My Brilliant Divorce
Monday, September 28, 2015
Diffficult? You have no idea...
Prostrated. Don't think I can get up off the floor yet. Not for a long time. Maybe never.There is something that keeps me going-why-I don't know. I feel defeated. I am in a strange place, not home, never home. I feeel like howling to the moon, and I do realise how mad that sounds. But that's what I feel like doing. Howling. For what is lost and can never be found again. Maybe I am turning into a lone wolf because that's what I am or have become - a lone person. Something I never wanted or anticipated. If you have any advice, I'd be glad to receive it.
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Season's Greetings
I have been trudging through bureaucratic blizzards, not as cold as snow blizzards but still making it hard to see where you're going. Of which, more anon.
For now, I have decided not to try to force myself into a Christmas spirit/mood/false bonhomie. The tree is up, although the angel on top is leaning slightly askew...seems appropriate! My beautiful Christmas Crib holds the porcelain figurines I've loved since I was a child.
Happy Christmas. May the New Year bring you new love, new faith and new hope.
For now, I have decided not to try to force myself into a Christmas spirit/mood/false bonhomie. The tree is up, although the angel on top is leaning slightly askew...seems appropriate! My beautiful Christmas Crib holds the porcelain figurines I've loved since I was a child.
Happy Christmas. May the New Year bring you new love, new faith and new hope.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
And I thought if I could get through the emotional part that was the hardest part-the bureauocratic part has me on my knees
I thought it would be straightforward and honest to-
change name/address on driving locence
change status for revenue/tax purposes
change status for effing everything I had to...
oh God no, let's make things as difficult as possible for people who are already hurting and on their knees...
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
D Day Party...if you could call it that...
The D Party.
It was decreed by the powers that be in my
place of employment, that we were all going out for pizzas and beer to
celebrate/commemorate D Day. It had been decided that a night out would “do me
good”. How kind of them, how thoughtful.
Sure wouldn’t it do us all good to have a night out…?
So, accordingly, I found myself squelching up Dublin’s
Dawson Street on a balmy summer night – the rain was torrential. I’m always
amazed by how we grow potatoes in this country, and not rice. What with the
wetness and us being called paddies- we could be rice paddies no problem. My
light summer shoes, my feet and the legs of my jeans, were all soaked by the
time I got into the restaurant. I tried every contortion I could in the Ladies Loo but
unfortunately was unable to stand on my head on the tiled floor, the
only position from which it would have been possible to hold my feet and legs
under the hand dryer. There was only one thing left to do. Warm myself up with
wine and ignore the squelching and gurgling from my footwear...
The Office Party were all squashed round one
big table, in the Italian tradition. Beer and wine flowed; the conversation
flowed as we waited for our first course. No one mentioned the D word or the
reason for our night out. One of my colleagues who had not been in work for a
while came to the pizza party. She’d been out for a fortnight, having surgery.
Cosmetic surgery. As a result of which, she overshadowed the condiments on the
table. Everyone was trying not to look but it was a bit difficult to avoid…There
was much talk and laughter about the procedure, and it’s after effects, do’s
and don’ts. “Is it true that you can’t fly for three months?” asked one person.
It was. “What else can you not do?” asked another. “Well, I can’t go on fairground rides” was the
reply. “I can’t bungee jump either”. We were in hysterics, with suggestions
that she might knock herself unconscious in a fast elevator and similar
remarks. The hilarity grew. One colleague decided that she just had to rise
from the table and sing Beyoncé’s “If you like it put a ring on it” with
accompanying actions. Shortly after
that, it was time to leave. We left the pizza joint and headed to a late night
drinks venue. A young female colleague challenged a much older, bigger, male
colleague to a drinking contest. Possibly not the wisest idea. A good night. Numbed by tiredness and wine, I
headed home and left them to it. After all, it was a Thursday and there was work
in the morning…
Friday.
It seems that one person tripped in her
skyscraper heels and fell under a taxi but was uninjured; one person got out of
a taxi when the driver refused to give her his details; one person insulted a
guy she thought was trying to pick her up but who had only wanted to return the
cigarettes she had dropped on the dancefloor – and the piece de resistance?
In the late night place, she who had been
enhanced invited two female colleagues to “feel the difference”, so to speak.
Whereupon two strangers had approached them, introduced themselves as two
happily married men, asked them if they were 3 lesbians and then asked if they,
too, could “feel the difference”. I gather the aftermath of that encounter was
not pretty.
The final encounter relating to the “D Party”
was not pretty either, although excruciatingly funny. Female Colleague X, who
had challenged Male Colleague Y to the drinking contest, had been charged with
the task of bringing a birthday cake for Colleague Z into work on Friday
morning. Accordingly, she had stopped off at a large supermarket chain store to
buy a readymade birthday cake. Unfortunately, she felt very unwell Friday morning.
