It's the little things

One of the unexpected but major benefits of our change of life has been being able to take the time to do all those little things that seem like a great idea but that I just never got round to doing when I was running the business.
Some are obvious guilty pleasures - cinema during the day (seriously I cannot recommend that enough!), actually stretching when I get up - in fact getting up without an alarm going off once in a while, long walks with the dog. But some are things I always knew I should do, but still, because my priorities were wrong, I excused myself from. Speaking to my elderly relatives regularly, getting to know the names of the people in the village store, supporting events that mean things to friends if not me - the list could go on and on.
But there's also that whole host of things which make sense but just didn't get done - the ways in which modern life puts one over on us. I check my bills now, I've caught the bank out three times in the last year with charges that weren't mine, I finally feel that my mobile contract might actually be fair at last (tip - buy your own phone).

A few years ago I was bought Nick Williams excellent little pocket mountains guidebook to the Lake District. I subsequently got an offer to submit reviews to a website & in return get more of these little guides, but despite working in the outdoors for the last two years never got round to it. In this recent spell of bad weather, in breaks from studying geology & lichens & French mapping - I slowly submitted reviews during coffee breaks. Today the post arrived with a thud - and on opening the big brown package out fell 6 more of these little books - just in time for me to start planning a return to the Highlands.