Category: Life

You Can’t Win Them All

Here is one of those life moments where there are no rules, no right or wrong answer. For me, it sums up the contradictions of being an Other Half, doing your best, and talking and listening properly. And, I suppose, just thinking in the heat of the moment.

Last night I had to pop up the supermarket for some razors. Jenny asked me to get Oreo Ice Cream for the superhero sproglets. Now you wouldn’t have thought that I could get something so specific, wrong. But it turns out that I did.

I went to the freezers, and there it was, shining like a beacon in the darkness. A tub of Oreo Ice Cream, ready to be descended upon and devoured by a slavering, raging pack of hungry Alligator-esque 5 year old twins. So in the basket it went, and I set off for home, revelling in my Hunter Gatherer success. I had sprouted very long hair and would return to my cave, where I would invent the wheel. Or knowing myself, reinvent it.

This morning, it transpires that opposite the freezers that contain the Oreo Ice Cream, amongst the children’s Ice Lollies, are Oreo biscuits filled with Ice Cream, which are different. And are the ones I should have bought. So even though I did exactly as I was asked, and got exactly what I was asked for, I was wrong.

Now we are a great couple, who are nice to each other, respectful, and look out for each other. Neither of us mind being wrong. It’s a drop in the ocean, non problem in life, but it is intensely annoying when you do your best with something so simple and are still wrong.

That’s life though, isn’t it? Go back to the start, do not collect £200. It’s a good lesson in observing how life is, obviously it’s bound to happen again as I am unlikely to ask for confirmation about something seemingly so finite and exact. So don’t sweat the small stuff. Inwardly roll your eyes, shrug and move on. You can’t win them all.

But then again, maybe I have. Because, if the kids don’t eat that lovely yummy ice cream, guess who will?!

Just The Beginning

Well here we go. I have myriad things to say, share and postulate upon. Perhaps you’d like to join me. I am a 49 year old Dad of three, Zak 20 and twins Batman and Wonderwoman, 5. I am 2 1/2 times married: Jenny and I have done the Nikka in a Mosque and will do the Civil ceremony…. sometime soon. (She doesn’t know I have started this blog, so I won’t get in trouble for being vague.) We are not Religious, even though I just typed the word ‘Mosque’. I’ll type it again just to be edgy. Mosque. There you go.

I was diagnosed with Anxiety and Depression last year and am currently on Sertraline to even out my peaks and troughs, which generally works. I have been having counselling since last June, which has been really hard at times, but even though I feel (and probably smell) like I have been wading through shit and treacle for 9 months, it’s bloody brilliant and the journey is incredibly liberating.

All this (and more) has led me to a multi exit crossroads in life. There seem to be more than three exits, which would make the word ‘crossroads’ wrong. It’s more of a Cathedral full of doors, none of which are the right or wrong door to walk through.

So as this blog unfolds, and I open various doors and have a peak, you can come with me. I hope you will laugh, and if you need it, that it helps you along your journey too.