The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

I know this isn’t the day it’s appearing on this blog, but let’s ignore that for now.

Last night, I couldn’t sleep.

Not because I’d consumed copious amounts of coffee the day before, but because I felt wired with energy.

OK, so maybe it was to do with the copious amounts of coffee.

But there were other reasons too .

On one side, I have a meeting in about 5 hours time that’s going to be ‘feisty as all fuck’ … something I’m actually very excited about, because it’s all for the right reasons and something that will [hopefully] lead to awesomeness being snatched from the jaws of conservative, fear-ridden, culturally-condecending defest.

On the other side, I have my trip with my Mum to North Poleland starting in 3 days and I just want everything to be awesome for her.

I know she’ll be happy with just the fact we’re all together, but she deserves the best of everything and I just want to make it happen.

So when I left for the office this morning, I felt very on edge … a combination of wired energy and sleep depravation … and then I stepped out to this:

I know what you’re thinking … WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?

Well, what it is, is a sign that after a long, cold, dark, bleak winter in Shanghai … spring is bounding towards me.

Blue sky.

Bitter wind replaced with a calm tranquility.

The suns golden glow gently warming up the grey pavements.

Suddenly Shanghai has become a better place to live.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Shanghai – and China – but I must admit, the winters here are pretty horrible. I know … I know … there are places with far worse winter months, but having spent 16 years living in sunny climates [places where winter meant 25 degrees instead of 35] living in a land where you might never feel the sun, let alone see it, is bloody hard to cope with.

First World problems eh!

OK, I know that makes me sound a petty, pampered Prince … but the fact is, I never realised how much the weather affected my mood but now I live in a place that genuinely has seasons again, I know it does – just ask my colleagues – ha.

But seriously, as soon as I stepped out from my front door and saw nature had put on a show for me … all the angst, nervousness, raw energy that was inside, slipped away to be replaced with a sense of positivity and happiness.

Yes, happiness … and I thought that was only possible for me if I had a gadget in my hand, some Queen music in my ears or some Birkenstocks on my feet!

[OK, so I had an iPhone in my hand because that’s what I took the photo with, but stop being picky … you know what I mean]

Of course, by the time this post is posted [ie: today] I’ll know whether this sense of optimism and happiness translated to me being successful in my feisty as fuck argument and North Pole holiday, but regardless of how they turn out [please, let them both be great!!!], the majesty of nature – that thing that is all around us if we just open our eyes and look up to the sky rather than down to our phones – made it a day worth writing about and that’s saying something for someone who recently got described by a client as “a tech groupie, prostitute”.

And yes, I do realise this is the most indulgent, hypocritical, z-grade Oprah post I’ve possibly ever written …

Sorry.

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UPDATE: If you’re thinking this post wasn’t worth reading, I’ve now discovered it wasn’t even worth writing because I’d basically already said all this back in 2011.