Comfort Zones.

The older I get, the more I have to force myself out of my comfort zone!

Today I visited the city of Aberdeen.

First up was this barring the only way in to the only multi storey car park I feel comfortable in, (despite fighting off young men, who want to wash my car, (and I thought they were chatting me up.))

Happily my internal satnav, which only comes into play when I am in panic mode, found me another way to the car park.  

Once out of there and into the mall, I avoided all temptations, Debenhams, Waterstones, but just had to go through Primark, waiting for the knell of doom at any minute.  It really is against all my principles to go into such places where they exploit cheap labour.... £20 lighter and with a whole new wardrobe of clothes, I walked across Union Street down Belmont Street, turned right into Gaelic Lane, and there was....

The Coffee House.

Inside. Oh wow. 

Yum.

Fresh flowers on the tables.  Home made soups, home bakes, sandwiches, smiley serving staff.  Lovely.

And, furthermore, one of these places with free wi-fi.  

A lot of people diddling about on lap tops.  

Not to be outdone, I asked the young man clearing tables how one connected, so he told me the password, apple, in case you visit, and this silver surfer connected her tablet, just for the hell of it.  (No emails, and no-one sharing things on facebook, so slid the whole thing back in handbag....loking as if I had had loads of messages, hah)

And was then joined by Christine.  Christine's blog can be found at , www.christinelaennec.co.uk.

Suddenly I was in a comfort zone!  We had one and a half hours solid exchange of chat.  Lovely.

Then I had to return to the car and drive home.

It to0k me thirty minutes to get out of the car park.  Stop start, stop start.  Cities are no way in my comfort zone.  No I didnt feel the buzz, I just felt my chest tightening from all the fumes from car exhausts, and my blood pressure going up, and a feeling of claustrophobia.  

I am more used to this, 

Once everyone got moving and I was out of the middle of the city. I just had to call in at Dunelm and the carbon monoxide or whatever having gone to my brain I decided to look for curtains.   For our bedroom.  We have been here for two years and the curtains were recycled from our previous home, and are, here, dark, gloomy, and not in keeping.

Even so, this decision to go buy some new ones was a bit of a surprise, even to me.  In fact the decision  was so bad I bought a pair which are totally the wrong size.  I had spent over an hour trying to phone home for the DP to measure up so I got it right, but there was a fault on the line. ( i.e. the DP not replacing the phone properly)  so I continually got the engaged signal.  So I guessed the size.  Blame the carbon mono etc.
As it was his fault he is to return the curtains and get the right sized ones.  

But all in all I am so glad I escaped my comfort zone.  I got to see Christine, such a lovely person, sadly missed seeing her gorgeous daughter,  and also sadly our fellow blogger Tina, but then, there will be other days when I will manage to escape my comfort zone and meet with them again.

So, whats your comfort zone?  And do you ever leave it?  Sometimes, like today, its well worth it, ignoring the curtains.............