What is the best purchase you have ever made?
I can think of any number of purchases I have made which have been useful in one way or another, but for me the main purpose of spending money is to create memories. A TV or a laptop or a new kitchen are all useful purchases but none of them, for me anyway, are anything other than utilitarian.
Our conservatory, on the other hand, has become a centre of family life and carries with it memories of Christmas Days with the family, board games and puzzles, laughter and love, which makes it more than a purchase in the economic sense.
The house we live in, and which we bought a few years ago is just bricks and mortar whose main value lies in the amount of money we have saved in terms of rent and mortgage payments. If we were still renters I would still be working all year round. That in itself makes it an incredibly good purchase for us. I can’t get attached to the house in and of itself, but I started enjoying it as a home once we added the conservatory. Until then we had the choice of meals on our laps or a table that took up most of the room when it was put up so the conservatory was a game changer.
Holidays are another kind of purchase that are very much about creating memories. I don’t want a plush hotel because all I do in the room is put my head down for the night. We stayed in hostels and in caravans when the children were younger and they were just places to keep our belongings. So, we keep the fixed costs, travel and accommodation, as low as possible and concentrate on outings instead. No one will be able to convince me that it is a good use of money to splash out on a hotel because a hotel doesn’t create any memories.
So, I do make purchases, but not for their own sake. Anyone who has ever been poor will know what I mean when I say that you need to make the most of your time through making the most of your money.
A I Generated Picture What would you change about modern society? This could be a rant, it could be overly bleak, it could be controversial. There’s so much I could write about the biggest issues facing us, but I have decided to take a different tack with this post. I am going to look at […]
Stopping Cues
This article was one I wrote a year ago today and it gets its inspiration from the Adam Alter Ted Talk that I used in many classes. It’s a superb 10 minute video with barely a word wasted. The link is on the original post so click through to read an article that is still one of my favourites. Your reward is a great video and a really good article, mine is the dopamine of an extra few views. Win/win!
What’s the funniest misunderstanding you’ve ever been part of?
This idea of the ‘funniest misunderstanding’ is, in my opinion, a product of the neurotypical brain. If you are on the Autistic Spectrum as I am, a misunderstanding is a product of misreading the way the world works. It is therefore, both an everyday occurrence and anything but amusing. It emphasises your ‘otherness’ and usually gives people another opportunity to make fun of you. Now, I know that people on the Spectrum are as varied as people who are not, so there are likely to be a number of bloggers who share the characteristics but find their own misunderstandings absolutely hilarious. For me, however, misunderstandings are at best irritating and at worst mortifying. I can’t remember a situation where I have enjoyed a misunderstanding, whatever it’s cause.
What do you listen to while you work? I am a teacher so I will often be in the classroom with no opportunity to listen to anything other than the sound of my own voice and the occasional interjections of the students! When I am planning I will keep background noise to a minimum, even […]
I have no words
Last year I shared three playlists I use when I am marking. They are almost entirely instrumental and great for background. Take a look at the source post above and visit Spotify if you’re interested. They are great I promise!
What app eats up most of your screen time — and do you even feel bad about it?
It’s probably not a surprise that Jetpack on my phone often comes out top of the pile when my usage reports are given. When I am working, WhatsApp, which I use to communicate with colleagues, is very often up there as well, but in non working weeks, of which there are many, it’s definitely Jetpack.
For a start, my response to the daily prompt is always typed out on the phone. This takes between 15 and 30 minutes a day depending on the length and complexity of the post. I always write it in one sitting if at all possible, only editing as I go, in order to keep the freshness of the writing intact. So far, so good. It is something that gives me the focus I need on the writing and I love the discipline of answering prompts every day, some of which don’t engage me at all to start with.
Where it gets slightly less positive, or at least slightly less productive, is what happens afterwards. I can’t avoid regular checks on my readers and my likes! I am regularly found looking at my figures and comparing them to previous days, weeks, months and years! It’s the dopamine hit if I get a like, a comment or over 50 views in a day that’s to blame 😂! Apologies for the overuse of exclamation marks, but I won’t edit those out. Anyway, I know that I should rein in this constant checking and I promise that is my intention. However, the Internet is designed to reward you if you contribute and the rewards in the last year have been building as a direct result of the daily posting. So, I do feel slightly guilty about that but it is understandable.
So, keep reading, liking and commenting to give me those valuable dopamine hits please 🙏 🤣🤣
