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I do exist. Really.

Unfortunately, my laptop decided to pick up a nasty virus and then die a death. This left me with my netbook which is useful for picking up emails, but not so great for anything else. Including work and now I am extremely behind on everything. Luckily, thanks to a very tech-savvy friend, my laptop is back and working again, albeit in it’s slow and clunky fashion.

I have a massive to-do list at the moment. I know some of the Pedi-Roller winners are still waiting and I am so sorry – it’s my fault as I haven’t passed on all the emails as I had information on my laptop and not netbook. I will sort this out for you!

In brief, my life has also changed a lot over the last few weeks.

• Contract at the school has been extended by another month.
• I have a new client for my business.
• I have a new business venture on the go – watch this space.
• I split up with Matt.
• I’m going to Denmark for Christmas.
• I hurt my knuckle and therefore knocked myself out of the remainder of Team England qualifying events for ten pin bowling this year.
• Knuckle is on the road to recovery and I will hopefully be back playing in mid December.
• I miss bowling.

But yes, I live!

This is being typed on my phone to ensure meeting deadline. So apologies for typos. I walked from St Paul’s to Covent Garden in heels instead of getting a train. Yay me. Then I drank.

I am well aware that this is a sensitive issue and I know that it could be a long time before Japan recovers from the damage and destruction caused by this formidable force. It’s a terrible thing to have happened and pictures showing the damage caused and towns essentially wiped out are absolutely heart breaking. I can’t even begin to imagine what the people of Japan are feeling right now and I don’t think I want to. The public show of support for a country suffering such a terrible tragedy has been incredible.

Public Support

I reiterate what I said in my previous paragraph. The public support has been incredible. People are giving to charities, awareness of charities has been raised through people using social networking tools and the news is being broken almost as it happens, sometimes even before the news agencies get in there. The public messages of sympathy and grief on Twitter and Facebook surely show that people do care and that there is still kindness in the world.

But does it go too far? I say it does.

Last week, a friend of mine lost a follower on Twitter. Not normally a big deal, however the reason she lost a follower was due to the fact that she was continuing to Tweet as normal. This apparently is not acceptable when there is a worldly disaster going on. This is ridiculous. Tweeting about your life has no relevance to the situation in Japan. It doesn’t mean a person doesn’t care. It means that perhaps that person doesn’t believe in public grief. And despite the Princess Di phenomenon of public grief, this is acceptable. People don’t have to show their public grief to show they care about a world wide tragedy. Another point that I’d like to make is that life goes on. If someone hasn’t been directly affected by it, then why should they put their life on hold? Does the world we live in now really mean that every time something bad happens, the rest of us have to reign in our lives? When World War II was going on and cities were being bombed out of existence, did people stop going for a drink and chatting about their days because it was insensitive? I doubt it. I say that sensitivity has gone too far.

On a charitable note

And with this public display of grief, how many people are actually doing something about it? It is amazing the way people have rallied around and it is so generous the way many people are giving towards helping Japan. But all the people outwardly sympathising and grieving, have you actually done anything to help or are you jumping on the bandwagon? If you have, I applaud you. If you want to but can’t afford it, fair enough. And even more importantly, it’s not for anyone to say who/what we should give to. But I feel strongly that a lot of these people are merely “bandwagon grieving.” If you feel that strongly then do something.

And what we’re allowed to feel?

There have been many Tweets about how people should stop being selfish by getting stressed when there are such awful things happening in Japan. This has really annoyed me. Who is somebody to tell someone else how they should feel? I know that there are people worse off than me. But why am I selfish to be stressed out? How is me not being stressed out going to help the people of Japan? What does Japan even have to do with me being stressed? The two do not go together.

I’m not really sure of the point I’m trying to make here, other than that life does not come to a standstill. I am not unfeeling and I am not callous. I do care about what has happened. But not enough to guilt other people into feeling guilty for not leaving “woe is me, look at Japan, how dare you be stressed” type posts on Twitter.

To all you preachers: I hope you’ve donated, I hope you’re only discussing Japan and I hope that you have not felt any emotion other than empathy for Japan. If not, you’re a hypocrite.

I apologise for what is probably a controversial post, but the attitudes of people towards how people should be reacting sickens me. I’d also like to finish off with encouraging people to visit Shelterbox, should they wish to donate to a charity.

Comments are welcome, flames are not.

But embrace what you have, cherish it and enjoy it. Life’s too short and you never know when something may end.

Rest in Peace, Kev. All round good guy.