At the moment, life is a bit like a box of chocolates. To be precise, dark chocolates, because they are infinitely nicer than normal chocolate. And if I’m going to be picky (which I am) they are made from Cadbury’s Bournville chocolate, as that’s the best dark chocolate money can buy.
In an effort to over-indulge in this box of chocolates metaphor, I need to explain that not so long ago, life was full of rich treats. The initial choice was easy – the favourite one – the one with strawberry, cherry or lemon in. This represents the initial excitement of travelling, something I will have been doing annually for five years come the summer.
After the first favourite comes the second favourite, but this could be any one of a number of options; it’s not so clear-cut as the first choice. This represents the big headache making decisions about where to go and the sacrifices that have to be made (someone else wants one you want). It’s satisfying, but not as fulfilling as the first chocolate. It leaves you thinking you better dwell on this and not rush onto the third one quite yet; you’ve lost a little enthusiasm with all the injections and the rest (not that you should bother immunising your chocolates, it ruins the flavour).
The third is either another dose of your second favourite (by now the favourites have most certainly disappeared; you’ve committed) or it’s time to taste an unexpected one. You randomly take a swipe at box and a surprise comes out. For instance, today I found a new (old) travelling partner for South America. About a week ago Sammi realised she couldn’t do a second trip anymore, and so I’ve been weighing up my options. James had initially been unavailable, but due to a shift in plans it looks like we’ll be travelling again after all. Number three is surprising but definitely a good discovery, in this case maybe even a summer-saving one.
The order of the next few chocolates are unimportant. They are a real mixed bunch, the good, the not so good, the ones you really don’t want to eat and end up getting left to the last. This rabble of confections can be seen as everything else in life right now. There are some great things going on in work, it’s exciting but busy (some might even say ‘choc-a-block’... I am so, so sorry). There are definitely things in the collection that I don’t want to have to sample at all, but I feel duty bound to as otherwise I’ll feel wasteful. And after all, when you actually try them, it’s never so bad anyway – it’s all still chocolate.
The best thing though is that I’m still not full. When you start feeling sick, that’s not a good point. At the moment I’m still happily working my way through. Ideally there would have been one or two more of my favourites in the box to start with, but that’s the way boxes of chocolates are packed unfortunately.
If I haven’t totally lost you with the metaphor, this is my convoluted way of saying that things are going just great right now. I’m just hoping that I’m not over-indulging, especially as the expiry date isn’t that far away now…