feel smug more often

Because I feel I have finally got a handle on smugness and can take it off the list. It’s a stupid goal really, but I think I needed it, to force me to focus on my own achievements and to allow myself to take pride in those achievements without the inevitable British backlash of self-depreciation.
Modesty is fine, in moderation, but there does come a time when its excess becomes a barrier to progress. This goal, trite as the entries have doubtless been, served the deeper purpose of training myself to give myself permission to celebrate myself.
Self self self.
I’m not sure how understandable this will be to people brought up outside the Great British tradition of being embarrassed at your own successes: how did you do on the exam? Oh..okay I suppose, on no account, for fear of social persecution – I mean, the arrogance – letting slip your result of 100%. By god, how refreshing to actually hold your head up and say (albeit anonymously, over t’web), I fucking aced it thanks, and what’s more, I deserved to. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have lied – not just hidden the truth, but outright lied – about my achievements, or even, a distinctly British trait I think, pretended not to know the answer to a question a friend was quite earnestly asking me. Gosh, the capital of Germany, ooh, I can’t remember, it’s on the tip of my tongue, it isn’t, no, wait, hang on…

Sod social graces.
It’s going in the done box.

Or just plain joy?!

Now that the mushroom house is on-line, I can listen to the Beeb!! Ah Wogan, how long has it been since I woke up with you? Too long, Terry, too long. As if to celebrate my return, you are now playing “Breakfast at Tiffiny’s”, having just read, supplied by a reader, the funniest story I’ve heard in months (to be updated to blog at some point during the day).

Joy joy joy! Joy!

I cemented the steps outside the office. No, of course I’d never cemented anything before in my life. But they left me and Takai-san, also a novice to it, and then had a “well-done for your hard work” bbq in our honour after work. The verdict? Surprisingly easy! What on earth are you paying that builder for? Just do it yourself.

Then yesterday, I got out of the shower and on an impulse used my very very best strawberry body butter – not lotion I tell you, butter – the stuff that costs more than a small scale house refurbishment and never sees the light of day unless I have a very VERYVERY important date. I put on my best silk undies and pranced around all day, completely by myself, feeling like a goddess.
I did put other clothes on on top of the undies though.

I wasn’t feeling that smug.

Rode my bike into work this morning, hence feeling quite smug. Of course, I only did so because I was racked with guilt following my failure to go for a run AGAIN this morning, but heh, it all counts.

finally reading the formatting codes list below and thus discovering how to insert not just a link, oh no, but a link which appears under a name of your choosing rather than under the given url address.

By god, it’s a piece of cake ! All this time I’ve harboured feelings of respect, if not reverence, for those 43 users, such as dandv and el_dano , who knew how to perform such mysterious feats of technological wizardry , and now I discover it was merely a matter of inserting a couple of speech marks and a colon .

Well really.

eating your home made vegetable quiche for lunch

Not that working in an office is anything akin to a daily popularity contest, but all the same it is mildly gratifying when small children notice you through the window and run into the building shrieking your name to offer you cupcakes whilst ignoring your fellow workers.
That and the high school students crossing the road to tell you, in a never before witnessed display of English language proficiency, how beautiful you are.
Oh, and the kindergarten called to invite me round to play with the kids there whenever I have a free morning in the office.

Everyone wants a piece of Mado.

I don’t mean to brag but, isn’t that essentially what this goal is all about?

Plus I finished my eikaiwa lesson plan and preparation an entire DAY ahead of schedule (a hiterto unimaginable circumstance), and learnt 20 new kanji using http://www.speedanki.com

Honestly, it’s the best thing since sliced bread!

Ciao ciao

jogging – check
vitamin E supplement arrived and hastily devoured today’s dose thereof – check
plant a rice field by hand – check
be presented with tickets to elite drinking party with sumo wrestlers – check
presentation photos downloaded and now being sifted through; content of presentation almost (almost) sorted and ready to be translated into Japanese (the “fun” part) – check
learn 20 kanji – check
sponsor ex-training partner for her run (gambarre Jen) – check
translate office lady’s tea ceremony instructions – check
drink 1 litre of green tea before lunch time – check
remember to put the rubbish out – check
feel glowing sense of self-worth and acceptance all morning – check

yes, I’d say that was a fairly productive morning.

Smug.

Not at all.

Was bored in the office so did a face recognition thing to find my “celebrity lookalikes”. The first one that came up was Elvis Costello. The second was one of the notably unattractive Gibb brothers, of Beegees fame.

Note that these are both men.

I am a woman.

That’ll teach me to shirk around I suppose… I don’t think I look that much like a middle aged man…

cherry blossoms last night while waiting to teach my evening class. that made me feel smug.