I suppose it is because of a Bloomberg article I spotted this morning, and the fact that its Friday, but I’ve been pondering today on the various ways you can spend your leisure time. Last Sunday it was just Lottie, my 12 year old daughter, and I at home. Sophie and Jimmy had swanned off to Majorca. Hen and Bob? Well I didn’t want to think what they were up to. Myself, recklessly having signed up to do a 62 mile run in a few weeks time, I decided that I had better head out for a tester. I warned Lottie on Saturday evening, whilst I was in the process of polishing off a bottle of Pontet Canet 2003 and two packets of prawn cocktail crisps in lieu of supper, that I might not be around when she got up on Sunday morning as I could be going for a run. The self-engineered guilty conscience did the trick and I headed off at 6.30amreturning three hours later having run 21.5 miles. Whilst out on the run I spotted a roe deer jumping through a field of wheat which was pretty and I conjoured up the idea for an essay, though sad to say I have forgotten precisely what it was about. Something to do with history and the arrogance of the Church. But basically I spent THREE HOURS just trundling mindlessly along the roads of Suffolk occasionally munching a jelly baby. Pathetically I’m rather proud about this, but the real point of the story was that Lottie hadn’t even stirred by the time I got back which was arguably even more pointless than what I was up to. I’d run 21.5 blinking miles and she had slumbered on oblivious. So, the BBG article…well it was about the risk posed to sad old men in lycra who head off on long, and frequently ill-fated, forays around the countryside and end up dead. There must be better ways to spend your time. Perhaps, Hen has found the answer. I’ve mentioned it before in fact, but she has become obsessed with doodles. So much so that she has even set up a website on the subject….
www.everyoneshoulddoodle.tumblr.com
You might enjoy paying it a quick visit.
If you can’t be bothered, or your firewalls don’t permit it, I thought I would share with you some “words of wisdom” that, if you look closely, are penned into her various drawings. Besides doodling, she’s into poetry at the moment ( and unicorns, but I can’t even start down that road). I’m not saying that all these are her own gems, and they don’t all scan as perfectly as I would like, but anyway, here are a selection:
“I wish I hadn’t been so curious. It’s killed my bloody cat.
Never be scared of a blank sheet of paper.
Read the directions and directly you’ll be directed in the right direction
I swear the night doesn’t last long
I always go to sleep to bloody birdsong
The sound of the vacuum cleaner is the haunting noise of people leaving Leeds….it’s the only bloody time you hear it.
Never stop wondering, never stop wondering, never stop wondering, wondering, wondering, wondering
Don’t take life too seriously
No one gets out Alive anyway
Everyone must learn the importance of being able to enjoy silent company
Turn that frown upside down, you silly miserable clown
If you look up at stars at night, doesn’t it just make everything alright
You always hate what you’ve lost but you’ll love what you find.
Never ponder on what has been. Think instead on whats yet to be seen.
Smile at least once every day and feel your troubles float away
RIP Cat”
In some ways, as her father, I suppose this is all quite alarming. The words Samuel Taylor Coleridge come to mind. But it takes all sorts.
Oh, and there’s this one, scribbled in chalk on the road outside her squat in Leeds.
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