Slipshod

Ey up, chucklings...how are you today? Ey up is a Northern English greeting for those who do not know...and Eyup with two little dots over the 'u' is also a district of Istanbul where there's a rather fine 15th century mosque. You get an education here, ha ha!

I'm pondering a footwear dilemma. Not which dainty shoes to wear for the party tonight...there is no party so no dainty shoes is not a problem! No it's just that my undainty shoes and boots are wearing out. If you don't have a car and you're over twenty two it's best to have sensible things to put on your feet. I've had a stirling selection of indoor/outdoor clodhoppers over the years...desert boots and Converse All Stars and the like as well as proper walking boots for proper walking. But the grip is gone on most of the soles now and I'm close to the time when they actually leak. I bought some cheapy boys' work boot style things a couple of years back knowing they wouldn't last but not thinking it would matter in the long run as I wouldn't either. But the treads are gone on the heels and I was slipping on the rocks and sea steps yesterday and while it's good that I'm still getting to slippy places now and then, slipping itself is not good...There are a few ways in which I might break if I fell! So do I get another cheapy pair or do I treat myself to some Kickers in a sale? I always used to wear leather shoes as my feet didn't like plastic but though my heart says yes...buy the colourful leather ones my puritanical head shakes at the potential waste. On the other hand they would sell better in a charity shop 'afterwards'...so even if not an investment for me someone could benefit. Hmm...

Anyway, I give thanks today for my expanded wintertime views. Bright sea beneath dark clouds through bare waving branches, the changing bunting of various coloured and shaped vehicles parked on a curving slope of road, the odd flash of the postmen...the flash of their vans or high visibility vests I should say...or maybe their white knees! Nothing to upset your granny or grandkids anyway! There was a man out walking in shorts yesterday. Not full walking gear...just ordinary coat and shoes etc and knee length rather crumpled blue shorts in between. He was quite a mature man with a mature woman on his arm wearing waxed coat, long trousers, boots, hat and scarf. She and I exchanged wry smiles. Well at least I think we did...she could have been smiling in pity because I didn't have a bare kneed ex postman to walk along with!

I'm grateful that her upstairs has been quite quiet, tho somewhat concerned about what this evening might bring. Last year she was out all night (hooray!) but forgot to turn off the bath she was running first (booh!). And I'm grateful that despite a variety of health problems I've managed to do the jobs I wanted to get done....some cleaning and tidying and sewing of something that didn't fit and making soup out of tired looking veg in the fridge. I did these things in short instalments and in between watched TV. I thought there was another of those Cirque du Soleil docs but it turned out it was a whole show. An old one no doubt but the first one I have ever seen in its entirety and less than twenty four hours after saying I wanted to! Now that's what I call a user friendly universe.

Deep blue sea

Oh my that was good! Out to Sprey point in the mizzly drizzly rain and then back along the beach as the tide was way out. Gratitude for storm high sand although the sea was calm so that the pipes and groynes and other obstacles along the way were easier to negotiate. And for getting back to town just as the real rain started to collect pills and other essentials/non essentials including a hot drink and toasted teacake in a steamy cafe til the weather eased again...and a new top in a sale in case I'm invited anywhere for New Year's Eve. Statistically this is most unlikely but it made a good excuse, ha ha! Much gratitude for free prescriptions for cancer patients, I've hammered that certificate in the last few years. And that when I couldn't face being cooped up in a cab to get home so I forced myself back along the darkening seafront and back up the hill on foot. Beautiful colours as you can see...everything was shades of grey earlier on but my camera said the battery was flat and it wouldn't let me show you....Later on, clearly finding the afternoon as rejuvenating as I did, they lurched back to life!

Actually, I'm as tired and aching now as if I'd been on a big hike but that was the idea after all - the point of the exercise you might say! There are bits of me that still haven't accepted that I'm ill and I have to let them out to play sometimes even though the old cranky sick parts grumble about it. Gratitude for getting home without running into Mrs upstairs and her partner in crime. It's all over the front page of the local paper today though no names are mentioned...