With the consequence that she was unable to venture as far as the cake section,
due to the fact that she was puking into a plastic bag grabbed at the cash
desk. The supermarket insisted on scanning the plastic bag at a checkout and she had to pay for it -and presumably
had to take it home with her, which is where she went and phoned in sick from.
What can I say?
When you work with people like this, life isn’t
all bad. J
Monday, September 15, 2014
Would a blow torch do it?
I'm having a little difficulty with number 3...changing myself from a thermometer to a thermostat. Perhas because I find both images slightly unsettling...:). Random act of kindness; distributed little almond cakes to colleagues today...have been accused of WRECKING their diets...Note to self; Next random act of kindness must not involve food + office environment.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Dr. Feelbetter's Prescription for Happiness...allegedly...and not a mention of anti-depressants...
THE
PRESCRIPTION FOR HAPPINESS
- Keep a journal.
- Record small victories.
- Are you a thermometer or a thermostat? Be
a thermostat; a thermometer always
reacts to other people.
- Have 5 good/positive qualities/emotions/thoughts (good
dwarves) to every 1 negative one.
- Happiness= pleasure, engagement and
meaning.
- Have realistic optimism.
- Expand your happiness.
- Plan, persist, persevere.
- See the silver lining in every situation.
- Journal; write what it would feel like in
3-5 years, if everything you
imagined/wanted came about, i.e. the best possible self of you.
- Think and Thank.
- Gratitude- a conscious choice to focus on
what’s working in your life.
- Wanting what you have, right here, right
now.
- Write a gratitude diary twice a week.
- Read the story of Borghil Dahl for
inspiration.
- Be kinder to yourself.
- Perform 5 random acts of kindness each
week.
- Lighten up on your inner critic.
- Set goals consistent with your values.
- Use vision and action together.
- Be committed.
- Do one thing tomorrow to improve my health
and expand my happiness.
- Commit to small daily improvements.
- Small improvements done over time produce
amazing results.
- Open your heart and mind to possibility.
- Exercise daily.
- Positive thoughts produce new brain
neurons.
- Flow-be in the zone- in the moment.
- Being creative = happy=energised.
- Make time to do what you love, and love
what you do.
- We mirror the behaviour of the 5 key
relationships in our lives.
- Surround yourself with people that will
support your dreams and empower you.
- If you can’t pull the people in your life
UP, don’t let them drag you down.
- There is a “we” in wellness, and an “i” in
illness.
- Celebrate your victories with suitable
people.
- Volunteering once a month = 7% increase in
happiness.
- Volunteering once a week = 16% increase in
happiness.
- Your compass represents your values.
- Seek Silence.
Stillness. Solitude. Security. Serenity.
- Let the past go.
- Make a conscious choice to focus on what
is good in your life.
- Commit to small improvements which over
time will lead to amazing results.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Oh yes, again...
NOT AGAIN
Same Courtroom, different judge. This time I was alone in the well of the
court. Judge #2 asked what the reason for this appearance was. I explained that
I had been asked to return with specific information from the Pension
People. Ah yes, she said. I handed over
the document received from them to the Registrar who then handed it to the
judge. Her Honour wasn’t satisfied with
it. It doesn’t state x, y, z as required, she said with a touch of anger. “I’m
sorry” I said. “This is what they sent me. I took it to be what was wanted.” I was so visibly upset that
she relented a little. “You weren’t to know” she said. “But they most certainly should”- and she
fixed a new date for me to appear in the courtroom, with the information
required just to rubber stamp the process. So now I have to go back – again- in
November. Is there no end to this?
I went home, rang the Pension Scheme Management
Company. The phone call I'd never ever made to a service company; I was massively, massively angry. I was put through to a senior manager who tried to
convince me that a judge asking for more detailed information than they
ordinarily supplied, was a very unusual request. If it’s so unusual, I said,
how did my husband’s pension provider know to do it? There was silence on the
other end of the ‘phone. These organizations are and always have been paid huge sums of money to administer schemes and invest funds...and over the last number of years they've lost huge sums and depleted pension schemes to the point where they're being closed down. Bye now, sorry about that...
The upshot of this is, I’m the one who is
upset, discommoded and has to attend a court again. Not to mention the other
stuff; changing my name on some official documents e.g. driver’s licence,
passport, i.d. cards, credit cards….
As for sorting out the house and living
arrangements, I’m not even going to go there. I’m going to the pub instead.
Which is probably not the wisest idea, but it’s the one that appeals to me
right now.
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