What Maya Angelou didn't say

Apologies for my lack of blog visiting this week. Each afternoon I've flopped, lethargic and uninterested in anything. I'm wondering if it were an after-effect of the pneumonia jab I had on Tuesday. But I currently feel brighter so am making the most of it.

The sun is shining as well so that helps after a dreary start to May.

A few weeks ago we had our polling cards but we didn't receive any information from anyone about what we were supposed to be voting for. Looking more closely at the card I did see that it said 'Election for a Police Commissioner' but by that time I'd googled it and found out about the candidates.

I duly trotted along to the polling station - in a portakabin just down the road from us - and voted, remembering my photo ID. (Unlike Boris Johnson who introduced the system - although most people think it was a gimmick on his part to remind people what a lovable buffoon he is and what a great leader of the conservative party he would be.)

Even though I didn't know much about what I was voting for, and I object to the ID system,  I was determined to go along and use my ID in defiance. If that makes any sense. And I had read the statements for the candidates and made my choice.

England had local councils as well and the Tories have been well and truly walloped. With almost all results in they've lost 448 seats. More surprising though is the fact they've retained 479. I despair of voters.

* * * * *

I've read a few interesting books recently.

Hotel Silence by Olafsdottir, is reminiscent of A Man Called Ove. The main character decides to take his own life but not wanting to create trauma for the person who finds him he chooses the most recently war-torn country and goes there. I'd never thought about how a country has to be rebuilt after war and what it's like living there. It was a fascinating insight with good characters.

The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths. I've read and enjoyed a number of the author's Ruth Galloway mysteries but this seemed a step up. A little classier and more complex. Very good.

I've also read My Name is Lucy Barton, which is highly regarded but I was unimpressed, and I've just finished The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose. It's the follow-up to the award-winning, best-selling, The Maid. I very much enjoyed The Mystery Guest and will look out for The Maid now, which will no doubt confuse me no end.

* * * * *

And now to practise my talk for Monty's church tomorrow. And decide what to wear. To paraphrase Maya Angelou, people don't remember how you made them feel; they remember what you wore!

Big yellow triangle

I made the mistake of investigating one of the variety of adverts on Facebook for 'Lose weight easily at home with these simple exercises'. Now I'm inundated with them. Walk Yourself Thin, Five Minutes a Day, Wall Pilates, Chair Pilates, Do This One Exercise a 100 times a day, etc etc.

First of all I found out that most of them involve paying for your personalised chart. It doesn't mention that in the adverts though it should be obvious, and probably is to most thinking people. Then, once you've peeped beyond the portals they have you in their sights and nag you.

I think I've learned my lesson now but this advert did make me smile:

PILATES at Home Challenge: 
❤️NO JUMPING 
❤️NO RUNNING
❤️NO HUMAN INTERACTION

If anything would hook me in it would be the last one! Although the other two are quite attractive as well. They know their target market.

To be fair, ten minutes of concentrated exercise a day would be good for me and isn't much to commit to, but I know I wouldn't. 

But I've noticed recently I'm hearing on the media about people dying and several have been in their 70s. If someone dies in their 50s or even 60s, people shake their heads and say, "Too young," but in their 70s there's not the same sense of taken too soon.

But I'm 71 and I'm nowhere near ready to die. 

And on a different topic, does anyone else regularly, I might even say constantly, type t and h in the wrong order? The, their, there, become hte, hteir, and htere. It drives me mad.

I was going to put a photo on now to brighten up the post but my phone's got a big yellow triangle with an exclamation mark on it! Don't know what that means but it doesn't sound good.

Duolingo ruined my life!

 

Duo Lingo ruined my life 😭🇪🇸 @duolingo pic.twitter.com/nyCzZNjPV9

— Munya Chawawa (@munyachawawa) April 19, 2024

Return of the Living Death

Tuesday

Duly injected. Much less painful than having the shingles one last week. Maybe different nurses are better at it. Shall wait and see if it starts to ache.

Nurse also answered my question: yes, the doctor did refer me to the NHS audiologist. Will have a long wait though. 

Wednesday

Last night we celebrated Joy's birthday in Zac's.

This morning I have done a quick tidy of the study. Not a thorough clean, just enough to stop being grumpy about the mess. And if I am grumpy about a mess you can tell it must be a serious mess.

Waiting for Husband to come back from the gym so I can go to Zac's and cook. My arm following my injection is still much less sore than last week's. In bed I could lie on that side if I re-arranged my arm but had to do it carefully.

What else? Oh yes, gardening on Sunday and the dreaded convolulus is starting to show its face. 

At least in the rose bed I can see it as soon as it appears now I've cleared the bed of everything that was getting in the way but the raspberries provide perfect cover for its nefarious* growth. 

A few years ago I wrote an article for The Bay about the problems of convolvulus, and I had more comments on that than on any other article I wrote. Everyone hates it. Yes, it has pretty flowers but at what expense?

* * * * *

I finished reading The Twits to my Italian grandbabies last night. I read the first bit over two weeks ago and then busyness and sore throats got in the way and I wasn't able to pick it up until this week. I asked them if they remembered what had happened and GrandSon3 reeled it off perfectly. In fact he remembered more than I did. He loves his stories, which makes me so happy.

