Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

You were purchased several weeks ago, as the start date of August 1, 2015 worked in with the school year and the International Women's Club year. I was so eager to get organised, that I filled you in as soon as I got home.

It was fun going over the 2014/15 diary to see where we've come and relive memories some of the entries brought back.

Coffee's made. The sun is trying to peek thru the clouds and the kitchen table is comfortable to sit at as we begin. Welcome to my life for the next 12 months. You will be an integral part of my life, so best get started being acquainted.

We are going to have such fun making new memories.

If you've been chatting with me for a while you know I'm a tad of an organization freak. Well, my diary is no different. I think it stems from my days in advertising sales. Working on a daily newspaper, with several deadlines a day meant you had to be super organised. In the '80's we were all going to 'time management' courses and 'organisational' courses amongst others, and I loved them, tho I fear maybe some things I've taken too far.

One was colour coding information for quick reference. I still do that!

My red felt tip pen is my favourite. That's the one for all the Very Important Dates like birthdays. Here we go (again) popping in everyone's birthdays on the top right hand page. They are also on my electronic calendar (set to repeat forever) with a reminder set for 2 weeks prior for those people we send cards/gifts to.

That's one thing that we no longer do with friends - exchange birthday gifts. Think it's a combination of age, the expense of international postage, trying to find the 'right' thing amongst other things. In fact, seldom do we exchange gifts with friends here ..... it's weird.

This year, I am going to try very hard to remember to pop a card in the post - it's lovely to receive hand written cards (even with my illegible scrawl) as everything is email and Facebook messages.

Where's my orange highlighter? This one's great for a diagonal sweep across the page for school holidays and public holidays. A real quick visual reminder that the whole day/weeks are free as there's no school commitments. They can be filled in with holidays, or catchup with friends, or visitors.

Because I'm so organised and have already done this, some of the orange swipes need to be erased as MissM's new school starts earlier than her Irish one. The page is ruined with a long streak of white-out (liquid paper).

A page from my diary :)

These orange swipes come in handy for when G is travelling for work as I just write the destination on the orange line so I can see he's away. The shorter orange line at the top of the page is for the Sydney school holidays, so that if we are planning a visit, we are aware of how the dates fall.

Even while chatting to you about this, I realise it's a bit OTT!

Life has it's routines and rhythms, don't you think?

For me, the International Women's Club dictated a good part of my month, and  I'd already written in the Monthly Meeting and the Executive Committee meeting dates as well as the copy deadlines for the monthly newsletter for the year; in addition to other key events - well, those all need to be erased.

Fortunately the school calendar is running late otherwise those dates would have been in pen in my diary too,  only to be erased.

It's the weirdest feeling, erasing one's plans. I know I'll create new ones soon enough but for now, the day-to-day life I felt comfortable with is being erased, quite literally, while the one I'm yet to start is full of blank pages.

I know it won't take long before the pages are filling up again with stuff, and the ebb and flow of life here fades into the memory banks, but this is the 5th time I've had to start-over and while I know what to do, and how to do it, I think I'm going to have to dig real deep to find the energy to do it again so soon after doing it the 4th time.

A dear friend, who I met in Dublin before, is currently living in London (she's done one stint in Germany between times) and I emailed her to let her know we were coming and how I was looking forward to seeing her. She responded with an invitation to lunch.

So I do have something to write in my diary that won't be erased.

MissM first day at school and Lunch with MrsM.

Once we have confirmation of MissM's enrolment, I can enter the school holidays.

See, that didn't take long!


With friendship
x

PS: I also keep my diary on my phone which is sync'd to my laptop!