Who flipped the calendar?

It cannot be March since I last came here! Judging by the dust and mustiness it has been!! Sooo what’s been going on… *scrolls through calendar*…. meetings ….. crocheted a baby blanket…. meetings….. singalong…. meetings…. quiz night at neighbours….. meetings…. argue with hospital….. meetings…. crochet cat blanket…. nominated for an award…. more meetings….. said bye to staff leaving…. Easter raffle, won two Easter eggs ….. meetings ….. argue with hospital again ….. meetings…. shortlisted for a National award ….. meetings ….. meetings ….. got my hair cut and coloured. Yeap, that’s about it.

Back in early February, after BFF’s visit I made a brief little to-do list, okay let’s see……ohhh-errrr

• Book an at home eye test – done, ended up having to go to the opticians in-person anyway, which ended up with eye clinic referral, which ended up…..well that’s another story of broken system incompetence.
• Call for a Dentist appointment – done, booked the taxi, dentist cancelled appointment, made another that was not do-able, so cancelled that, rebooked another and the taxi.
• Start stitching the baby blanket – done and done (for a dog) and done (for a cats outdoor house) and another in slow slow progress
• Spend some time at the desk – done, but will need to do more when new Mac arrives
• Bravely ask for help with some sorting of my junk jobs – can we skip this one, wish my Mary Poppins style click of the fingers worked.

What’s that? Oh, the nomination and shortlisting, you saw that. Well, quite unexpectedly I was approached by the Housing Association who wanted to put my name forward for the annual national “Women In Housing” awards. Flattered and surprised sprung to mind, I’m relatively new to all this and didn’t feel I’d done anything exceptional that warranted such reward but hey ho, who am I to question the wonders of the world. Earlier this month the shortlist was published and bugger me, I’m on it, as Board/Committee Member of the Year. There’s a swanky do in June when the winners will be announced.

May is a month of meetings, there’s a spotlight project drilling down into the nitty gritty of an area to weed out issues and suggest improvements. A few strategic governance meetings so make the bigwigs and contractors squirm a little. A couple of hospital appointments, each will take up the day and result in nothing or something tediously unhelpful.

Still my reward will be a new Mac. My current one is over ten years old, slower than a politician answering a yes/no question and as I get reward points from the Housing Association for meetings and reading, I’ve saved up a years worth to redeem against a new shinny speedy machine.

Curious how life changes, once upon a couple of decades ago I’d be blogging most weeks, now things have shrunk considerably.

I did write a couple of clerihews for April 23rd which I was rather pleased with.

Remarked St George
"I strived to forge,
But those buggers instead
Cut off me head!"

Scribbled The Bard
"All this rhyming is hard
I know what I'll do
Finish Taming Of The Shrew"

Simple pleasures!

 

Sigh, humph,

::sigh:: I’m struggling to shake off my winter lethargy and general clouded funk that cloaks me every year. It was certainly not helped my the sinusitis and blocked ears across Christmas and New Year, both events passed me completely unrecognised.

The good thing about January was my BFF visiting, and as she was finally well enough after her three months of chest infections, she was pleased to get here too.

We surpassed our level of activities by doing absolutely nothing. We watched films and tv series, we ate tasty comforting food and we did little else. Our viewing list (not including the quiz shows) consisted of –

1. Man of the year
2. St Trinians
3. Heat of the night
4. Chicken run dawn of the nugget
5. The trust (Netflix series)
6. I am a stalker (Netflix series)
7. Maestro (Leonard Bernstein)
8. Nyad 
9. The Mercy 
10. The electric life of Louie wain 
11. The reverend & Mrs Simpson
12. It snows in Benidorm 
13. Pamela with love - her words
14. Murdaugh Murders (both series)
15. Inside the mind of cats
16. I used to be famous
17. King of thieves
18. Failure to launch
19. Morning Glory
20. Murdered
21. Man vs Bee (series)
22. Filthy Rich, Jeffrey Epstein
23. Our Father
24. Hard times
25. 23 Walks
26. Belonging
27. May contain nuts
28. Walking the Grand Canyon
29. H is for Happiness
30. Archie (becoming Cary Grant)

All too soon she was on her bumpy way home 😢 but will be back in June 😁

What else – I think I mentioned I’d become an ‘engaged customer’ with the Housing Association, while I enjoy the sessions and the putting forward of opinions and suggestions, questioning some issues etc, the involvement in governance and recruitment at higher levels, with much more intelligent experienced people than me, I do have a bubbling bout of imposter syndrome. Have I over egged my past experience and abilities or just lost a level of confidence that comes with increasing age and decreasing health.

