Well, to be honest...

I give thanks for an enjoyable meeting up with someone I used to know well, but haven't seen for...well...ages!

I give thanks the consultant I saw today agrees that it's great I still feel so well...but, as predicted, also feels it's best to make preparations for when I don't. Well, I don't really feel that grateful for the last bit to be honest...

I give thanks for someone I don't know well at all sending me a song to cheer me up when I said that I was sad. And that someone I know a little bit will read that and think 'Hmm...are you doing what I keep telling you to do?' Ah, well, now that would be telling, wouldn't it?

I give thanks for getting home before a few spots of rain...for a spot of petrichore...and a spot of nam myoho reynge kyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad4hN3FbwFo

I give thanks I'm going to Denmark later...well to be honest only via a crime drama I've discovered you can download, but it's a good place to look forward to going virtually, not least because they seem to spend their summers in raincoats or huddled under blankets too!

Little helps

I give thanks for guessing what time I'd like a taxi yesterday (allowing exactly the right amount of time for various unforeseen variables!) and then booking a few days ahead via a third party internet site. I give thanks the price was right and the driver came with free brains, so although the postcode told him to go to one place when he got there he thought it must be wrong, phoned me...and found me!

I give thanks for railway staff handling with good humour and practicality the assorted out of sorts folk displaced by a tree on the line causing timetable chaos. I give thanks a cafe was open and I could buy a cup of tea to keep my eyes open, though as they had no decaf it kept my eyes open later into the night than I would have liked...

I give thanks for a mostly lazy day to make up for it, though by checking in earlyish on the Tesco site to see what I might like to order, I discovered if I made my mind up very quickly I could actually have it delivered later today which I've not ever seen before and could be just what I needed...if I remembered what I needed.

I give thanks for dodging the showers to pick up my belated post, on time medical supplies and non supermarket shopping and there being a friendly cab driver on the rank when I needed help back up the hill...

I give thanks there's a roof on centre court so I could flop on the sofa afterwards and watch the delightfully random chap playing Roger this afternoon. Xenophobes will be disappointed to know I cared not a jot that he's a Brit, nor how well he did - it was the backstory and his obvious exuberant boyish enthusiasm at the unexpected situation he was in that got my vote. How could you not share his joy? Best fun I've seen on a tennis court for a long while (and in the main draw ever)...made me laugh out loud and clap and shout. I give thanks lolling while you're lolling is very good for body and soul, and having a bit of a shout is probably very good for neighbours who forget how their own voices carry.

Ring of bright bubbles

I should probably give thanks I don't eat out more. I was making such a meal of trying to use a knife and fork yesterday I decided to spare the appetites of those around me and take the rest of my food back to my cabin...only if you're not good with  cutlery you probably not very talented with trays either, or stairs unless you have at least part of your body on the wall beside them, or pressing buttons in lifts with no fingers free... I give thanks that trays slide well on carpets pushed by feet however, and there was no one around to see me find this out...and that when I finally got round to round two of eating I was too tired to care and could have a nap instead... I give thanks for a travel kettle and cookies!

Today I've been grateful for opportunities to remain patient and reasonably good humoured despite feeling unreasonably in pain and fatigued. Why do I put myself through it, you might ask. Well, I'm out of points for brownies to help me, and at any point ill health could put a stop to it for good, but apart these and the reasons I gave yesterday, there's the immeasurable magic you might come across if you just keep carrying on...

I give thanks for moving towards a  cloud bank yesterday evening just in time to stop me turning into a crustacean while watching for cetaceans. I give thanks for spotting a few far between dolphins, but the waiting was wonderful anyway as, though I've seen a lot of salty water in my time, the sea was the most beautiful I ever remember.  Impossible to describe the shifting changing shades and textures of blue, and appearing and disappearing sparkles of light without it sounding nothing out of the ordinary...but it was as extraordinary as if computer or chemical enhanced. And in amongst the glory I watched a line of rings of bubbles appear close by and thought...'What is this? I should know what this is...' and then the top of a whale's head popped up to blow a spout and remind me!

Roundabout way

Yeah...what I said last time! Normal service will be resumed...but in the meantime I give thanks (as ever) for a spot of not...

I give thanks for my favourite substitute for tenderness - being rocked to sleep by the sea. The body seems to register it as a cuddle and releases soothing chemicals just the same. I give thanks that travel soothes the longing for belinging too. Sometimes I get criticised for not staying still...but only by people who have people that feel like home.

