I’m late, I’m late…

Although I knew I’d used up the bank of posts I’d scheduled, I got all caught up in follow-up work with my business coach and completely forgot to finish off any of the drafts I’d been working on before Wednesday came and went – oops!

But, when I sat at my desk to rectify that situation, I stumbled upon the random fact that today, in 1923, Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened and his sarcophagus found – which set me off on a new train of thought…


First it took me to a book I’d read earlier this month (Kate Atkinson’s Shrines of Gaiety for anyone who’s interested) which takes place between WW1 and WW2. Set in London’s Soho, it’s the tale of an infamous crime family who own a series of nightclubs. The family matriarch choses to decorate one of the nightclubs in Egyptian style, as it’s all the rage following the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Her son, who manages the nightclub, is not so keen. Scattered throughout the book are references – both to the excitement around the discovery, how that seeped into fashion and design, but also to the fear that the curse of the mummies had been triggered by breaking into the tomb; a fear that only increased after the death and bad luck of a number of people associated with the expedition.


Next, it took me back to my first visit to the British Museum, when I accompanied a group of children from my daughter’s class. Picture the scene, me attempting to corral half a dozen 11 year olds, who are tasked with following a set path in the museum to complete a worksheet. A worksheet which doesn’t include the mummies

This was my third museum trip with this group, and they knew me well enough to let me know They Were Not Happy. They wanted to see the mummies – and frankly I was with them. So, I called them to order, explained that if we knuckled down, stayed focussed and didn’t mess about, we could get the worksheet finished and still have time for a short visit to see the mummies. They were all in. We raced around that museum ticking stuff off, and even the bad boys who usually caused all sorts of trouble stayed on track. So focussed were they that they managed only one co-ordinated toilet visit, rather than the usual rambling multiple visits.

The Egyptian rooms contained some magnificent stuff, but the little darlings only wanted to see the mummies. Of course, we didn’t get to to see Tutankhamun, as that exhibition was off touring the world somewhere else, but they were cock-a-hoop. My daughter was seriously unhappy that school policy had prevented her from being in my group, as our little gang were the only ones who saw the mummies – and they thoroughly enjoyed telling everyone on the coach all about it, all the way back to school!

Even 70 years after the buzz written about in that book, the buzz about the mummies was alive and well. I suspect it still is 🙂

What’s distracted you recently? Have good are you at staying on track & on keeping focus? Does it take a certain prize at the end to achieve that focus?

18 thoughts on “I’m late, I’m late…

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  1. Oh my I wrote a whole post about how distracted I’ve been!! All four parents health. My husbands reactions to parents health. My daughters stress level….my mind is literally 50 different places…

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  2. COVID has not helped with being distracted–I’ve already got brain fog, which means it’s hard to stay on task, and add in social media, postponing many appointments, testing, while trying to isolate in a tiny house, etc.? Probably the only reason I’m getting anything done is that I am no longer distracted by food, too.

    Good job on those mummies on that field trip. A+ for keeping kids happy and focused. When we went to the British Museum, my kid was all about acquiring an Egyptian-styled black cat.

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  3. Great post, Debs. You were a brave women to accompany that group to a museum, and as it turned out it was lucky for them that they had that brave woman with them! I can only stay focused by having committed myself fully to something. I wouldn’t exist without to-do lists that require ticking off. It’s amazing how much satisfaction I get from ticking off items on my lists! And nobody else even cares!! 😏

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  4. It’s amazing how much joy your simple title elicits. In a second, as my eyes scroll down to the first paragraph, I’m already picturing the white rabbit with his watch and Alice under a tree and hearing, … for a very important date. What a delight to share this connection to my childhood with a billion other people!

    Congratulations on being such an excellent field-trip mother.

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  5. It does sound like the whole mother load has landed on you LA, no wonder you’re struggling. I know it’ll feel counter-intuitive, but I do hope you can carve out a piece of time every day for your own self-care & mental health.

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  6. Yeah, COVID is a bona fide reason for suffering with distraction.

    Autumn, I really liked those kids, so it was a win-win situation. And yes, yes, yes to the Egyptian-styled black cat!

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  7. Thanks Jane 🙂 My daughter’s school were always begging parents (well, mothers really) for help. I worked full-time so it was easier for me to day a full day off for trips than to fit in an hour every week, which was the other option. And, truth be told, I really enjoyed them. We didn’t do that type of trip as a family, so it opened my eyes to a pleasure I’ve continued to enjoy.

    Yes, my to-do lists were legendary. These days I’m a bit more haphazard and it honestly isn’t working for me. That and the having too much I want to get done in not enough time 😀

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  8. Thanks Nicki, I’m so glad that it worked for you. I did wonder about going all Tutankhamun on the title, but that rabbit was calling to me I tell you 🙂

    I loved my field trips with my little group. We had an absolute blast, and I lived off the stories of other people’s children for ages!

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  9. Usually I’m pretty darned good at staying on track BUT this week I’ve become scattered and just plain muddled. Am hoping it’s the gray weather and not the beginning of senile dementia which is where my mind goes when I get addlebrained. You understand.

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  10. It’s a LOT. Ask a friend to keep checking on you, and if you start to resemble the frog in boiling water, to yank you out. It happens to the best of us and we get too close to see it ourselves.

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  11. Ally, I so understand. It’s the BIG SCARY thing where our mind can’t help but go – and surely not helped by the sad news about Bruce Willis this week too. I vote for the gray weather, we have that here too. I went just an hour away for my chiropractic appointment and the sun was shining – I felt such a lift (and less distracted too). Maybe you could chase the sun…

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  12. I love the story of the children’s trip to the museum. I want to know who made up the worksheet. Who would take 11-year-olds to a museum with mummies and not think they should see them? Nice work getting them through the assigned route and still having time for the main attraction!

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  13. What an imaginative teacher you are!!! Well done! I struggled to get my charges even into the college library. If you’re a boy, something falls off if you go in there, didn’t you know?
    I will look up the Kate Atkinson book. I’m one of her greatest fans!

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  14. I know Christie, what a ridiculously daft thing to do! I’m not sure whether it was my daughter’s school or the museum who put together the worksheet. I presumed the museum at the time, but now I wonder if the mummies were simply not on the school’s curriculum and so were ignored!

    I hadn’t considered it before, but maybe that was an early example of my suitability for becoming a coach later in life 🙂

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  15. It’s a lot easier when they’re younger. Once they’re college age – especially as boys – the peer pressure and need to be/appear to be cool kicks in (“something fall off if you go in there” made me actually LOL 😀 )

    I didn’t love the book as much as some of her previous ones, but she never writes a less than good book – so something I’d be more than happy to achieve myself.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. I’ve been distracted by all things moving-related lately. We close on the house in two days and then have almost a month’s worth of work before we move in.

    “They were cock-a-hoop.” Umm, care to translate that phrase for us non-Brits? 🙂

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  17. Ha ha, good question Mark! In broad terms, it means to celebrate, be festive, or simply be pleased (as punch maybe 😉 😀 ). The etymologists are unclear on the exact source, but it seems to be linked with drinking.

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