Thursday 4 December 2008

The petty irritations of life - but yet....

Sometimes I feel that grumpiness will overwhelm me. God give me patience, I pray. Today is my busy day. The cleaners come, and I have to get the house ready before I go out to my Italian class. With luck I get up early enough to get through everything: unload the dishwasher, get the papers, put out any rubbish, eat my breakfast, do a load of washing and hang it out, and also make sure that the surfaces are clear, things are put away, etcetera etcetera. Same old same old. I work to a fine timetable, and should be able to get through it all, and leave at the right time, so I can catch the bus and get to the class on time. (The teacher often runs late, but you never know...)

This morning I felt grumpy because after my having gone to the pharmacy yesterday for my husband, today he presented me with with more prescriptions. 

You'd think that yesterday he would have checked whether he needed anything else, but No. When I protested that it was a waste of my time to have to go two days running, and that surely this could have been done yesterday, he got all huffy. I think he just likes to keep me busy doing things for him.

I left home feeling grumpy. I lead a hard life! Everything started irritating me. People who spread themselves across the footpath, and allow their dogs to spread across even further, with the dog leads blocking the whole footpath! EXCUSE me, I say. There are children wandering across and getting in your way. NO ONE keeps to the left. And then there is all the rubbish dumped on the street. It is too much trouble to go a few metres further to deposit the rubbish in the bin.

And of course I missed a bus. 

I now have to spoil this tale of woe by admitting that I live ten minutes away from a main road, where the buses running into the city come along every five minutes or so. I arrived very punctually. The teacher, of course, was late! Never mind, we all had ample time to chat and catch up with each other. The people in the class are all intelligent and interesting. We all have coffee together afterwards and enjoy ourselves  very much.

For our homework we all had to comment on an article describing how a male untouchable in India was killed, in the presence of his mother, for daring to write a letter to a girl from a higher cast. When confronted with such evil and injustice, the irritating things of life do seem petty. (But it is still good to let off steam.)

3 comments:

Mary said...

Always good to let off steam.

It is one of the major benefits of blogging!

Pam said...

I agree with BMM.

Hope the PP improves. I never confront people myself. I just pretend I'm fine and then bear private grudges (only towards three people in 58 years, so it's not too much effort). But I admire people who can stand up for themselves calmly.

I enjoyed your garden post particularly (have been catching up on blogs). I wish I had a big garden! I have a little one but I love it. I also wish I could send you some of my lily-of-the-valley. It spreads as I watch.

persiflage said...

Yes, Mary, this is very true.
I thought of you yesterday, as I travelled up your way and wondered where you might be.
Isabelle, thanks. I read your post re the lily of the valley, and think of the wonderful scent of that flower.
Re the PP I am not sure whether anything can improve things but feel I need to have yet another go.