Time and Energy. Friendship and Love.

We never seem to have enough time, enough energy, enough strength to get everything done that we want to. May it be getting all the household chores done in the allotted time, fitting in seeing loved ones, or being there at the precious moment where a friend needs you the most. Personally I don't feel that I get enough time to fit my own stuff, never mind anything else that is mandatory, socially expected etc. I find that if I concentrate on just one thing, or introduce a new element into my life, other things suffer. It can lead to you thinking of seeing members of the family of chores. Right, seen mum, dad, auntie, sister. Right who's next on the list. This isn't how relationships will grow. You can't give a quick five minutes to everyone in a weekend and think 'right that's sorted for another week or so'. You need to give quality time to the relationship. If time or distance is a constraint why not text, email or call them on the phone. Put in a conscience effort. I know it's difficult. I don't have the constraints of a big family life in the home so although I have the same housework etc I don't have 7 loads of washing every week although a few extra hands in the house to help out might be handy. Or one set of maids hands would be even better. Don't think I've never thought about it before. But once you've been to work, done upkeep on your house and seen your nearest and dearest, what about you? What about your hobbies, goals and dreams? Where do they fit in? Do you have time to relax, have a bath and read a book? Can you go for long walks and take pictures of wildlife? How often do you get time to go to the gym, dance class, guitar lessons? There is a lot to fit in, and a great difficulty in finding time. Even if you organise a schedule these things often are unpredictable. You don't know when your friends going to need to vent to someone, how many times you need to pick up the kids, how many late shifts you're going to have to do at the office. The best way to fit things in is to give quality time to each job, each role. Try to find the strength and energy to accomplish these things. Friendships and happiness are important. We must achieve these to be successful in all things.

Relationships Postsecret

This postsecret took my eye this week as something that I could relate to. 

I have been very lucky to have met someone in my life who I can share my thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams with. Although we have had very hard times through out the relationship, both related to our friendship as well as life around us, we have stayed a strong unit. We have disagreements, we dont share all the same dreams but we understand each other and respect each and our different views.

When I hear how other people get treated by their partners I do sometimes wonder how we have such a strong relationship. I think that some of it does come from what we have had to through together and the fact that we chose to go through it as one. Often people do not realise what they've got. Know how lucky they are. Understand how bad it could be. 

My secret is that I enjoy been a little old couple. We like long walks, puzzles and crafting. We enjoy movie night and sunday dinners. But the main thing is we enjoy each others company and that's the most important bit. Enjoy your time together. Treasure it and make it quality time. Make it so that you truly feel that your relationship IS better than everyone elses.

My stupid computer (part 2)

Well I just don't know what's going on with my PC at the moment. When I bought it I was working on the principle of the more you spend on it the better and if you buy it with better than average everything then it will last longer. How foolish of me. The machine broke 13 hours after the year warranty ended due to the hard drive failing. This meant no pc over Christmas which was annoying as I couldn't play any of the games I had got, couldn't email everyone merry Christmas and so on. Although the pc manufacturer wouldn't fix the computer the hard drive was still under warranty so that was sent off and a massive 6 weeks later a reconditioned one was returned to us. This obviously meant that they couldn't retrieve the data, couldn't be bothered to, or had sold the data including pictures id rather no one else see to the highest bidder. I felt a little like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex And The City where everyone just keeps saying' ' well didn't you back it up?'.


Steve then decided that he would set up a Raid system where there are 2 hard drives running together saving the same data so in theory of all theories if one dies you still have the other. Well guess what, after 6 months the back up raid drive died. What is going on? Why are PCs only made to last 12 months. Brand new hard drives last only 6 months. I just don't get it. After a little bit of trouble shooting we found that the error was that the two hard drives were out of sync. Although seemingly 'fixed' and knowing what our (my) track record of killing hard drives and power packs Steve thought we best by a back up drive to back up the back up hard drive. Covering all bases we thought. Well we bought it but didn't get it set up yet, and getting back to the start of my rant, I turned the pc on yesterday and it said 'Invalid system disk please insert disc and reboot' and nothing else. Steve looked at me in disdain as of course because I had turned the pc on, It was my fault that it had broken. After 4 attempts Windows started to load. We checked the system status. The results were that there was nothing wrong with either drive. Well how could that be? You just threatened me with an impromptu strike. Temperamental or what.


So, I have backed up what I can on random USB sticks, memory cards, and rewritable discs and am just plodding through hoping that I won't do anything wrong to upset this temperamental being. I am now in fear of the PC. Power over Clair. Now I understand what PC stands for at last.

L4svegas Is Lovin'

This week I have hammered my ITunes account, bleeding it dry. I do now have a nice little collection of new sounds.


The ones that made the grade this time are:
Airplanes - B.o.B (feat Hayley Williams)
California Gurls - Katy Perry (feat Snoop Dogg)
I Like It - Enrique Iglesias
Alejandro - Lady GaGa
Wonderful Life - Hurts
OMG - usher (feat Will.I.Am)
New York - Paloma Faith (Radio Edit)
Nothin' On You - B.o.B

It was pure fluke that I got two songs by B.o.B. To be honest I didn't even know who the tracks were sung by until they were in my playlist. I just liked the songs. Apparently that makes me a hip hop/rap fan.

I chose Katy Perry as I like her cheeky songs. Whoever decided to put her with Snoop Dogg was a genius. I reckon a drunk genius but still a genius.

I'm not usually an Enrique fan and I can not stand Pitbull but I think this is amazing. It's a fantastic dance track and really gets you in the mood for a great night out. I also like that if you listen very carefully you can hear Lionel Richie.

Although Lady GaGas' song is very different to her previous tracks it still has the same flare and quality. Very good for quite a conservative song.

I heard Wonderful Life on one of Radios Aires shows were they introduce new bands and thought the song was great. So fresh and different to anything that's out there at the moment. That really appealed to me.

I love Black eyed peas so when I heard that Will.i.am was featuring in an Usher track I had to hear it. I don't usually like artists who known that they look great but Usher somehow is smooth about it. A ladies man, but not in the creepy sense.

I had heard New York a couple of times before but it was overshadowed at the time of release by Alicia Keyes Empire State Of Mind - another fantastic song. Again listening to the radio they had Paloma on saying that she was unsure where her career was going and that she didn't have much say in the direction of it. They then played this, the original without the new remix, and I had to go and buy it.