Krazy Krystal's Laboratory

Turn, turn turn.....

It is the one time of year in York when the 'Minster falls to second place on the loveliest tourist attraction list, usurped by Clifford's Tower, which is resplendent with daffodils. Yes, the daffy's are out and they look lovely today. Officially spring doesn't start till the 21st of March, but with the oh-so-mild winter well and truly over, the flowers have poked there heads up to greet the sunshine. And I haven't worn my coat to work all week. It's fabulous.

In fact, drum roll, when I was in London on the weekend I sat with my sister at an outside table of a real cafe, drinking real coffee, wearing a short sleeved shirt and I actually felt warm. That pale yellow globe in the sky was not merely for decorative purposes. It felt like I was in Melbourne or something. Though it was only 16 degrees, it's the first day in a long time where you could actually sit outside and enjoy it.

Hold on, what did she say? Did she say sister? What's with all the weather chat when there's news?!?!
My sister (number 3) and her husband have moved over to the UK and are doing whole Aussies-living-and-working-in-London-so-we-can-go-travelling thing. Hooray for having a next of kin in the country! So this weekend I got to go down to see them, which was ace. Of all the crazy sisters (n = 4) cate and I are the most alike. In fact, sometimes we're so similar it's scary, as if we are the same person who has been cloned five years apart. Of course we're not identical, we do have our differences (like she's good at learning languages and i'm not) but that could be the whole nature-versus-nurture debate. I do often think that she and i have just defied all Mendelian probability and received the exact same combination of genes from our parents. Sometimes I look at family photos and think "Gee, I look a bit funny in that group shot" till I realise that i'm looking at her instead of me. In fact, my brother-in-law was telling me a story that once my sister got a haircut that looked so much like one i had had in the past, that it felt a bit weird to him when they kissed!!! So it shouldn't have come as such a surprise this weekend when cate and i both said "thanks very much" in the same voice at the same time to the same waitress, that we simultaneously started running down the street under the influence on saturday night, and that we both firmly believe that even numbers really are the best. It's just imprinted, and it was a lot of fun to see her again this weekend. They're hopefully going to come up to visit me in May, and check out Ye Olde Yorke, which will be loads of fun. I mean, heaps of fun. Of course.

In honour of spring - a time of renewal and revitalisation - I have decided to make a new season's resolution. Recently I have noticed a tendancy in myself toward excessive ranting, especially about frustrating issues that seem to arise at work on a near daily basis. To the point where I met up with a friend for lunch the other day and he began the conversation by asking "so, has anyone annoyed you today?"** which i guess reflects the narrow nature of my conversations of late. So, I am taking a vow - in order to avoid getting a (further) reputation as someone who rants and raves and storms and stresses. Each day I am going to extend a "tolerance" card to the world, so if a situation arises which evokes frustration and annoyance, I can just decide to "play the card" and be serene. Of course the world only gets one per day, and after that all hell can break loose as far as I'm concerned, but this afternoon at 2pm when someone hadn't done the thing I had specifically asked and organised them to do, I simply took a deep breath, and got on with the task at hand. Which, to be perfectly fair, didn't kill me and actually made the rest of my afternoon much more pleasant. Maybe I one day I could consider an alternative career as a Buddhist monk.

* Where sight = daffodils and sound = fornicating ducks
** where annoyed you = a polite paraphrase so as not to offend my mother (hi mum!! *waves*)

posted by Dr Krystal @ 10:55 pm