Turn it ….

The blonde senior moments are setting in ……. 

I have night storage heater is in my lounge and bedroom as the primary source of heating. Across the years and through numerous winters I have learnt the techniques of getting the best from this style of heater.  The other day I waddled across the lounge to adjust the settings ready for a cold blast that was due to go through.  As I went to twist the output knob it stopped solid, hmmm, it’s only on number four, I do hope nowt has siezed the works.  I am not very stable when I am on my feet so concluded that maybe it was just a deterioration in my strength and balance which meant this sometimes stiff knob wouldn’t turn. I left it to cogitate awhile. I began to wonder if maybe this 26-year-old heater had finally decided to go on strike and was I looking at trying to replace the whole unit before Christmas and the bad weather.  Oh blimey, trying to find a reputable electrician and supplier, hmmm. 

When I was at my desk comfortably seated in my super duper chair I unlocked the break and wheeled myself to take a good look at the heater knobs and be in a position to use more strength. First of all I applied my eyeballs, and then tutted to myself. There is a little black dot at the end of the bar indicating where it had been turned to, I had been looking at the wrong end, the reason it wouldn’t turn any further is because it was already at full, number 9, and not where I wanted it to be.

Knob turned, heating set, disaster averted.

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Dark December Days

Dark December days

Leeching life’s lustre 

Morphing melancholic moods

Damp drizzle descends
Languid leaves loam

Freezing frosts form

Dreck drizzle drops

Sleet slams skin

Mental motivation missing

Damp decay deforms

Winds whip wildly

Endless echoes emanate 

December drags deeper

 

Remembrance

As per my tradition, I always watch the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance and the Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph.  It is important to remember and reflect the sacrifices, trials and hardships of these two most gruesome of wars.  Whilst I am humbled and thankful to all those men and women who chose and still choose our amazing armed forces as a career path, I always specifically think about the hundreds and thousands of people who were conscripted to join the war effort, those who during war time volunteered to join, ordinary people who didn’t have a tantrum of ‘it’s not fair’, who didn’t have the modern day selfish, I’m owed privilege, but with pride, patriotism and sense of duty went to defend their way of life, and our future.

As I watch ‘the old guard’ march past the Cenotaph, I remember the remembrance service I stood at in November 1994.  I cannot tell you where I was, because I was standing at the bow of STS Lord Nelson as Captain John Fisher led us.  My voyage was in its second week, so likely just off the coast of Portugal.  As we sailed the Atlantic Coast with the sun shining around the white clouds, as we crested the rolling waves, my buddy and I trying not to burst into giggles at the thought of a crashing wave washing the foredeck at the bowsprit.  Trying to keep to the tune and timing of “those in peril on the sea” hymn without any accompaniment.  Quite poignant and moving to be so isolated on the vest ocean, yet knowing such services were taking part all over the globe.

 

Call My Boobs

I’ve had one of those ‘craft’ moments, my brain was absolutely no help, all it had to do was remember one simple thing.  Settle back and picture the scene…..

I have a distant relationship with my mobile, often it is in the draw needing to be charged to get the code to log into some secure online account or whatever. I might top it up once a year or eighteen months, you see if people need me they call my landline, email or message me via t’internet. I think I’ve just heard the whole teenage generation faint nthe surprise.

An on-going situation requires me to keep the thing handy.  I had made my coffee, shuffled back to the sofa and sat ready to tackle a to-do or two ….. where’s my phone …..

• Is it hiding under the tv magazine …. No
• Is it caught up with my crochet …. No
• Did it slide off the side table …. No
• Did it slip between the cushions …. No
• Has it fallen into the wool bag beside the table …. No
• Did I leave it on my desk …. No
• Did I leave it by the bed or on the pillow …………..

As I was resigning to having to get up and go look I felt something move.

It was in my bra, it had been snuggled in there all warm for the past few hours since I’d got dressed in the morning.

 

User Interface Stuck

Back a few posts ago I had set a to-do list with a completion date of before BFF’s visit ….. Let’s evaluate…..

1. Research and write the new article
2. Upgrade video player (current one doesn’t handle mobile devices)
3. Rework each video file/page
4. Upload everything to the server and publish
5. Update back-up drives 1 and 2 (I’m not loosing all that hard work)

1. The new article is written but it needs putting into an HTML format and a couple of things are needed from third parties before publishing – not done yet.

2. Website video – with the introduction of html5 a new coding method can be used, but it needs the videos to be in three different formats and uploaded to the server, time consuming – each video has been converted into the three types, I am currently still uploading, one set at a time.

3.  Video pages – in order not to get lost as not everything can be done at one go at the desk, I update the pages as the trio of files are uploaded. So the review pages additions are done, the YouTube embedded ones are done, a couple of short interview segments are done, just the longer interview videos needs to be done…… so almost but not quite.

