How do you eat an elephant?

Stop press, read all about it and all that, my first ever paid piece of writing appeared in a national newspaper today. It’s not going to win me any prizes but it just goes to show how far you can come in a short time.

Six months ago I hadn’t swiped a keyboard for anything other than Facebook updates and emailing for over ten years, since then I have written 54 blog posts (an estimated 40,000 words, that’s a book!), signed up for a freelance journalism course and now had a (very small) piece commissioned by a national newspaper. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. Well I hope so anyway, because that piece is not going to pay my mortgage.

No one ever got anywhere without a few old fashioned baby steps. One foot in front of the other, one step at a time is how you reach your destination. I always thought I could run before I could walk, I thought maybe one day I would just wake up and I would be a big shot writer, but things don’t just fall into your lap like that. We all have to suffer the journey to get to our destination. And if we’re lucky the journey will be even more fun than the destination itself.

But in which direction do you take your first baby step? One of the best ways of deciding is to map out the journey backwards. If you want to be somewhere in ten years time, where do you need to be in five years, two years, next year and next month to get there? Just break it down. A plan needs to be flexible, and with each baby step it may take a different direction, but if you have a plan and start moving more possibilities will present themselves, opening more and more routes to chose from.

We are so obsessed these days with celebrity and financial gain, and often consider people who have made it as those who have millions to spend on flash cars and posh houses, or who can’t go to Tesco’s without being mobbed. But the truth is success shouldn’t be measured in money or fame, but in growth. To me the most successful people are those that have come out of hardship, pain or suffering, or overcome obstacles to achieve a long desired goal. They didn’t just wake up one day and find success; they took baby steps to get to their destination. And if all this sounds like too much hard work, it’s worth considering that with each step forward, even if we fail, we are still ahead, have made progress, grown. Doing something is better than doing nothing at all. We don’t all need to make millions or be celebrities (I can’t actually imagine anything worse) to make a success of our lives, us normal people can be successful too, just by moving forward.

I know I’ve said it before but anything is possible, you just have to believe in yourself. And do something. Put your foot forward and take a baby step. I may never reach the dizzying heights of making a living from writing, but I’m sure as hell going to try. I implore anyone who has any kind of dream to start taking the steps to make that dream a reality. What has happened to me today might not seem huge but it’s one small step for me, one giant leap for my career and my confidence.

There is a saying, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Take small bites and one day, you will have put away the whole thing. I’m only about an elephant’s eyelid in so far but I reckon I’m hungry enough to munch away at it until it’s gone. Bon appétit to everyone. And thank you as always for all your kind support.

Man's Best Friend?

We have had an anxious weekend waiting for news from the vets. Not just anxious about whether our cat would be OK, but anxious wondering whether or not we would have to remortgage our house to pay the vets bill.

Charlie spent the early part of the week licking his bits and making strange noises while doing it. We kept telling him to “get a room” but as the week progressed we realised he wasn’t doing it for fun. By Friday day time he was squatting in random places, with me chasing after him with a mop and bucket of disinfectant, but Friday night we realised his bladder was completely blocked so took him to the emergency vets. We picked him up on Sunday morning, at a cost of nearly £300. We haven’t had a holiday in 5 years, yet we have had to shell out nearly the cost of one on a flipping cat. Are pets really worth the hassle and the cost? And how far should we go to keep them well?

Charlie and Lola thought their luck was in when we brought them home a few months ago. A nice house to sleep in, a huge garden to play in, 2 small boys who keep sneakily feeding them (even when they’ve been told not to) and an exclusively Iams diet (when us humans have to eat reduced and Tesco Value stuff, sometimes even reduced Tesco Value, that’s what I call cheap).

The kids love the cats, I’m not sure how much this feeling is reciprocated but they do seem to put up with a lot particularly from Son Number 2 who just loves to get in their face and grab at their tails. You’d think they would scarper when they see him coming but they just lie down and purr. They must either really love him or are really stupid.

Despite my love of animals, cats are about my limit. And maybe fish. Small animals are just not worth the hassle. They seem like a good idea at the time, particularly for kids who are begging for a small pet to call their own, but in the end the kids do none of the cleaning out and the feeding and you’re stuck with this little thing that is solely reliant on you to keep it alive. And they smell.

That’s why I love cats. They are pretty independent; they don’t need walking or training and ordinarily don’t smell. Just chuck a bit of food at them a few times a day. Or so were the cats of my childhood. These days we have litter trays, complicated feeding routines, and I’ve just shelled out yet another £30 on a water fountain for Charlie, to try and make sure he drinks enough. But he just keeps looking at it as if to say “and what do you expect me to do with THAT?” Not forgetting that 2 cats equal an awful lot of mouse, bird and baby rabbit carcasses. It’s lucky I have a strong stomach.

Most people see pets as part of the family but are they not just another drain on not only finances, but also time and energy? Our kids and our partners require enough of our attention, and contribute enough stress. With two small kids to look after there comes a point in the day when I start to suffer cuddle fatigue and could really do without a cat climbing all over me, sticking their arse in my face demanding affection.

While Charlie was languishing at the vets office I was seriously considering letting the cats go, sending them back to the Cats Protection where they came from, to give another family the joy of having them (and the cost and stress) but as soon as I saw that little furry face looking out at me from the cat box I knew I couldn’t do it, and I just wanted him back home where he belongs, stinking of wee or not.