Home birds

I give thanks for sleeping through some of the night despite various hindrances...for waking and keeping my eyes tight shut through a succession of gull squawks, pigeon coos and crow caws before giving up and shutting the window...and thus getting to see the sun come up through the tree tops!

I give thanks for making gluten free crackers to go with the cheese accompaniment for Rachel's bowl of (also homemade) lentil and roasted veg soup...I'm more frogess than goddess but I can be domestic now and then! I give thanks that Rachel is coming to treat me as well as eat...when you're feeling rough and the world seems tough what could be nicer than knowing someone's going to try and make you feel better?

I give thanks for writing the above earlier and then plodding off down the stairs to public spiritedly do some more bin sorting while I waited for Jenny to give me a lift to knitting...and when I came back a couple of hours later for discovering someone had finished the job in my absence! 

I give thanks for catching up with people I'd not seen for a while and finishing off my chicken style pieces...

I give thanks for rediscovering my mojo too somewhere along the deserted Monday seafront. It had wandered off suddenly and utterly for twenty four hours causing the kind of anguish only hypochondriacs and people who have serious stuff the matter with them can possibly understand. I give thanks it came back in time to produce the kind of quipping and banter expected of me in local shops and businesses. I give thanks I live in such a friendly part of the world where quipping and banter are required...

And carry on...

Sometimes you really don't appreciate what you have til it's gone. I'm often like that with painlessness - I just carry on doing lots of stuff quite forgetting what a blessing it is not to be hurting. And then when the hurting comes back it's hard to deal with the shock and disappointment as well as the actual pain. I give thanks in retrospect for a nice gentle patch without soreness when I sorely overdid the use of various body parts.

I give thanks to Bob for downloading his latest promo mix. Great music to dance to...see above. I give thanks for clearing up as much of the locally mismanaged rubbish as I could manage to..ditto.

I give thanks for sharing mirth and merriment with the Eastcliff Cafe staff at my ineptitude and decrepitude and self deprecation...and for finding a spot out of the wind and in the sunshine to enjoy a cup of take way tea, the sparkly waves and scudding clouds in the sky... For remembering to be grateful just for being there, not wishing I could go further or had someone to be with...

I give thanks for stopping to let a happy young couple pass me on the narrow pavement up the hill...and for seeing the glitter slippered girl whisper something in the boy's ear which led him to lift her up and carry her a few yards to their car. For allowing myself a twinge of envy...well, let's be honest two - one for the romance and one for the being carried!

I give thanks for finding a poem on the side of a packet of rice cakes. Is this normal? I've never seen one before...

I give thanks for a full contingent of noisy neighbours so that I can do a whole bunch of suffering at once this evening...

Shhh....

Oh bliss! I asked the universe for no audible arguments in the vicinity and it did so much better than that - there were no audible neighbours at home at all! Even the ones who almost always seem to be around and to be heard were away right through the night and most of the day and this bit of the terrace was so quiet it did cross my mind maybe it had been condemned or something and my letter telling me to get out was lost in the post... You cannot begin to imagine how grateful it made me...if you live in a house...especially one that's detached! Of all the horrid things about being poor never having any aural privacy is the one that makes me most sad and stressed, so I was giving thanks over and over again every time my ears reminded my heart to do so...

I give thanks for bed with no earplugs, and the window open to hear the swirling wind and crashing sea... For sensibly abandoning wallowing in the peacefulness this morning and getting up and out in time to catch the Post Office and the chemist that shuts early on Saturdays. For bright cloudiness and waves that make you go 'ooh!'...

I give thanks for some very pretty new earrings made for me...and for nearly knitting a chicken! I give thanks for nearly making a crumble but burning the rhubarb instead. I give thanks for one of the advantages of cooking for one - nobody to disappoint or make you feel disappointing...

I give thanks for this diverting little personality test quiz 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/projects/who-would-play-you-in-a-movie. 
Apparently I'm good at planning and also thinking on my feet when things don't go according to...I'm thinking I'll take the weight off my feet and work out what to have for supper as it's not crumble...

Phone company

Brr...that's a cold looking sea it's been today! Much as I love it, I give thanks there's been no call to do my French lieutenant's woman impression....

Instead I give thanks for applying my mardy self to various chores and creative projects before deciding a late lunch and a spot of recorded TV might, if not actually cheer me up, at least distract me from my gloominess...and thus discovering my Sky TV wasn't working which was indeed a great distraction I can tell you!

Most of my appliances (like their owner) are ancient and battle scarred but can be coaxed into performing more than adequately through faith, hope and cheerful drudgery...however there was an error message I'd not seen before and none of my usual tricks and dodges helped and I had to do that thing I hate to do because it triggers all kinds of latent bigotry, and call the helpline. I'm one of those folk who always believe they can fix everything so I give thanks the problem defeated the advisor too...and for negotiating a deal for an engineer's visit, answering the call closure question about anything else he could do by saying 'Tell me how to cancel the appointment if I need to because I still think I can do it myself!'

