A sense of achievement

One of my favourite films of all times is Love Actually, and the most memorable line for me goes something like this:

'Having one's brother as Prime Minister really does put your life into a harsh perspective. Today he stood up and fought for his country, whist I made a papier mâché lobster head!'

Today my achievements have been more along the lobster than world-changing lines, and yet the feel-good pang would suggest otherwise. What did I do? I hand washed 8 pairs of knickers, 2 bras and some of Giles' boxers before breakfast, made and laminated 8 clocks with movable hands for class 2's lesson on telling the time, and devised a few fun chemistry teaching ideas not involving chemicals!

At home I'd have allowed the washing machine to take care of our under crackers, I'd have emailed my computerised clock design to the reprographics department along with a brief for colour printing and plasticising, and all my chemistry lesson resources would have been sourced from a cupboard of exciting reagents. So why am I grinning after such hard work for so little apparent gain?

Well, I think it's the acceptance of our new lifestyle. The world within which we find ourselves is very simple; most people work to survive. What we might consider a necessity at home is the epitome of luxury to them: An egg for breakfast; a daily wash; a clean pair of socks... They're made of different stuff out here.

What I realised today is that achievement is relative: the buzz is felt regardless of the position of your achievement within the hierarchy of world-changing stuff.

I think we can learn a lot from this nation who has so little... It's all about looking and what you've got and realising why you're lucky to have it, not striving for the ultimate buzz, or trying to pack super-human efforts into every single day. No one can change our fast-paced western world, but I for one will try to remember the refuge of simplicity, and take pride and pleasure in the most basic things.

As for the washing machine, I have a feeling that novelty value alone will win us over pretty quickly when we return, but Giles' insistence on our relatively new water-saving bathroom bucket, well shes there to stay!