Much thanks too for Sky Arts putting on a few programmes lately about Cirque du Soleil. I would love to see them live but couldn't face all the travelling to and round and staying in a big city on my own any more and don't know anyone who would love to do it too enough to fork out the money for a ticket, or who loves me enough to accept one for free in return for escort services. Yeah, sometimes being on your own sucks, ha ha! And thanks to Tony for his message. Hope you and lovely Derbyshire are doing OK.

The other side of the rainbow

Thank you to Pat and Lynn for their messages confirming that I am not alone in liking to be alone! It did take a while to adjust this year to quite the level of solitude that my life had come to but now I'm used to it I find it mostly quite delightful and slightly irritating that people don't get this and think I'm being brave and stoic and make unnecessarily sympathetic noises! This highlights one of the reasons I like to be alone...the reduced possibilities for misunderstandings and misinterpretations of what seems to be communication but so often actually isn't. I suppose for those for whom constant companionship is the norm self sufficiency it is a bit hard to understand and I don't want to SHOUT about it in case those I do see and enjoy seeing now and then take offence but seriously guys...I'm at least as content as you are, if not more so...do not fret!

Thanks too for the delightfully odd combination of Miranda Hart and Bear Grylls on a Swiss mountain which I watched on TV last night...it stirred the urge to be tramping in the wilds so I'll probably try to assuage it my stumbling out to Sprey point with all the staggering turkey stuffed non-workers trying to make a calorie space for their new year drink consumption. I have to go and get a prescription anyway as prepared by my psychic doctor. Slight exaggeration perhaps but I'd already decided I couldn't face getting attention at the stuffed stuffy surgery until the seasonal ills had subsided but Dr Galli rang me anyway as he'd had a letter from the nephrologist so I don't need to. I won't be the only person reading this whose medical state sounds pretty stark when put bluntly but I am still grateful to be in that state and still able to get up and down my infamous stairs, to brush off the majority of winter bugs with a swipe of a Kleenex and to be of good cheer to boot. I mean if I had the choice between this and being a 'well' person huffing and puffing and moaning and groaning I know which I'd prefer to be!

This post is entitled 'The other side of the rainbow' as it is indeed the other side of the rainbow from the picture Jared posted on Facebook a couple of days ago. It was raining quite heavily and hard to get a good pic but impossible to resist the urge to try...and those of you who know both of us might like to see the whole thing. You can take it allegorically if you prefer...if you know what it means. My nephrologist said he didn't (in reference to my writing and thus not actually renally relevant, tho perhaps holistically). I was a bit shocked I can tell you...

Which reminds me...I give thanks also for Stephen Fry's Fry Chronicles which I have just finished reading and greatly enjoyed. He came across as rather nicer than I imagined. I mean I knew he was clever and funny but, as people have often pointed out to me, that is not the same thing at all. It ended when he was thirty....Stephen, if you have been lucky enough to come across my blog please hear my plea and hurry up and write the next bit please! I must choose some fiction to follow as the last couple of things I've been keenly turning the pages of have turned out to have a thick section of notes/index/references at the back. Not ideal when you want to keep reading to distract yourself from the sounds of suspected murderess out on bail living her freedom to the full!

Enrichment

We are pure energy, you know...pure energy plus consciousness. If you're having difficulty grasping the concept it's a good job you didn't see me flat out on the sofa last night or in bed this morning as this would confuse you further! I give thanks for much needed rest and that the bugs that share my living space (ie. body) were in diminished numbers over the last week or two and I was able to do more things to get tired. Now their numbers are going up and I'm feeling more like lying down again...Oh well, we all know what goes up must go down don't we?

Some of you may feel moved to offer advice but I suspect I may be as much of an expert on the subject as it's possible to be already... and far more medically learned heads than ours have already been scratched and come up with no better offer than approximately one approximately pain free week a month. So my next plan is to learn to deal better with pain. If Zen masters and David Blaine can do it then so can I! Pain is our body telling us something is wrong. I want my body to learn when the message has been received and stop going on about it...I mean when you're waiting in a burning building for the fire brigade to arrive you really don't need to be listening to the smoke alarm do you? Bug pain is not the only pain that bugs me so some more mastery of these and other stresses is my mission now...

