Because I am saving money to go to Russia again I decided that when appliances broke down I would not replace them. So my hair drier stopped working. Now I dry my hair under the fan heater in the bathroom. My microwave went up in flames, so now I remember to get things out of the freezer in time for them to defrost naturally. Microwaves can be very good and save you money, but I didn't want the expence of getting a new one. My home phone broke recently but I had a spare very basic version in a cupboard. O.K. so I can't walk across the room with it and it doesn't have an answer machine or remember numbers, but for Russia putting up with that nuisance is worth it and I'm used to it already. I suppose I'm on the road to being a minimalist. My carpet was looking shabby, but instead of spending out hundreds of pounds on a new one I bought some cheap rugs and the room looks so much better. Be creative, save your money for what you really want. Be disciplined about your spending. It is so easy to desire all the latest gadgets. I like gadgets. I got an iphone last February in time for my first visit to Russia and was able to keep it on airplane mode so that I wasn't getting expensive updates from home, instead I used Whatsapp and the ship's wifi (I was on a river cruise from St Petersburg to Moscow)to communicate with home. A friend showed me that trick and it's a good one. Not bad for a canny Granny!! So what could you do without, if you really wanted to?
When something very nasty comes our way we can only take in some much of the horror of the situation and then our minds protect us by putting us into a state of denial. It's all very well sitting cozy in the middle of a storm, but by doing that you can put others at risk. It is tempting to think that the corona virus situation is not real and won't touch you and your family, to think that somehow the heads of state who appeared so lately to be at loggerheads are in fact manufacturing the whole thing for their own purposes. Just see how the mind wants to divert us from the awful truth. Do you realize we could be on the point of the total collapse of civilization? That's why people panic buy because inside they realize food production and distribution could break down. Of course the little store they have been able to stash away will not last long. Deny us our food and we turn into much nastier human beings, well no that's the way we always were but this brings out...
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