Fast worker

I give thanks to Colin for reminding me to buy ginger, to Jan for reminding me to put some in a mug with honey and lemon to soothe my sniffles and to Jenny for cleaning my bath to make it all the nicer to wallow in. I give thanks for the excitement of thinking I'm getting a cold - I'm so rubbish at catching minor ailments and they're far more fun than serious health issues.

I give thanks that yesterday's frustrations were such good practice for today's...and that today's proved an excellent opportunity for people to be helpful, or at least encouragingly amusing! I give thanks not all of them related to unusable broadband due to a crossed landline - that would be a bit sad, wouldn't it? I give thanks I have some slow internet on my phone to demonstrate how fast even my non superfast connection usually is.

I give thanks for stopping by to look at the sea and all the aaargh turning to aah! I give thanks for a decent set of blood results turning the aah to ooh! Oh and I give thanks my body seems to have forgotten about catching that cold. Told you I was rubbish didn't I?

Can do

I'm grateful for a day that refused to bend to my will, because I know they're far more character forming than the ones you skip through (at least metaphorically!) I'm grateful I know not to take it personally, nor to take it out on persons here present (or persons who are elsewhere as the case may be!) I'm grateful for opportunities to come up with Plan Bs and beyond, and thus improve my ingenuity. I'm even grateful for a little light gnashing of teeth as I've one that really needs to come out and I'd far prefer it to fall naturally than be wrenched (shudders at mere thought!)

I'm grateful for wanting to eat dessert but not wanting to make it, and sticking some chopped plums, crumbled stale biscuits and ready made custard in the microwave... which meant I did! I'm grateful for wondering what to do with my recently replaced old can opener earlier... and then being asked if I had one to lend...

I'm grateful for the passing clouds and rain, the changing light, the patterns of drops on the window. I'm grateful I know there's no such thing as bad weather just inappropriate attitude...

Base desires

I give thanks for howling storm last night, the rough sea and mizzly drizzly rain today. For being in the midst of a particularly communicative phase of my life...and taking time to walk along the seafront on my own communing only with the waves.

I give thanks for the joyfulness I encountered in town - it's usually a smiley chatty place but seemed even more so than usual today. I give thanks for the jolly tho unsuccessful surfers, the tuneful buskers, and the cheery Big Issue seller, for all the people saying 'after you' on foot and in their cars. I give thanks for a lady asking for help reaching for a top shelf cake in the supermarket, and a useful discussion about its possible merits as a trifle base.

I give thanks for getting to a till just as the operator became free and the taxi rank just as a driver I'd not seen for a while became free too. I give thanks for trying some salted caramel choc ices and declaring them inedible as I'm not supposed to eat chocolate, ice cream or salt!

Home sorts

I give thanks for the autumnness of the day after that extended late flush of summer - I've been too tired to go out and it would have been hard not to if there had been more mild and sunny weather! I give thanks for stocking up my own personal photo library over the last couple of weeks so that I can keep basking in its glow.

I give thanks for lots of rest and quite a lot of bustling about in between, clearing out a couple of drawers and filling up a half a bin bag with unrecycleables clogging up my brain space as well as my home.

I give thanks for changing my bed linen, having now completed two complete sets. I give thanks for catching up with Laura (yes it's been a while - ha ha!) and unpacking the non urgent shopping that stayed in her boot when she had to hurry off yesterday. I give thanks that I now have a new doormat - (literally not metaphorically!) and a new parka for when it starts to get parky. I give thanks for discovering the reason Rachel hadn't booked me an appointment at her clinic tomorrow was that she can fit in one more home visit before she's off on her much needed hols.

I give thanks for a spot of Nordic not so noir recorded yesterday, always nice when there's a bit of age appropriate candy for the mature woman's eyes as well...If I see the mature woman I'll be sure to pass the message on!

Softly softly

I give thanks for not trying too hard to go to sleep when I'm awake in the night. It's a pretty pointless thing to do as the effort is not at all relaxing. I give thanks for hearing other folk around and about quietly awake as well, as well as the odd raucous ones quickly passing by.

I give thanks for trying to meditate instead - a task in which the trying is the whole point, where even if only two breaths here and there pass without having to note the incursion of thoughts, just noting the incursion of thoughts is helpful let alone the bits in between! I give thanks that after a while, even in a very 'thinky' meditate my thoughts change and insights and solutions to conundrums arrive unpuzzled over - so it's enlightenment of some sort anyway!

I give thanks that though I felt particularly rough this morning I realised this was partly in contrast to the not rough feelings I've enjoyed lately instead. I give thanks for an afternoon out on various consumer quests with Laura, enjoying each others company, the warm weather and pretty soft light between the shopping stops and coming back with treasures from a delightfully unfull Trago!

Lightening up

I give thanks for another repetitive blog post title. I couldn't begin to tell you exactly what date but it's sure to be there somewhere in over 1800 gratitude themed posts. Sometimes I think perhaps I should try harder to be original but originally I didn't think I needed to plan this far ahead, you know.

I give thanks for more sorting out, including the less strenuous but considerably more fiddly replacing of batteries in the LED lights in the cupboard under the stairs after the step work yesterday. I give thanks for Paracetamol to take the edge off my aches and pains and for sorting out enough stuff to take to charity shops for a taxi to town to be a necessity. I give thanks for managing to keep my eyes open for the Revive meeting, and to admire the beauty of the sun on the shallow pools in the sand and hazy light on the headlands. I give thanks for just enough energy left to collect new glasses (not sure about them yet), fresh medical supplies and bits of vital shopping, before dumping all of the above on my hall floor, cramming in the earplugs and crawling back under the covers for a snooze.

I give thanks for something quick and convenient for my tea, and for something even quicker for dessert - more of yesterday's delicious homemade blueberry sponge!

Change org

I give thanks for a change in the weather today - well, in the strength of wind anyway as I can be a bit stirred up when it's blowy and want to rush about.  I give thanks for a lie in this morning, after rescheduling a blood test and discovering the package I thought I had to get up to wait to be delivered was already safe with a kindly neighbour. I give thanks she admired my cardigan when I went to collect it - it's a good garment for starting a conversation!

I give thanks for plotting a change around and reorganisation. It's good to have a plan in stages if you live in a fairly confined space and can run out of energy or find yourself with too much pain to continue with very little warning. I give thanks for taking the first steps...and then the second ones when I couldn't reach the back of the high shelves! I give thanks for moderating my anti hoarding urges but still getting a big bag of stuff ready for departure to pastures new...with more in the 'just until I'm absolutely sure' pile. I give thanks for lots of rest and recuperation between manoeuvres and, when neither stopping nor starting the activity failed to shift my rather grumpy down in the dumpy mood, for a recorded Rude Tube for making me laugh it off a little instead.