Some of you may also feel I'm in fluffy psychobabble territory here and that's fine too! I'm quite happy for you to 'know' I'm deluding myself as long my delusions are more comfortable for me than I would find yours...Besides these 'ineffective' tools I wield are a joy in themselves...laughter, gratitude, contemplation, meditation etc. I am immensely immeasurably grateful for the opportunity to use them more and more...

I give thanks for rainbows on my ironing board courtesy of Bob rehanging my window crystals and for my washing machine for churning out fresh items for me to iron and appreciate them. I give thanks for scrambled eggs on crumpets for my lunch (a taste acquired when my mother ran out of bread for toast many years ago) and for finding the odd gem in amongst the dross of daytime satellite TV. I give thanks too to Bob for giving my laptop a bit of an overhaul...it seems much happier now and I am happily finding my way around the new set ups...for a glut of goodies still to eat - mince pie mountain is being tackled as I type - and for the rare treat of having nurse Harry come to deal with my dressing today.

Oh, and I give thanks on behalf of chickens...as from 1st January 'barren' battery cages will be against the law in Britain. The new name for the less barren sort is 'enriched' and I don't exactly get the impression they are hen heaven but apparently they are generally kinder and, er...enriched! Let's hope so eh? I only buy free range but that doesn't mean I don't care about the others

Wait watch

I liked the bit when I gave up trying to sort the day out. I lay flat on the sofa dropping my thoughts into the void...loving the almost silence, the almost perfectly blank sky behind the. gently waving bare branches. Much thanks for peacefulness inside and out...Then the phone rang! It was the nurses to say they had me down for an afternoon visit and should they still come? I said not as just in case I did go out  didn't know how long I'd be. Meanwhile I missed a mobile call from lunch friend...I called him back and left a voicemail...while I did that I got a text saying he hadn't got my text...

This kind of thing continued for some time but finally, finally I got to meet Jared and we hurried over to Bovey Tracy for some food marvelling at the graphite dark sky and dayglo rainbows on the way. Gratitude for these visual delights and for remembering to watch out for the mosaic in the bus shelter on the way as spotted by Bob on Boxing Day (but missed by me then). Gratitude that our destination was open and still serving food and that we managed to fill ourselves up very pleasantly before a quick round trip of the moor before darkness fell, in and out of heavy haily showers but with bright full sun shining above the horizon before it dropped behind.

Thanks for an evening of much horizontalness planned and so far that plan adhered to...oh and thanks for still being slim enough to munch chocolates without a qualm!

Grrrateful

I'd arranged to go out with someone this afternoon for lunch and a bit of a drive. He sent me a text earlier saying what time was I free and I said I was waiting for a morning visit from the community nurse and they should be here by twelve. No sign of the nurse, no response from the friend, no response from the nurse's phone...but my phone rang and it was another friend asking if Bob and I would like to come over this afternoon. It was a real effort to wake up and get up this morning in time for all this not to happen as I had a disturbed night with her upstairs. I am going to shut my eyes for five and be grateful...really I am!

Afters

Just back from seeing Bob off. The train before the train before his was delayed so he decided to make a dash for the train before as his had only a seven minute connection window so not loads of room for delays. I thought it would be cold but it wasn't really and I went down to the seafront after to watch the waves a while. Quite a few others doing the same, exercising dogs and children and themselves in the dark on the sands. Much gratitude for my lovely laid back home town...and for a still, mild night

Much thanks for my lovely laid back son too. We had a very lazy morning before cooperating on one of our legendary veggie shepherds pies. I do the bottom and he does the top and we've been perfecting our parts for many years. Today's was one of the best combinations ever and he has leftovers to take on the train and I have some in the fridge. I did the decent thing as a mother and let him take the last of my scrummy cheese pastries too but forgot to offer the remaining chocolate mini rolls and flapjacks...honest, I completely forgot! Gratitude to Helen for braving M&S to bring them to me before the weekend and to John and Jo for all the tasty things they contributed. Even if Mr Tesco doesn't come until next year I don't think I'll go hungry...

