BeMused

About Postcards to the Past

Salut Cléa! Hi Darling!

I hope you had very good holidays in [tropics]. Mauritius is really a place to go to, not expensive and everyone speaks français. C’est très beau, mieux que le [tropics].

Here everything is “nearly” perfect. More face to face. Love still lives here.

See you soon
Didier

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Martini Moments… For Project Management

1. Applying your own successful work practices to the home environment rarely yields the same successes but well worth the effort.

2. No matter how much you engage in careful planning, organising and risk mitigation, running too many projects at the same time often results in reduced quality. Until you surprise yourself.

3. Contingency plans are very conducive to your state of mind but thinking on your feet results in better satisfaction.

4. When chaos seems inevitable, it is best to adopt the same calm and rational approach as you would in the workplace. Logical thinking will get you far with reduced tension.

5. Nothing de-stresses at the start of the evening like pouring quality Vodka and Dry Vermouth over ice cubes and making music in the cocktail shaker. As you pour the clear liquid into a Martini glass, thread the olive in a toothpick and immerse it in the liquid, the tensions magically disappear. You can always rely on the healing powers of Martinis.

Dear Help Desk People

You should seriously consider changing your name. The word ‘help’ is soooo last century when you can’t even help yourselves get out of a tight spot. Unless your ‘desk’ needs ‘help’ balancing your empty coffee cups, bags of chips, M&Ms and 2 minute noodles.

Obviously they are not paying you enough to think. Regurgitating information that is readily available in your help files does not solve a problem. I could have sworn I was conversing with an automated service that was coughing up excerpts copied and pasted from some manual. I already have RTFM*!!!

Sure I’ve been battling with different software and hardware the last couple of days. And I’m grumpy. And I’ve cussed and cursed and F keyed then gave up in disgust only to get up in the morning and repeat the above. I know too well that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is a sign of insanity, but that gives me ample justification to take it out. On you.

And while we’re talking tired clichés and old buzz words, see, I can regurgitate too, let me remind you of an oldie but a goodie, so passé you probably weren’t even born then. The customer is always right. And that gives me ample rights to waste your time then kick your arse, well, just because I feel like it.

All the best. You need it.

Ms Cléa B Mused
Ref #874528xx

* Read The F***ing Manual

Monday - A couple of middle-aged strangers knocked at my door. I spoke to them through the one way security grill. The man in the beret accompanied by the frumpy woman asked, “What would it take to bring peace to the world?” So they tried their bible talk on me. I cut them off. “I don’t think. I’m not religious. I don’t care.” They asked if my non-religion status is a recent thing. “I’m not the right person for you”. And left them to go on their merry godly ways. I should have opened the door wearing a towel and told them I had company.

Tuesday – I woke up to the deafening unplugged silence when my online connection was severed. I cursed and fretted. No promises were made to restore connection in a timely fashion. Wearing a little disguise at the internet café with no privacy and nothing but the chatter of backpackers packed close, I looked over my shoulder as I updated my site with the Unplugged post, with the screen minimised, then deleted browser caches.

Wednesday – I had a dream that I died in a car accident and went to heaven. Except heaven was a sterile air conditioned environment run by matronly women in their 50s. I demanded to see certain people who have passed on but they gave me nothing but excuses. “I’m in heaven, right? So let me see them now!” Yeah, even in heaven I can kick arse.

Thursday – Karma can be good to you or it can bite your arse, provided you believe in it, and at best of times I sit on the fence. But sitting in the company of a troubled stranger, conversation started and I found myself offering support and advice to which the woman was ever so grateful. Unknown to me at the time, she had slipped a feel-good compliment which was highlighted to me after her departure. Karma was obviously very kind to my arse.

Friday – Things seemed to come together and then they didn’t. Just as my gut feel told me. There was some give and some take; an ebb and flow of events, feelings, thoughts, inspirations that were neither here nor there. The self-diagnosed control freak within just shrugged and continued, unabated. With an evening spent with the laptop in bed, a few glasses of my favourite red, the television in the background, working on a project, life is nothing but cruising.

Weekend – Whether it is beliefs, non-beliefs, personality, karma or expectations, life has a way of continuing, like you, unabated, surprising one minute, disappointing the next, then enthralling and elevating to new heights. Nothing is ever easy, for sure. Plans can be met or thwarted. Life, and consequently happiness, are always what you make of them.

And I made good.

About Postcards to the Past

Dear Mum and Dad and N

Guess who’s having a wonderful time?! It’s really hard work lying in the sun. The resort is very nice and my room is huge. Yes mum, I’ve been eating well.

Tomorrow I’m going on a 3 island cruise. Tried water skiing today. Not as easy as it looks. Lots of stories to tell.

Not missing you much, that’s you N. Have to go now. Aerobics is on. Enrolled in tennis lessons today.

Love
Cléa
xx

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