Oh dear, I am getting so lazy about writing up this blog, but one reason has been that I was without any internet for about ten days due to my changing from BT to Talk Talk which was a right pallaver. There were long conversations with an unintelligible bloke in South Africa, and though I tried every whichway and enlisted the help of many people, I ouldn`t get it to work. In the end an engineer came from Burgess Hill and took five minutes to connect it just by changing a filter thing. In the meantime I had completely got used to no email and had gone back to writing letters and using the telephone.
Now I cannot get the printer to work and battle daily with it, so I have been unable to print off the Guardian cryptic crossword and my brain is getting addled.
My life consists of struggling with technology and visits to the Hearing Aid place, the eye hospital, the dentist, chiropody clinic and organising my general physical maintenance. It all doesn`t leave much space for nice times with family and friends, and intersting outings. But luckily, brother P is coming next weekend to stay and we are going to two concerts with Brighton Early Music Festival: a performance of Pygmalion by Gluck and another of early string quartets. No doubt we will have poetry breakfasts, fierce Scrabble matches and nice meals together. We will try not to discuss our health problems.
Dear grandson Rob is going off again on his travels next week, Cambodia this time to meet up with his girlfriend and then they are going to Australia. He has saved up from working very hard as a chef in Hove for the last few months. We will miss him.
The weather is very worrying at the moment: red skies from the Sahara last week and then hurricane Brian which made me think of the dear cats Brian and Shirley. But really nothing has been so bad as the Great Gale of 1987 when I got back from work at the Winchester hospital to find my the windows blown out in Chesil Street and devastated trees everywhere. My mother always used to say that she didn`t notice the weather and I must try and do the same.
Monday 23 October 2017
Wednesday 27 September 2017
My eighty seventh birthday is looming up, but as so many of my friends and neighbours are well into their nineties, I still feel comparatively young.
There are various jollities planned, including a family get together a gala improv night, and a sedate tea party for some of the Dumbrellites with the bone china cups and saucers gleaned from the Winchester dump aka the Recycling Centre years ago.
It is also Quaker Week and I foolishly volunteered to organise a coffee morning at the Ditchling Meeting House and I doubt if any punters will turn up. It will probably be us local Quakers eating the home made cakes and chatting to each other.It is difficult to think of ways of drawing in the populace as the Quaker image is still of women in funny bonnets and men wearing hats like the ones on Quaker oat packets.
Brighton is abuzz with the Labout PartyConference at the moment and there are Fringe events with people queuing up and a general air of excitement. Our Jeremy is doing well and it is something to feel cheerful about amongst all the direness of Trump and Brexit and the rest.
I still feel quite confident driving round the Sussex lanes (and into the outskirts of Brighton where I catch the bus) and having watched the programme on TV about centenarian drivers including one who was still proficient at 105, I hope I can continue to do so, but I am infuriated by the fact that all the meters round here will not take money any more You have to have a smart phone which 85% population now have. But I can`t hear the instuctions in busy traffic, and can`t read them if it is dark and I can`t do the keypad easily either, so I still rely on my ancient mobile phone and seethe with rage when I cannot park near the hospital, or even outside daughter J`s house.
I have just seen the film Victoria and Abdul and thoroughly enjoyed it as I love Judi Dench and a lot of it was filmed at Osborne House in the dear isle of Wight. It is a bit of a pantomime with all the courtiers getting infuriated with Victoria`s goings on but apparently true. Hard to imagine our dear old Queen behaving in such a rebellious manner.
Tuesday 29 August 2017
Deaf Sentence
I re read Deaf Sentence by David Lodge last week while on holiday, it was on a bookshelf in the house we rented at Freshwater Bay. Last time I read it I was not deaf myself, but it really struck home this time. It is about an elderly linguistics professor who gets into an embarrassing situation due to not hearing what a woman says to him at a party. My deafness is at its worst in a large group especially when it includes small children and I constantly have to guess, usually wrongly, what has been said, with or without my hearing aids. It must drive the rest of the family barmy, but they were very patient.