Gratitude for solitude again now and for knowing how to enjoy it. It's good to be with others, it's good to be alone...and best to be content with both. Gratitude for finding a few entertaining offerings among the seasonal TV dross and for my store of well chosen recordings as back up. For my snuggly new throw urging me to rest on the sofa and my washing machine chuntering away in the kitchen starting the clearing up!

Last words

Hmmm. I've been thinking about the end of the alphabet right since the beginning and don't want it to turn into a demonstration of extensive vocabulary or research skills. Knowing  and using a wide variety of words is something to appreciate and be grateful for...showing off about it when unnecessary is rather shameful in my opinion! I suspect that few of us are truly grateful for X words very often...though Patrick Moore (or anyone else for that matter) playing a proper orchestral xylophone is always a delight! Y is easier for me at least, as I love the fragrance of ylang ylang and give thanks that even tip-of-the-iceberg knowledge of yoga can enhance suppleness of spirit and limbs. Then there's yoghurt and yurts and yeti and yin and yang and Yoda...but with Z we're in danger of slipping off into smarty pants mode again. Zinnia's are pretty and zephyrs delightful and zoos are sometimes kind and good...and that's pretty much all I have to say on the subject... Zzzzz!

Warm

Ho, ho, ho...how are you? Some of us here actually got round to eating a mince pie earlier. First Christmassy food to pass our lips! It's very unusual for me to have company as you know and I'm grateful for many things but it's hard to squeeze in blogging too... so another brief check in post. We watched the Boxing Day walk into the sea and it was as absurdly mild this year as it was frozen last year. The dippers ran in screaming as usual but then most just hung about for ages swimming around, treading water and chatting, doing handstands etc. instead of hurtling back to the shore. Hardly a shiver among them! I bent down to feel the water with my hands...absolutely fine, seriously I'd have gone in myself if it hadn't been against doctor's orders! Afterwards we went for a drive up to Dartmoor to look at some favourite views, listen to the roar of rushing rivers and make more 'Aah!' noises over the ponies and black furry cows...then back for a fry up! Loads of thanks to John as ever for his willing and able kitchen shifts both cooking and cleaning up afterwards. How wonderful it is to have catering and chores an optional activity for a few days!

As for W words well...being able to use the word 'we' for a while is something for which I'm very grateful! Windows and walls (in the right places), wind, water, waves, willows, walking, wandering, writing, wondering, wisteria, wool, wood, woods and words themselves...

Not in a flap

Well (somewhere or other) the turkey's been carved, the sprouts been pushed to the side of the plate and granny has drunk all the sherry. Here we've taken it easier than planned as poor Jo has been very unwell with her cough. We've still picnicked but indoors within sight of the sea, the seafront and the seasonal seaside strollers...much gratitude for the entertainment of watching new bikes and scooters, hats and happy families whilst eating homemade soup and savoury breads and snacks. Much gratitude for exchange of well chosen gifts and the happy sound of lego construction, new book pages turned and choccies munched. Humongous gratitude from all of us here that we all just wanted to relax for the day not follow any rigorous rituals...though Bob and I managed a brisk dusk stroll to get some sand between our boot treads. Most of all I give thanks today for an unusual sight around here...two little flocks of starlings suddenly swooping down across the window we were gazing out of, wheeling and turning over the pier then joining up for a bigger display. A charm of magpies gathered in the tree outside my flat yesterday by strange coincidence...good times for bird watchers (and yes I had to look it up)!

Anyway the victory Vs I've thought of are verbena and valerian, violets, violas, violins, virtuosity and vivacity...some might add all manner of other items such vodka, viagra, valium and voluptuousness but of course that's not my style! I hope you are all finding little joys of your own amongst the wrapping paper and recycling...

