Gold standard

Well I've been sweeping the floor in the sleep Olympics (done a lot better than I have with sweeping the floor!)  As predicted records are tumbling in both the 10 minute nap and the 2 hour doze but I've also had startling success in wake-yourself-up-by-snoring jump! I would like to thank Rachel for her dedication to my relaxation and helping me hone my skills. I'm grateful I hurt less than yesterday but very lazy daysy dozy today...which reminds me to also thank those who admired my dangly bits! I'm grateful for the strength for the standard essentials... I guess what passes for those varies from person to prison but catering and cleanliness are mine. Still hopeful I might get a second wind for some creativity later...I'm grateful for all the plans and ideas waiting patiently for action...and for so much to entertainment me on TV in the meantime. Tennis, obviously, and another favourite - trampolining. See those people fly!

I give thanks for a successful delivery of surgical supplies. This, you may remember, is not something guaranteed. I know all the companies mean well but the weak link in the system is often the courier company driver who, bless him, cannot tell the difference between an oven glove and a urostomy bag from its package and doesn't understand the sensitive and urgent nature of these deliveries. Anyway, Lee from Interlink gets a gold star for following instructions, as does the new supply company for a better class of freebies than I'm used to. They seem to have grasped that you can lose part of your excretory system but retain your aesthetic sense...their handy holdall for the travelling ostomate is actually one I wouldn't mind being seen alive with! Still gotta work on the actual travelling though...

I give thanks for this amusing sequel to the previous piece on typical British quirks and foibles http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19093328 and for finally twigging that you don't need to have a glut from a garden or the supermarket reduced shelves to have 'fresh' veg in you freezer. Supermarket organic stuff comes in packs too big for me to eat up quick enough. Sometimes I cook extra portions of something with them and freeze that but of course I can just freeze the veg too - duh! The blanching water makes excellent stock for soups as well...

Flower fairy

Last night I gave thanks for the big bright creamy yellow moon rising early in the the still quite bright blue sky.

Today I give thanks for the well trained rain falling before I went out and when I got home, and for the sun for shining on me inbetween.

For my hair which makes people feel jolly...

For my home made cardigan which makes me feel proud, the made up fastening design especially so...

For a nice chat with the new nurse taking my bloods about the importance of sea, creativity and hair in maintaining a sense of well being. I kid you not. She had a lot to say...I had to remind her why I was there!

For acupuncture which is also essential, and the delightful dazed warm fuzziness I have after. I had time to do my thises and thats between the two and so could come straight home. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to get an early tea now as the fairies are waiting to take me somewhere. As you can see from the picture I was already on the verge of flight when I stepped off the table...

Heavenly bodies

For some reason yesterday I felt queasy all day so I was grateful when some items in the Tesco delivery finally woke my appetite up in the late afternoon...fresh crusty rye mix bread and garlic and herb roulade and a few organic grapes on the side. And I'm also grateful that I decided to watch a little Olympic tennis while I ate my snack, and chose the Tsonga v Raonic match...so had a lovely l-o-n-g tea break! Even had time to finish sewing up my knitted cardigan, just the fastening to sort out now. Then by the time I'd done another session of sanding it was getting too late for any more filling (oh, life's a lady dog sometimes isn't it?) and so I just had a clear up and a bath and a bit of supper and bed on the sofa with the TV.

I give thanks for persevering with the increased activity regime, and believe I am feeling a little more capable though all joints are protesting loudly and there are still many times when I feel if I don't sit down I'll fall asleep, let alone down... Saluting the Sun is still a distant dream (I wave to the sun and say hi, nice to see you, but that's not what I mean!) and I've had to the modify the first move of the meridian stretches as you are supposed to link thumbs behind you and swing your arms up above your head. Linking thumbs is not an option without a screech of pain that could probably be heard on the sun's surface so I link fingers instead. I give thanks for going back for second helpings of ingenuity when they were making me...well, there was such a long queue at beauty and I couldn't be bothered to wait!

I give thanks for the full mooniness of the moon last night. For Clive coming to do some jobs today requiring strength and skills beyond my own, to share food and chat, and for bringing some sewing for me to do for him - always good to feel useful. For my ebay yarn arriving already and for another pleasant session inventing with my crochet hook whilst keeping an eye on the tennis. I missed the Tsonga/Lopez match but that's probably all for the best as I'd have been watching it in a similar manner to that in which many men watch ladies' beach volleyball! I give thanks for all the sporting chaps and chapesses giving their all for their countries in the nicest possible way, and for all those for whom success matters achieving the scores that they desire. Well done that man with sideburns, eh?

Designs of the times

I've not seen all the sculptures on the trail this year but I'm thinking of stealing this one...isn't it wonderful? I give thanks for every single bit so that's my quota for the day...or maybe the year, ha ha!

Actually, I do give thanks for some other things today...For not getting the usual text re a more precise delivery time that you usually get for a Tesco order. This meant I could abandon filling and sanding and mucky work clothes and sit clean and waiting, playing with a crochet hook! I give thanks that after some yarn I ordered on the internet was nice, but not for the job intended I found a ball of something else bought also on the internet for another job and not quite right for that...would actually do very nicely for this project. Even more thanks for finding that it had been discontinued...BUT there were a few balls for sale on ebay! I looked for a flower pattern to try with it but couldn't find anything that was just what I wanted so, as I was itching to get on with actually crocheting I made one up. Couple of goes...getting there and great fun in the way. Also, as it's a multicoloured space dyed yarn I've been experimenting with where in the colours to start for a pleasing random effect rather than absolute chaos. A lovely way to spend an hour or two...

