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.