Upside

Hope you've all been having a nice chilled day...We've had a great time here picnicking on Shaldon beach and making Aah noises at cute animals in the zoo. I said if we saw the elusive ocelot I'd buy everyone a coffee at the Ness hotel. I've never seen the ocelot before no matter how often I've looked so it seemed a safe offer! Sure enough there was no sign of her so as it was getting a bit chilly we decided to head back and met Tracey whose zoo it is and she said the ocelot would be out soon as it was getting near her feeding time so we went back and waited and there she was. So beautiful! Unfortunately, although we got a table at the Ness we couldn't get anyone to come and put coffee on it in a reasonable time frame so went back to the seafront flat and stared at the sea with home made hot drinks and snacks quite happily.

Later Bob and I happily answered a policeman's questions on the doorstep...well let's be honest here - we accosted a policeman and asked him what was going on and if he'd like us to answer some questions. (At this point Bob points out he didn't actually do the accosting - it was all me!) There'd been a considerable police presence on the Terrace today. I mean loads of them including plain clothes people with evidence bags. Clearly something serious and obviously we wondered who might be involved ie...mrs upstairs? And I found out a man had died in suspicious circumstances a couple of doors down and that a man and woman were being questioned and when I mentioned my neighbour's name (he was asking who lived in the premises) the policeman said that was very interesting and that she might not be around for a while, and it was hard not to feel inappropriately jumping up and down woohooing pleased about that...

Anyway...much gratitude for deserted beaches, good food and good company, delightful creatures of furry (including spiders!), feathered and scaly varieties. For a friendly policeman and removal of an unfriendly neighbour...and now, what you have all been waiting for I'm sure...my unquestionably upbeat Us...umbrellas, ululation, underwear, uva ursi (a herb good for urinary infection), U2 in the Joshua Tree not yet totally up themselves years and..how about, to coin a phrase, 'unlimitations'?

Trees

Ts that suit me to a T are...tea, teapots, trains, trams, tennis on television, tennis (live), trees, tadpoles, toffee, Teignmouth, treats, tiramasu, tarantulas, transcendental meditation, time travel...stop me if I'm getting too weird, ha ha!

I've had a mug of the first thing on the list and am trying to get excited about going in the kitchen to cook, going out to get the sea front flat keys and cleaning the bathroom. Any one of the above will do...initially...

At least putting up the (picture of last year's) christmas tree was fairly straight forward! Seasons glittery greetings to you all!

I give thanks that the very delayed train finally delivered Bob...how relaxing it is to be with one's own kind! I'm always a bit astonished by how much we have in common...for the rest of the year so much of what I think or say seems to get lost in translation so it's a great relief when someone makes affirmative noises in the right places. Of course he could just be well trained.

I give thanks that I'm here again despite all the odds. There must be a reason for it and it can't just be to clean bathrooms! I give thanks most especially today though that I am in touch with my cousins again. We may be a little twiggy bit off in a corner but Bob and I are a branch of a family tree. I'm grateful for trees!

Family friends

I'm here at the laptop on the sofa briefly and thought I'd say hello! Bob's due in a little while and I'm pretty much ready for a nap but a package that has my Streak in has arrived and all being well I should be back on 'flat' line by tomorrow at the latest...

I’m grateful I saw Helen after so long, that she brought a thoughtful gift from Amy and she dropped me off in the cardboard car park so that I could recycle and spend a minute or two alone with the sea on my way to acupuncture. I’m grateful for a good treatment and chat and for a delicious hot chocolate at the Global Aroma cafe to perk me up for getting a couple of odds and ends required...before coming back for a much required rest. I’m grateful that I bit the proverbial bullet once again and tried to contact cousins again via Facebook friend requests...one of them has actually replied. I have communicated with someone I am blood related to who isn’t Bob for the first time in...I don’t know how long...fifteen years?

PS. About an hour later...My Streak is back and in my hand and my finger sliding restfully to and fro on its surface. Just now my favourite S is my Streak!