However, it was a great holiday in a really comfortable enormous house,with plenty of bathrooms and huge sofas. It was near the beach so the more energetic of us could nip over the road for an early morning swim. The Island is still as beautiful, and wonderfully unchanged. It is so reassuring to find that there is still the shop on the corner selling `ham on the bone` and slicing bacon up on a machine, (though we ate neither as we are all mainly vegetarian these days) There were about eighteen round the table for most meals and we took it in turns to cook and shop. Having the three little boys, my great grandsons, was a joy and seeing them running in and out of the sea at Compton Bay as my kids used to do was lovely.
It was a week with hardly any mobile phones (no signal) radio, or television, and lots of swimming, walking, cycling, Scrabble and other games, and talking (though for me only the last two) Coming back here to Dumbrells Court, it seems so quiet with all of us oldies. And boringly neat and tidy too.
Unfortunately when I got back, I discovered to my horror that I had inadvertently turned off the fridge freezer when I left (absentmendedness or senility?) so I was faced with a mountain of rotting food including all the blackberries and apples I had squirrelled away for making crumbles later and quiches and pies for future Quaker bring and shares. What a disaster. I felt really guilty when I went to the dump with my black bagged load, as if I were disposing of a body.
How I love these late golden days of summer. In spite of dodgy knees,I can still walk up Lodge Hill accompanied by an imaginary Bradley Wiggins and I had better start blackberrying again to replace the last lot.
However, it was a great holiday in a really comfortable enormous house,with plenty of bathrooms and huge sofas. It was near the beach so the more energetic of us could nip over the road for an early morning swim. The Island is still as beautiful, and wonderfully unchanged. It is so reassuring to find that there is still the shop on the corner selling `ham on the bone` and slicing bacon up on a machine, (though we ate neither as we are all mainly vegetarian these days) There were about eighteen round the table for most meals and we took it in turns to cook and shop. Having the three little boys, my great grandsons, was a joy and seeing them running in and out of the sea at Compton Bay as my kids used to do was lovely.
It was a week with hardly any mobile phones (no signal) radio, or television, and lots of swimming, walking, cycling, Scrabble and other games, and talking (though for me only the last two) Coming back here to Dumbrells Court, it seems so quiet with all of us oldies. And boringly neat and tidy too.
Unfortunately when I got back, I discovered to my horror that I had inadvertently turned off the fridge freezer when I left (absentmendedness or senility?) so I was faced with a mountain of rotting food including all the blackberries and apples I had squirrelled away for making crumbles later and quiches and pies for future Quaker bring and shares. What a disaster. I felt really guilty when I went to the dump with my black bagged load, as if I were disposing of a body.
How I love these late golden days of summer. In spite of dodgy knees,I can still walk up Lodge Hill accompanied by an imaginary Bradley Wiggins and I had better start blackberrying again to replace the last lot.
Wednesday 16 August 2017
Blackberry time
I love picking blackberries,wild cherry plums too, and they are both plentiful round here. Also kind people put free windfall apples outside their front gates to go with the fruit. I made eight jars of hedgerow jam and several jars of bramble jelly and also made crumbles and put them in the freezer. So satisfying. I am very keen on jam making though I eat little of it myself. I just love to see a row of freshly filled and labelled jars in the kitchen.
Some of the Darling family are camping in the Isle of Wight, where they go every year to a specially beautiful, quiet place on Shalfleet Creek which is always known as The Land. I have never been a devotee of camping, but next week the campers and more of the tribe and I are renting a large house at Freshwater Bay. There will be four generations there, with me as the eldest and three of the great grandboys will be the youngest. We always try to congregate in the Island for Julia`s birthday on 21st August. We did it during her lifetime, and have done so ever since. We read some poems and perhaps have a bit of singing and dancing too. We are like swallows and swifts who go back to the same spot each year.
