Thursday 25 January 2018

I am writing this whilst sitting (fully clothed) for the Grey Ladies Life Drawing class in Ditchling. They gather every Wednesday in the Meeting House, but they used to meet in a house in the village called Grey Ladies,hence the name.        I am quite happy to sit still for a couple of hours as it is what I do every Sunday, well for an hour at any rate.    The wind is howling outside and it is deluging with rain so it is nice to sit here in the warm on a bleak January morning.

This afternoon I work as a volunteer at the Hospice charity shop in Burgess Hill which is in a rather chaotic state still after Christmas. I try to tidy one small coner each week but it doesn`t last.  Every five minutes someone comes  with several bulging black bags of mostly unsaleable stuff. Often it is the result of their clearing out a  beloved parent`s home so we have to be sympathetic, but we often feel in despair as to where to put it all.  It goes to an enormous warehouse to be sorted and some of it can be recycled hopefully ..I get more and more anxious about rubbish and all the plastic bags.    How is it going to end I wonder.

I am pleased that the marmalade making season is here. Grand daughter T is coming round after school to make the first batch.   We alternate chopping and stirring with games of Scrabble. Though only thirteen she is a formidable opponent.

I went as a volunteer to do a Memory test the other day. It was for a charity for people who had sustained a head injury and they wanted elderly people who were `normal`  though I am not sure that I fit into that category. It lasted just over an hour and I thoroughly enjoyed it.   I did well at  the word questions (due to all the Scrabble perhaps) but I was not so good at the shapes and pictures. There was no marks or pass or fail at the end as far as I know and I was given ten quid which I happily spent at Waitrose.

On Monday it was my monthly stint at the Eye Hospital. No wonder the NHS is running out of cash with us oldies having these expensive injections and scans. The place was, as always, absolutely packed . What is odd is that nobody else ever takes anything to do, they just sit there for hours staring into space. I always take a good supply of books and crosswords etc. The doctors and nurses all look exhausted.             It must be overwhelming, the sheer numbers of us. The encouraging thing is that my sight is better than it has been for years and I was actually playing the cello in my music group and realized that I was not wearing any specs.   It may have been partly due to the fact that grand daughter G`s boyfriend has just installed a much brighter light in my sitting room and that makes a huge difference.

We had a talk after Meeting last Sunday by Tony Tree about allithe Quaker skeletons found in the Pavilion Gardens in Brighton    The original Meeting House and burial ground were there in the late 17th century but had to be moved eventually to its present location in Ship Street in 1802 because the home of the Prince Regent`s mistress, Mrs Fitzherbertfelt  was overlooked by the Quakers.The skeletons are now going to be reburied up in the cemetery. What a palaver.


Tuesday 9 January 2018

In the bleak mid winter....

I really mind the cold theses days.    I never used to, but I suppose it is because I sit about and loll on sofas more than I should. The cold goes right into my bones.       I wish we would have a proper fall of snow which would at least look beautiful instead of these grey dark days.
The old folks tea party went well in a fairly chaotic way.  They all came in the afternoon but everyone could sit down, and it was very jolly.   I enjoyed it anyway.   Perhaps I will do another one for Pancake Day.
I have been away for a few days staying with brother P and we also met sister J at Stansted after her Christmas trip to her daughter in Germany. Brother P has just got his driving licence back after a year, now that he has a pacemaker. He steered us very efficiently along motorways and roundabouts. But we did have one of those Moments, trying to get out of the Short Stay car park in the dark. He had not pre paid in the airport and the machine was swallowing up the ticket plus credit cards and not raising the dreaded guillotine to let us out.    But the Help button reached a kind man who eventually let us out without paying a penny, he obviously could not cope with the three of us bewailing our predicament on the end of the line.   Anything to do with carparking gets more and more difficult for the Old, I find .
It was good to get back to the lovely choir this morning after the Christmas break and I`m off to Improv tonight.    I am so glad to be back into the old routine after all that Christmas jollification. 
 


Monday 1 January 2018

New Year,new Blog

I have decided to have a go at resurrecting this blog as I had a few reproaches amongst the Christmas cards and I had been feeling guilty about it. I have no idea how many bother to read it.  But it feels as if is a good discipline for me to sit down and write a few paragraphs, perhaps once a week.
So I am starting today, New Years Day, and the beginning of my eighty eighth year.   
I went to a nice party last night with games and lovely food, and came home through deserted dark streets just after midnight.    (When I got up this morning at 7am it was still dark all around with curtains drawn.)  I wish  there could have been a wild party going on with everyone outside doing the 
Hokey Cokey.

Apart from writing this, I am making no resolutions. I shall try to live for the moment. This time last year, I resolved to lose weight as I kept seeing gruesome programmes about diabetes and losing toes, feet and ultimately legs, so I made valiant efforts, until about August when I went on holiday and then I lapsed back into hot buttered toast and full fat Greek yogurt, and I think I will carry on the same. Whilst staying with son in Winchester last week, I surveyed myself  in a full length mirror ( I haven`t got one at home) and realised that though not  fat, I am a very odd shape, so there`s old age for you, you can`t win.

Today, I am having a neighbours tea party. I put the invitations on the Christmas cards (we all send them to each other here) but said` don`t answer this, just come if you can`. I am sitting here wondering if there will be a stampede of elderly people arriving at once, dropping their sticks and trying to balance cups ot tea plus mice pies and crumbly Christmas cake.    By using (damp) garden chairs, piano stool, kitchen stool,  I can seat about  twelve people in this very small bungalow, but what if they all come?  Or none of them, and I am left with piles of uneaten scones and cakes?   I had hoped to have thirteen year old granddaughter T here as she is good at crowd control, but she is going to the Football with her dad. But luckily daughter J will be here.   And if no one comes we can sit and play Scrabble or watch old black and white films on Channel 81 on the TV  I have  only recently discovered this wonderful  device.  It is very addictive.