Life is like a lottery

At last I have finally got round to reading my latest self help book ‘Eat Pray Love’ by Elizabeth Gilbert.  It’s taken me a couple of weeks which is unusual for me as I normally devour books.  I think this is a sign that ‘Eat Pray Love’ didn’t rock my boat and after reading it, I can honestly say that I haven’t found god or inner peace.  However, that said, it has aroused my love of travel. I enjoyed reading about Gilbert’s passion for Italy and everything Italian, pizza, pasta, Italian men, sex and her love of the language screams out at you in every page of the first few chapters.   

After leaving Italy Gilbert travelled to India and this is where I lost the plot a little.  Having been to India and already dabbled with mediation and Buddhism, I got a little bored with her explorations and practices at the Ashram retreat.   It was at this point that I put the book down and forgot about it.  However not wanting to be beaten and I am not one to leave a book in mid stream, I picked it up again at the weekend and persevered.  How glad I was that I did because the last phase of the book where Gilbert’s spends 3 months in Bali was really interesting.  It has reawakened my love of Bali and made me want to explore it more fully.  We were there for a week last November but we were fairly jet lagged after Hong Kong and there wasn’t enough time or energy to explore.  But now, having read Gilbert’s account, I want to go to the village of Ubud and seek out Ketut Liyer, the medicine man and go to Wayan’s house and be cured with her miracle potions.   And I will one day before I die, it’s high on the wish list.  ‘Eat Pray Love’, the movie, is out on the 24^th September and I for one will be going to watch it.  Elizabeth Gilbert has written a follow on book entitled “Committed’ which of course I shall have to buy; not only do I like her self effacing and honest style of writing but her second book is all about her travels in Vietnam which is place I want to visit.

I was a little startled when I read Phil’s blog on Monday and for a brief moment I thought I’d typed in the wrong URL; he’d asked if he could write one and I said “yes of course please go ahead, be my guest”.  But Monday’s posting was really weird even for Phil.  Or maybe it’s just me but I just didn’t get it, but then, I can be a bit thick sometimes and I’m certainly no philosopher or academic.   Last weekend went in a whirl but didn’t entail anything very exciting.  Phil went to his mum and dad’s on Sunday and after the gym I took myself to the cinema to see ‘Grown Up’s.  It was very American and very lightweight, okay for a DVD rental but not worth the 8 quid that I paid to see it on the big screen.

We decided that I’d go down to Abingdon on Monday to stay with Phil for the night to break up his journeys.   We drove down in the Land Rover this time and after dropping Phil off at work I took myself to the Leisure Centre for a really long work out.  The members at White Horse are mainly middle aged but they are really fit and take their workouts seriously.  I was doing my usual 5k on the treadmill but I noticed the lady next to me had already run 10k by the time I climbed aboard.   The Oxfordshire folk are an inspiration for the rest of us, well me anyway. Gym over, I decided to explore the nearly town of Didcot.  I’d found out that they had a cinema and was hoping to waste some time seeing a movie.  It was only 6 miles away but the town centre was busy and I didn’t really like the feel of the place.  The shops were run of the mill and the cinema complex didn’t open until 1.30pm.  I walked up and down and then decided to head back to Abingdon where I managed to fill a couple of hours in the library.  When 2pm came I went to the Crown & Thistle to see if I could book a room at the special rate.  Once again my luck was in, the receptionist remembered me from last week and not only gave me the special rate but also moved another guest so I could have Room 5, the honeymoon suite.  Result!

Phil didn’t finish until 6pm so it was a long wait in the room from 2pm until 6pm but I had the internet and the telly and was able to make a cup of tea.  We had supper at the pub by the bridge and then went back to the room where we remained for the rest of the evening.  Yesterday was a long day; the day didn’t start well when I picked up a voice message from Sue asking if I could call her back ASAP.  I called her back and she told me that Alan had been taken ill in Spain; he saw a doctor and they diagnosed a tumour in his kidney.  I’m not sure of all the details because the connection was very bad but I understand that they flew back to the UK yesterday and now have to get Alan to see a doctor as he may need surgery to remove his tumour.  They also need to find somewhere to live which was the reason that Sue phoned as she wanted to see if we had anything available.  Unfortunately all we have free is the studio flat but I’m not sure it’s big enough for them.  I just pray that Alan is going to be okay.  As Sue said on the phone, you just don’t know what shit is waiting for you around the corner.

I stayed in the honeymoon suite until they booted me out at 11am.   Then I killed a few hours at the Leisure Centre and then the rest of the afternoon I spent loitering in Abingdon town centre.  The weather was gloomy and my mood was grim, I couldn’t get Alan & Sue out of my mind.  It seemed ages until 6pm but I made it without going too crazy.   The drive home wasn’t too bad and we walked through the door just after 7pm.  I am not sure how long Phil will be in his contract but I think if I come down again, I will opt for a Thursday night stay where Phil can finish early on Friday so the day isn’t so long for either of us.  This morning I’m NOT going to the gym, instead I’m going to catch up with domestics, deal with some paperwork and after that I need to go to the agent to pick up the keys for the TMA flat.  After offering the studio flat to Sue via phone and email, when I got home last night I opened up an email from Morgans to say that a let is secured and the new tenant moves into the studio flat next Wednesday.  I feel bad but the deal is done, but if they want it, at least they S&A can have a bed albeit a sofa bed for the next few nights.

Phil & I crossed emails one day last week and he emailed me to say that this is good luck and grants us both a wish. I emailed back to say that I wished he could finish work early and his wish was that he won the lottery. I looked too deeply into email and took his reply to mean that he wanted me to go out and buy him a lottery ticket which I duly did.   Unfortunately it didn’t win but when I made my purchase I also surrendered a lucky dip that my sister had popped in my birthday card way back in July. I’d kept in my purse all this time because I thought I may have won something and guess what, I’d won twenty quid.   Thank goodness I didn’t bin the ticket as was my initial intention.  Life is like a lottery, some you win and some you lose, but the bottom line is, and I know I’m repeating myself here but you just never what shit waits for you around the corner so make the most of what you’ve got here and now.  Sometimes life really stinks.