Anyway, maybe I need a list 😆

• Book an at home eye test
• Call for a Dentist appointment
• Start stitching the baby blanket
• Spend some time at the desk
• Bravely ask for help with some sorting of my junk jobs

Onwards and upwards as the year brightens……

 

An Extra Hour To…?

…..sleep, or doze, or lay there trying to sleep or doze, or lay there planning what to do when I get up.

That said. I do want a gold star, shiny medal and suitable praise because I have, after over twelve months of procrastination, ordered my wall mounted tv and a man to put it up! Double star, it might even be erected before I get round to finishing this blog post and publishing it. *gasp*

Now, if I could juuuust get motivated about the pictures to go up on my walls. Steady on gal, hold you hard (as the old natives round these parts say), don’t get over excited.

So, what are my plans for the winter whilst hibernating in my toasty abode.

Crochet some new little Christmas Stockings. Whether for the food bank to pop a choc in for the festive season or a little something for my team of carers or another garland to add to all the decorations.

Some back up and updates on the computer.

Sort the pictures for the walls, as mentioned above.

The best bit ….. BFF is coming to play I mean stay for two weeks, lots of lovely scrumpy comfort foods and chatter and tv watching to be done.

Happy extra hour, full moon, Halloween night to you all!

 

Setting Forth!

It’s been a few long, bumpy, down, groggy, then happy weeks since I proper blogged. Just after the crowning of old C3 (resisting urge to add PO, does that make QCC R2D2🤔) I came down with a cold, it sat in my throat robbing me of the sexy raspy phase rendering me breathy mute feeling like I swallowed a cactus covered in chilli powder. My nose didn’t clog but my sinuses and ears did. After two weeks it had gone but it left my ears blocked and bunged, I contemplated calling dyno-rod but settled for drops instead. They’re still not right, I have a high frequency whine in my left ear, possibly menopause triggered tinnitus.

But then – Hoorah- BFF came to play, two weeks of good eating, good chatting, good watching, slightly less sleeping and, hold on to yer hats, going out-out, I know, proper out-out, to eat, to shop, to saunter along the seafront!

All good things come to an end too quickly and as I type she’s on her plane waiting to take off for home (I have the flight tracker set ready to wave) 😢. So we reset our countdown for her return and have decided that we each will get to grips with the things we’ve let slide or procrastinated about.

It’s listing time…… 1st the fun one … 2nd the necessary one … 3rd the tedious bureaucratic head banging tear inducing one.

List one

• Secret crochet project, finish the three elements by month end
• More gear nob ghosts, get yarn and do by end August
• Super secret project, get extra yarn and finish by October
• Do a few of the cute Christmas Stocking

List two

• Desk jobs, pictures for frames, cataloguing, playlists, backups
• Picture, for the walls, sort and hang
• Tv & DVD, tv for the wall.
• Find some trousers! (bought 4, returned 2, threw out more)
• Find a couple of tops for the summer
• Website, update and back up.

List three

• Chase up Neuro (for 4th time for brace referral)
• Call Wheelchair services about assessment and service manual chair
• Get my butt sorted with new shower chair, maybe rise sofa 1cm
• Make contact with OT

::Sigh:: that third list is going to try my patience. I’m already annoyed and I’ve only typed the list!

So what are your summer plans?? 😎

 

Close To Productive

For decades I’ve been a list maker, I have a list of lists on my reminder app and some list items have subcategories. Nerdy I know. It’s an attempt to organise and prioritise jobs, to see progress (sometimes) or to just add other things to the bottom that have already been done to cross em orf and feel empowered.

Maybe this is an indication that I am starting to nest in my new abode. I have a list of things I’d like to get ‘sorted’, not quite sure how yet.

• Sort tall cupboard contents
• Hang pictures
• Reorganise wardrobe & cupboard contents
• Source wall mounted tv, and get dvd player
• Weed and organise desk drawers

Until I can get help with those, I have been at my desk 😱 (I know, shocking). Desk work in general has been very neglected over the past couple of years for numerous reasons and general procrastination tendencies.

Before moving house, loads of my cds were uploaded to the iMac as I use the natty Remote App to play music, and I have dropped hundreds of images, photos, vids and graphics that need cataloguing. Before any of that can start I had to wrangle the updates and the Apple TimeMachine back up. It (iMac) initially protested, I informed it of its birth and parentage, threatened it with the metaphoric trusted rusty chisel up the USB, then I left it to stew in the corner. It did at it was supposed to, like the petulant toddler it is, so now I can move onto getting stuff done (allegedly).