I am going to travel on my free bus pass: Brighton to Portsmouth and then Ryde to Freshwater, but I will have to fork out for the ferry. I am just doing because I like a challenge. I always sit and read the Guardian on Saturdays, and then do the prize Cryptic crossword. (Sister J does it as well and though we sometimes have to appeal to son T for the really impossibly hard words in the end, we keep it going for days.) So I will just do the same as usual but on the bus. I often have really interesting conversations on the buses too. Having a bus pass has really enriched my life. It is far more enjoyable than driving around in a car, but sadly there are too few buses in Ditchling, so I often have to drive to Brighton first.
I am just waiting for the mobile library which only comes every three weeks now due to the cuts. It is always a treat to climb up the steps into the cosy booklined van. I will need a good supply for the holiday as I will not be able to scramble down cliffs or swim in the sea or go for long walks as I used to do, but can sit happily reading instead.
Some of the Darling family are camping in the Isle of Wight, where they go every year to a specially beautiful, quiet place on Shalfleet Creek which is always known as The Land. I have never been a devotee of camping, but next week the campers and more of the tribe and I are renting a large house at Freshwater Bay. There will be four generations there, with me as the eldest and three of the great grandboys will be the youngest. We always try to congregate in the Island for Julia`s birthday on 21st August. We did it during her lifetime, and have done so ever since. We read some poems and perhaps have a bit of singing and dancing too. We are like swallows and swifts who go back to the same spot each year.
I am going to travel on my free bus pass: Brighton to Portsmouth and then Ryde to Freshwater, but I will have to fork out for the ferry. I am just doing because I like a challenge. I always sit and read the Guardian on Saturdays, and then do the prize Cryptic crossword. (Sister J does it as well and though we sometimes have to appeal to son T for the really impossibly hard words in the end, we keep it going for days.) So I will just do the same as usual but on the bus. I often have really interesting conversations on the buses too. Having a bus pass has really enriched my life. It is far more enjoyable than driving around in a car, but sadly there are too few buses in Ditchling, so I often have to drive to Brighton first.
I am just waiting for the mobile library which only comes every three weeks now due to the cuts. It is always a treat to climb up the steps into the cosy booklined van. I will need a good supply for the holiday as I will not be able to scramble down cliffs or swim in the sea or go for long walks as I used to do, but can sit happily reading instead.
Monday 24 July 2017
Monday 12 June 2017
May is over and I hope for the best.....
I went to a gospel choir concert last night in Brighton,. What an experience. Well over a hundred singing their hearts out, and not only singing but waving, clapping swaying, jumping up and down. The huge hall was packed with families, babies, old grannies, All very different from the sober choral events that I used to take part in at Winchester Cathedral in the old days. I went to it with a sober Quaker friend who used to belong to the Gospel choir. She said she loved it . I was amazed. It was rather hot and loud for me but I enjoyed the exuberance of it all.
I had just recovered from my sleepless night on Thursday. I didn`t intend to stay awake all night but I got so caught up in it all. I watched it on BBC4 , the alternative version with Richard Osman, David Mitchell and Paxman and it was hilarious. I wonder what will happen now. I have begun to feel almost sorry for Mrs May, everybody is being so nasty about her. But it was such a joy to see our dear Jeremy vindicated and treated like a hero. I was sad that the Greens didn`t do better but at least Caroline Lucas got in for Brighton with an even greater majority, she is the only one that talks any sense in my opinion.
I have been meeting up with my Syrian refugee friend every week, and trying to help her with her English homework. Next Saturday, she has asked me to a party to celebrate the end of Ramadan, which is being held at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, and she is allowed to bring a guest. A benefactor is paying for it all. Daughter J is going too. I feel totally unworthy because I haven`t fasted for a month and also I have done so little for the refugees anyway. I am trying to think what to wear as they will all dress up to the nines and they love a bit of glitz. I am hoping I will find something at my charity shop where I work on Monday afternoons. I so enjoy my job there and can manage the till now without ringing up £100 instead of 10p which I did at first, causing chaos with the cashing up.
