Quick thoughts about old times

Oh the joys of Facebook. I must admit I was a bit naive when I joined and used my real name with a very distinctive surname that has not changed having found no one to marry and, well, actually, I rather like it now as it is. Anyway, I digress! The requests from people that I had been to school with came thick and fast, even on that first day (I only joined to play Scrabulous -now Lexulous due to Mattel being 'awkward'- with some friends I had met through various forums!!) and I duly signed up the ones I remembered, latched on to someone who had the foresight to remember to put her maiden name in the friend request and she then helped to jog my memory on some of the ones I had forgotten. I must admit that I did feel a bit popular, although I was only too aware that I didn't really know a lot of these people anymore and probably hadn't known them all that well then. Then there were the people that had never, ever even spoken to me at school. Why on earth did they want to be my friends??! Well being kind-hearted and never being exactly popular among the 'cool' kids I signed them all up. I now realise that a lot of people 'collect' friends on Facebook so they saw me there and naturally signed me up. I can't blame them, a lot of us want to feel good about ourselves don't we?

Anyway, when I checked my emails last night there were about 30!! all from Facebook and when I went to look at what all the fuss was about, I saw that some absolute (how can I put this politely?) rotter(!) had only posted our fifth year photo there and also tagged a load of us!! I was distraught at first (and I invariably post a comment before first thinking!) but after a nights sleep I had to have a closer look. We all looked so young then. Must younger than I felt at the time!! I probably feel younger now than I did then. I look into that photo and think that we all held such promise. We had no idea what was ahead for us and, especially at the start of a year too, I am concious that I don't feel that I have achieved what I thought I would. I am very jealous that two of my classmates are now secondary school teachers, the occupation that we all wanted to do, but they actually did it, whilst I flailed about and wasted my time either, drinking, meeting boys or being depressed for a lot of my late teenage years. Ho, hum. I suppose all you can do is take stock and try again to take those small steps that will help us achieve our goals.

I'm still not sure how I feel about Facebook, and feel that there is a lot of pitfalls but, I am convinced, a lot of untapped potential too. A bit like a life lived I think!!

So it's 2009 then.

Well here we are. Where did those 9 years go then, from when we were celebrating that long-awaited milestone called 'the New Millenium' whilst we listened to Prince and Pulp and wondered if we would still be able to get money out the cash machine on Jan the 1st? I am not sure where it has all gone but I am wondering if I am the only person trying to resist the notion of New Years Resolutions. Most resolutions that I have made in the past I find it impossible to stick to so this year I don't want to bother and end up being dissapointed. However, I do want to improve things, so maybe, rather than resolutions I might instead have a list of things that I want to practice in order to improve at doing them for the long term. This is also more positive, I think, than giving stuff up or not allowing myself to do things or stating that I MUST do other things. So, here is my list of things I want to practice this year:

• Practice yoga -nice exercise that appeals to me.
• Practice walking more -see above. Plus it means not using the car so much, plus it means getting some proper fresh air.
• Practice studying better -I want to finish my OU degree in the next few years so I want to gety better at studying as it is a very important skill to have in order to find out about all sorts of stuff that I am interested in.
• Practice my knitting -a neglected area recently, but one that is good for me both creatively, practically and as a form of relaxation.
• Practice breadmaking -see above, although not quite so neglected as my knitting.
• Practice pastry making -after eating a most fantastic steak and ale pie, this is something I want to really crack. I reckon pastry is and has always been a brilliant way of transforming leftovers into fantastic and tasty new meals.

Well that is my list so far. I'm wondering what others have got planned for their practice in 2009.