So over the next few weekends I plan to, although with the decreased dexterity in my right hand/wrist/arm/shoulder I may need to invest in a track pad. Still the “Mac List” is something like

• Roughly sort photos into four categories (graphics/cats/fam/others) before closer cataloguing and naming
• Add album art to albums added to music catalogue (aesthetic & easy search reasons)
• Consider additional iTunes backup method (in excess of 20 gbs)
• Ensure backups of website coded pages are up to date versions
• List website housework and new page needs

But before any of that I really must get on with crocheting the gear stick knob hat (don’t ask, well you can, but I have weird friends).

 

June Arrives Like A March Hare

Blimey and it’s barely gone noon and the day has whirled like a dervish already!

So let’s see, so far today there were two emails from friends asking if I was available and up for a catch up this afternoon, one postponed, the other coming 2:30; there’s been a phone call from Mr Pane In The Glass about the window mechanism, they promptly appeared, wrangled banged and replaced it; BFF messaged with musing as she’ll be here on Friday; and I’m half way through a commission piece (bobble hat for a gear stick)!

I’m already exhausted!!

You may remember I decided May would be crochet month, how did I do? Welll…….. red&black blanket finished, two other blankets finished and fourth started, two mouseseses done and four fishies. All in all I did rather well, might give myself a ⭐️

BFF is arriving Friday afternoon for two weeks of natter, films, food and two cats (Ginger will undoubtedly follow his brother Mickey D’Mooch in for breakfast). We are booked in for pedicures (they might need an angle grinder for my little toe nail) and we are hoping to get out-out up the seafront for some racing sea air and sunshine.

Right then, bobble Pom Pom making to be done…… toddle peeps

 

I’m na’ casting me clout

Ne’er cast ya clout til May is out. Ha! With the great British weather as it is, I’m na’ casting out my clout regardless of the month. Soo in April there was a frost somewhere every dang night, chilly you say, well it would seem so. Friday morning as carer arrived, in the time it took her to get from car to my door there was rain-heavy rain- hail, chunks of stinging balls of ice! Mother Nature is off her meds again, or her grandkids flipped her calendar back to February.

So … how are things? Been anywhere? Looking forward to being out and about with the great unwashed? I know what you mean, it’s too peopley out there *shudder*

I scrolled back to my list, can you believe it was as far back as 20th March! Time has done it’s thing, still feeling a bit groundhog but the days are lighter for longer. Anyway, as they say, previously

• Add crochet border to red cat blanket – started yesterday but run out of that colour.
• Start the Alan Davies book – I’m about half way through
• Check domain registry dates – did that, all good until next year
• Go through iTunes genre – classified the blank, tweaked others
• File images accumulated – mostly, sort of done ish

So my to do list is lacking the mastermind effort (I’ve started so I’ll finish). In my defence April got taken over with writing a poem everyday and reading all the other excellent, poignant, hilarious, rude, epic verses.

May, I have decided will be crochet month, each day I will do some, hopefully getting a blanket to grow across a week, maybe a toy or two across the weekend. Ohh, I wrote a poem about that…..

I'm a little hooker
Not short nor stout
Sometimes I swear
Often I pout

You mucky minded readers
Keep your trap shut
It's not what you're thinking
None of your smut

Yarn over, pull through
Yarn over, pull through two,
Front post, half double,
Twiddle deftly is what I do

Blankets for the pussy cats
Toys of fish and mice
A gift to Cats Protection
Because I'm really nice

 

Spring Like A March Hare

I say spring, more like enthusiastically lurch……. well I say enthusiastically but it’s more like begrudgingly shuffle…….. hmm begrudgingly that’s on point and shuffle, hmm yeah, kind of outch, dawdle, mosey.

Whether it is the decline of my physical abilities, the endless endurance of the shielding lockdown, the cold fingers of winter or a mix of it all, I cannot seem to shake off the shackles of winter oppression and awaken, find the joy in things, the pleasures in purpose, everything feels exhaustingly ::sigh:: As I said to BFF I cannot be bothered to be bothered.

There are the tentative hints of improvement. Doesn’t it make the day seem nicer when there is sunshine? It has an extra energy, almost an optimism. So in that fashion one might dare to tackle a bit of a to-do list.

• Add crochet border to red cat blanket
• Start the Alan Davies book
• Check domain registry dates
• Go through iTunes genre
• File images accumilated

A chunk of that involves my desk, which is dependent on who my carers are and the times they are due here. Plus the sitting position isn’t the most comfortable.