4.  Uploading is done gradually as each page/video is completed…. so on-going.

5.  This plan was expanded as there was an operating system upgrade, so total system back up, download and install OS upgrade, then after satisfied everything is as it should be another total system back up.  Now just need to do the secondary specific files back up (hey better to have two back ups, just in case, mild paranoia is sometimes wise).

HOWEVER :: I did finish a cat blanket and am halfway through a second.

Harnessing and fanning motivation is still an incredibly difficult thing, I ‘need’ to spend more time at my desk, I ‘need’ to not be disheartened by the faff of shuffling on the chair from desk to sofa and focus more on the enjoyment/accomplishment/occupation of being at my desk.  When every single element of everything I try and do involves an ever growing degree of struggle, and having to juggle how much time spent on job ‘A’ before impacting on necessary job ‘B’, it’s so much easier just to roll over and snuggle under the duvet where I’m pain free, struggle free, discomfort free and toasty warm.

Could do better, my dear, procrastinating isn’t going to motivate the mentals or bring satisfaction.  

 

C-Antics

This is #NotMyCat aka Mickey …. A somewhat charismatic, charming, Turkish van cat who uses my wheelie bin (which is at the back door) as a throne, upon which he snoozes in the sun, surveys his grounds, supervises my kitchen goings on and generally ‘cat’ things.   When BFF is here she lets him in, feeds him, and we fuss and play with him, and he often snoozes on my posh black desk chair (white hair repository).  BFF has a mild allergy to fur, she had changed the duvet as she was itching and sneezing, she took a call from daughter2 and had company on the fresh, unfurred duvet – best laid plans.  You could say this is ‘his’ house.

As I’m a late sleeper, BFF gets up and goes off on a three mile speed walk, returns and breakfasts with Mighty Mickey before I surface to consciousness.  I could hear her talking to him, heard the front door open and close (M’s preferred exit method) and then heard the tell tale sound of his dish tapping against the kitchen skirting board. Had the little beep trotted around the building, leaped onto his bin and re-entered through the kitchen window? “Meooow……. Meeooww…….. Meeeooowww…..” That’s not a Mickster squeak!  I called to BFF and low and behold Mickey’s nervous cautious but curious best bud aka Ginger had taken a bravery pill and wandered in (via bin and window) but couldn’t or wouldn’t jump on the worktop and exit the same way.  BFF shepherded Ginger through the lounge and he sprang with much relief out the front door.

With the nights being warm, we often had the window open slightly, so it was no surprise that at some point Mickey would sneak in and settle on the bed (after the kneading ritual).  He was against my feet as I turned and after a brief while I felt him stand and jump off, I cracked my eye open and gazed towards the window where a blurry lump was wiggling (I’ve very poor eye sight and glasses were on the table). I thought M was taking a wander and thought nothing more until a guttural growl began from somewhere in the corner of the room.  Odd, was M observing something from the window (we have hedgehogs and possible a fox in these parts).  Again the growl began with greater earnest, persistence and aggression, BFF hopped out of bed to the window, where the fuzzy lump high tailed it, replaced by M up at the window scanning and searching, not happy.  We had had a new furry intruder!  A stripped tortoiseshell moggy, possibly the known wanderer from a neighbouring street called Bert (or is it Ernie, they’re so alike).

Okay, so granted I have reached my golden decade and am single, but I didn’t order the old lady kitty cat starter kit and Signor Mickey d’Mooch feels he has exclusive rights to this cat club establishment.

That reminds me, I must retrieve the conker from under my desk.  Big Sis has placed a few in my porch to deter the arachnid intruders, Mickey got it in his cat nip induced noggin to play football with one.

 

The Holibobs Blues

Like the weather, my mood has dipped to decidedly chilly since my BFF fly off back home just over a week ago.  I’m sure the seventeen days she was here are the absolutely fastest of the year.  It’s amazing how a few days of simple changes can make such a difference.  Okay, so we are not the most adventurous vacationers, infact our greatest outing was to the cinema.  Spending our days chatting, reminiscing, stitching, playing with ‘Not My Cat’ (didn’t take him long to catch on treat giver was back, lol).  

So viewing pleasures ….. I’ve forgotten a few.

• Funny Girl
• Funny Lady
• Churchill
• Another Mother’s Son
• Christine
• Hitchcocks Lifeboat
• The Girl
• Breath
• Shepherd & Butchers
• Eight Days A Week
• Love & Mercy
• Eat Pray Love
• Before You Go To Sleep
• Deniel
• Sully
• Doc Martin
• The Marvellous Mrs Maisel

Good food, treat food, tasty food, thoroughly enjoyed and relished.

It’s horrid to say good bye when we know it will be a few months before we are together again. 

To add salt to my blue mood, you remember that list, just a few things, that I set to do before BFF arrive Do? Yeah, well, erm, that didn’t go so good either, but that’s for another post.