Sometimes, doing something different is what we need.
So when the time came to do some renovations on an apartment, it was a great opportunity to really try to do something outside of my comfort zone, learn about renovations and literally (and figuratively) get my hands dirty.
Finding the right goods is very much also about finding the right contractors to do the job - and certainly there is a variety of people out there. Certainly, some people take more pride in their work and are willing to do a good job. Or they are more experienced. Or a bit of both. But the way I see it is that perfection is quite difficult to achieve, but trying hard is about effort and heart in work and striving to be better each day.
The whole exercise was a great one. Taught me to be patient - waiting for contractors, work to be done; glue to set! But also the fact that doing some of the work takes a lot more time than what I had initially envisaged. Leveraging off the experience of my parents as well allowed me to spend time with them and realise how engaged and hard working they both are - me being tired yet they had the spirit and energy to help out. We chatted, ate together and worked together. The last time we worked on a major project like that - would have been pretty close to around 17 years ago! Lots of tired weekends and Burger King lunches which were quick!
Working with my hands was a lot of fun and really staying fit to do all those things is something of a goal. It has somewhat motivated me to want to be more fit and healthy moving forwards and should really make be more disciplined when it comes to doing exercise for the longer term benefits as well.
Recently, I also bought a masticating juicer (a Hurom, for those who are curious). So making juices and thinking about the different varieties of fruit and vegetable juices is taking a bit of my time. Slicing up all that fruit takes a bit of time - but the juices are refreshing and make it worthwhile!