I am organising a garden party for the residents here on Midsummer Day, 24th June. Brother P has done a lovely invitation for me on his computer (with colour pictures of strawberries and teapots) as that sort of thing is now entirely beyond me. I was going to ask them all to bring a garden chair, but have now realised that none of us could actually carry a garden chair as far as the lawn. So I am hoping for help from grand daughter T and her friends. I now just pray for fine weather. The gardens here are looking particularly splendid so I hope for the best.
I had just recovered from my sleepless night on Thursday. I didn`t intend to stay awake all night but I got so caught up in it all. I watched it on BBC4 , the alternative version with Richard Osman, David Mitchell and Paxman and it was hilarious. I wonder what will happen now. I have begun to feel almost sorry for Mrs May, everybody is being so nasty about her. But it was such a joy to see our dear Jeremy vindicated and treated like a hero. I was sad that the Greens didn`t do better but at least Caroline Lucas got in for Brighton with an even greater majority, she is the only one that talks any sense in my opinion.
I have been meeting up with my Syrian refugee friend every week, and trying to help her with her English homework. Next Saturday, she has asked me to a party to celebrate the end of Ramadan, which is being held at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, and she is allowed to bring a guest. A benefactor is paying for it all. Daughter J is going too. I feel totally unworthy because I haven`t fasted for a month and also I have done so little for the refugees anyway. I am trying to think what to wear as they will all dress up to the nines and they love a bit of glitz. I am hoping I will find something at my charity shop where I work on Monday afternoons. I so enjoy my job there and can manage the till now without ringing up £100 instead of 10p which I did at first, causing chaos with the cashing up.
I am organising a garden party for the residents here on Midsummer Day, 24th June. Brother P has done a lovely invitation for me on his computer (with colour pictures of strawberries and teapots) as that sort of thing is now entirely beyond me. I was going to ask them all to bring a garden chair, but have now realised that none of us could actually carry a garden chair as far as the lawn. So I am hoping for help from grand daughter T and her friends. I now just pray for fine weather. The gardens here are looking particularly splendid so I hope for the best.
Friday 26 May 2017
Summer is icumen in...at last.
Summer seems to have come at last. The roses are out at Dumbrells Court in all their lusciousness, the birds are singing fit to bust and the view from my sitting room window is heavenly. The only trouble is that I love just sitting on my sofa looking at it, and reading a book, when I know I should be out and taking more exercise. There is a sort of collective guilt when you are an Old Person like me. I mustn`t be a drain on resources and the NHS by becoming feeble and helpless so I must eat healthily, lose weight and keep moving. In the meantime, Mrs May and dear Jeremy are handing out inducements in their manifestos to do more for us oldies but there`s also a sting in the tail with the dementia tax and the pinching of our winter fuel payment. It is all very worrying.
Last week Daughter J and I went up to London to celebrate grand daughter M`s twenty-fifth birthday. We met for lunch in Hyde Park where later M and her sister G had a swim in the Serpentine in the rain but they said it was lovely. We wanted to see the horses as M has a new part time job at the Hyde Park Riding Stables. She leads rides with immensely rich celebs and others along Rotten Row and canters about in the Park. To counteract this she has another part time job with Camden Council teaching very deprived kids to ride bikes in Somertown near Kings Cross. She also has a day job with an environmental project so her life is full of interesting contrasts.
The Brighton Festival is in full swing. Last week I went with son in law D to hear Jeremy Hardy. D and I often go to stand up shows together. It was in the Theatre Royal, a huge theatre, absolutely packed,and he spoke for about two hours of brilliant mostly political satire. I don` know how he does it. We really enjoyed it. I also went to a film with J called Collisions where you had to wear goggles and head set and it was an` all round experience`. It was about the effect on an Aboriginal settlement of a nuclear test in the Australian bush, You felt you could touch the people, it was quite eerie. Today I am going to hear a jazz singer Julie Roberts plus Herbie Flowers She is performing at the Quaker Meeting House in Brighton, I have heard her before and she is amazing.