Sneak preview

Well, it’s going to be a hither and thither, in and out day tomorrow and I may not get easily get a post written so I thought I’d sneak a quick one in now and you’ll have to excuse me if you don’t hear from me again for a couple of days! I’m hoping that Rachel may have been able to get hold of my Streak for me and will bring it to my acupuncture session and that I’ll be able to put it back together and charge it up and be mobilely connected but it’s best not to set too much store by such things I feel...

I didn’t get going until well into the afternoon but have made huge inroads into my tasks and am very grateful to myself for that. Some of them I may be able to delegate, of course, so I’m concentrating on the ones only I can do, or only I can do to my satisfaction. The most exciting thing is that I’ve finally managed to clear up and clean my bedroom, and change the bedding so that it looks snug and inviting to retreat and retire to. I’ve been taking extra doses of a supplement which of course does not give any extra energy or vim and vigour but merely deludes me into thinking I’ve got some and is thus a complete waste of time. More fool me, eh? Well, joking apart I am regretting it now as I ache all over in an exhausted rather than infected way! I would head for the bathroom to get clean and into that nice clean bed but I’ve paused a programme about a compulsive hoarder to write this and its absolutely compulsive viewing!

Some sublime S’s, in my opinion, are snowflakes, snowdrops, snow, simplicity, synchronicity, serendipity, snoozes and sleep, smiles, Smarties and Spangles (remember Spangles? One for the oldies amongst us, ha ha!), samosas, soup, scones, spring and summer, Scotland, Southern Comfort...oh and sun, sand, sea and all that kind of stuff!

The right attitude to rain

Yes, I thought of Quavers but I don’t like them...and Q tips but I don’t use them and Quidditch but I don’t play! And yes I thought of that interesting chap Quentin Crisp but the ones I remembered too late to add last night were...quilts and quizzes and Q from the James Bond movies.

R is for rest and recuperation and recreation, radio (tuned to the station of your choice), rhythm and rhyme, rainbows. reindeer, roses and ranunculus, rain, rhubarb, raspberries, raisins, ricecakes and rum!

I went out last night to a restaurant for a meal for the first time since...um...the summer before last I think! Very nice it was too, and thanks to Jared for taking me! We went to a tapas/mezze bar and ordered far too much food but most of it was very delicious so we ate more than we thought we would. The stuffed vine leaves were my favourite...He also bought me Lushly things...how nice is that? I’m grateful for all of the above as you might imagine and also for the fact that it rained when we were in the restaurant but not walking to there from the car and back...

I’m grateful I’ve done ‘most’ of the major sorting and cleaning I had planned for before the weekend - depends where you draw the line, ha ha! I know someone will be tempted to say ‘Oh you don’t need to be bothered about the chores’, and I know I don’t, I just like them done! But I’m going to have a bit of a rest before I try anymore and am grateful for my lack of perseverance now and then... And I’m grateful that the work colleague is back on my FB friends list but where has Tony gone? Is it me? Is it Facebook?

Little boxes

Paracetamol, playfulness...Oh, no we’re on Q now aren’t we? Now remember we’re supposed to be thinking of things we personally are grateful for or pleased by that begin with Q not just showing that we know some words that do! Hmmm, quips, queuing (as opposed to pushing in), QI ,quantum physics and quorn may be all I come up with though I have the feeling I’ve forgotten something obvious...

I’ve had a busy morning again but both the nurse and the surgical supplies have been so I am off duty now. Trevor, the nurse actually went down and collected the big box of kit for me, bless him, as it arrived when he was here. He said the chemist delivery driver and he used to work together in a furniture shop – now there’s random for you! Someone going up and down the stairs for me is a real Christmas treat... On Monday the taxi driver put my rubbish in the bin for me which was also a bonus...he had been going to put it in his cab til I explained that was not was where I was taking it! I am grateful for these little things but I wish my Streak would come home though so I can tell you more easily...

I have organised the cupboard under the stairs yet again to swallow up an even larger amount of items than usual. The stereo and CDs and so on are still in there as the shelf has not long had its last coat of gloss and a lot of things waiting to go to charity shops or recycling in the new year...or be mended or made when the sewing machine is next set up. And the upshot of this is that I can now move round my bed so can actually change the bedclothes for which I’m truly grateful but not yet though, much too tiring!

