hackett.life
I begin a new job tomorrow. The pay is good, and it’s a good company to work for. Possible downsides are that it is not local (100 miles away), and I will be working nights (7 pm to 7 am), four on four off.
The work is hard, so it might take a softy like me a few weeks to adapt, but adapt I will! I’ll report my progress here.
Wow, I have just noticed that I haven’t posted anything to this blog for almost an entire month! That is unforgivable. In fairness, I have been swamped these last few weeks.
The news that we had feared was coming has arrived. Once again, we are being turfed out of our rented home. Our situation is precarious. A combination of poor credit history, sporadic freelance work, and zero savings make walking into a letting agent and choosing an off-the-shelf rental home near impossible. We have to be careful that our next move will be more permanent. The last five years have been hard. I will not let the next five years be the same.
So, it is time to begin the boxing up of our belongings once again. I intend to write about the experience via this blog. The day we move home will also be when I stop using social media for a year. I won’t even update pages for businesses and organisations that I work with. Instead, I will write, read and take a bunch of photos. That is all.
A while ago, I mentioned that there was trouble on the horizon. Well, the horizon is coming up fast, and I need to do something to get my family and me out of the shit storm that we are about to find ourselves in.
Do you ever feel like the days are slipping away so fast that life seems to be accelerating? I’ve been feeling that way lately. I need to come up with a strategy to help me get more out of my day. Exercise and doing something meaningful every day has to be a priority. I’m also starting to think that I should be waking up a lot earlier than I do right now.
A neighbour told me something yesterday that could disrupt my life. I had hoped that we, as a family, had put some distance between us and upheaval. But, unfortunately, it would seem that the universe might have different plans. So, I said a little prayer to the big U, help us out, will ya?
I took Karta to meet up with his mates at the CycloPark Skatepark today. The boys had a whale of a time. The weather was awesome, I got my first sunburn of 2021!
This is the 700th post on my tiny, insignificant blog! Over the last few days, I have found myself pondering life and my place in the world. I have read books and articles, watched YouTube videos and meditated. Finally, I have concluded that I need to very firmly put the past behind me and move forward through the rest of my time here, one day at a time.
Karta in his favourite place. He is the best thing that I have done so far in my life, I love you son.
I didn’t realise just how much I would miss my wife. She is away on an orientation course as part of her new job in the telecoms sector. She only went away yesterday, but already that feels odd to me. If I go away, the daft thing is that I don’t feel the separation anxiety as much.
So, it’s just Karta and me for the week. This is the last week of term for mainstream schools, and so Karta will be finishing up his latest round of homeschooling on Thursday. I hope to make plans to meet up with friends and get out into the woods for some needed exercise and fresh air.
As for me, well, I have plenty of chores to keep me busy, plus I am going to make time to sit at my desk and write posts for this blog every day. Today is, after all, the day when lockdown restrictions are eased a bit more. We are now allowed to meet outdoors in groups of up to six people from two different households. Outdoor sports venues are reopening, which includes the football club that I am involved with.
That’s all I have to say for now, stay tuned for a lot more going forward.
JP
For the first time in many months, I find myself alone at home; this is rare.
So, what did I do with this slice of freedom? I cleaned the house, listened to some music and watched a few YouTube videos. Is that constructive? I don’t know, but anyway, it has all lead me to sit down and spew forth some words of encouragement and reflection.
This one is 15 today. We had a morning shared with Wallabies and Giraffes, followed by fried chicken and Mexican food. Happy Birthday darling boy, I love you.
I’m sorry Adam Sandler, this is not your best work.
We managed to get out to a skatepark for Karta’s first post-lockdown session of the summer. We met up with one of Karta’s buddies and spent the afternoon at Cyclopark near Gravesend.
The park is easy to get to, cheap to enter and has a very chilled vibe. We will be going back next week!
Karta and I took our first post-lockdown trip to the woods with our friends today. We both agree that we have missed our friends and our days out in nature. With the summer holidays just around the corner, we will be making plans to get together every week.
We began homeschooling Karta in January of this year. We have developed a learning regime that works well for our son. Now, as he heads into adolescence, I have been looking into the life skills he will need to survive in the 21st century.
This morning, I came across the concept of Qi skills, a series of attributes that will benefit children of the 21st century. They are as follows.
In addition to these skills, we are teaching Karta how to do the laundry, cook a meal, shop for food, travel on public transport, wake up independently and how to pack a bag. He is learning how to order food at restaurants, manage money, plan an outing or a trip and, soon, how to care for another living being.
We will show Karta that he must have love, compassion, altruism, morality and justice in his heart as he moves through life. Most of these skills are not taught in school, so we are lucky to be in a position to prepare Karta for the beautiful life that is ahead of him.
So, Karta and I took a trip into Canterbury to visit the Comic Art Exhibition that is on at The Beaney.