Christmas Day

Woke up way too early — was up at 7AM. It was really cold outside, and nothing was stirring. This is the only day of the year when Tim Horton’s Coffee shop is closed. Otherwise it’s open 24/7. Even if I wake up at three or four in the morning, there always a couple of cars moving somewhere. Not so this morning.

I ate too much and too late yesterday, felt slightly uncomfortable and that’s why I woke up.

Gerry’s son Kevin arrived yesterday evening and later we had a turkey dinner.

We didn’t go anywhere or do anything today. It felt like those Christmas Days of my youth when everything stood still like this. We looked at Kevin’s photos from a Caribbean cruise he went on recently, and he got to see all my pictures from my Swedish trip.

Tonight, as I was browsing back one year in my blog, I realized I’ve now had the BlackBerry for one year. Two more to go! I regret it deeply. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but the whole idea of having a smart phone at all. I have no use for it really — a regular cell phone would have done for emergency calls. I’ll have to live with that decision for two more years no — there’s no going back, but after all that time, lots will have happened in the world of electronics so we’ll see what it will be like then.

Old vs. New technology

As much as I’m a huge fan of new technology, I love my Filofax. That, my purse and my Moleskine notebook … they are items I can never let go of. Could easily put everything on my Blackberry and ease the weight on my shoulder when I’m carrying my purse, but it’s not about that. It’s about the feeling of having this old book … its fine leather, all its little compartments … the little thing to stick my Cross pen into … to be able to physically browse paper — not a screen … to touch the leather.

To be honest … I don’t even need one these days. «A personal organizer»!!! For Pete’s sake … I don’t have that many appointments that I need to keep track of, I hardly have any at all. It’s just a part of who I am, I like to write in it. Most of the above goes for my purse too … and the more compartments the better.

Like any other human being, there have been times when life wasn’t all that rosy, and my Filofax has been with me through thick and thin. One thing I noticed about that was that the tougher the times, the more I wrote! I have years filed away back home, where almost each day was filled with scribbled notes, and boy, were they ever dark! When I read them, I remember well where I was in life and what it felt like. When you’re in the midst of it, I guess you just deal with it, but in hindsight I sometimes wonder how I survived.

At the end of each year, I buy a refill for my Filofax … I look at a year ahead … wondering what it might bring — all those 365 days, sometimes even 366.