Friday 25 February 2011

water, water, everywhere......

i went to Newcastle by train. In the loo, I rested my capacious handbag on the side of the washbasin and this activated the hot tap so that my bag immediately filled up with hot water!  This wrecked: my mobile phone, address book, diary, purse (all the money stuck together) book of stamps, novel (from the library) sandwiches, gloves, make up bag, cheque book, and elderly persons railcard. And the handbag will never be the same again either.
However I had a lovely time there with my dear family in great comfort in B`s new house, but my visit was not without adventure as B`s car broke down on the A1M and I had to climb over a high fence and cross a waterlogged brambly field in the pouring rain to get to the Park and Ride into Durham to meet grandson M who has recently gone to Uni there for lunch.
I was only home for one night and then was in Brighton all week holding the fort with family, dogs and cats while J and D were away. So I am now back in Ditchling trying to master new mobile phone, and copying out addreses and things into new diary.  

Sunday 13 February 2011

scenes from village life

Because I was at Old Persons Heaven in Hassocks last Monday, I missed the Monday Club at the Unitarians. They had the milkman as their speaker and someone told me that he was the best speaker they had ever had as he had led such a fascinating interesting life, well that`s Ditchling for you. Last night it was the Village Choir Concert plus other local musicians. The hall was absolutely packed, a complete sell out and Herbie Flowers our local entrepreneur was wonderful. The air was electric.
I now have my new hearing aids, I must be careful I don`t jump in the swimming pool with them in.they are so light and small.   I had lovely visits from old friends last week, on Thursday and Friday, life here is a social whirl.     

Wednesday 9 February 2011

There is a place just up the road from Ditchling in Hassocks run by Age Concern which is an Old Persons Heaven. I go there once a month to have my feet done by a kind and gentle chiropodist, but I can also have: a tasty lunch, waited on by women like Ethel and Doris who are older than I am, (the chef is a Sumo wrestler ! ) there are free paperbacks on offer, an excellent charity shop, I could do Keep Fit, have a Sing Song, go on an Outing, play Scrabble or Bingo, all is provided by the cheerfulest kindest men and women you could hope to meet.    My neighbours at lunch were all in their nineties and enjoying life. What a treat.

Friday 4 February 2011

The dreaded talk was over in a flash, I think it was OK,  and I loved my trip to Woodbrooke, the heartland of the Quakers, once the home of the Cadbury family and presumably built on the proceeds of chocolate. Everything there is good and wholesome, and as the Q`s would say, `in right ordering`
I came back in time to go to another film in Ditchling Village Hall, they are all winners. This was `Departures`
a Japanese film about a cellist who lost his job and became a mortician by mistake. I feel I want everybody to see it as gives a completely different view about death and the way we deal with it.
I have been travelling a lot on buses lately: twice lately in central London, in Birmingham and often in Brighton of course. I love the camaraderie and talking to the mothers and babies, and all the feisty old people with their big shopping bags and determined expressions.