Later in the afternoon I am going to funeral at the crem of a Quaker Jewish woman who was part of the Kindertransport as a child.She was a member of our Ditchling Quaker Meeting and she was a remarkable woman.
I saw the film I Daniel Blake at our Film Club in the Village Hall last week. I was deeply affected by it. I do feel that all politicians should see it and also anyone who works for the Benefits system.
Last week Daughter J and I went up to London to celebrate grand daughter M`s twenty-fifth birthday. We met for lunch in Hyde Park where later M and her sister G had a swim in the Serpentine in the rain but they said it was lovely. We wanted to see the horses as M has a new part time job at the Hyde Park Riding Stables. She leads rides with immensely rich celebs and others along Rotten Row and canters about in the Park. To counteract this she has another part time job with Camden Council teaching very deprived kids to ride bikes in Somertown near Kings Cross. She also has a day job with an environmental project so her life is full of interesting contrasts.
The Brighton Festival is in full swing. Last week I went with son in law D to hear Jeremy Hardy. D and I often go to stand up shows together. It was in the Theatre Royal, a huge theatre, absolutely packed,and he spoke for about two hours of brilliant mostly political satire. I don` know how he does it. We really enjoyed it. I also went to a film with J called Collisions where you had to wear goggles and head set and it was an` all round experience`. It was about the effect on an Aboriginal settlement of a nuclear test in the Australian bush, You felt you could touch the people, it was quite eerie. Today I am going to hear a jazz singer Julie Roberts plus Herbie Flowers She is performing at the Quaker Meeting House in Brighton, I have heard her before and she is amazing.
Later in the afternoon I am going to funeral at the crem of a Quaker Jewish woman who was part of the Kindertransport as a child.She was a member of our Ditchling Quaker Meeting and she was a remarkable woman.
I saw the film I Daniel Blake at our Film Club in the Village Hall last week. I was deeply affected by it. I do feel that all politicians should see it and also anyone who works for the Benefits system.
Friday 28 April 2017
On Your Bike...
I am fed up with the cold weather. I have been walking around with a hot water bottle stuffed up my jumper. I suppose one more drawback to being ancient and decrepit is that the cold gets into your bones. Also of course I do not get enough exercise due to the lack of a dog. I am thinking of getting an exercise bike and pedalling away whilst watching the telly, which is what brother P does. I have been staying with him for a few days to celebrate his ninetieth birthday, and he was looking positively rejuvenated due to his energetic cycling twice a day. Sister J was there too so we three old siblings had a very good time together being provided with delicious meals by his family, and also he cooked up a full
gravy dinner for us three on Sunday as well. Not many nonagenarians could do that.
We had our usual fiercely contested games of Scrabble too and did not argue too much about debatable words with obscure meanings.
But as always it was lovely to come home to my cosy bungalow with no stairs. Though brother P has two stair lifts I always feel decadent gliding up and down in a queenly manner.
The election is such a worry. I am glad to see that almost every home in Brighton has a Caroline Lucas Green Party sticker in its window, but not much chance of a Green in many other places
In the Guardian today there`s a picture of Jeremy Corbyn holding an anxious looking baby, Tim Farron cuddling a large dog and Mrs May surrounded by men in suits, none of them inspire confidence.
I have just been to a history lecture in the village on The Edwardians, and though we may grumble about the state of the world now, it really was worse then, with the upper classes leading the life of Riley while everyone else worked their fingers to the bone in deadly fear of the workhouse. And the meals they ate!
gravy dinner for us three on Sunday as well. Not many nonagenarians could do that.
We had our usual fiercely contested games of Scrabble too and did not argue too much about debatable words with obscure meanings.