As it's a couple of weeks away, I was mentally giving thanks for DVDs, internet TV and a trip away during that time whilst digging out an ancient Freeview box, scart lead and so on...when I had an urge to try plugging the Sky box in just one more time...and it worked again. Woohoo! See...I can fix (almost) everything!

I give thanks that Bob found the old phones he left out to bring but thought he'd left behind, so I've managed to fill another envelope to send off to Kidney Research...I give thanks to the friends who've used their working ones to say hello today...

I give thanks for snug earplugs to block out eruptions of a long rumbling nearby row last night...for warm bathwater to soothe me, a firm mattress to support me, a downy duvet to give me a hug and a valiant attempt at meditation to let go of the hard dark thoughts that lie on the other side of my thankfulness...and I wouldn't mind more of the same tonight but I'd prefer not the first part, if possible universe please?

Love and pieces

I give thanks for more nurturing in the form of a sausage sarnie made for me, the fridge light fixed and also the loo seat which means members of the male sex can now proceed without fear of being cut short!

I give thanks for fitting in more of our favourite seasonal traditions like a movie with explosions, car chases etc and quiet companionable jigsaw completion... I give thanks that due to the season being somewhat delayed I got to see Bob off in daylight this time, which feels nicer somehow, not least because I don't have to come home alone in the dark. I don't mind being alone really, and I'm very good at not being nurtured but it's always hardest when I haven't had to be for a while...

I give thanks for all the seagull romance going on on the rooftops...no, I don't really want any more seagulls around but they're clearly feeling loved up and I can't begrudge them the feeling any more than the mature in years but young at heart couple who decided to skip hand in hand down the hill as I came up...I give thanks for their exuberant joy.

I give thanks for my jaunt with Jan to look forward to as I'm feeling a bit flat now I'm home in my flat listening to the neighbours having company instead of them having to listen to me.

Winter spring fall

I give thanks for the unbroken sunshine forecast not breaking through the clouds until we were ready to go out in it...for the springlike warmth when sheltered from the wintry northern breeze.

I give thanks for a stroll to see where I'd heard a cliff not far away had collapsed a little, not realising a spring had sprung forth into a bit of a misty waterfall which looked great in the bright sunlight but was damn tricksy to photograph as it glared right down the lens and dazzled the eyes too much to do much fiddling with settings.

I give thanks for my utterly brilliant Christmas/birthday presents...I supplied a list of course but I didn't expect to get so much that was on it! I give thanks for some of my favourite Gorilla perfume to make me even more irresistible (no, it doesn't mean it smells of gorillas but it does mean it doesn't smell like the yukky ones mask-thick make up wearing ladies sell in department stores!), for a new capo for my guitar to write sad songs if I'm still resistible enough...and for delicious Thornton's chocolate caramels,  a paperback and a bath bomb if I'm resistible and both my heart and hands are sore at once...

I give thanks for a go on my laptop - sometimes you have to share (sigh!), and for friends to chat with on Facebook. I give thanks that Bob is going to make dinner in a bit and I can chat to friends on Facebook while he does...pay attention friends...remember to chat to me in a little while so I can fully feel the not being a fully responsible adult experience!

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I'm grateful for some neighbours having a shouty row and waking me up from a late afternoon power nap before it became an early night...it's been a busy week or two and a little battery charge was necessary after whizzing into the big city today for a hospital appointment, but not a full on shut down.

I give thanks for lovely weather - bright but not too crisp. And for Bob's company on the train because although I'm grateful for perpetuating the myth that I'm as casual as can be about medical matters, I care more about outcomes than a would be Buddhist should! I give thanks for outcomes that were pretty OK...no action required in the areas I would prefer no action to be necessary, action pending for areas I'd like some please and a little light banter with one of my favourite consultants to banter with as he understands he's supposed to be consulting me...

I give thanks also for Bob's phone being able to take a photo of the message my phone composed by itself in my pocket... It clearly has some issue with something and is rather more confrontational than I am so I'm grateful it didn't send it though I'm fascinated by what the next word might have been!

I give thanks for a tired and increasingly disheartened trawl around the various eateries in the centre looking for somewhere with something we wanted to buy and somewhere we wanted to be...the two most promising were full (well they would be!) but in the second of these they were persuaded to find us a corner and fed us some most delectable anti pasti with good humour, excellent service and reasonable prices. We'd nearly finished before we worked out why it was called Jamie's!

I give thanks that Bob found something he was looking for in one of the many charity shops he looked in and for a restorative mug of station cafe brew before slogging back up the hill for that nap! I give thanks we've still not got round to Christmas...always good to have something to look forward to.