I’m not generally a fan of leaving things to chance. If I want something to happen, I’m not sure why I’d sit about and wait, on the off-chance that the thing might just happen. Not if I could have a bloody good stab at making it happen myself. However, I’ve been trying hard to be a little bit more relaxed about things recently, encouraged by several of my far-more-chilled-out-than-me friends and family. The experiment didn’t get off to the best start. As it turns out, no one did randomly pop round to whisk me out for a three course dinner on Wednesday night. Thursday didn’t involve my boss deciding to cancel the rest of the day’s meetings and send us all home. 

But then I got clever. I remembered what (probably the same) chilled-out friends and family had said about flexibility, and things not always having to be so black and white. So maybe I didn’t need to completely abdicate all responsibility for my entire future in order to leave a few things to chance. Maybe I could create situations where certain things were likely to happen, but still leave a bit of space for chance. And maybe I could take a few chances, a few risks, and see how things turned out. As it happens, I picked the ideal weekend to test this theory. Having made significant plans, with a detailed itinerary, for the entire weekend, the combination of torrential rain and a nasty chest infection pretty much scuppered things. Oh well – the new, relaxed, ‘let’s see what happens’ version of me wasn’t fazed. So let’s see:

New nails – successfully applied and delightfully decorated in the colour and style of the nail technician’s choice.

Entire box set of much-awaited series on Netflix – watched.

Corned beef and pickle roll, and bonus slice of gala pie – eaten. In the car. In the rain. Because we’re British.

Oh, and a huge amount of anticipation created by a number of online orders placed for an eclectic range of outfits. So now all that’s left for me to do is kick back, relax, and see what happens when the postman comes. A donation to the nearest charity shop, quite possibly.