But as always it was lovely to come home to my cosy bungalow with no stairs. Though brother P has two stair lifts I always feel decadent gliding up and down in a queenly manner.
The election is such a worry. I am glad to see that almost every home in Brighton has a Caroline Lucas Green Party sticker in its window, but not much chance of a Green in many other places
In the Guardian today there`s a picture of Jeremy Corbyn holding an anxious looking baby, Tim Farron cuddling a large dog and Mrs May surrounded by men in suits, none of them inspire confidence.
I have just been to a history lecture in the village on The Edwardians, and though we may grumble about the state of the world now, it really was worse then, with the upper classes leading the life of Riley while everyone else worked their fingers to the bone in deadly fear of the workhouse. And the meals they ate!
Thursday 13 April 2017
Hot Cross Buns
Today is Julia`s anniversary and also grand daughter T`s thirteenth birthday. Daughter J and family plus friends are walking over the Downs from Brighton to Ditchling (seven miles) for lunch and birthday cake and then we will read aloud some of Julia`s poetry and share memories. J and I always feel a bit tearful and odd at this time of year so it is good to get together
.
Tomorrow I am having a Hot Cross Bun party to which I have invited all the Dumbrellites. As my sitting room is small I am holding it at the Meeting House,which is five minute walk down the lane. This has caused great consternation amongst some who on reading the words Quaker and Good Friday on the invitations seemed to think that it was a Quaker indoctrination ceremony and they felt unable to come, so I fear I may be left with forty hot cross buns and a large uneaten Simnel cake, but never mind, they can go in the freezer,
On Easter Sunday I am planning a picnic and egg rolling down Lodge Hill in Ditchling after \Meeting though the weather forecast is not good. I remember doing this on St Giles Hill in Winchester many times over the years. There is something about chucking painted eggs down a grassy slope and running whooping along behind them that I find very exhilarating in a ritualistic, heathenish sort of way.
Then at the end of next week, we are celebrating brother P`s ninetieth birthday with a sibling get together and also a family do. .Sister J and I are struggling to write an Ode but we have used up all the best lines on his seventieth and eightieth, plus a few in between.
I have just read the latest Sebastian Faulks novel: Where my Heart Used to Beat. It is a bit reminiscent of Birdsong and is really excellent and very thought provoking.
.
Tomorrow I am having a Hot Cross Bun party to which I have invited all the Dumbrellites. As my sitting room is small I am holding it at the Meeting House,which is five minute walk down the lane. This has caused great consternation amongst some who on reading the words Quaker and Good Friday on the invitations seemed to think that it was a Quaker indoctrination ceremony and they felt unable to come, so I fear I may be left with forty hot cross buns and a large uneaten Simnel cake, but never mind, they can go in the freezer,
On Easter Sunday I am planning a picnic and egg rolling down Lodge Hill in Ditchling after \Meeting though the weather forecast is not good. I remember doing this on St Giles Hill in Winchester many times over the years. There is something about chucking painted eggs down a grassy slope and running whooping along behind them that I find very exhilarating in a ritualistic, heathenish sort of way.
Then at the end of next week, we are celebrating brother P`s ninetieth birthday with a sibling get together and also a family do. .Sister J and I are struggling to write an Ode but we have used up all the best lines on his seventieth and eightieth, plus a few in between.
I have just read the latest Sebastian Faulks novel: Where my Heart Used to Beat. It is a bit reminiscent of Birdsong and is really excellent and very thought provoking.
Wednesday 22 March 2017
Syrian Mothers Day party.
I have not written this blog for over a month, and I expect I am doing it into nothingness as everyone will have given upon me, but I went to such a heartwarming event last night that I felt I had to write something down. The Syrians celebrate Mothers Day on 21st March as a national event. Daughter J and family have been involved in fund raising for the refugees in Brighton and we were invited to the party. There were masses of children in their best sparkly clothes, adults too, (the Syrians do like sparkly) I felt a bit underdressed. There was amazing live music,dancing and tasty food. It was a great party. I was so glad to be there and see how well they were coping with the difficulties and sadness in their lives There were many Brighton people there too also who had taken refugees into their homes and and it was working out really well. I wish I could, but no one under fifty five can stay in the old folks complex where I live.