The ‘remote’ app on the iPad that controls iTunes on my Mac is working really well, but as I scroll about trying to decide what I feel like listening to I find I tend to choose a genre and let the device shuffle. When I am at the desk I usually select an album or artist to listen to. As I think I have mentioned before my choice can be influenced by what I am doing, classical while html coding, rock/metal while photo editing, Rhythm/blues while dealing with accounts and numbers, etc. The automated comes-when-you-upload info of a cd can be a little odd, there are a few tweaks I would like to make and there are those with no genre tagged at all. Hardly a vital necessary task but it fills the time, like finding album covers and adding those.

My original iPad (gen1) has been struggling to deal with life for a while. When I purchased my new one I repurposed the old one to the bedroom for iPlayer, radio, audiobook usage, but many of the apps need an operating system it cannot cope with so I was using the browser, but even that struggled. Anywho, I took the decision to buy a refurbished one from MusicMagPie, it came today and so far so good. I’ve spent a couple of hours setting up and logging in, tweaking to my preferences, selecting display images etc.

Must think of more to blog about so it’s not eons again before I text lyrical.

 

LockedDownIshKinda

Well here we are, the beginning of another month, not completely sure which one, possibly Octonovdecber. Anywho as we stock pile our loo roll and pasta, try and figure out whether to drink mouthwash or infuse disinfectant, let’s recap on the to-do list.

• Print off business transaction reports – ✅
• Back-up Mac – ✅
• Upgrade OpSys software – general update successful ✅
• Complete Blue Badge renewal – not done ❌
• Purchase tv signal booster + cable – no problems but still might ❌.
• Update website news – ✅
• Finish two cat blankets – ✅
• Make one mouse toy – I made two ✅
• Make one fish toy – I made two or three ✅

I think I might award myself a 🥈 silver medal, I done quite good, all things and apathy taken into account.

One of my too-early-in-the-am cogitations wondered whether I could set up Siri to voice control and thus have access to the hours and hours of accumulated music that’s on my Mac or use Spotify for even more. Using voice control would mean I could shout across the room and not need to be at the desk – wild idea, right? I researched the various technicals, saved a couple of how to pages, noted possible playlists and felt prepared so that after comp was update I could with a flick, swipe and click clear my throat and produce music ….. but I forgot rule #1, anything using words like easy, simply, isn’t. Sadly as my machine (not the upgraded software) predates 2018 voice activated Siri is not possible. Dang, darn and poop.

Back to 1️⃣ (see what I did there, lol). Many moons ago Mac had something called FrontRow, which enabled users to access movies and music on the Mac via a small remote, maybe there is a way to do this using the iPad. More searching, researching and reading to do. I miss music, it is an important feature that I need to reconnect with, for my mental well-being.

I really should factor in one afternoon a week to be at the desk between visits, I enjoy being there, sorting things, creating things, doing those tasks that need the compy. It is all too easy for the apathy to go the easy route and put it off another day or week or more.

Soo, for this coming month, I’m going to dedicate it to communication. Writing emails/messages to people I maybe haven’t been as diligent with keeping in contact with. There isn’t much of note to state, I’m fine, carers are fine, getting grocery delivery slots booked and that’s it. But it’s good to reach out.

Speaking of which there’s an email I need to write to confirm that after eight weeks of chasing I’ve finally had my blood drawn for the tests the Neuro Rehab Consultant wanted.

 

Black & Blue Ornery

Nothing in particular just everything in general has set the black cloud of short tempered, lacking patience, general ‘meh’ness.

The sudden change in weather last week was a stinging slap in the face. We were all still merrily enjoying the comfortably warm summer sun, wearing our thin short sleeved tops and light weight bottoms, and then bam, gale force winds, lashings of rain, temperatures dropped by half. No graceful ease into Autumn.

I can’t have the window and internal doors open so no furry visitor and yes I will admit it, I miss the furrball. He might cover me in white hairs, generously, rigorously massage my thighs, command my lap for two or three hours which means I cannot crochet or mess around on the iPad, but he entertains with his asking for attention, amuses with his snores and sleeping chunter, becomes a topic of conversation with my carers (his charm is doing a number on them too). If, if, if, if, things would be different.

Time to pull up the big girl pants are knuckle down to get some stuff done, so October goals……

• Print off business transaction reports
• Back-up Mac
• Upgrade OpSys software
• Complete Blue Badge renewal
• Purchase tv signal booster + cable
• Update website news
• Finish two cat blankets
• Make one mouse toy
• Make one fish toy

There are a few other things I could add, like chase District Nurses who still haven’t been to draw my blood since I contacted them 2nd September, or the contact Orthotics to see if they will do a new brace without any appointments but that’s a sleeping thingy I shy at poking.

I shall have to concede by Canute approach to the season change and throw another log on the radiator (that translates to turn the heating on). Brrrr, I have a feeling it’s going to feel like a long winter.