I give thanks for the physical pain being more settled the last couple of days...mostly settled around the hands and knees though so I also give thanks there's been no need to crawl!

I give thanks for a long term favourite bus station lunch - must be good if I'm willing to travel for twenty four hours to get my hands on it, though no buses were actually used in the process...

I give thanks I know how to go a long way without moving too much and the place I know how to get to is so eclectically pleasing when I do, with its golden beaches, mountains and busy bay with people at work and play. Special thanks for the flock of little green twin sailed yachts like butterflies and the intrepid windsurfers and sail boarders looping over the wake as we set off again.

I'll give thanks if I manage to upload this too...keep trying.. 

Change rover

I'm posting early today as by normal blogging time I hope to be out of range...and much as I value internet access I'm always grateful for the privilege of wandering where it's less accessible.

I give thanks for deciding to cancel my Sky subscription, basically so I can see more sky...and associated priceless pleasures. A quality of life limiting illness can be a dark old thing (and don't even get me started on the valley of the shadow of dialysis machines) but the best treatment I know, without asking someone to give up their own delights to make mine easier, is to wake up my head and take up my bed and walk...even if the taking and the walking bits are largely metaphorical!

I give thanks for a small free overdraft facility, Though I'm grateful to live now I'm not so keen on paying later, so I'll turn out every crevice and cubbyhole for spare change before I use it but it's reassuring to know a little cushion is there. Meanwhile I give thanks for insisting I resist reviewing the state of my pension pot now recent events will probably have reduced it from a comfy chair to a floppy beanbag... I give thanks I'm a cheap date even when I'm on my own...

Dredging

Feeling most weary and world weary last night I give thanks I stirred myself to stir and bake some comforting chocolate and cherry pudding in lieu of the cuddling and coddling I felt I needed. I know I'm not supposed to eat chocolate, but I don't think I'm supposed to feel that sad either. I give thanks I didn't cry - not that I think there's anything wrong when things seem unbearably hurtful, hard and hopeless to express your sorrow (as long as it's quietly to yourself) but it uses up a lot of energy and I needed to save what little I had for other things requiring attention...like cooking proper supper!

Today I give thanks for dragging myself townwards one more time for the mail that still wasn't there, and for meaning to cheer myself up with a treat as I passed the Greek deli until I saw the sign on the door that due to unforeseen circumstances it's closed for the foreseeable future. Oh well, I give thanks for a cheap takeaway tea and a cheerful exchange at the sandwich shop, and a rest watching the rather steampunk dredger that's clearing the channels in hopes we can receive bigger shipping... 

I give thanks for finally making it home again finally too exhausted to do anything but weep and sleep...and then make my bed with clean linen and a late but tasty lunch with pasta and pesto...

I give thanks the drummer boy is home too and has been at the kit this afternoon. I think he went to uni, don't you? I should probably be calling him a drummer man now. I give thanks I enjoy listening him rediscover his skills with practice, and perversely even the newer neighbours, who make plenty of racket themselves but have little tolerance for others', shutting the windows grumpily as if he could hear them or would care...

Just saying

Long time readers of my blog (yes, it has been quite a long time, hasn't it?) will know how sparing I tend to be with references to what constitutes 'news', and today I'm giving particular thanks that I already have more worrying future scenarios to deal with than most people so that I don't really have that many brain cells left to devote to what others think I should be thinking about, let alone thinking what others think I should think... But for those who still want to think about it, I give thanks for finding a different way of looking at things to share...
http://www.thebookoflife.org/romantic-vs-classical-voters/

Ever since childhood I've been mystified by the arbitrary borders we humans construct and the ephemeral nature of nationhood, so I give thanks the wonder of DNA testing can show what mixed up sorts we actually all are, especially where sorting sheep from goats is concerned...or feeling that we need to...
https://vimeo.com/169217127

I give thanks for a vicarious trip to Fair Isle with Ben Fogle. Such rugged beauty always moves me to almost tears...and the island didn't look half bad either, ha ha! Yes, one must confess to a slight penchant for the slightly posh...though in reality it's quite irrelevant what my penchants might be of course as I perennially fail to be anyone else's...