Ditchling has been celebrating the hundredth birthday of its oldest famous resident this week, Vera Lynn. She and her daughter Virginia live just up the road from me -in fact I used to go to Virginia for a foot massage, so I was particularly interested in all the shenanigans. I loved the programme on TV last Saturday with dear Vera looking very sprightly and enjoying life. She really is a splendid woman, going off to Burma and dangerous places to sing to `her boys` . And the songs, though sentimental do speak to the heart.
.
Dear brother P is just about to celebrate his ninetieth birthday, and that will be the next celebration, we are all getting so blooming OLD.
Ditchling has been celebrating the hundredth birthday of its oldest famous resident this week, Vera Lynn. She and her daughter Virginia live just up the road from me -in fact I used to go to Virginia for a foot massage, so I was particularly interested in all the shenanigans. I loved the programme on TV last Saturday with dear Vera looking very sprightly and enjoying life. She really is a splendid woman, going off to Burma and dangerous places to sing to `her boys` . And the songs, though sentimental do speak to the heart.
.
Dear brother P is just about to celebrate his ninetieth birthday, and that will be the next celebration, we are all getting so blooming OLD.
Monday 13 February 2017
More Museum Tales.....
It is half term and the Brighton Darlings are spread far and wide. Daughter J and Tiger are walking along the Cotswold Way with a group of friends,, doing about 12 miles a day and probably covered in mud at this moment, but texts say `its lovely` Son in law D is on a Mindfulness Retreat in \Devon, Grand- daughter G went to Guernsey to play in a Rugby match, and grand son R frequently phones from Vietnam where he is teaching a class of 5 year olds. I enjoy hearing of all their adventures, but glad to be sitting at home on my sofa watching the squirrels.
Many of my usual activities are on half term too, but not the Museum Tales creative writing course which has started up again. I am far and away the oldest, but I am enjoying the punk rock exhibition which is on at the moment. It is 30 years since that burst upon the scene. My children were teenagers then but it strangely passed me by. We are bidden to write about Rebellion` and that appeals to me as I have always had a rebellious streak.
I am enjoying my afternoon working in the hospice charity shop and have more or less got the hang of the till now and only occasionally ring up a thousand pounds instead of ten pence. I am so pleased when customers find a garment that really suits them or a book that I have read and recommended. There is a lovely atmosphere among the helpers.
I am on one of my frequent trips to the Eye Hospital this afternoon, always a difficult manoevre as there are no buses from Ditchling to Brighton so I have to drive and hope that the drops in my eyes wear off quickly so that I can see to drive home. I try not to mind the injections and they don`t hurt but there is something scary about having a needle stuck in your eyeball. Still I am so lucky to get it done at all and I love the NHS and have always had wonderful treatment.
I have just read Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleve and found it an excellent read. It reminded me of when I was ten or eleven and living in North London during the Blitz, cowering in the cupboard under the stairs when the bomb fell outside our house. It did not explode and as far as I know it is still there. We all had to go and live with a Mrs Tickle in the next road until it was declared safe. But the book was about about the real horrors of the blitz and the war on the lives of ordinary people, and also of racist attitudes which were appalling.
I have decided not to write about D.Trump or Brexit. It is all just too awful for words.
Many of my usual activities are on half term too, but not the Museum Tales creative writing course which has started up again. I am far and away the oldest, but I am enjoying the punk rock exhibition which is on at the moment. It is 30 years since that burst upon the scene. My children were teenagers then but it strangely passed me by. We are bidden to write about Rebellion` and that appeals to me as I have always had a rebellious streak.
I am enjoying my afternoon working in the hospice charity shop and have more or less got the hang of the till now and only occasionally ring up a thousand pounds instead of ten pence. I am so pleased when customers find a garment that really suits them or a book that I have read and recommended. There is a lovely atmosphere among the helpers.
