable without any effort at all - for example, shall I eat this carrot cake before me? Give me a fork ... it's gone! Done! Ticked the box! Easy peasy! Also, relatively easy to attain is clean, unpolluted air - about ten paces away from Bertie Baggins's farting bottom. What has he been eating?
Pause as I move myself and netbook ...
Breathe?
Move further. Exhale - a long way. Breathe and sigh. Phew! ... where was I?
Ah, yes - boxes!
... As far as ticking the box - time passing - and possibly unattainable challenges are concerned, the viola is coming along scratchily, by which I mean less musically than I'd like, and distinctly less musically than the canine members of this household can bear - it would probably be kinder to put them in their kennel, up the garden, when I practise tomorrow. I've discovered what an alto clef looks like (pictured; somewhat fuzzily, a bit like my viola playing), not that that makes any difference to the noise I make. But my neck hurts less and I think it probably looks less like I'm trying to squeeze a grapefruit under my chin and more like a viola, now that I've got the spacing device - I think it's called a 'rest' - the right way round. I've spent a lifetime nagging my children to practise their scales ... so that's what I'm starting with. C major, two octaves - haven't a clue what most of the notes are, but I go up ... and then back down again, sometimes finishing where I started and sometimes hitting the bow on the ceiling, where it leaves funny little red marks - I'd always wondered what those were. Anyway, it's D and G majors tomorrow - I'll practise (or is it practice?) them and then work out which is which. If I remember correctly the strings are C, G, D, A ... or Call Girls Dance Appallingly, so it will be the Girls majoring first, followed by their Dancing to an impossible to define "tune."
practice = noun
practise = verb
So just like advice and advise!
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