I give thanks I managed to hobble into town between the rain showers and resting my aches and pains. I give thanks for remaining relatively philosophical when something kind of crucial wasn't in the post I went to collect, because let's face it - it's all pretty relative isn't it? Even what we class as 'crucial'. I give thanks I've managed to cobble together a second post after one of the day's multiple clumsinesses resulted in deleting the first one. 

Just looking

I give thanks for the pains keeping me awake last night when the pains already were...and that they all settled down about the same time.

I give thanks for some interesting cloud formations the last couple of days, for the sunshine here and there...and for the sky being flat white most of this afternoon which is my least favourite but ideal for staying indoors getting on with all the many things requiring attention. As I'm still very life limitingly sore I've been more ornament than use most of the time...but I give thanks for all that can be usefully achieved these days by clicking (and that there's no one around to quibble about the degree of decoration either)

I give thanks for thus making some inroads into several big changes and some arrangements for a little change, after hearing that Rachel will be away doing something else next Monday and thinking 'Oh maybe I should do something else too!' I give thanks that things are looking up...well some things...maybe...a bit here and there...

I give thanks for successfully mending the charity shop top I bought a few weeks ago and I'd already mended in another way. I don't understand why people think things are unfit for purpose just because they need maintenance and restoration now and then...but I do understand I could be a teensy bit biased about that...

I give thanks for all the times we're happy by mistake - when we trust a person or situation and then realise we shouldn't have, or believe in something that turns out not to be true. Yes, it's horrible when you find out you were wrong...but isn't it great until you do?

Want not

I give thanks thanks for the fog this morning, I love the way it actually helps you see some things more clearly like the shape of individual trees. I give thanks for the way it rolled back onto the sea this afternoon too so that there was a bit of sunshine and it seemed as if there was a strange land on the horizon...

I give thanks for remembering seeing the backs and heads of two wild deer leaping through the high growing crops in a field yesterday...for the late running bus passing at just the right time and for the couple sitting in front of me turning round to check I'd spotted them too. There was more poetic licence with the timetables today but I don't remember any such scenic outcomes... I give thanks I managed to keep smiling, and for a much needed nap when I finally got home.

I give thanks for giving the universe lots of chances to make lovely things happen, and for keeping on believing it's unfolding the way it should when it doesn't want to take them. I give thanks I'm good at finding good things in things that don't seem to be...

I give thanks I get the news I need in an empty inbox...for understanding if I think it would be better to get the news I want to hear then I need to get better at not wanting...

Natural talent

I give thanks for Rachel bringing me teabags...and fragrant rosewater too! I give thanks for slivers of magenta cloud in amongst the deep grey at sundown and for a little gap for the full buttery moon to poke through...

I give thanks for feeling more relaxed after my treatment and dropping off to sleep quickly when I went to bed. I give thanks though I woke up again soon after and stayed so for hours this doesn't happen often, and that awake time in the night time is good for processing the disappointments and dismays my life seems to always have a backlog of requiring mental attention.

I give thanks for a day including several situations giving me the opportunity to practise patience...and people to remind me to practise being kind... For knowing what my scan was for and how it should be taken, as this very relevant information seemed to have disappeared from the notes since it was requested several weeks ago. I give thanks the radiography staff accepted my authority...and my apology for being so bossy...and that I'm still quite supple from all those years of yoga and can get in and out of some awkward positions with relative dignity...

I give thanks after a long wait a man in a hi vis jacket with a pen knife and a spanner managed to sort of fix the bus doors enough for a very late but very welcome departure for home. There's not a lot about being at home that appeals to me right now but, thanks to the perversity of human nature, being unable to get there when I want to usually does the trick!

The cake with the hole

I give thanks for a date with doughnuts tomorrow, though unfortunately I've got to lie in one and on top of another and have failed to persuade anyone to partake of tea and cake to cheer me up afterwards so it's more brave face than smiley face. I give thanks that's the face most people see...and for not seeing anyone today so I could take it off for a bit.

I give thanks I've a bag of bounty to take to the Kidney Research charity shop which is not too far from one of the bus stops at the other end, to help them fund mending people like me... I give thanks for an email from Cancer Research about how the forum's findings from earlier this year are being implemented.

I give thanks for a dozy day with nothing too pressing that didn't get pressed (I did the ironing!) and reasonable opportunities for giving in to the need for rest and snoozes. I give thanks that Rachel is coming later and has promised to search en route for the Co-op Earl Grey teabags I like the best as our local store is out of stock until after their refit and I'm down to my last half packet.

