{"id":120,"date":"2008-02-13T12:38:36","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T11:38:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/?p=120"},"modified":"2008-02-13T12:38:36","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T11:38:36","slug":"when-even-dull-is-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/?p=120","title":{"rendered":"When even dull is interesting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t<\/a>It is extremely difficult to find words that will not bore you, when in fact all that I have to say bores myself.<\/p>\n

About three years ago, whilst doing some work experience in a planning office, a wise\u00a0and greatly respected senior planner called Jane Gibson took me\u00a0to one side warned me:<\/p>\n

\u00a0“Amy –\u00a0you realise that if you decide to be\u00a0a\u00a0Planner you will become boring. It won’t be your fault, its just what happens”.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

She then gave me some incredibly invaluable advice…<\/p>\n

“Planning is boring for anyone who is not a Planner. When you find yourself about to say something about Planning just stop and think – ‘no one wants so know this’! People don’t care that a telephone mast is the wrong shade of grey, that\u00a0S106 money would be better spent on a roundabout than widening a pavement, that you don’t need planning permission for a dropped kerb unless its on an A Road, and that solar panels are largely acceptable unless facing a highway”.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And she was right…<\/p>\n

\u00a0Indeed, the\u00a0one person I\u00a0have significantly\u00a0let this rule slip with is leaving on Sunday for a fortnight’s holiday in Colorado.<\/p>\n

I really don’t blame him.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately as I am 6 months away from finishing a masters degree, and with\u00a0deadline on top of deadline I\u00a0dream, eat,\u00a0and live Planning and find it very difficult to hold a conversation at the moment without slipping the ‘P’ word in somewhere. In fact\u00a0I have become so incredibly boring even I saw an\u00a0ex colleague\u00a0in town\u00a0earlier in the week\u00a0who, having spotted me on\u00a0approach, waved\u00a0hesitantly and then crossed the road….<\/p>\n

Furthermore,\u00a0I have become\u00a0my aptitude to be at all interesting\u00a0hit new lows\u00a0yesterday as,\u00a0whilst eating lunch, I\u00a0sat\u00a0with genuine interest reading\u00a0the\u00a0ingredients\u00a0of my ‘Be Good to\u00a0Your\u00a0Insides –\u00a0Spicy Chilli Bite Sized Rice Cakes’\u00a0 and actually noted one of these ingredients down.<\/p>\n

Yes, you have read correctly.<\/p>\n

You see,\u00a0I had not heard of E621 before\u00a0and thought it would be quite\u00a0fun to ‘google’ it when I got home.<\/p>\n

This is what I\u00a0am reduced to.<\/p>\n

On the flip side having\u00a0very\u00a0minimal social interaction or any sort of respectable social life\u00a0has taught\u00a0me\u00a0to appreciate the simpler things in life. The\u00a0programme an ‘Island Parish’ for example (Tuesdays BBC2 8:00pm) has become a firm favourite –\u00a0documenting the life and times of the residents of Scilly with interesting anecdotes from the local boat driver who claims that you are unable to buy buttons on the Islands (this sort of drama is all I can handle). I\u00a0also found myself\u00a0quite overcome\u00a0this\u00a0week on our\u00a0trip to Sainsburys when I found out that you can buy compostable bin bags and that cotton wool was cheaper if you bought it from the baby aisle.<\/p>\n

I have now however moved on to that\u00a0quite\u00a0awful stage of personal dullness where I\u00a0find delight\u00a0in other people’s misfortunes….<\/p>\n

Which is why I found this lady having to reverse down a one way street so appealing…<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"wrongway.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So much so I felt the need to take a photograph to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n

So I will leave you\u00a0here with the knowledge of how sad I have become.<\/p>\n

I’ll be back when I find myself\u00a0mildly more interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

P.S. Tony I am ever so glad you like your ALBD prize. When we finally finish the garden I feel you may have to be the guest of honour at our ‘Outdoor Space Warming BBQ’. Perhaps you could even bring the ribbon to cut?\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is extremely difficult to find words that will not bore you, when in fact all that I have to say bores myself. About three years ago, whilst doing some work experience in a planning office, a wise\u00a0and greatly respected senior planner called Jane Gibson took me\u00a0to one side warned me: \u00a0“Amy –\u00a0you realise that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alittlebitdifferent.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}