Wisdom, wages and waterfalls.

Like I said last time, life is really what you make of it. Being happy, or rather, feeling content and at peace is not determined by your circumstances, it's not about being lucky or unlucky. Living a joyfull and meaningful life is not a result of the gods smiling or frowning upon you. It's not about the things that 'happen to you', it's about the meaning you give to these things, your interpretation of it all, the pattern you see emerging from seemingly random events. In other words, it's about your mindset. With the right outlook you can find meaning and happiness in any situation, just like you can be unfulfilled and unhappy in 'perfect' circumstances. 'What brought on this sudden blurt of existential ramblings?' I can hear you ask. Well, as I am writing this, our landlord is downstairs with an industrial vacuum cleaner, sucking buckets full of water from the instant indoor water feature that, up to this morning, used to be our french housemate's room on the first floor. The toilet on the second floor that has been blocked for the last few days seemed fairly innocent until it turned out to be just a small symptom of a much bigger plumbing problem that caused a pipe in the roof to turn into a nice fountain, feeding a steady waterfall onto the frenchman's bed. Luckily, according to our landlord, it's just water from the shower outlet and not sewerage from the toilet. I doubt whether our french friend will be able to recognise the luck in the situation when he comes home tonight to his new waterbed... This same landlord is, interestingly enough, the same guy that 'accidently' got rid of all my roommate's earthly belongings (including his passport and documents) by taking it to the dump, thinking it was rubbish left by the previous tenants. He is also the same guy that I still owe a week's rent to, but that's not his fault, I have my employer to thank for that. When the payroll department eventually realised their mistake of paying a total of £0.00 (complete with payslip) into my account as monthly wages, they thought it was a good idea to correct the problem by immediatly mailing me a cheque. A cheque that takes four working days to be cleared by the bank, effectively leaving me penniless for close to a week. To top it all, I am reporting this unfortunate chain of events to you from my room/sauna on one of the hottest days of the year (yes, London can get hot!) after giving up trying to get some much needed sleep before working night shift again tonight. If you are getting tired of what seems to be me complaining, here's the point I'm actually trying to make: I can choose to be miserable or angry or curse the gods for the raw deal they have dealt me. Or I can say at least I sleep on the second floor, above the unlucky guy with the wet bed and at least my backpack is in my closet, unlike my roommate's. Or I can say: 'Hey, I'm in London, one of the greatest cities in the world, I have a full month's wages in the bank (even though I can't spend it yet), I have a job that pays enough to keep me comfortable (even though I'd like to earn more and work less) and I can keep doing this for at least another eleven months. I'm living the life I chose, whatever else happens is part of the adventure and I'm loving it!'

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