Blogdom to Escape Ongoing Ennui - The Eighth

I'm superstitious. Unlike JK Rowling, I'm aversive to the number 7; the Sagacious Seventh on nuances couldn't have been my last numbered post. Hence this one with Eighth in the title, though in reality it's not the eighth one that I'm publishing. This is a compendium on my journey to blogdom, connecting with a blogger while introducing a couple of useful words and phrases to the reader.

Be Connected:

Using smart devices is almost unavoidable these days. But we often fail to realise that a large sector of elderly people aren't able to keep pace with this rapid technological progress and feel increasingly alienated, unable to use a new laptop gifted by their daughter or fumbling in futility to get in touch with a beloved grandchild living across oceans and continents. Well, the local government has certainly given it a thought and rolled out the "Be Connected" program to bring this sector of society up to speed. 

In their hay days they contributed selflessly; their autumn years should be fun, not embittered or encumbered by trivial niggles like inability to use these newfangled gadgets. Easy to use they are, yet a bit of hand holding is what these astute men and women look for to set the wheels of their 'smart/ digital journey' in motion.

While between jobs, I often volunteered to play my part in giving back to the society through this excellent forum. It was a wonderful experience to see them lay their hands on the magic key that unlocks the entire virtual world to them. Upon mastering how to manage the storage, use TripView Lite app to track a train or initiate a video call to interact with their loved ones, they'd leave the classroom thankful and empowered, wearing a priceless smile of confidence. On the rare occasions when I couldn't help, they'd laugh with me, 'Oh! I'm not the only one going bonkers!'

Often they'd apologise and call outside the class hours, 'Can you help me please? I'm unable to login. My machine is just playing up.'

It was a delight to watch them learn and get independent as they ever were.

Birth of a blog:

During one such session I taught an individual how to start a blog. That session hammered home for me that even I can and I should have my own space in the web. I knew I'd write about words, vocab, lexis as I hardly leave any opportunity to advocate the importance of a healthy vocab. It's the tool to wield to vent one's expression, boost confidence, and unleash unbridled thoughts. 

Thus a blog was born! My initial posts were quite bland, dealing directly with words that topped my list of favourites. But that list was volatile. With every new word, idiom, phrasal verb I came across, the favourites changed. I experienced a tedium too while reading my own posts, words stacked upon words, like the garbage cubes that Wall-E was compressing and collecting in the widely acclaimed Disney Pixar movie.

Moreover, a word learnt in a meaningful context is much more effective than reading on and on about a single word. Hence I decided to write and publish fiction and non-fiction digesis, reviews, recipes, and more.

Contents of my posts are fae from constant. Like we keep moving furniture around within the walls of our home to endow a new look to the old spaces, I keep visiting my older posts to modify, append something new, or just bolden and italicise some words so they don’t go unnoticed. I'm a bit punctilious about my space in blogspot. 

Why vocab?

In my final test at school I scored just 1 out of 20 in an essay. I moved on as if nothing happened, insensitive to what my parents had been through for that. But when my son was marked 'average' in his essay in Year 4, I needn't be told twice we've to beef up our efforts in mastering this language. Thus started the grinding: reading as much as we could together, learning as many words as we got our way from Spell Bee lists to any text that we glanced upon, writing them in books and diaries, and using them left, right, and centre. We were in the thick of it lock, stock, and barrel.*

While my son progressed through 'High' to 'Outstanding', I cleared IELTS Academic with band 8 score. To obtain formal certificate for my newly acquired knowledge, I undertook Cambridge CELTA and TESOL Certificate IV courses. Immediately after completion of the course, I took to teaching and writing to share my experience.

The posts thus reflect the transformation since the saga started, and I hope to continue pursuing my passion in learning and sharing the tidbits of this language.

How often?

I neither write regularly nor often. If there is a name to a phobia that describes 'I won't be able to write another article', I'd be diagnosed with that for sure. Yet, the posts just happen. Remember how a chemical triggers a weird behaviour in locusts that compels them to ravage fields of crops in swarms or incites a cicada to grotesquely blow itself up, in a similar manner words flow from the tip of my right index when I see a certain picture, read a good book, watch a remarkable movie, cook a healthy dish or learn a new word. That ebullience, some chemical-trigger, when expressed takes the form of a post. 

A hiatus:

But there was a long hiatus after I started going out for work. Now, with the lockdown, life has come to a standstill again. People are cloistered up in their homes and while the ongoing ennui appears to be never-ending,  there's a positive side to it. Time! With travel time curtailed, it's easier to get on with the ennui by delineating some fixed time to writing and painting that are cathartic to me. It has been rewarding to revive my long-forgotten blog and painting too has been a relaxing respite from the banality of regular office work.

An oeuvre:

Talking about painting, what better way to introduce 'oeuvre' to a reader than sharing my body of recent creations? It hosts some casual pencil sketches, a few luscious strokes of bright bold colours on art paper, a couple of incredible dance moves of my friend and her daughter captured on canvas, a handful of work on sinuous curves of zen tangles with the fineness of Art Line pens entwined with the scribbling of a few beautiful words. So, without further ado, allow me to unveil my "online art gallery":

Congeries of Scrawls and Scribbles

It doesn’t have the flair or finesse of an artist, but it definitely bears the hint of my dedication and proclivity to this form of art. I'd draw through the wee hours in the morning without feeling fatigued. Often I wonder what the source of my enthuse is. Why don't I feel the same kick for the daily chores? The answer is apparently in a fellow blogger's post!

A fellow blogger:

A close friend's daughter rightly pointed out in her blog why we can tirelessly work towards creating new artefacts. Have a look if you are interested in the works of this young ingenious lady who has been a huge inspiration in taking up my blog more seriously. 

Why art is so interesting

Coda of the story:

Since this post wasn't quite planned to the T/tee, I packed a bit of everything here, without mellowing the sole purpose - vocab. 

Hope it plays out well!

And last but not the least, if you want to 'travel to blogdom', hit that 'Powered by Blogger' at the bottom of the post!

Dona, Sydney, July '21

*I picked this phrase up from a friend's write-up recently. Later,  I identified it in news: Palaszczuk accepted chief health officer's advice 'lock, stock and barrel' (Queensland Premier in the context of the raging pandemic). It's a pleasure to use it and share it!