Batteries not included

Today I'm giving thanks for peach and lilac clouds at sundown yesterday. Isn't it strange how we can appreciate colour combinations in nature that we wouldn't want in our wardrobes or home decor?

For red lentils...I love those pulses to pieces! I buy organic ones that come from Turkey and a bag makes bags of dinners. I'm sure many people would prefer the turkey but not me! 

I wanted to go for a bit of a walk first thing but my body needed rehab after sessions up the step ladder with a filler knife and said no, no no! So I give thanks for not listening to it and hobbling off up the sea wall a little way and for getting wet in a heavy rain shower and then warm and dry again in the sunshine. Love that! Felt too tired to do anything when I got back but watch extremely fit people do totally amazing things with their bodies ...but hey, I don't have a problem with that...in fact I'm grateful for that too! What could be nicer than to take it easy when you're tired? And though it might seem to the untrained eye as if I didn't go so very far to get tired...well, it's the furthest I've gone since my operation so I'm not complaining. As for those fit people...It's just such a shame it has to be a competition...that they can't just all have a big round of applause and go home. Don't suppose they'd bother if that were the case though would they?

Oh, and I give thanks for finding a mouse. Not a rodent but the pc variety. I'd forgotten I'd bought a plain old plug in USB mouse a while back after regretting forgetting to take the batteries out of the wireless one. I'm click happy now!

A day with words

First thanks of the day for the refreshing rain showers. I wasn't out in any but I love the smell of rain on dry ground and foliage...

Thanks also to those of you who appreciated yesterday's post. So often on life I've stated what seem to me to be obvious, if unstated, truths only be told I have the wrong end of the stick - if not metaphorically beaten with it! Perhaps I'm just ahead of my time sometimes...as a teenager I was thrown out of A Level English Literature for the heresy of asking how the teacher, or indeed anyone else centuries later, could know for sure exactly what a writer meant to convey with a certain word or phrase. Forty years later studying for my OU degree I was delighted to find it is now the norm to accept that each reader creates their own individual meaning by virtue of the way their own social and literary background colours their interpretation of certain words. Also as a writer myself, I would feel I'd failed in some way if my work didn't say different things to different people. Also, inspiration doesn't arrive with a preprepared with a bunch of exam notes you know? Sometimes we don't know ourselves where the things we say come from actually!

Thanks for the delight of seeing the Murray brothers playing doubles together which I never have before. It didn't really matter to me that they didn't win as that's just the final score - as I said it was watching them play that I enjoyed. Jamie always seems to have a warm rapport with his partners, and it was great to see Andy having the opportunity to have a rapport with anyone on court! Always good to see siblings doing stuff together anyway...and good that Andy won his match today so won't feel too down on himself.

I give thanks for taking it easier yesterday. Sometimes building up your stamina can feel a lot like wearing yourself out! I had a much needed long lie in and an early night doing remarkably little in between and have been a bit more energetic today. I've been having a go at making a false window frame surface out of wood filler as the one I have is not fit to paint. I've also been sewing up the cardigan I knitted. I give thanks I find these kinds of tasks pleasant...and that they're going well so far.

Thanks Danny & Co

I'm not a tremendous fan of patriotism...national pride can be a few short steps from genocide even though what constitutes a nation or a border is often so arbitrary. The map of the world is always changing and its citizens have always moved from one place to another and mingled blood but (apart from psychopaths) we have a natural desire to feel we belong so we tend to divide everything into 'us' and 'them'...changing the usses and thems as context requires. Racial purity is becoming increasingly rare and in sport allegiance can be altered for money and/or in reference to a single forebear but nonetheless, because of the fierce way we divide ourselves up, there is something rather amazing about two hundred and four groups that currently believe they are separate countries coming together to be pleased and proud in doing something together (plus independents...see, those lines are getting blurry already!). I don't think I've ever seen an Olympian procession where the team members looked quite so delighted to be taking part so maybe that sense was especially prevalent this year...the wonder of it! Also the wonder of all those diverse volunteers who constructed and performed the show...I loved that they were celebrated for their endeavours too.

I'm always up for a bit of a spectacle and celebration, me. I love to 'ooh' and 'aah', and as you know laugh, cry and clap with the greatest of ease so an Olympic ceremony is always going to be fair game for some entertainment. What surprised me about this one was how much I enjoyed it. I expected to be impressed by display, by co ordination, technology, vision and skill - that's the norm for these events these days - but I didn't expect to be impressed by what was displayed. I didn't expect there to be so much for non team players to enjoy. I loved that it was funny and quirky and encompassed what wasn't pomp and ceremony. That the 'establishments' featured weren't the ones you might expect and that it celebrated the 'every day' and how the current 'everyday' came to be. Like some others I wasn't overwhelmed by the final choice of act but it did make us want it to stop, and it was getting rather late!

So, yes, 'proud to be British' is a minefield for me but I give thanks for currently identifying myself with the place where the Olympics are being held and to Danny & Co for making me feel so!

I also give great thanks that a Swedish Wallander is on tonight. No, we don't do everything better than everyone else...let's have some rationality here.