* * * * *

Book launch and follow-up book blog blitz less successful than I might have hoped. I am going to have to accept that I am writing and publishing for my own satisfaction. It doesn't cost anything to publish - or at least to make it available - apart from my sanity. But as Poe said, "Sanity is over-rated."

I have another completed novel plus the ghost-written memoir I'm still waiting to get signed off - must nudge the subject and remind him - yes, I'll do that first.

This is why I write a blog. It helps me think. It also empties my brain and makes space for more useless information.

* Is nefarious the right word? Must look it up. Yes, it is.

Lacking oomph

As I might have mentioned we're going to see Springsteen in Cardiff on Sunday. A fancy entered my head and I thought, "How nice it would be to stay there for the night, do a bit of touristy stuff on Monday before driving home."

This morning I looked at hotels. Prices ranging from £200 (not actually in Cardiff) to £2,000 for one night made me change my mind.

Meanwhile, preparing my talk for Sunday, I think I have gathered almost all the words, just not in the right order yet.

Struggling a bit today to get motivated.

I phoned the GP surgery this morning to check on two things. First to confirm the time of my appointment tomorrow, the second to find out if the doctor I spoke to about my hearing question actually referred me to the audiologist as she said she would: she hadn't seemed to know how to go about it when she said it.

You'd think with everything on computers these wouldn't be difficult questions to answer. The first one wasn't although it would have been a lot quicker if she'd just had to flip over a page in an appointments book; the second one, well, I gave up in the end. I'll try again tomorrow when I'm in the surgery in person.

Left field you say

Had an email reminder this morning about the Springsteen concert next week. Good job really as I looked at it and discovered gates open at 4 and it's due to end at 8. They know Springsteen fans are old and need to be home in bed early.

* * * * *

In church this morning there was a visiting speaker. Like me he'd been given the topic, Bible character I relate to. He chose Nehemiah, which sounded a bit intimidating - I know nothing about Nehemiah - but he was excellent. The speaker has been a church leader for over twenty-five years so, as you can imagine, his talk was very different from what mine will be like next week. Which is a good thing I tell myself.

I spoke to him afterwards. He knew me mainly because of my articles in The Bay and on Facebook. "You're quite left field, aren't you?"

Always a bit worrying when someone knows me mostly from my writing as I'm much more 'out there' in what I say compared to real life.

What I've noticed before, but what struck me particularly this morning when I was talking to someone during tea afterwards, is my tendency to start a sentence, not knowing where I'm going with it, then to flap about a bit before ending without finishing. Stopping instead with a shrug, and a sigh. It's no wonder people look confused when I talk to them.

I am wondering whether to create a Powerpoint presentation to go with my talk. It would distract the congregation a bit - especially if there's a technical hitch as happened this morning - but would I be able to think both talk and clicking (button to change slide) at the same time?

* * * * *

GrandDaughter2 picked me a bunch of forget-me-nots.

Will your anchor hold?

When you ask in the charity shop if they have an old bible hidden away and the woman comes back with the biggest, heaviest, Welsh bible I've ever seen. Which proved to be ideal for my purpose.

The big problem - apart from carrying it around Mumbles - was psyching myself up to tear pages out of it when I got home. I told myself it was what I bought it for but desecrating any book is painful.

The reason for such destructive behaviour was to create a background for the collage I was putting together for Zac's. Before you comment on the end result, please bear in mind that I am not an artist and neither are the guys in Zac's. That said, I'm quite pleased with it. I think it captures the Zac's vibe well. Rough and ready but with soul.

* * * * *

This morning I also realised that it's only a week tomorrow until I am speaking in Monty's church. Speaking on, "The bible character that I most relate to." Any guesses who that might be?

Which means it's also only a week tomorrow until we go to see Bruce Springsteen at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff! Yay!

And, of course, last night we went to see Daughter-in-law in Bleak Expectations. It was great fun and she was excellent. And, naturally, I had to do the Photo.

The day off?

So . . . Daughter messaged to ask if I wanted to go for a dog walk this afternoon. I said yes. Then an urgent plea went out for people to help serving food at Zac's because they were short-staffed. Nobody else available so I went in.

That was my empty day filled!

And perfectly happy I am about it. I'd only have sat around dithering and ended up wasting a day.

Now some rock life.

Limpets, barnacles, and, I assume, orange lichen

Honeycomb worm tubes

Limpets and winkles

Bleak Expectations

Driving home from the doctor's where I not only had my second shingles jab but booked a pneumonia jab for next week - children and old people seem to make good pincushions but I'm not objecting if it keeps me safe - I caught a snatch of Yesterday in Parliament on the radio.

You can understand why they have strict rules about how MPs have to address each other and behave in parliament. In the car I was shouting, "You evil and stupid man! What a load of twaddle!"

Now the rest of the day is free until this evening when I'm childminding as Elder Son is in London for work for the day and Daughter-in-law is starring in Swansea Little Theatre's production of Bleak Expectations. We're going to see it tomorrow and looking forward to it very much.

Realising I had a free day I instantly began thinking of things I could do. I could do this, or that, and that. Or I could do this instead or as well. So I'm trying to stop, breathe, relax a bit, and enjoy the day, instead of filling it to the brim with stuff.

Wonder how long that will last!