5. 4. 3. 2. 1 and go!

Hello, lovelies. Have you ever had that week? The one where everything seems to go wrong. And not only wrong, but expensively wrong. How can just the 5 days of one week be so hectic? Is it just me? Am I doomed to awake on a Monday morning and end it on a Friday evening exhausted and even more poor than I was when started the week? Is this how my life is headed? Or does this finally mean that I am an adult? Is life all about the things we have to deal with? Or is it all about the little things in life? I don’t know about you, but the older I get the more I see that the things I once wanted and planned for, no longer hold the same appeal. My dream of living in the heart of one of the greatest cities in the world. To be surrounded by people from all over the world, all bringing their cultures, languages and histories. To be able to turn on my television and be able to watch what I want when I want. How can that not be seen as the pinnacle of a person’s life? I can travel all over London and visit everything from historical landmarks to modern art. Live theatre of every flavour. Gigs, stand-up and any number of sporting events. So why don’t I feel like I am on top of the world? The 5 working days of last week started off not too badly. But as I started up my car, at 8.30am, a little warning light flicked up on my dashboard. Now, they’re only a suggestion, aren’t they? It’s only there to let you know that there may be a problem. No. It turns out that if they appear, then it is pretty important that you take your car into your local garage. And as I drove to get it fixed, it felt like there was sand in my petrol tank. It was so grainy to drive. You can imagine the faces on the mechanics as I said as much to them. I even tried to give them a little mime, to strengthen my case. But I needed a new coil pack. So, as I stood on the forecourt in front of three trained mechanics, I tried to make out that I knew exactly what they were telling me. ‘Coil pack,’ yep. ‘A drop in RPMs for no reason.’ Got it. ‘Might cost a bit.’ Yikes! Great, what a lovely way to start my week. And, just to make sure that I really knew that this was how my day was going, I needed 4 new spark plugs. And as I found out, a spark plug isn’t a glittery devise that sparkles as I drive. A Very deceptive name if you ask me. With my 4 new un-sparkly spark plugs, it turned out that it took 3 different coil packs to make my car work. And I was very disappointed at just how un coyly the coil pack was. The automaton industry is very misleading with its name calling. They are giving exciting names for some pretty unexciting things. Then again, who would want to buy something if it was called a grey thing that makes the car go. Definitely not me. But 4 spark plugs and 3 coil packs, that should be enough for one week. Haha! It hadn’t even started. I’d made it through half of the week. Wednesday, the central day marking only two days till the weekend, and I’m home free. But life only had lemons for me, and there wasn’t a lemonade shop in sight. A little bit of a back story. I’m a little afraid of cyclists. I know. That’ll make me very unpopular. But in my experience, they can be very unpredictable. Some don’t stop at traffic lights. Some weave between the cars. And some appear out of nowhere. So, I’m always super cautious around them. Leaving a large gap between me and the cyclist. But on Wednesday, that gap disappeared in the blink of an eye. I had noticed a young lad, around 17 years old, erratically riding his bike on the road, not a helmet in sight. So I stayed out of his way. His very slow way. Watching as he weaved backwards and forwards across the lane. And as we pulled up at a small round about, he headed straight in front of me, then aiming for the pavement. Woohoo! I was finally free of him. And within the blink of an eye, he changed his mind and pulled out in front of me and sliding across my bonnet. Emergency break. Heavy breathing. And slowly pulling off to a safe spot on the side of the road. I can honestly say that my heart hasn’t beaten so fast in my life. Checking my car over, which was totally fine I walked over to the cyclist. He was dazed, but unharmed. And a very long story short, his ‘friend’ came up to us, saying that he had seen the whole incident, and kept telling me that his friend was hurt. That was until I told the pair that I had a dash cam in my car. Then, quick as a flash, they were gone. I cannot tell you how ‘freaked out’ I was. I mean, I’ve seen that sort of thing online, but never believed that it would actually happen to me. They had orchestrated the whole thing. Could my week get any worse? For the whole of Thursday and Friday I waited. I just knew that something else was going to happen to me. But nothing did. And yet in my anticipation I had lived through everything bad that could have happened. I had felt that stress. Waiting for the bad news to come. Was living in London really that bad? Would uprooting my family to live in the middle of the country really be for the best? And my answer came as I was driving home after work, late on Friday evening. I happened to be driving down a quiet road, right by Richmond park. And, as usual, I was behind a cyclist. But this time he was fully kitted out and had on a very impressive helmet. When what did I see crossing the road in front of me? It was 1 badger. An actual badger crossing the road. It was the first one I have ever seen, alive that is, and not roadkill on the side of the road. And as I was only driving around 15 miles an hour, I had all the time I needed to see this magnificent creature crossing the road. And I knew that that was it. London is a fantastic place to live. Yes, sometimes people are rude and unexpected, but that doesn’t negate the fact that if I just slowed down, and looked at the world around me, then everything that I need is right here. Moving away from my ‘Adulting’ wouldn’t make my life any better. But slowing down. Knowing that I may not have any money left by the end of the week, isn’t the worst thing in the world. And taking those moments to really see what the world has to offer.