Life - a variation on the same day?

Another Friday. Another night at the Wairalda Rail Social Club. Tonight was HUGE. Tony, a country and western singer belted out hits by Johnnie Cash, Elvis, Willie Nelson. I danced with wild abandon around the shed being twirled and spun by John and then was shown up on the dance floor by 70-year-old Olive. Way to move it girlfriend!

I got the honour of being barrel girl for the meat raffle (eat your heart out Jennifer Hawkins) and had to call out the raffle ticket winners after strict instructions that I must check the winning tickets against the ticket being drawn - it's serious business out here, the meat raffles) and even got up a sang a tune on the ole guitar. How I wished I knew Joelene by Dolly Parton instead of just my own songs.

Friday night got me to pondering how similar every day, week and year can be especially out here. I remember sitting at Lulu's Cafe in Mullum watching the same regulars, drinking the same coffee, smoking the same cigarettes, sitting in the same spots, thinking how life was just a variation on the same day. I have always fought against routine, always needing the 'new' to keep me stimulated and happy but the people at the Wairalda Rails seem much more content with their lot rather than on an eternal search for ... what? Whether it's a case of expectation or personality I'm not so sure. It will be my last night at the Rail for a while as I leave in a couple of days but no doubt, when I return, everyone will be sitting in the same chairs (Glenn inadvertently upset the natural order last week sitting in Harry's chair), buying a shit load raffle tickets, drinking beer, smoking like there is no tomorrow and having a laugh.

While I say I crave the new, I also realise how much my own mind runs on an old programme. I called this blog 'the me change' because there were things that I wanted to change in my life but two weeks on I realise that while I may have changed location but I have bought my head and bad habits with me. The same repetitive thought patterns swirl around my head (thinking about the past, plotting the future), I still waste inordinate amounts of time on the internet especially when I want to avoid reality, I have smoked (despite my earlier pledge, luckily nobody has hit me up for the fifty bucks yet), I still haven't written the allocated 3 hours fiction per day (I have been writing but not with zeal and determination needed to finish a novel), I haven't exercised every day, I still order a double shot skinny latte, I still forget to take my thyroid medication even though when I don't it makes me loony and fat, I still don't drink enough water, I still hold grudges far too long, I still feel the need to be right, I still slouch. I still don't meditate when I know how good it makes me feel, I could go on and on and on and on.

In order to really change I thought I'd put my pledge of changes here. Apparently it takes 21 days to form new habits. So the Me Changes I'd like to make are:

1. No smoking. Both my nan died on cancer, my grandfather of emphysema and my father of heart disease. Nuff said.

2. Write fiction 3 hours per day. Every day apart from Sunday.

3. Get puffed out once a day - swimming, walking, bike riding.

4. Drink 8 glasses of water

5. Stop obsessing over things that never were and were never meant to be.

6. Avoid all unhealthy habitual behaviours by doing the opposite of what I usually do.

I started this morning actually. Instead of ordering my regular coffee, I had a skinny flat white. Embrace the change!