NEW DESK click on pic for bigger view:
I knew that I was getting a new desk for Christmas because I picked it myself from the stock of a very fair and reliable dealer we know (my Ma). It’s a lovely desk: small, old, compact with a handy drawer (a drawer, imagine!). It was made/sold by Beverly Smyth and Company, South Anne Street, Dublin, many moons ago. My old desk was a rickety kitchen table covered with a gingham cloth to hide its ugliness.
What I didn’t know is that my beloved man was also buying me a fabulous, shiny, fast and beautiful new laptop to go with the desk. Score!
My intention with the new desk was to declutter my workspace and start afresh in 2009, all clear-headed and ready for writing action. But the fact remains that I am a clutterbug. There’s no getting away from it and no matter how hard I try to streamline, it just doesn’t work.
As well as clearing my desk, I had intended to strip my noticeboard and have some blank space on it, as well as new, inspirational images. But when it came to it, I couldn’t get rid of half the stuff that’s pinned there. I think I did well with tidying the actual desk, though...
Einstein once said: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?” So, I think I will embrace my (semi-)cluttered desk and trust that old Albert was right.
So what is your work space like: clean and mess-free? Or cluttered with extraneous junk?
11 comments:
I hear the Guardian Review will be onto you next - and don't forget the Cardiff deadline! Happy xmas and congrats on the glowing Poetry Ireland Review. Ah well, back to the dishes (8 for dinner this year).
Hello Anti-L, happy Xmas, New Year etc. 8 for dinner - you must be a saint. It's nice to have a crowd. It was just us and the boys; all very jolly.
I haven't seen the PIR review. I'm dead curious now! My sub lapsed and they're not answering my mails. Must try again!
I have a poem slagging off the Guardian's Writers' Rooms pics. Well, poking fun...
I've just discovered I can re-sub to PIR online, which I have duly done.
That desk is super cute. I limit clutter to a clip board like yours, any more and I can't sleep...
N, PI are closed for the duration... but it is a great review: another friend of mine got her's covered in it too. Some really brill poems in PIR, I think a lot of people will enjoy Caitrona O'Reilly's stewardship!
Lovely desk, I've had to abandon mine for the Xmas hols: it's now the make & do bench instead...
Hi Sexy P and welcome. I like your blog, very fashion forward. Well, style forward. Fair play on the clutter-free desk environment. Maybe I need more shelving?
Hi B, I'll be in Galway city next week sometime, I hope, so I'll pick up a copy of PIR then. I guessed PI would be shut til 5th of Jan or so.
In the meantime, if any kind soul has a scanner and wants to mail me a copy, I'd be greatful!
My papers are all over the large old kitchen table,then spread along the sofa, some are in the kitchen and others are on this table (from Galway's St Vincent De Paul's!)
As the words get fed through the computer the room starts to look normal again, and the paper-tide goes out - until the next time.It's like a mind-in-progress, or perhaps "an outward sign of innner grace"- I hope.
Hi Pat, I can just see you swimming in that paper tide. I got your new novel - thank you - and I have just started it. Intriguing!
Happy new year, I hope 2009 brings lots of writing inspiration and literary success. N x
Belated Festive greetings. I love your noticeboard and am v jealous about having an actual desk. I'm waiting for my oldest to move out so I can have his but now he's thinking about going to college nearby and living at home!
Must subscribe to PI but something else has to go in these penny/cent-pinching times.
Hi K, Happy New Year! Hope 2009 is a great writing year for you.
Both of us work from home (my partner just 2 days a week), so we have the boxroom as a study. I still tend to wander all over the house with my laptop though, the desk can feel pressurised, somehow. Still, I love having a special place.
My sympathies re the son; my 15 year old thinks he'll never reach 18, to leave, but I betcha he won't leave at all!! Too comfy here by far.
I know re the subscriptions to various mags. I can't sub to everything and some of them feel like luxuries, but I hate missing out too... I have it limited now to four: St Fly, Mslexia, Books Irl and PIR.
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