Lastly I’m grateful too that we now have a cardboard recycling bin in town here. This is good not just because I’m so ecologically sound but because it’s in the big car park nearest me...en route to the pretty steps under the trees and the big views and the friendly cafe. I can be ecologically sound without going into town...I intend to be ecologically sound as often as my legs will carry me, ha ha!

P-P-P-Post

Here I am. Finally found a min in my busy schedule for an update... I give thanks for sitting down and settling down for the evening, thanks to Doctor Galli for keeping a kindly eye on me, and to the harbour pilot for steering a tanker into port just as I got out of the surgery so that I could watch in delight as I always do! Thanks to chill drizzle for making me feel extra hardcore on the beach, ha ha! Thanks to Laura for picking me up from the Co op on her way to help with the last of the major pre Christmas removals. All my books are back on the book case now and waiting to be sorted into some sort of order but in more order that they were before in six separate storage areas about the place! Thanks for the fun of watching Bob’s indoor skydive dvd. I wanted to check the hdmi connection before lending Laura a scart lead and thought that would be suitably brief... Thanks that my neighbour managed to pick herself up after collapsing outside my door last night. I know if I was nicer I’d have opened it to check she was OK but I’m no good Samaritan and left her there to sober up. Thanks for a long lost friend sending me a text and then a card in response to mine. People do crack me up though...he’s wondering why I haven’t responded to the text yet. Um because I’m taking the pace from you....l-o-n-g gaps in communication! And thanks to an ex colleague for finally unfriending me on Facebook....seriously, wouldn't life be easier if everyone were a bit more upfront and honest?

Ps of which I’m fond are pyjamas, pillows, potatoes, pineapple, peaches, pansies, penguins, picnics, patience, perseverance, planes and peace...and pudding!

Excuses, excuses

Pretty sunset sky tonight...well this afternoon really - it already seems like the middle of the evening now! Never mind, not long now and the days start drawing out again. I’m grateful for the sight of variously shaped and tinted clouds as I worked on hanging and hemming the curtains at the window. The actual decorating is as done as it’s going to be this side of Christmas but there’s still lots of sorting out to do partly to mask the fact it isn’t finished and partly just to the make the room cosy and comfortable again. One curtain still needs pressing and hemming, the contents of the bookcase need to be replaced, the new lampshades put on the lamps etc etc. and the bedroom and kitchen restored to their normal state of fairly clean and tidy again after absorbing the mess and muddle for so long. I give thanks that things have come so far and look so much more pleasant and that I’ve found the strength to get them a bit further. I also give thanks that the veggie cottage pie I ‘threw together’ whilst attending to the other chores was no worse than a bought one and didn’t have to be thrown away! Not up to my usual standards though. I’m out of practice at cooking it seems and fear for the festive nourishment of my guests...

I’m grateful for a variety of TV to watch today (not necessarily all broadcast today) to keep me company and to comfort and confound me as required. As Mimi pointed out, it has advantages over reality as you can turn things off or pause them til you’re ready. I’m grateful I’ve got far more done than I thought I would. It’s the last uninterrupted day I have for a while so good to get stuck into things. And mostly I’m grateful I can’t do the washing up as there’s a cushion cover drip drying in the sink. Can’t spin it as it’s got beads on...and can’t move it to the bathroom in case it gets red dye on the new light brown carpet on the way. Phew...glad I got away with that one, ha ha!

Confuse us he say

Well, you know I’ve not been feeling very well the last couple of weeks and I’m sitting on the sofa wasting the day (in my opinion) trying to work out which chores to try and do...what would be possible, what would provide the best return in terms of satisfaction for job done compared to energy expended. And also as I’ve been having a bit of a run of bad luck and been feeling a bit sorry for myself...what would cause most distress/chaos if the attempt failed...

I was reminded of this sign which was on both sides of the fence and thus suggested sitting on it would be the safest option...