Uh-oh

Uh-oh, these summer nights can drag on with no one to talk to (or too nice to talk to) so I give thanks yesterday was so long I was bathed and in bed not long after ten, with earplugs in snugly to insulate the sounds of other people still up and going about their business. You're unlikely to know, and I'm grateful it's so, just how tired and sore a person can be... and as I settled down to sleep I wondered what there could possibly be to give thanks for about it...and came up with the thought that there are meditative practices that require you to try to be conscious of all of your body, and widespread pain certainly brings new parts to light!

I give thanks for a slow start this morning, but that it was morning when I started so that I could meet Mima this afternoon for a potter around some of the freebies at the folk festival. I give thanks for some delicious leftover pasta to fuel me for this...tho it was so delicious I inadvertently ate it all at lunchtime instead of saving some for my supper which was not part of the master plan...

I give thanks for being almost philosophical about a sticky toffee situation - a nationwide shortage of Thornton's dark chocolate caramels. Only almost though... 

I give thanks for doing some knitting and watching some tennis. For an essential oil bottle not having the top on quite tight, and falling over in a drawer so something I took out of it is wafting the exotic fragrance of ylang-ylang around.

I give thanks tonight it's so murky and cool it could almost be not summer...a gratitude mostly connected with the opening sentence of course...

Fresh air

I give thanks for a good day out, mostly with Gary - except when the air became unbearably fresh at the best spot for taking photos and I had to scuttle off to restore flesh colour to my extremities. 

I give thanks for a nap in an unfolded folding chair after just the effort of getting up and getting there proved too much, and before the wind got properly going...For watching empty folding chairs racing across the expanse of sand when it did and for finding a spot in the sun to thaw in when the sun eventually peeped through...

I give thanks for finding a seat and something to eat in a cafe when it was all over (no mean feat)

For an evening drive home through beautiful countryside, still bathed in bright sunshine...the lush greens and silvery quiver of poplars

Oh and there were some quite passable aircraft passing by during the afternoon as well!

The shellfish gene

Well, I'm grateful I slept long and fairly soundly despite going to bed feeling as if my left arm had been replaced with a lobster claw - without the benefit of anaesthetic! Much as I want to finish the delightful petrol blue eyelet rib cardigan I'm making before it's time to go back to chunky yarn, I must remember to pace myself...

I give thanks for feeling a lot less crabby after catching up with sleep...and that my general crabbiness ensures a minimal social life so that I could slob about all day undressed...

I give thanks for a softly focussed mood, getting on with some odds and ends but with nothing urgently requiring my attention - well unless I forgot to give it, of course! For the most audible neighbours being out a lot, which is most beneficial for my inner peace I find... For remembering to feel compassion about their struggles and stresses, though they often contribute to mine...

I give thanks I've made enough supper for tonight and tomorrow and mostly made some lunch to take out with me too. I've an early start so probably best to have breakfast before I go to bed...

Unreasonable behaviour

Gosh, I've been a grumpy so-and-so today...not for any overarching reason, just the unreasonably tangled and torn state of life's rich tapestry sometimes. Oh well... I give thanks by not getting any second opinions on how to unpick the knots and tie bows on it, I've no one else to blame.

I give thanks for the challenge of finding things to be grateful for... For catching a last glimpse of sunset colours yesterday evening after the wonderfully torrential rain, for the warm sunshine for the brief time I was out today, for Jenny putting up with some of my grumbles while we drank a mug of tea...

For an afternoon of socially acceptable drug abuse - sugar, in a pudding I made and ate instead of dinner, with chocolate for afters after; junk TV to dampen down the brain; a snooze to to turn it off...

For the misguided optimism and enthusiasm I manage to cobble together sometimes with for good reason at all...For the things I never learn, no matter how often the lessons... because there are some things better not really known you know...

Ha ha...and for wry chuckles reading in my horoscope just now I'm supposed to be feeling wonderfully listened to and understood. Well, I give thanks for people reading my blog...as close as it gets, I guess.

Never a cross word

I give thanks for realising an opinion I wanted from a particular person about a particular matter was actually quite particular too, and for seeing how often in life that is the case...we do tend to want validation for our own views (however blinkered) more than contradiction, in fact the often the more others contradict us the more we think they're wrong. I give thanks I spent so long pondering this I never got round to asking...and I'm sure if they knew who they were and what I'd have wanted them to judge they'd have been very grateful not to be put on an uncomfortable spot...and no, it was nothing referendum related!

