Count your blessings..

It was the usual start to the week, bleak, dreary and dark. It was lashing down with rain and I was using my umbrella as a windbreak to get up the High Street into McDonalds. I got my tea but didn't bother to sit down and just struggled straight to the council house. I only had five minutes to shiver on the doorstep before the door was open.

When Chris arrived ten minutes later, we had a great chat comparing notes on our new printers. He'd bought a Canon while I had my HP and we acted like a right couple of IT nerds raving about lights and air printing. Oh how those winter evenings fly when you have a new printer to play with! Flamin' hell.....

I spent the early part of the morning setting up a few new starters and tarting up the report I'd finished at the end of last week.

These days, when November the 11th falls on a work day, sadly the eleventh hour is not often observed in quite the way it used to be. At the council house, the hour was marked by the fire alarm being sounded. The bell went off and then the posh BBC type voice declared 'Fire! Fire! Please leave the building!' which got half of the people on the opposite wall on their feet putting their coats on moaning about how the powers that be could be so inconsiderate that they'd arrange a fire drill when the weather was so bad. It was almost comical really with the two minutes silence being used up with other people trying to remind the escapees what day it was while loud laughter came out of the meeting room behind us where they hadn't even heard the alarm!

Having seen the devastation and huge loss of life occurring in the Philippines right now, I emailed StayAhead Nigel to enquire about how his wife's family were, as Chelly, Nigel's wife is from the Philippines and has a sister living in the worst affected area. The hotel the family owned is one of the only remaining buildings standing there and it has been taken over for use as a rescue and communications centre. Chelly is in tears constantly at the moment. To see homeless children without their families back home most be terrible. Many were badly affected by the tsunami a couple of years ago. It would seem that there is very little respite.

We need to count our blessings here. A lot of things I personally worry about and get upset about don't seem quite so important anymore. We are all fortunate, more than we realise. Also, I was told years ago that once you can accept the things you cannot change, the better off and happier you will be. If things aren't meant to be, they just aren't and that's all there is to it. You only get one short life. It's no one else's fault if you don't make the most of yours. Many of these people in the Philippines have nothing now. We are all victims of circumstance but clearly our circumstances are marvellous. Never waste your life. It's soon gone.

Track? A classic from The Doors today - Riders On The Storm