When I was made redundant, after I had recovered from the not inconsiderable shock, making chutney became my therapy. I made gallons of the stuff, obsessively. I think I had at the back of my mind the idea that I was creating the new Wooden Spoon Company. However, it's ten months down the line and I am still unemployed and although I am still making chutney - obsessively - I find myself in need of a different kind of therapy. I was never going to be able to make a living from making chutney anyway. Just about everyone who has been made redundant recently has started a cottage industry making jam and chutney. At a local food fair I stopped counting after I came across the sixth stall selling homemade chutney. There are only so many jars of jam, chutney and jelly a person can buy and consume. So I need a new idea for the career front as well as I so don't want to return to the old career as it was making me ill. And as a therapy the chutney was all well and good but it could be a little fraught as, despite my best efforts to follow the recipe exactly, it somehow never went without incident. In fact very little of my cooking seems to be incident free.
I would email my friends about the culinary disasters I was experiencing, just for something to do really, but a few of them started to email back saying 'it's just like a blog' and 'you should write a blog'. I had no idea what a blog was. However my dear friend Mrs Pao has introduced me to her blog (take a look - it's lovely) and the art of blogging and so, taking my lead from Crazy Aunt Purl (check out her blog - it's good and she's funny), I have decided that blogging is going to be my new therapy. As Aunt Purl says I get to talk about myself and I save the cost of therapy sessions. And it will be nice, as I attempt to change my default position from that of pessimist to optimist, not to have someone sitting opposite me nodding and saying every week 'you sound confused about your abilities and your role in life'. I know I sound confused - that is why I am there. What I want to know is how to get unconfused and how to get on with my life after a few awful years that have knocked my confidence terribly. I'm obviously not going to do it through therapy and I'm not going to do it by making chutney either that's for sure. And blogging away at all hours will also give me a break from the obsessive baking which has also recently afflicted me. So far this week I have made two batches of scones, an apple pie and a chocolate cake and it's only Wednesday. Plus there is only me here, there is no room in the freezer - it's full of soup, last weeks obsession - and as we are up to our letterboxes in snow, nobody will be coming round to eat any of it either. Well, up to the letterbox may be a slight exaggeration but there is lots of the stuff. I have taken a photo of the snow with my nice new digital camera but Mrs Pao has to show me how to post it to the blog first. Watch this space for snow photos (just in case you haven't seen enough).
So, blogging here I come. It's cheaper than therapy and baking. It might improve my computer skills (sadly lacking in that department), help me deal with the stresses of looking for work, sort out my confidence issues and possibly might lead to a new and interesting career. That was quite optimistic wasn't it, see it's working already.
No comments:
Post a Comment