I give thanks for more idling about but also for some setting about various outstanding tasks about the place. I give thanks for a moving, mysterious and marvellously filmed French drama on catch up...good old BBC4!

I give thanks for a good natured Tesco driver unloading my shopping onto the doorstep in the pouring rain and then driving off and back to let someone pass before bringing it up the stairs. My doorstep is currently hemmed in by gasworks in the road and two abandoned cars. I'm kind of grateful for the first bit, if not the second, as regards the snakes and ladders of the property market...

I give thanks for slight progress in a protracted matter that may come to nothing but could possibly improve my lot a lot. Gee, I'm cryptic today aren't I?  I give thanks there's ever a crossword with the app I downloaded recently for my phone...

Oh well...

I give thanks Rachel did indeed come and treat me and make me some tea, both liquid and very solid!  I'm grateful for being able to be helpful too with knitting related queries - it's a treat to feel I have any skill or knowledge to share.  For doing a few rows of my slow growing cardigan as my hands have not been too sore.

I give thanks for the sound of the breeze in the trees and the sharp rain showers falling. For being falling down tired and giving in to it - the change was a good thing I needed, but rest is the good thing I need now and it's good to accept the things you cannot change. I give thanks for earplugs/phones for when the neighbours don't. For vivid dreams including a curious one about a gathering of exes, one of whom drowned in a well!

I give thanks for a lovely email from David about how much he appreciates his choirs that almost made me cry. For the Sewing Bee for making me laugh.

Continental drift

I give thanks for remembering it's a gratitude blog...there are aspects of being home I could be quite ungrateful for otherwise! I give thanks for my lovely bath and bed, for the kind internet for allowing me to download earplugged entertainment, for the friendly laid back little town I live in. I give thanks I have warmer clothes to wear than swimming things and shorts (sighs)...for this mosaicy photo zooming in on the Mediterranean far below.

I give thanks for making a dash for it after my blood test last Friday so that I would be hard to reach if anyone wanted to discuss results. That the 'private number' on my mobile last Monday didn't leave a message and that I simply ignored the one on my land line answering machine when I got back. When I got to the Post Office this afternoon and there was a letter from the surgery as well I thought it must be serious - but clearly not desperately as they just want me to book another one next month - which I always do anyway. The receptionist on the desk today was the one who called last week and when I admitted my unscheduled escape she said she mentioned to her colleagues it sounded as if it were ringing abroad and they said 'Good on her!'

I give thanks for an drifty undriven day, and for a friendly cab driver on the rainy rank when I felt like being driven home. For giving the universe more chances to give me more chances to smile. I give thanks I believe Rachel is due in a bit to bring my tea and treatment, and that if I'm mistaken I have a Plan B that involves opening the freezer door, the biscuit tin and my stash of stylish French cop drama.

Flown past

I give thanks for excellent assistance from distant airport staff before take-off...and from John and Jo on landing, as sadly the almost local one assumes your physical difficulties only happen in daylight hours. Mind you, having experienced the help they offer then I realise I wasn't missing much. I give thanks for not subscribing to the British way of complaining only to people who have nothing to do with the situation - constructive criticism is being constructed to send to the department concerned!

After so much pleasurable activity I give thanks for being so tired I couldn't summon my usual terror in flight terror and was quite nonchalant about take off and landing, and almost as much so zooming up the motorway in the dark! I give thanks for staying awake to see the pretty bridge lights in the little city where I was born...

I give thanks after my rather elderly mobile refused to take a charge for hours this morning and I thought it would have to be donated to Kidney Research, it suddenly burst back to life this afternoon so I was able to book a cab to carry me and my luggage up the hill. I give thanks to Jo for generous donations of unwanted jewellery for the charity instead...and for souffle omelette for breakfast.

I give thanks that despite the lush growth of leaves on the nearby trees while I was away I still managed to see some coming and going to the new air show down the bay as well as hear it...and that I'm sure Gary will have plenty of pictures, views and news to share!

I give thanks that after a quick glance at my own holiday photos I've seen a couple out of the couple of hundred taken worth keeping, and for being told the pretty flying thing we saw collecting nectar was a hummingbird hawk-moth. Sadly I missed a shot of that...so here's the naked bougainvillea instead!

