I’m off on a family holiday this Saturday – a week in France.
So, last Thursday I made sure to get the boys’ passports off their mum before they went for a week in Scotland.
Two holidays for the boys – separated parents has an advantage.
I realised, with horror, on checking Oli’s passport that it had expired.
He was immediately sent off to have his passport photo taken with strict instructions not to smile (hence the CrimeWatch style result you can see in the photo above).
I had an appointment at the Liverpool Passport Office on Sunday and am, hopefully, picking his new passport up tomorrow.
This isn’t the first time such things happened to me.
When I was 27, my ex wife and I managed to lose her passport as we were making last minute checks to leave for Egypt.
We had to ‘pop down’ to the London office.
Missed our appointment as we hadn’t realised the Tour De France was in town.
Missed out flight.
Had to head to another airport to catch a plane to the wrong side of Egypt.
Get a hotel there for the night.
Get a taxi all the way across Egypt to our hotel.
At a total cost (new passport, extra airport parking, flights, hotel, taxi, transfer back to right airport parking, etc) of £700.
And, we nearly missed another holiday when Oli was a baby due to not sorting his passport in time.
Last Thursday, part of me thought “Why me?”
“Why do these things keep happening to me?”
But, I know the answer.
It’s because I’m rubbish at organising stuff like this.
Or “A bit of a muppet” as I’ve been referred to.
All these problems were, 100% the results of my own actions or inaction.
###########################
It’s very tempting to view our lives as ‘something that happens to us’.
That we are victims of bad luck and circumstance.
But, in truth, the majority of the things that happen to us (not all, I accept) are, to some degree, the result of what we have (or haven’t) done.
And it’s very empowering to realise that.
To take responsibility for our actions and take steps to make things better.
When we accept that our health (or lack thereof), physique, energy levels and so on are, in a large part, a result of our food, drink, exercise and lifestyle choices, it’s helps us take the steps we need to improve them.
We are what we ate, if you will.
When we accept that our current work situation and lifestyle is largely down to what we’ve done in the past and are doing now, rather than what someone else is doing, then we can start to improve things.
It doesn’t mean it’ll be easy.
Me realising I’m a muppet hasn’t stopped me doing stupid things compleltly.
But I’m sure I do less than if I blamed someone / thing else.
###############################
If this helps you change your opinion that something ‘non ideal’ in your life isn’t something that’s happened to you, but something that your actions have brought about, then we’d love to hear about it.
Drop us a line 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Animal’ Hall and Matt ‘Miss Piggy’ Nicholson
Recent articles
