The night time secretariat
There was a fashionable mantra a few decades ago, aimed primarily at working mothers, where it was all about working smarter not harder. Haven't heard so much about it lately, possibly (I like to think) because someone clipped some smart-arse over the head for quipping this when said everyday superwoman was actually working smart and hard.
When I started a new working life in Auckland in 1999, it was pre internet banking and really difficult to find time to go to the bank. Now, I can do almost anything online in financial terms and I can do it at 3am if I so desire.
Once upon a time, post internet banking and deep into the (earth)motherhood phase, I made hummous without electricity (e.g. here and here). Just re-reading those posts is a reminder of another life. All that home made bread - I'm so impressed with my four-years-ago self. Now, as a mystery ghost cracked the top of my perfect-sized hummous making whizzy bowl which came with my super-whizzy stick, I'm oblivious to peak oil. It's electricity and plastic (maybe glass and chrome the way I'm ogling the Kenwood brochure) all the way as I consider buying a food processor which can grate and whizz and mouli in nanoseconds.
It's all about saving a few minutes. How fast could I whizz up stirfry ingredients in a food processor? How useful to make threee cans' worth of hummous at once? Although the slow movement is a fabulous thing, it's an aspirational thing now that might not even be quite aspirational, more like just distant but nice. Like being skinny. That's distant but nice.
I started writing about the night time secretariat because it seemed that my smarter rather than harder type strategy is that I run our family life via email at night. I've emailed Fionn's school about a trip (hard working super teacher still working and replied within minutes), the cub leader about badges (the hard working super leader replied within minutes), a friend about holidays arrangements, another friend about swimming lessons and a sleepover later this week. I've emailed a backpackers about pricing and availability for kung fu camp in August. I've also looked at reviews for a Kenwood food processor. Time management, you know. Buy the best and save time by not having to replace it. This was all once the children were in bed. It was once I'd been down to (paid) work while they were at kung fu. Three more days 'til the school holidays.
I've looked at my sewing. My step towards sewing was to fold piles of washing so there was somewhere to lay the pieces out another night for cutting. Then I put more washing in the machine, somewhat negating any possibility that the lounge would ever be free of washing. Three more days of the school term. Just three.
When I started a new working life in Auckland in 1999, it was pre internet banking and really difficult to find time to go to the bank. Now, I can do almost anything online in financial terms and I can do it at 3am if I so desire.
Once upon a time, post internet banking and deep into the (earth)motherhood phase, I made hummous without electricity (e.g. here and here). Just re-reading those posts is a reminder of another life. All that home made bread - I'm so impressed with my four-years-ago self. Now, as a mystery ghost cracked the top of my perfect-sized hummous making whizzy bowl which came with my super-whizzy stick, I'm oblivious to peak oil. It's electricity and plastic (maybe glass and chrome the way I'm ogling the Kenwood brochure) all the way as I consider buying a food processor which can grate and whizz and mouli in nanoseconds.
It's all about saving a few minutes. How fast could I whizz up stirfry ingredients in a food processor? How useful to make threee cans' worth of hummous at once? Although the slow movement is a fabulous thing, it's an aspirational thing now that might not even be quite aspirational, more like just distant but nice. Like being skinny. That's distant but nice.
I started writing about the night time secretariat because it seemed that my smarter rather than harder type strategy is that I run our family life via email at night. I've emailed Fionn's school about a trip (hard working super teacher still working and replied within minutes), the cub leader about badges (the hard working super leader replied within minutes), a friend about holidays arrangements, another friend about swimming lessons and a sleepover later this week. I've emailed a backpackers about pricing and availability for kung fu camp in August. I've also looked at reviews for a Kenwood food processor. Time management, you know. Buy the best and save time by not having to replace it. This was all once the children were in bed. It was once I'd been down to (paid) work while they were at kung fu. Three more days 'til the school holidays.
I've looked at my sewing. My step towards sewing was to fold piles of washing so there was somewhere to lay the pieces out another night for cutting. Then I put more washing in the machine, somewhat negating any possibility that the lounge would ever be free of washing. Three more days of the school term. Just three.
Comments
Consider yourself warned.
Rachaelxx