Between a rock

Well I've been being as grateful as I can for the last few hours of my great little escape but I'm not too enraptured at the thought of recapture and returning to realities I find so grim so there's been a shadow over it all for me today. I give thanks it's also been partly cloudy so maybe no one could tell!

I'm a bit of a rock chick so I give thanks for seeing more rocks today...the millions in the walls here and sticking up naturally out of the ground and the special ones piled up to make structures or chiseled into to make holes centuries ago. For buying some excellent cheese... from a cheese farm funnily enough...and for whiling away the tail end of the holiday as best we could with the tail end of our food supplies.

I give thanks for a the beautiful trees we passed and the turquoise water in the tiny cove below the rocks we sat on in the late afternoon sun.

I give thanks for steeling myself for another attempt at getting 'special assistance' which is something you book ahead with airlines to make getting on planes easier but which airports don't necessarily provide...

The other half

Somehow managed to lose half a toe nail last night AND half a tooth...goodness knows what Oscar Wilde would say! Oh well, it often feels like I only have half a life now so just have to be grateful for the other half I guess...

I give thanks for being driven up a mountain to spectacular views that made me catch my breath and brought tears of joy and wonder to my eyes. For tasty lunch in a cafe full of locals...and in between tracking down another outlet for those sandals I'd admired - the lizard ones. It was John who spotted the purply beaded ones and thought they were 'me' and as Jo agreed, and I always like to support local crafts industries it would have been churlish not to buy them as well.

I give thanks for lapping the pool on my own again when everyone else was siestaing or something. I give thanks a return (final) trip to the homemade ice cream parlour may be in order later...and to Colin for suggesting this should be called 'notes from a broad'.

I

The blues

I give thanks for the blues...the sky and sea of course, as ever, in all their variation...and here there is the blue of the pool, and the paintwork, furnishing and towels, in the purples and pinks of the climbing flowers, and in the evergreen greens.

I give thanks for a paddle and a swim, a drive and a walk. For picking probably the most laid back apartment complex, at the end of a cul-de-sac on the edge of a very low key resort so there's a much needed sense of peace and space. For entertainment overheard from the big hotel next door with a passable singer with a guitar and harmonica playing something for everyone from the Doobie Bros to Oasis. Particular thanks for Jealous Guy and Don't Think twice for pressing my own musical buttons...

I guess I'm not the only one who gets stuck on a ghost train of thought sometimes...some trigger, a careless word or unbidden memory and we're off on a circle line of haunting hurts, unfulfilled longings, insecurities, fears for the future...you can join the journey at any point but once you're on it it's a glum and bumpy ride bringing to mind the people we grieve for, the people we'd leave for, the desires even the goodest little would be Buddhist have, to be free from desire for anything to be other than it is...

I give thanks for anyone who has no idea what I mean but those who do will understand why I give thanks for resetting a chain of association of mine so that instead of remembering this and thinking that I've inserted a divert into focusing on my breath.

Big fish, little fish

Hmm...I guess I should be grateful I didn't make it into the pool today by being too tired from all the other nice things I've done? For driving out to watch the lovely sunset, and the high points of our neighbour wreathed in mistiness. For the gathering of unconnected company connected by this common urge... 

For finding an ensaimada flavoured liqueur to have my statuary sips of keeping my friends' company raising glasses and a laugh or two.

For a drive out north this morning to a strange and ancient feeling landscape with many dry stone walls and structures, and stones as yet unemerged, vertigo free fishermen scarily scaling rocky promontories and folk gathering tiny unidentifiable berries in the fields.

For a roost of egrets almost hidden in the tops of a grove of lush leaved trees, twittering, muttering and chattering amongst themselves. For  a little exploring the old town, cathedral, cloisters and shops...for a shoal of tiny silvery fish swimming between the weaving mullet among the tied up yachts and speedboats... and for very nearly buying a pair of coveted sandals before siesta closure stepped in and put a stop to that.

For John for cooking aided by Jo and Jo for driving aided by John, plus the Satnav which has finally worked out which continent we're on.

Hmm...I wrote the above earlier and it has become untrue. After the necessary serious resting on the balcony following the feeble struggle into my cozzy, I finally made it downstairs and swam once round the pool. I am inordinately proud and grateful but heck the bones are moaning. Apologies to anyone who thought this post was about clubbing...though don't rule anything out, I'm nothing if not tenacious. ..

Sunny side out

I give thanks for sleeping well the first and last parts of the night, and in the middle lying awake listening to people being happy rather than angry or sad. I'm grateful people have people who think they're great, and I guess also grateful that I don't have much of an idea what that's actually like so I can't really know what I'm missing, can I? Maybe if I tell myself often enough I'll believe it...In the meantime I give thanks I can be sorrowful swiftly and silently, and not disturb others at all.

I give thanks today was designated lazy day...and there has been much lounging about in and out of the sun. It's a treat to have friends to lie down in the sun with - I feel a bit overexposed on my own surrounded by strangers even if quite covered up! I give thanks for dips in the pool. I swim so rarely these days I always forget how much I love to...which is also another thing to be grateful for I suppose...On the second circuit today I caught myself regretting I'd missed my true vocation in life - to be a fit person - and then remembered in a former life I was! Ah shucks, it sucks sometimes...

I give thanks for the half tame sparrows that hop in and out the door and fly in and out the window looking for crumbs, and a good book for flying my mind away from thoughts I'd best not be thinking.

Last resorts

Well, you know, I always say the best days are the hardest days ones to write my blog...so many things to remember to be grateful for...and to stay awake to list them!

First of all I have to be grateful for not being as miserably stiff and sore last night so that sleep seems more likely and maybe not spending half the morning tomorrow groaning. I know I have to be grateful for what I still can do and not be greedy, but this holiday is such a treat and may be the last such possible and it's hard not to feel not a moment must be wasted, nor corner explored.

So I give thanks for trying to be more careful today and for John and Jo's kindness and care. For being brought two cups of tea in bed and left to snooze with a book a while and then being driven out as close as possible to places I wanted to see - ancient stone structures and settlements and the surprisingly green and rolling countryside.

I give thanks for the surprising wild life too...flying flocks of egrets, kites and vultures whirling on the thermals, the first of the latter the others had ever seen, while I got to see the first naked man I have for many years, clearly habitually so from the eveness of his bronzeness. I don't who was more surprised when he turned a corner into a field and found me just hanging around resting in the long grass beneath a tree, or me looking up and seeing him just hanging around...

I give thanks for finding a cheese farm and stopping to try and buy some. For a refreshment stop open in a town almost completely shut and shuttered for siesta time. ..and the delicious olives they brought us with our drinks..

But most of all I give thanks for my oldest friends for still being my friends. I don't know how they manage it, bless them, but in a life of loss and broken connection it's very precious to have had something last.

Just what the doctor

Oh I forgot to give thanks for Food Doctor lentil and couscous pots on the plane yesterday...probably because I'm still in shock! For the beautiful views coming in to land at sunset (including the stunning but unphotographable rainbow); for an amusing (though arduous for Jo) drive from the airport with the Satnav helpfully suggesting at one point that we'd left the left the road and were heading into the desert despite the fact we were still on tarmac surrounded by greenery and hundreds of miles away from any more sand than a cove...

I give thanks for Dr Organics restorative conditioner making me wake up with curls instead what curly girls usually wake up with...though by after siesta it had got a little nesty...For day of amiable ambling, and a quietly subversive diet consisting of snacks stuffed in corners of our luggage and snacks purchased since. I give thanks for delicious fresh peaches to provide a little nutritional balance. For proper warm weather and warm companionship doing right by my cockles...

Plan sea

Well, it's been a busy few days, and though not part of my master plan, I give thanks for falling asleep on the sofa in the evening when there were still things I felt I needed to do...because what I probably really needed to do was have a nap. And though I slept soon and well when I got to bed, there were some locals who didn't and woke me up a couple of times so I'm grateful I'd had a top up already.

I give thanks I have to vacuum my shoes before I leave the house these days as, though it's a bind, finding sand inside them is a very south western problem and nothing to be ungrateful for at all!

I give thanks for a pause in this morning's busyness to make a start on my blog post as I fear I may forget or find it irksome later...though the former would be better than the latter of course.

Dot dot dot...but here I am! I give thanks for trains and buses and...planes! For old friends and new adventures. ..For picnics in mid air and for the miracle of the internet. Hasta luego!

Be prepared

When I first moved here there were no lights on the many stairs at all, so I fought long and hard to get some fitted, and long and hard to have them maintained...and, when managing that proved too troublesome, to have a proper management company put in place instead...and finally today, after managing them, we are having a new LED sensor system installed! I like a quick fix, me...but I give thanks I'm prepared to go for the long game if necessary too ;-)

I give thanks for rescuing a tiny fairy daddylonglegs thing from the check out conveyor belt in Waitrose, tenderly passing it from hand to hand while I negotiated my shopping with amused help from the woman on the till who could spot it when it crept round my sleeve...I even found it when it fell on the matching floor covering, picked it up and carried through the door hoping to find a safe spot to lay it down...but it blew away in the breeze! Oh well, I give thanks I know one can but mean well, and mean to do the right thing...whilst accepting the 'right thing' is very much a relative term.

I give thanks for my post blood test beast of a feast on items I'm supposed to (and mostly do, honest!) 'avoid'. For getting all kinds of jobs done I wanted to, including watching a tennis match of course...and actually putting my sewing machine away. That's not something that happens very often these days but I've made/remade enough garments for now not to have to do a Nick Kamen when the washing's on and I'd like to tidy that corner. Here's the link for ladies of a certain age and gents of a certain persuasion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q56M5OZS1A8 (bet you gave thanks for that!) and here's a crumpled few I prepared earlier...

I give thanks I didn't quite burn the toast while wrestling the machine back into its storage space...and that the reason I needed a slice of toast is that, though my big lunch kept me going for hours, I suddenly ran completely out of energy making food for tomorrow so couldn't do anything more for today. Later perhaps, after a flollop... I give thanks that nothing really matters, at all!

The grass is greener

I give thanks for all the neighbouring flats being empty of neighbours for several hours last night. If you have a 'private life' you may not understand what a treat this is, especially when there are some particularly troubled ones close by.

I give thanks though Rachel was unavailable this Monday to give me a treatment, she was able to find me a spot at her clinic today as next Monday I will be unavailable to receive one. I give thanks the sunshine made itself available just before I had to go out and a very pretty bus ride and back through the full leaved greenness between the hazy moor tops and the sparkling sea. What a beautiful area this is to live in! I give thanks for my good fortune in doing so, and good management too of course as, unlike many situations that seem to have been wished upon me by fate or others' wishes, moving here was definitely a conscious and well considered choice.

I give thanks for coveting a carrot cake a earlier this week in Waitrose's new even fancier and pricier own brand range. It had the current day's date on it, but wasn't marked down and I planned to go back and check if it was reduced/ suggest it should be later but what with one thing and another did not. This evening however, going to the Co op to hunt and gather half price ice-cream after the after work queues had dispersed and just before a bus was due, I found carrot cakes on the orange sticker shelf at 49p...and going like carrot cakes at 49p as I'm sure you can imagine. So of course I got cake and ice cream and happy taste buds, tummy and purse. And yes, I know a lot of posts have been about food bargains this week, but I love food and don't have much spare cash right now and would rather spend it on something else, so really am extra grateful.

I give thanks for clean sheets and duvet cover and towels, and for Body Shop rose bath bubbles. Very nice!

Partial observer

I give thanks for a grey damp start to the day here. It's selfish, I know, with all those folk wanting to have fun in the sun but I'm sorry, it does my head in that it's so hard for me to so I just have to turn it off sometimes!

I give thanks the weather was better in Paris and that I could watch a couple of sets enthralling enough to do nothing at all but enjoy. I'm sure the best man won but I've a soft spot for French tennis players, especially on their home clay so I would have given thanks even if he hadn't...

I give thanks for completing the refit and revamp of my 99p Gul top. Not the kind you wear participating in watersports...the kind you wear sitting on the beach looking cute and watching, ha ha! Well, a girl can dream can't she?

I give thanks for not having too many arguments with my sewing machine. It's not that old, maybe fifteen years or so, but it was a bottom of the range model and regularly complains it's rarely serviced but that's another thing you need a car for. Gee those Merton Parkas merely scratched the surface didn't they? To be be fair it does get a lot of use...I can sew for miles and miles and miles...

I give thanks for rustling up some tasty stuffed baked pancakes with odds and ends lying around including, funnily enough, a couple of leftover home made pancakes. I give thanks for ready meals when I'm just too exhausted to cook but I do prefer real food however basic and simple...

I give thanks for making plans to do things with other people...with the other people... You know...like other people do!