Hidden Treasure

200 px
200 px (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While putting stuff in the attic of our new house I came across a hidden treasure.

Lying on the attic floor, face down, was a cardboard cut-out of Buzz Lightyear! I mean, seriously, how cool is that?

Okay, maybe I’m a little old to get so excited about what is obviously an old video store sales promotion sign. But I have to admit to loving Buzz, Woody and the gang from the Toy Story Trilogy. When I showed Meg the “free-standing” Buzz she was, quite possibly, just slightly more excited than I was.

Buzz is now down in the house with us, taking pride of place in the living room. He is smiling at me right now. Peering past the edge of the dresser where he is temporarily propped up till I can get him standing independently again.

We had belated birthday cake this evening with Buzz in attendance as guest of honour. I was thinking while Meg cut the cake, how odd that Buzz was in our attic. Was it serendipity that two of biggest fans of the Toy Story franchise would find this hidden treasure? Or was it just a lucky fluke? I don’t really know or care for that matter. It is just one of those nice things that can happen every now and then.

Despite being in a huge rush to get things sorted in our new home, I still couldn’t resist looking around the new “empty” attic. If I hadn’t looked twice at the floor coloured shape, I wouldn’t have found Buzz at all.

How often, I wonder, as we rush through our daily lives do we miss hidden treasures? I’ll bet that if we all just took a second to look around, both literally and figuratively, we’d find a lot of hidden treasure. Try it and  see. You just might get lucky and find something really great.

Sheriff Woody
Sheriff Woody (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Who knows, you just might find a Buzz or even better a Woody.

Related articles

Happy Birthday Meg!

On this day 22 years ago, my daughter was brought into this world in a hospital full of foreign extraction. When I looked down at her, I burst into tears and said, “She’s a girl and she’s beautiful.” The nurse who was helping to deliver her looked at me and said, “Wat seg U?”

Meg started talking early and she hasn’t stopped! Unfortunately she gets this from my side of the family. The American side of her family all love to talk and if we are excited or passionate about a subject, well, Katie bar the door!

I’m celebrating this day with a little reflection of her personality traits that make loving her so easy and keeps me cheering her on in her endeavours. She’s super:  imaginative, creative, passionate, funny, pretty and most of all she’s my daughter and my best friend.

She’s my movie buddy – no one else in the world shares my love of cinema like she does. She’s my gaming buddy – although we squabble like children when we game together (usually with her telling me off). She’s my cheerleader, constantly cheering my little pursuits. She also tells me off when I need it – usually when I have my grump ass on.

Meg is slowly carving her path in the world and despite a few set-backs she is still marching resolutely forward in her pursuit of a career. Even though I know that we will keep in constant touch when she leaves home and starts her life path, I will miss her. She has been a constant factor in my life for 22 years and her presence has kept me young at heart.

So this is my Happy Birthday Ode to my daughter. I hope this day is indeed special and that despite having to spend it with grumpy old me, that she continues to be herself.

Oh and one last birthday wish. I hope she doesn’t develop any of my bad habits!

Happy Birthday Meg!!!

A Post A Day…

I decided not too long ago that I would do a post a day to my blog.  The reason for this was three-fold; first, I would get in the habit of writing something daily and second, this daily writing exercise would get me in some kind of shape to start re-writing an old screenplay I’ve had kicking around for years and third, as I haven’t had time to do any videos for ages, this seemed like a good “trade-off.”

Well suffice to say, I never run out of things to write about. Whether I am complaining about the everyday mundane irritants that life can throw in my direction or the odd epiphany that I’ve been privy to.

Sometimes though it is just nice to ramble. I’ve had nothing really irritating happen today nor have I been blessed (or cursed) with any sort of epiphany. It has been, all said and done, a fairly productive day. I put together two more bits of furniture and I am now feeling the strain in my muscles and brain.

Ah! About the self-assemble furniture. Who decided to make all the directions pictures? I’m sure that someone somewhere thought that utilising a picture diagram of the assembly was an ace idea. In my humble opinion though, I beg to differ. In the old days (when I was much younger and presumably faster) I could  put a medium piece of furniture together in about an hour.This was of course using the “old fashioned” directions.  Not now. It took me the best part of a day to put together a wardrobe and a chest of drawers!

I refuse to believe that this is because I am older and *cough* slower. Instead, I am going to blame the stupid pictorial directions. Hmmm. I wonder if this counts as an epiphany?

Where the hell is my internet!

Well, we are still moving. It’s taking a long time despite being right next door to my old address. Yesterday I came home from work to find my new internet wasn’t working. All right, I’ll admit it right up front, I got a little annoyed…Well, a LOT annoyed.

Not so much at the beginning, but as the night wore on my irritation began to take on epic proportions. It probably didn’t help when I got a text from my provider saying that I would have an answer to my problem in 48 hours!

Needless to say, it didn’t take 48 hours, it only took about 24 hours. Of course I spent the entire time stomping around the house, cursing and shouting, “Where the hell is my internet!” This helped the situation….NOT!!!

In hindsight I now realise that the reason I got so annoyed is that I’m addicted to the internet. Yep, I’m hooked on facebook, twitter, and YouTube. But above and beyond my “craving for social networking” it dawned on my that I was reliant on the net for most of my important communication.

I use Skype to talk to my family in America. I couldn’t afford to pay the phone bill if I kept in touch via the normal telephonic route. I use various websites for weather updates, current news, well the list goes on and on.

Like the mobile phone, the home computer (and it’s partner-in-crime the web) have become as necessary to our everyday lives as food and drink. We use the internet for banking, shopping, communicating, booking holidays…

When I was a teenager, I thought nothing of driving long distances without a mobile phone; they weren’t around then! Now, I don’t like to go down to the local shop without my mobile phone. As for the internet, not having access for just 24 hours practically turned me into a gibbering idiot.

I don’t know what new technological advances are on the way to replace mobile phones or the internet, but,I am sure I will become just as addicted to them.

Meanwhile, back to the long move.

Moving

I am sitting here at 1030 in the evening. I’m tired and a bit brain frazzled. I’m also a bit excited. Don’t worry I will stop these Hemingway-esque sentences soon.
So why am I excited?
I’m excited because a very temporary part of my life is coming to a close.  I was very happy in my little flat, it was my first new home in my new life.
But it was only temporary.
I am now moving into a proper house, with a garden, and setting up home properly.
I’m trying to move everything as quickly as possible. I can do this  because I’m literally moving a short stones throw from my current address.
We never know what direction life is going to take us. I got the chance to rent my new house from a very unexpected source. I was surprised and not a little dismayed at who actually steered me onto the house.
Surprised because I didn’t think the person who helped me would have cared enough to do so.
Dismayed because I obviously sold him short.
As hard as it is, we have to remember to give everyone benefit of the doubt and believe that their intentions are good.
Being too cynical is not good for anyone. Let’s all try to remember that.

%d bloggers like this: