In between reading about Margaret Thatcher’s privatization and the
history of the Stasi (I’m doing a History of International Relations MSc…), I’m
attempting to read Capital by John Lanchester. I say ‘attempting’ because it’s usually a matter of managing 2
pages in bed before I fall asleep with the book on my face. (It is a
good book though!) In one of my recent 2 page sessions, the character Patrick –
who has come to live in London involuntarily from abroad – described his
dislike for ‘the big smoke’ as basically being manifested in the fact that
Londoners always appear busy; always in a rush and doing too many things at
once.
It really struck a chord with me the next day, when I found myself
running to the tube, texting, and looking through my diary. All while walking
in the rain. Carrying an umbrella.
But on a serious note... I’m currently combining my full-time
Masters with a job, and a full-time coding course. Too much?! Are we as people
now only satisfied if we’re constantly ‘busy’ and ‘stressed’ and rushing
around? When I stopped to have a think about this, I figured that yes, I am a bit
rushed at times and yes, it does mean that I have eaten my dinner on the tube.
(As far as I know, I luckily escaped the bizarre and creepy Women Who Eat on Tubes Facebook
group!) But at the same time I’m quite happy to juggle various things. I definitely
would rather learn too much than too little, and realistically, I’m just going
to get older and crankier… If now isn’t a good time to learn to code and meet
some fantastically motivated people to steal some motivation from, then when
the hell is?
At the end of the day, as long as I can still find the time to
have a catch up with my buddies over a glass of wine, read 2 pages of Capital in bed, or simply sit in a Soho bar to
people watch, then I think I’m doing just fine!
Or another way of putting it:
