Praise you

We've come a long long way together, my renal consultant and I... I give humble thanks for her medical expertise of course, but also her repeated willingness to listen and assist where possible in making accommodating kidney failure as problem free for me personally as possible. Within the confines of the Western hospital system she really seems to try to treat the patient as well as the disease. I am blessed! I also give thanks for having a laugh with her, and the patient souls in the blood room too. Imagine how boring their days must be!

I give thanks for my life being anything but boring, always more challenges coming my way. The first one today was getting out of bed after losing much sleep to pain...and still having plenty of it to wake up to. I give thanks for only needing a short shift 'in the office' before Julie arrived and I could help her eat the vegan cake. Gold star for Carole's (there's not much call for it) Cupcakes - I would call it really good! It was also good to see Julie too, and to no longer see a large pile of items no longer required.

I give thanks for a lift to the station, and the slow packed journey to and through the city being ameliorated by the Imee Ooi's Om Mani Padme Hum...plus a young classical violinist busking for a masterclass (allegedly). For seeing gay couples holding hands without fear or shame... and for giving in to a couple of treats from the wonderful wholefood store by the station. It's lucky I usually only go there on the way to the hospital as limitations of carriage stop me from pushing the limitations of my diet too far... 
I give thanks for Norman Cook becoming Fatboy Slim and producing one of my all time favourite tunes...and helping keep me from falling asleep on the way home. I give Mr Tesco is making most of my tea, sometimes having an unusually hearty appetite for my kidney condition is a bit of a nuisance to the other ones I suffer from.

Amazing grace

I give thanks for my Buddhist tendencies...or maybe it's my interest in quantum physics...whatever helps me go 'Whatever - none of this is really real!' I give thanks for the parts of the illusion that result in pleasure, and for the comprehension that preference for pleasure can result in pain!

I give thanks for another patient hour or two attempting to access a chunk of pension fund to pay off a chunk of mortgage so that whatever transpires regarding selling and buying property a chunk of roof stays over my head...

Great aches notwithstanding, I give thanks for deciding on the (maybe) conclusion of this epic procedure to hobble about in the chill drizzle awhile. For wanting to buy Julie a slice of vegan cake...which of course meant buying myself a sweet treat too!

I give thanks for many years without a Capability for Work Assessment and for dealing with the horror of receiving one now. Just the horror, mind, not the form as yet, let alone the dreaded face-to-face meeting...

There are times, here and there, when I am remarkably capable of some kinds of functioning, but not on demand...and even contemplating the demands of being sent out to seek a job when I can't guarantee even getting to the front door is exhausting. I give thanks for discovering receiving regular haemodialysis automatically renders your capability as 'limited' in their black and white point scoring system...so this unexpected jolt, coming just before tomorrow's expected discussion re a date to start treatment, highlights the subjective nature of 'good' and 'bad' news. What will be will always be...until it becomes something else!

I give thanks for finding and sharing humour with those I encounterd as I went about my business. Even if you don't seem to have much to offer to others, at least you can hope to help them smile...

Sit down

Well, you can...but you can't sit next to me because I'm sprawled out all over my new sofa! I give thanks it looks good in my new improved living room, and feels even better... as you can't really try them out in the shop can you, not if you're the kind of person who likes to drape themselves in various positions rather than primly perch. Last night I gave thanks for thinking to put some bedding on the carpet so I could lie down and watch TV but this is so much better!

In theory this was to be another taking it easy day but I've been up and down the stairs for deliveries, and to answer the phone on various matters and I am so appreciating the comfort in between.

I give thanks for my new drop leaf table that the leafs don't drop off too. It's nice looking enough to not need a covering cloth which means easier cleaning but it is looking at me, with the sewing machine and materials on it saying 'Ahem...there's stuff to be finished here!', and after moving the old one out and trying this one three different ways I just want to sit down and curl up...

I give thanks for discovering Hellfjord on All4. Delightfully weird...and for having some spare broadband bytes to use up watching it. For the surveyor who insisted on coming on Thursday (against my will) changing the day to the Tuesday after which means I can fit in getting the new window fitted, and kind Julie removing some of the pile of outgoing possessions I've amassed which should create a better impression.

Parklife

I give thanks despite a bounty of bruises, seized up joints, muscle spasms and a swollen foot nothing about my person seems to be any more broken now than it was before I got it into my head to single handedly change the position of single item in my living room apart from the lampshade, carpet and curtains! Having been mostly still today, I've been trying not to describe it as 'lazy'...I am merely doing what ought to come naturally to someone in my state of age and infirmity. Plus I'm absolutely whacked!

I give thanks for the beautiful weather. To Mima for offering me the use of her courtyard while she's away, though I was too limp and limpy to get there or to the sea. I give thanks for making it down to the communal gardens with a book and a chair for a while to enjoy the green and blue...

I give thanks for otherwise being mostly parked on my bed, listening to the layers of sounds of enjoyment... The volume of birdsong in the trees and shrubs nearby increasing as the temperature rose, the raucous humans with hangovers and power tools in the morning, jetskis in the distance in the afternoon...and the slow drone of a circling light plane. Time for a beer and a bit of a barney now, I gather...I give thanks for my bath and my earplugs.

Don't know much

Not known much gratitude today. I've known a lot about pain (oh yes, I give thanks for sleeping through some of it during the night, though it featured in my dreams)  I give thanks for getting more or less up eventually and getting tea and toast and so on...before popping back to the half of my bed that's usable (let's not go there OK?) for a top up snooze. It would have been a fine day for lounging around on the sofa...but of course my lounge is without that luxury just now. Still I'm grateful I didn't have to get dressed for the woman who didn't want to tell me she didn't want part of the bed she bought. No, still not worked out where it can live but I give thanks for finding somewhere to put it as long as I don't live here too long...

One thing I do know about pain is that it's worse when you feel sorry for yourself. That can be a bit of a toughy when life feels pretty tough even without the pain... I've been giving thanks, as I sometimes do when I feel a bit hard done by, for not having anyone to hope for any comfort or assistance from. I know it must be a fine thing to have people in your life to say 'here, let me help with that' but what if you thought they were going to and they didn't...then where would you be? I give thanks for having me to take care of me. True, sometimes I'm like 'Seriously? How am I supposed to deal with this?' but somehow, without knowing how, I do...

I give thanks for doing a few more seemingly impossible things in the end...and for LOTS of snacks in between! The work I've been doing has worked up a ravenous appetite but though the living room is becoming liveable in again I've hardly seen the kitchen... I give thanks to Mr Tesco for helping with a crumble...

Bird on a wire

Wires and cables are curious items, aren't
they? Leave them alone for half an hour or so and they will form complicated liaisons...leave them alone for years and you may spend half an hour untangling them!
I give thanks mine are under control...for now...

I give thanks for trying not to finish all the jobs I've started. To make that a bit easier I went on the bus to the second hand furniture shop that are bringing my sofa and table next week to see if there was anything else I'd like to have delivered at the same time. There wasn't...but I enjoyed the sight of a garden full of rhododendrons, swans on the nest by the river...and the inside of my eyelids when I had a nap. I give thanks for a pot of tea and a buttered cheese scone at Waterstone's to wake me up again...It is a friendly and purse friendly place for a solitary customer and they carry your tray if you ask them too.

I give thanks for giving up asking for the lady who bought the bed to come and pick up the last piece of it - the 3ft x 6ft wooden tray that goes underneath - and for trying not to be disappointed in myself for not grasping the situation sooner. I am so bad at recognising excuses and lies...guess I just have to give thanks I'm good at coming up with cunning plans and eventually I'll come up with an idea for where it can be put out of the way...and maybe even someone to put it there. Under my bed would be fine but I'd have to take everything else out of the room first and that is beyond me...

As well as everything else I've done an awful lot of unscheduled laundry over the last few days. I give thanks there will be advantages to complete cessation of renal function.

Something in the way she moves

Well now... If I hadn't sold my s-s-s-single bed I might never have discovered that my little wicker chair and my little folding table make the ideal watching TV while eating arrangement! I've used various other combinations but never those two together before.... I give thanks for putting together chickpeas, cauliflower and potato in 'butter chicken' sauce for the aforementioned meal. Never done that before either...

I give thanks for lots of ch-ch-changing things round - despite loving neat and tidy, I enjoy a bit of temporary chaos when it feels like an improvement is on its way, and a bit of a kick out of the shift in energy when you rearrange possessions. I can't do anything to make moving house happen quicker but by moving the stuff around in it, I am feeling less stuck...and hopefully making it not only easier to leave when I do by cleaning, sorting and rehoming, but more pleasant to be here in the meantime.

I give thanks Julie has promised me a helping hand with some of the moving and removing... I suspect some of what I have in mind might be more than my body can do!

I give thanks for (very easily) finding a light meter app. I wanted to see how much difference it would make moving my sewing table. Loads!

9 to 5

I give thanks for an evening doing almost pretty much nothing...as that was pretty much what was required. For the immediate neighbours being out so I drift into sleep feeling peaceful and relaxed...at least until 4 am when urological matters rudely awakened me!

I give thanks for washing machines and waterproof sheeting, for no one else having to deal with it but me... and that I'd already scheduled a morning of rest!

Unfortunately not everyone else had read the memo and everything and a half has been going on today, so I give thanks for somehow managing to stay awake and more or less functioning through the complicated coveyancing convolutions and various peripheral but connected matters including trying to wrestle some of my own money out out of a savings company, and trying to find someone who will wrestle my old bed/sofa out of the flat and pay me for the privilege! Honestly I swear I did less office work when I worked in an office!

I give thanks for the helpful BT engineer who fixed my phone wires so the line doesn't go dead every time they fix someone else's nearby. Allegedly...

The times they are a-changing

I give thanks for the healing powers of sleep. Sometimes I feel quite seriously ill (which is quite different from being seriously ill!) but then, if I am able to take a nap, I feel much better afterwards. Unfortunately, even though I neither cohabit nor go out to work, it's not always possible to snooze exactly as and when required but oh, the relief of it when I can! I give thanks for managing to get some tea and wash up last night by fitting in some shut eye before, between and after...

I give thanks for convenience of communicating via email - often much easier for me than talking on the phone. For the estate agent being helpful when the solicitor was not and offering to print out a 13 page document for me to sign that had been attached to an email instead of posted in hard copy. This may seem an argument against emails but the conversation that led to the offer of office assistance took place that way...

Of course it helps if you have sturdy internet access, but unfortunately the fragile lines here fell foul of an engineer up a pole earlier and I failed to catch him and send him back up it this time. I give thanks for getting through to a 151 advisor in this country who listened to me and accepted I might know what I was talking about...always a bonus. I give thanks for a connection via my mobile phone.

I give thanks for the fragrance of lilac and the beauty of wisteria blossom

For a cafe that last year told me there was no call for vegan cake now having two sorts to choose from... Not being committed to a dairy free diet myself I give thanks for them selling me a plain scone to take home and spread with jam and the last of the clotted cream. I also give thanks for vegan jelly... I mean why would you want pig in your pudding? You might wonder why I want jelly at all... Well, apart from trifle, it's a cool sweet treat on a warm summery day when ice cream and fresh fruit salad are rationed.

Silence is golden

My goodness me but I am tired this evening! I give thanks I don't have to go anywhere or do anything else except perhaps make something for my tea...or maybe just go back to sleep...

It was a busy day and I give thanks for all I got done indoors and out especially the 'business' phone calls made and answered - something I find particularly wearing on the nerves and wearying. For that reason I also give thanks someone who was supposed to call me back didn't and I could squeeze in a nap on the sofa instead.

I give thanks for sorting out a couple of small drawers - something I find much more pleasing and satisfying...

I give thanks for the warm sunshine, pausing a while to enjoy it, a much needed rest and a totally unnecessary ice cream, on a seat between bouts of shopping.

Da doo ron ron

I give thanks for the hairstyle known as a messy bun - it's the only do I can do! And royal patronage can't do any harm now can it?

I give thanks for taking my office (and lunch) down to the communal gardens for a while this afternoon to enjoy the hazy but pleasantly warm sunshine. And for connecting to my own router three floors (and a half) floors above. I didn't manage to get a response from the many folk from whom I'm waiting for legal news, but the camembert and pear salad was delicious!

I give thanks for a meeting a charming man and taking him straight up to my bedroom...to examine the problem with the window there! No my heart didn't stand still. That will probably be when I hear how much it's going to cost...

I give thanks for the Wall of Sound. Yep, Mr Spector might have his faults but he sure knew how to produce a record. There's a wonderful old video of this one on YouTube if you share my predilection...

All you need is love

Lately I keep dreaming that I've 'met' someone. I give thanks my conscious mind accepts with good grace romance is just another of life's boats sailing away without me, and in fact there are distinct advantages to not being aboard, but I do wake a little wistful... I give thanks for remembering all the different kinds of love there are, and that though may not have experienced receiving much in any of the expected ways somehow I always seem to have plenty to give away.

I give thanks for loving a BBC4 documentary with some old guys reminiscing - old guys who were pilots and then astronauts when they were young!  I've mixed feelings about the money and man hours that have gone into space programmes and advancing aviation technology especially as they are so closely allied to developing weapons of war, but the the speed and danger are thrilling,  the valiance of human endeavour so poignant...and it's all so beautiful out there!   Great vintage footage and stills set against the current appearance of hardware and staff,  and a thoughtful and rather moving narration by those who were there. Good music too...

Today I've been giving thanks it's been cloudy - it's effort enough getting out of bed sometimes, let alone out of the building! I give thanks for changing the sheets and turning the mattress ready to get back in for a siesta...

I give thanks for remembering the song, watching it recorded live on the first satellite TV programme 'Our World' with segments from various linked up countries...and then spending my pocket money on my first single. My mother was sniffy about the lyrics, bless her. Poor woman, she was sniffy about so many things. All you need is love... All together now!

Fool on the hill

I give thanks for the royal wedding - presumably the reason for the almost empty town, seafront, beach and sea! I give thanks for thus enjoying a far more relaxed time down there than I would expect on a sunny Saturday. I give thanks for taking my camera so I could zoom in and see the crowds on the horizon... and that the horizon came out approximately horizontal as I couldn't see a thing on the screen.

It had not been my plan to go down the hill today, but after being pleased so with myself for thinking to ask in the chemist's about receiving my prescription meds in more hand friendly pill bottles I then foolishly forgot to go back and pick up the pills.

As the pharmacy shut at 1.00 pm I gave thanks I didn't need them urgently, a far more pressing requirement being a long lie in... And then when I'd had one of those I give thanks for the sun being so bright and inviting and the aches and pains so minimal I went out anyway...

I give thanks for grabbing a picnic lunch to take with me... For a Tesco driver with a jolly sense of humour when I returned, and a catch up with some long overlooked household chores. For somehow finding time and energy in between to rustle up some dhal and a trifling thing for tea so that when the fatigue catches up with me again as it surely will do, suddenly and totally, I'll be all set to suddenly and totally stop!

Little things

I give thanks the kind and talented lady who made me some custom earrings a few years ago has been able to provide a replacement pair after one of the originals wandered off one day in town.

So tired today, I give thanks for eventually making it outdoors and picking up all manner of necessities and bargains, including a wheel of posh shop 'essential' camembert reduced to 59p. There's poor, and then there's Waitrose poor...

I give thanks for the money for a cab back home, and for knowing to wait for one from the supermarket rather go to the rank so that you don't pay extra for being in a traffic jam!

I give thanks for thinking 'Ooh what a treat!' settling down in front of the TV on my return with a plate of toast and a mug of tea. I know lots of folk live alone, don't go out to work and still maintain a regular schedule of meals, activities and rest but I love being able not to. I give thanks having been brought up to a more traditional Western routine I can still get a kick out of the sense of rebellion in snacking or snoozing on demand.

Cleaning windows*

I give thanks that I like cleaning and tidying, as there's always some to be done! To my mind there's an optimal stage in messiness to step in and make it go away ie. enough dirt and disarray for there to be a satisfying visual improvement when you've done, but not so much that it becomes hard physical labour...so I give thanks for successfully tackling some jobs that had reached that stage, including 'gardening' the potted palms and cleaning the top of the kitchen cupboards. Apparently there are folk who think only the bits you see really matter but if you climb a ladder now and then you'll see what a lot of matter collects up there!

I give thanks for it casually crossing my mind to make what I thought was a casual enquiry about something important that needs to be done quite soon and finding out it was considerably more complicated than I thought and that it was a good job I'd started the process when I did.

I give thanks for giving myself a pat on the back for how many jobs I'm getting done lately... And then for getting on with the next one on the list - an urgently required late siesta!

* I give thanks for Van Morrison. You can give thanks for George Formby if you prefer...each to their own.

Oh happy day!

I give thanks for a lovely day. The weather's been a bit meh but I didn't want to go out anywhere so I gave thanks for that too... What I did want to do was a lot of nothing much in particular - idling on the internet, playing games, reading books, watching TV, a long bath and a smidge of sewing. You might think living like this would be a perk of being permanently peaky but I must be doing it wrong because it doesn't actually happen that often at all. Anyway, I give thanks for managing a good few hours of restful relaxation today...and discovering 'intelligent time wasting' while I was at it!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p025ht2f/clips

I give thanks, when the urge to be productive grew too much, for doing a few vaguely moving related tasks. One of them was clearing out a storage drawer in the bed in the living room...and guess what I found! It had been a place I could see there was a remote chance the remote control might have snuck off to, and I'd looked in there...several times...but I guess it wasn't until the drawer was empty that it had nowhere left to hide! Oh, the gratitude and joy of no longer having to adjust the TV volume with a button on the back of the set!

Stuck in the middle with you

Sometimes I choose a post title and then the day just seems to fit! Last night I spread out the completed parts of my patchwork to try to decide how to do the middle block, and of course Gerry Rafferty and friends popped into my head. Meanwhile, I give thanks I think it's looking pretty good and I've a plan for how to at least begin the end!

I give thanks for a pleasant couple of hours with Rachel, a passable meal from Mr Tesco, a helpful treatment...and all the washing up done while it took its course!

I give thanks for another hussly bustly day all manner of areas (might as well get as much done while I can) and for taking time to loiter in the sun in Mima's courtyard, and later on the seafront with a Booja Booja ice cream when my shopping bag needed putting down.

On my return I give thanks for dealing with two crabby messages from two different estate agents about by being rather crabby back, pointing out the fault lies with the solicitor, not me, and insisting someone else had bettes sort it out or else! It takes a lot to get me riled these days, and I wasn't really cross, but I give thanks it seems I can still do a damn fine impression of it when it seems that's the only way to get results.

I give thanks I've made a fresh batch if that delicious granola for my breakfast, and managed to cobble together some tea for tonight before my muscles and joints twigged just what I have put them through and responded by putting me through spasms and pain. I give thanks I've a lot of recorded TV and lying down to catch up with...

Can't get used to losing you

Yay, I give thanks my passport has rematerialised, the dark red of its cover clearly visible right at the front of the white papers in the white basket where I looked the first time...and several times more after that! Still no sign of the remote control. It's a mystery...

I give thanks when the internet off just as I was about to start the business of the day, it was just a man up a pole and when he came back down it was back up again...

I give thanks the plumber sent to make good the damage the last one had done was not the same one... He only needed a file but arrived with a large heavy wbag of tools and some plastic shoe protectors which he slipped on over his boots on entering the premises. 'Now I think you're going to murder me!' I said. I give thanks he didn't!

I give thanks for getting a load of photocopying, form filling and envelope stuffing done. Some things need the signature of a 'professional' so I give thanks I have one coming to tea...

And speaking of tea, I give thanks for the random coordination of my mug and bowl earlier. I have at various times bought or been gifted an eclectic mix of china and though little of it actually matches most of it is pleasing to the eye when in the same place. But I don't remember ever putting this particular pair together before and they look as if they were meant to be. Little things eh? Oh yes, I give thanks I can enjoy colour, pattern and shape in crockery as much as everything else.

River deep mountain high

Having trouble sleeping last night I gave thanks for the internet, books...and biscuits!

I give thanks for feeling well despite being tired, and able to tackle a busy morning of various tasks including hunting high and low for my passport which I think must have gone to find the remote control! I give thanks for remaining philosophical...

I give thanks for Mima taking me out for a drive to a park not far away that neither of us has visited before, though I'd admired the trees from the road when I've been on it. I was stunned by pretty it was, and despite not being large it was laid out with wildish woods on a hillside as well as open spaces, a stream and a river. I give thanks for a refreshment van with tea and more biscuits!

We can work it out

I give thanks for getting a variety of work done today...housework, paperwork and patchwork! I have now completed four strips of seven blocks of nine squares and am working on the fifth and final section...

I give thanks for lots of lounging around in between...

For the neighbours being out for a big chunk of the day so that I could forget that they exist...

For a pair of rather moving documentaries, ostensibly about young people's issues regarding gender, sexuality etc...but at its heart just about people and their need to feel attractive, appreciated for who they are, listened to and accepted. I cried at the parents willingly remortgaging their house to pay for cosmetic surgery for their teenager...and the thirty year old who said whenever he had a knock back he remembered his mother's rejection and rationalised he must be worthless. I give thanks for everyone who grows up feeling loved...and for everyone who manages to be loving anyway.

Here comes the rain again

I give thanks for getting up before Jan for once so I could make her a cup of tea to say thank you for all the ones she's brought me. For her choosing an earlyish train so by getting readyish to see her off at the station I could potter through my in town chores and be home before the rain started.

I give thanks for having had a lovely break, and that now the weather has seriously broken I'm snug and warm inside. I give thanks for finding a new (to me) and (for now) addictive phone game to stop me from lingering too long on the answer to that post holiday 'Now where was I?' question. Trying to sort out a lease extension, a sale and a purchase while keeping the normal plates spinning here and preparing for the imminent start of dialysis was exactly why I needed a few days off in the first place!

I give thanks for making inroads into the laundry, the washing up... and a selection of rather yummy leftovers.

Homeward bound

I give thanks for a safe smooth journey home...as swift as it could be too, despite all the slow 'stopping'  trains that had to be used.

We had to leave the apartment by 10 so I give thanks for the mild sunny morning to amble our way to the station, via a beach cafe...

I give thanks for the stunning scenery of the bays and coves, lost to the mist when we arrived.

For a forage in Waitrose for lunch, a cab up the hill and a much needed nap to restore my strength in time to make our supper..

For the slanting rays of the setting sun in the kitchen as I cooked. Poor Jan, bit of a come down for her after all the gourmet meals, but I give thanks for producing main, side and dessert in time to slump in front of the TV...

When the boat comes in

I give thanks for three little fishies on a little dishy - scallops unfashionably (and delightfully) unsullied by black pudding, a cracking Greek salad and for the lushest crème brûlée to follow... There were other desserts that tempted me but abstained from their various dietary sins, and didn't miss them a bit...

For the lifeboat land crew entertaining us exercising their clever truck/winch/turntable to take their craft out and stow it away again. It's a slow process, and we thought we might miss it having dinner but it was so slow that they were still doing it when we came back!

It's been grey, cool and drizzly today and I give thanks for an excuse to take it easy and rest my aching bits. I give thanks Jan was happy to go off for a walk on her own, and for being able to remember trekking off from here along the coast when I was younger and well.

Simply the best

So what's the local tipple, asked Jan. Um, well there'll be quite a bit of craft beer I should should think, I replied...And sure enough we soon came across an off licence with a wall of it! I give thanks for choosing the one with the prettiest bottle, because it was also absolutely delicious!

I give thanks for hearing and following beautiful tinkling sounds, and finding a man playing a celtic harp. For going out in the drizzle this morning and finding a coconut cream tea for vegans and a reduced price pretty grey mauve silk cardigan with mulitcoloured mother of pearl buttons for those with less scruples!

I give thanks for the sun coming out this afternoon and my legs being up for a bit more pottering by the blustery blue sea. We fancied a boat trip to an island but the boat trip providers didn't so we sat on a seat and looked at it far away... I give thanks while U was trying to take a photo my camera pointed out the top of the fence was worth a shot too!

I give thanks for another yummy snack in a beachside cafe and a lush long snoozy read on the sofa to prepare for going out for tea. Someone (Alexei Sayle? Ben Elton?) once said this town was full of procreating potters...and clearly the fruit of their loins is eschewing dairy because we've found fudge, German sausage, tapas, salads and a selection of cakes for Jan. All we need now is a renal diet restaurant for me...

Clouds

Woke up with a start this morning...I give thanks this was because Jan was bringing me a cup of tea!

I give thanks for more glorious sunshine, and for setting off early to enjoy another cuppa at the station before we set off west and north and eventually into the chilling clouds. I give thanks for an apartment with a damn fine view of them...

I give thanks for meeting some people who told me about a boat trip I'd like to take some time...and discovering a disabled loo on a train platform I didn't think had any loos. at all.

I give thanks for finding somewhere close by to where we are staying where both of us could find something to eat.

We're all going on a summer holiday

I've been dreaming of men from my past a lot lately... and giving thanks when I wake up that they are not present in my life now! Last night it was more horror movie than bad romance and I kept waking up wailing in fear only to drift down into another nightmare. I gave thanks for morning though weary and bleary eyed...

I give thanks for another 'properly' warm and sunny day. My goodness me my body likes a bit of that! For getting all the chores, calls, cooking etc done in time to take a book and sit and catch some rays on the way to meet Jan. I give thanks it's a darn good book and to Ann for sending it to me but it's so hard to put it down.

I give thanks for introducing her to Booja Booja ice cream (and of course having some myself!) How a vegan can not have had this delight before is a mystery...as even neither I nor the shop keeper are and we love it! They have vegan fudge there too and that's a new one on me! I give thanks my second attempt at vegan trifle was a great success.

I give thanks for Jan coming up with a title for this post!

Wonderful world

I give thanks for the warmth of the sunshine today...lovely to be able to be out and about and not all bundled up! Lovely to see so many others enjoying it too, though that made for rather a lot of queuing in the indoors bits...plus a bus seemed to go missing somewhere so I arrived home later than I meant to. I give thanks for not too much moaning at the stop...and for getting a seat both to wait and to travel. For watching the world go by, and some bubbles climb in the sky.

I give thanks for enjoying scones outdoors with Mima and Trish, and a leisurely stroll about. For aches and pains being relatively mild, and energy levels quite high. I give thanks for being a little more ready for Jan's visit and our trip to Cornwall, and for being fairly confident I'll get round to the rest of it by and by. Acupuncture and a gong bath in the same week has left me feeling delightfully mellow and unperturbed by my lack of productivity. So far I'm giving thanks for this...

Not dark yet

Have you seen the news? Isn't it dreadful...the way 'they' try to make you live in fear and anger? I went through a phase of not paying any attention at all to the media's various versions of important and true but lately I've started looking at the front pages of newspapers (on the internet or in shops) to see what particular thought manipulations are in vogue, and I give thanks today their transparency actually made me laugh. Let's hope this state of mind continues!

I give thanks I keep on trying to keep compassionate thoughts in my mind no matter what goes on in the minds of others, what deeds they commit, 'mistakes' they make, misguided they seem to be. Yep, even newspaper editors and the people who pull their strings!

Last night I gave thanks for being out on a beautiful evening. It's rare for me not to be indoors after dark, but what a treat this time of year when there's still some blue in the sky until late. I give thanks for it bringing one of my favourite Dylan tracks to mind. I keep thinking it might be time to move on from the song title blog headings but then another one pops into my head.

I give thanks for a wonderful gong bath - my other favourite legal high, along with acupuncture... For a lift home from the lovely Sally afterwards with much letting off steam and laughter. I felt so much more relaxed afterwards which is a blessing in a time of particular uncertainty in my life. I feel sure these 'alternative' therapies help my wellbeing in so many ways, and though I know Western medical science would beg to differ, they've yet to come up with any other explanation for my body's repeated refusals to act according to their script. The only other thing I do that maybe a lot of their other patients don't is take supergreens (sometimes) so I'm not going to stop doing that either...oh and write a gratitude blog every day. That has become such an ingrained habit I tend to forget it's also fairly unusual. Maybe kindness really is good for you, eh?

There's a kind of hush

I give thanks for my new fridge freezer...and for the chaps from Woolacotts doing just what they say on the tin! The best delivery and disposal service at the best price and a local family firm as well! And with all the stairs, I'm sure they are very grateful I've now replaced all my white goods too...

I give thanks for getting everything done in preparation for their arrival with time to have a much needed nap. It's been a busy couple of weeks and I keep waking up much too early to ponder upon it all.

I give thanks for assembling a quick lunch from defrosting foods after reassmbling the kitchen, and for lolling a while on the sofa. For none of the phone calls I was expecting breaking the spell, and for none of the forms I thought I might have to fill in arriving in the post. For news of a special order pair of earrings though, and a new to me book from Ann.

I give thanks for all the neighbours being out (or in!) to make the rest of the afternoon extra relaxing...no strimmers, mowers, extractor fans, shouting at pigeons etc. In fact it was so peaceful I managed to do some more snoring practice for later!

Right, it's time for the big switch on! Couldn't get a celebrity so it will have to be me...

Hanging on the telephone

I give thanks for persuading a very sceptical Openreach engineer to go back up a pole today. 'I didn't do anything!' he kept insisting
...but I was perfectly sure if he climbed back up and didn't do it again my dial tone would return and my router stop flashing red. And mercifully I was quite right, and I could lean out of my kitchen window (at a similar height) and thank him for his trouble!

I was particularly grateful for this as there is so much to do on line and on the line at the moment. I was particularly grateful to Emma at the building society too, for putting in so many woman hours and finally persuading the underwriters not to write me off, and to myself for thinking outside the money box for a way to help this happen of course...

I give thanks for finishing cutting out all the squares for my bedcover for which the pattern is decided. The middle block is going to be different I'm sure but I'm not quite sure quite how yet!

I give thanks for confirming my new fridge freezer is due tomorrow as they tried to deliver it last week instead...and for planning to do little but empty the old one between now and when it arrives. I am a mite fatigued this evening and some serious sloth is required...

Needles and pins

...and pens, phones, plugs and chargers, books, spoons, knives and forks, shoe laces, keys to operate doors and keys to type about it, they all hurt my poor hands today... I give thanks for avoiding all of the above as much as possible plus Paracetamol, Actipatches and Arnica gel to try to bring the pain under control...though operating all of those hurts too!

Despite being irritating at the time, I give thanks for events not going unfolding to my mistress plan this morning, as this actually meant more hanging about resting aforementioned sore bits. I give thanks meeting Mima and Jenny for tea and cake was already arranged, and was a very pleasant interaction...and distraction from all the other stuff going on, or seemingly going nowhere.

I give thanks for a lovely meal made by Rachel last night, with laughter, a helpful treatment and the gift of a floral flouncy long top (or very short dress!) she'd picked up in a charity shop and had decided wasn't quite right. This may or may not be a good thing to anyone else's eyes or mind, but I rather like looking like a fairy...grandmother!