What would I mind least if it didn’t get done?  What might inconvenience others if I didn’t do or what might they be happy to help with etc etc. I just couldn’t work it out...so randomly I thought: I know I’ll check my horoscope - maybe there’s some clues there! And this is what Yasmin Boland said for today...

Moon into Libra:* As the Moon moves into partnership-oriented Libra today, we are all going to find it just that bit easier to get along with others and to work with otters

So that’s much clearer and I’m off to the riverbank right now!

Oh, and I’ve thought of some Os - offers and openings, olives, oats and oatcakes, omelettes, orchids, oxytocin...and of course otters - work with them as often as you can!

Drops

Oh woe! The Streak repair company have ignored our conversation about returning it by post so I can collect it from a local depot instead of one miles away. I even explained why...about being feeble and immobile and so on but they just ignored me. They say they are ‘sorry’ but not as much as me.  I’m feeling really rough at the moment and horizontal internet access would be really nice. If I can get it redirected to the shop that Rachel works in she can bring it to my acupuncture next week...otherwise it may end up going back to the Streak hospital for Christmas. 

Oh well, I’m grateful I got the roll of replacement paper. It was the last one with the same batch number and the wrapper and end of roll was damaged but it looks usable and they knocked a pound off. Laura’s daughter Jo wanted to look round some other shops so we did and then Laura drove me down to the seafront to have a quick look at some big ships so I’m grateful for that. When they dropped me off I was desperate for something to eat and drink and a rest and discovered I’d dropped my keys in her car. Luckily I managed to get her on the phone before she’d gone too far and didn’t have to wait too long in the shivery cold for their return. And it wasn’t raining. I’m grateful for that.

As for ‘any’ gratitude (say it out loud!) I’ve not got much further. Nightingales, nectarines, nasturtiums, narcissus...these are all things I’d rather were around than not...and Nigel Mazlyn Jones music. Needles and nails are quite handy...

There’s many things I’d like to have done but the only one I want to do is sleep. It’s an important distinction and a difficult time of day to decide which way to go with it. My bed is visible now, should I give in so that’s progress...I’m grateful for that.

First gasp

What a splendid morning for lounging around watching the weather. I’ve gasped in delight at the sight of a strip of sunlight on the sea, a rainbow over the hill and raindrops sparkling on the buds on the mimosa and marvelled at sunshine so warm and strong I had the windows open and a rather confused fly was buzzing around. I’ve gasped with effort too in pain trying to move things back to where I want them in the living room so that I can start moving back into my bedroom. I would be quite happy to take more than a break now but the whole afternoon off, but   I have to go get washed and dressed and get the faulty wallpaper changed for a roll that’s not. Laura has kindly offered to take me as she’s going that way...it’s not something she can do for me because of course I used a card to buy the paper. I’m grateful for the meteorological magic mentioned above and for the prospect of a ride in a car albeit to B&Q and to the station to pick up her daughter.

Ns I suspect will be troublesome...will have to think of some during the day...so far I’ve got needs met, neroli, nuts, nests and the Natural History Museum - I love that building and some of the contents are pretty amazing too!

Making a day of it

Wow...I’m bushed! I’m all right unless I get up and then off I go doing stuff, ha ha! One thing led to another and much of what it led to was tiresome and/or tiring...so I think less is more in the telling of today. I shall say merely that I’m grateful I found out what was wrong with my vacuum, and booked a dental appointment for next year, dug out the big ladder hung on to it and hung my curtains for a ‘fitting’, ‘listened’ to someone who had something to say and received three things in the post that weren’t boring ot horrid (I think this is an all time record for me – thank you Lynn, Heidi and Ivor and Postmistress Pat for finding out where to find me!). I’m also grateful I made a chocolate cherry pudding just for me because I might be now worth not a great deal more dead than alive but I’m still worth a bit of nurturing!

So... some Ms that make me go Mmmm are...meringues, mashed potato, moonlight, mindfulness, meditation, magic, mantras, mantas, Miranda, Morocco, mosaics, music, memories, mesembryanthemums, magnolias, marmalade, mist, mountains, megaliths and menhirs, mince pies, mistletoe...and...ME!!!