Bright Ideas!

Hello,

It’s a joy this week to see My Weekly focus so much attention on plants and flowers. The winter, due to our situation, felt like the longest I have ever known and as I look across at bare trees from my window, I’m dreaming of the day they burst into colour.

When you live in a city, no tree or tub of flowers is taken for granted. So much so that today, I signed a petition against a developer trying to cut down a

12-metre Mimosa.

When I lived in the country, no one would have batted an eyelid but here in under two days, 800 supporters are gunning for the council department responsible.

Sometimes though, when something is removed it creates a space for us to learn. I have a laptop but much to the hilarity of younger people in my life, I hate the little inbuilt mouse pad. Outside of the very basic I just can’t use it and don’t want to use it, so I carry around a little plug-in mouse. It’s camp, gorgeous, covered in diamanté and has travelled the world. Last week, however – total panic – I mislaid it! How would I cope? I couldn’t cut and paste without it. No one was around to help, so I went onto YouTube, found a mouse pad tutorial and now I’m an expert. It’s amazing what we can learn when we have to, isn’t it? I still prefer a mouse, but I’m secure in the knowledge I can add this skill to my self-sufficiency list alongside my ability to put up a shelf and unblock just about anything.

Finally (with time on my hands) I have been thinking about the underestimation of Time. How many times do you get asked to do something and the person making the request uses the words, “It’ll only take 10 minutes”?

It’s a total lie, yet we say it because it sounds plausible and much better than, “It could take half an hour or maybe the entire afternoon”. A friend of mine, Ross Kelly, who’s known me for years, will always state, “If Anthea Turner says, ‘I’ll be leaving the house in 10 minutes’ she’s standing in the bathroom, still in her underwear blow-drying her hair.” Sad but true.

But what about cooks who under-state recipe preparation times? I made a meal last night that clearly stated 20 minutes – I’m quick, and it took 40!

I’m off now to do a quick supermarket shop. I told Mark I’ll be back within the hour. I know he knows it’s a lie but hey, it sounds better than the truth.

Love, Anthea X