I am on one of my frequent trips to the Eye Hospital this afternoon, always a difficult manoevre as there are no buses from Ditchling to Brighton so I have to drive and hope that the drops in my eyes wear off quickly so that I can see to drive home. I try not to mind the injections and they don`t hurt but there is something scary about having a needle stuck in your eyeball. Still I am so lucky to get it done at all and I love the NHS and have always had wonderful treatment.
I have just read Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleve and found it an excellent read. It reminded me of when I was ten or eleven and living in North London during the Blitz, cowering in the cupboard under the stairs when the bomb fell outside our house. It did not explode and as far as I know it is still there. We all had to go and live with a Mrs Tickle in the next road until it was declared safe. But the book was about about the real horrors of the blitz and the war on the lives of ordinary people, and also of racist attitudes which were appalling.
I have decided not to write about D.Trump or Brexit. It is all just too awful for words.
Tuesday 17 January 2017
Getting the Cold Shoulder....
I have been without a car recently. My ancient Nissan Micro ground to a halt on the M 23 on a perishing cold afternoon and I was stuck on the hard shoulder for quite a while.. Not a good experience especially as I had dear brother P with me who is even older than I am. However we survived, thanks to mobile phones and the very kind A A man, and in spite of a worrying time being towed along the motorway, I got home safely. The car needed a new clutch at vast expense but it seems as right as rain again now.
P. had been staying for a few days and we had our usual poetic breakfasts and scrabble, which was lovely, and now life is back to my old routine, except that I have a new weekly activity: I am working at a hospice charity shop on Mondays. I am not very good with the till, having never used one before. I keep putting too many noughts so that it registers hundreds or thousands instead of just one pound and it took the supervisor ages to sort it out when cashing up at the end of the day but I have only worked there twice, and I hope I will improve. Apart from that I really love the job and they are a friendly lot. It is nice to start something new.
I saw a brilliant film at the Village Hall last week: Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. It was so exciting, and really brought back memories of that Cold War time and the Berlin wall and everything. It was a true story too. With all the news being so worrying at the moment, it is quite comforting to remember how bleak it all seemed in the sixties and seventies and we have nevertheless survived.
This Friday, the day of the presidential inauguration in USA , there is a campaign to hang banners on all the bridges in U.K (maybe elsewhere?) saying `Build Bridges not Walls` which is a quotation from Martin Luther King. Some of my family are involved in this and I am very glad about that.
The combination of Trump and Brexit is a bit overwhelming at present.
I am off now to try and find some Seville oranges and do some marmalade making. That is the best way I know of cheering up these dark winter days.
P. had been staying for a few days and we had our usual poetic breakfasts and scrabble, which was lovely, and now life is back to my old routine, except that I have a new weekly activity: I am working at a hospice charity shop on Mondays. I am not very good with the till, having never used one before. I keep putting too many noughts so that it registers hundreds or thousands instead of just one pound and it took the supervisor ages to sort it out when cashing up at the end of the day but I have only worked there twice, and I hope I will improve. Apart from that I really love the job and they are a friendly lot. It is nice to start something new.
I saw a brilliant film at the Village Hall last week: Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. It was so exciting, and really brought back memories of that Cold War time and the Berlin wall and everything. It was a true story too. With all the news being so worrying at the moment, it is quite comforting to remember how bleak it all seemed in the sixties and seventies and we have nevertheless survived.
This Friday, the day of the presidential inauguration in USA , there is a campaign to hang banners on all the bridges in U.K (maybe elsewhere?) saying `Build Bridges not Walls` which is a quotation from Martin Luther King. Some of my family are involved in this and I am very glad about that.
The combination of Trump and Brexit is a bit overwhelming at present.
I am off now to try and find some Seville oranges and do some marmalade making. That is the best way I know of cheering up these dark winter days.
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