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!

 

It Started With The …

On a Facebook group our talented leader often posts a “Sunday Prompt”, it might be a word, usually a picture, something to get our poetic juices flowing. This week she posted this

Go for a walk around your flat, or wherever you are. Pick things up and look in nooks and crannies. Find something that sparks a memory. Write about that memory. Have the first sentence be:

“It started with the…’

Hmm… interesting, intriguing and inviting. It started the musing and cogitating – I glanced around me and wondered what item would spark an interesting anecdote. So much of my trinketry and souvenirs of my life adventures had to be let go, donated, sold or ditched. Then I remembered by box of bits and wondered what curios of my past it was hiding.

---

It started with the day trip, for the fun of it we’d go to Felixstowe, walk onboard the ‘roll on roll off’ ferry and sail the seas to Zeebrugge., then catch the next one back (6 hour sail, each way). At the time I was learning navigation at the Maritime College, so I would set myself up at the table with the sea chart (the size of a small table cloth), compass, dividers, parallel ruler, pencil, paper, and calculator, and would plot our progress.

After seeing me doing this my Dad got a bit of balsa wood about inch long, shaped it, glued a couple of cocktail sticks, painted it (complete with green and red navigation lights) and found a little Perspex box to put it in. Then he found a tiny piece of blue paper for the ship to sit on, and created a background complete with lighthouse and birds in flight. He presented it to me when we were getting ready for the next trip.

I set myself up once more and every few minutes I would recalculate our position and move the ship along. Often we would see the same person walk past and take a glance, maybe make a comment. Sometimes a gent would stop and ask a question or start a chat. Then one day, after the Purser had been back and forth, he returned with a piece of paper and passed it to me. Word of my plotting had reached the Bridge and the Navigation Officer sent down an exact position Latitude and Longitude. Guess what folks, lil old amateur learner was less the a few millimetres out!

I have a vague visual remembrance of a line of bums peering out the windows into the darkness, counting the flashes of buoys, so I could find them on the chart.

It made the journey more interesting than just reading or doing homework.

 

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……

 

Lazy Beginnings

Sooooo…… Ummmmm……. Weeelllllll…… Yeah. I’m on the naughty step, procrastinating over my ‘coulda got it done’ list I made a mere three and a bit months ago. To refresh your memories, switch back to Setting Forth! and the three lists.

First, the fun one was to finish the pairs of baby sneakers I was ‘secretly’ stitching for a carer who was about to go on maternity leave, I got some more glow yarn and finished a gear knob ghost for the carer who asked for one. The ‘super secret’ crochet project got finished before the bat was out the bag, a Halloween themed garland of eyeballs, skulls, spiders, ghosts, etc. I haven’t started the Christmas stockings because it has been far too hot and sticky to handle yarn. So three out of four done ✔️✔️✔️

Second was the house list and it had six things, only one of the four desk jobs was done, the pictures are still not on the wall, the wall mounted tv has not been ordered, I did find some trousers and might get some more, I found a couple of tops too, and the website has been updated and backed up, so maybe I’ll give myself ✔️✔️

Then there is the third list. ::sigh:: the bureaucratic nightmare hell one. Neurology took two more phone calls and the threat of official complaint before the referral was actually issued, but someone here forgot to arrange the transport so had to forego the appointment, next attempt 12th Oct 🤞. I haven’t contacted wheelchair services nor Occ Health, I’m taking the ‘let sleeping dogs lay’ attitude. A big fat X on that list.

☹️

I haven’t exactly been doing nothing though. I’m what’s considered an ‘engaged customer’ (the proposal was so romantic, lol) taking part in meetings to voice approval, concerns, question, query etc from the tenant prospective, to hear about what improvements are underway and future business plans. Its incredible the myriad of groups and areas that have this tenant input, whether it’s the wording of a letter or reviewing the Regulator for Social Housing Code Of Practice as per Home Office implementation of the Social Housing Act 2022.

On average I join in two meetings per week, which can be anything from an hour to nearly five. I’m racking up the Love2Shop vouchers, I think there’s a way to convert them to digital Curry’s vouchers which I can then use against getting a new iPad.

Hopefully it won’t be another three months before I have more to report!

 

August – Poem

Silly season in the mediA
Gatherings that happen impromptU
Long ice cooled drinkinG
Trotting in an open landaU
Summertime beachy dayS
The month for holidaying, AugusT

Did ya see what I did there …. a line end acrostic 😬

August always felt like a nothing month, as a child it was spent at home because my parents were both working, we holidayed at a different time of year. Across five+ decades some of the family were always working in the leisure industry and as it was the busiest month, no time off, more likely early starts and late finishes; and when I worked in an office I didn’t take holiday as those with school children booked theirs then. When we were “free” to enjoy the month, after years of seeing and serving Joe Blogs on his holibobs, it was too peoply out there, lol.

 

July – Poem

July – by heck it’s getting harder to wrangle these with originality! Whose bright notion was this challenge …. oh yeah, mine 🤦‍♀️

July quite a month of quandary
Summer nights drawing in
Lines still full of laundry

The year is half gone
The school year ends
But the start of Wimbledon

These dog days of Summer
National month of hot dogs & ice cream
Wearing t-shirts while carrying an umbrella

The larkspur and water Lilly floral appeaser
The birth stone of rich red ruby
In honour of the Roman, Julius Caesar 

 

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?? 😎

 

June Poem

Half way through the challenge! For June we have a Limerick, a very popular and well known poetry method.

There is a lovely sunny month called June
Filled with many a lazy hazy afternoon
You're having a laugh
Likely you need a raft 
Because it always rains a monsoon!

 

May – Poem(s)

Here we go, I’m sure these months are getting shorter. This month another style to tackle.

A clerihew has the following properties: It is biographical and usually whimsical, showing the subject from an unusual point of view; it mostly pokes fun at famous people. It has four lines of irregular length and metre for comic effect and has a rhyme structure is AABB; the subject matter and wording are often humorously contrived in order to achieve a rhyme, including the use of phrases in Latin, French and other non-English languages.

The first line contains, and may consist solely of, the subject’s name. According to a letter in The Spectator in the 1960s, Bentley said that a true clerihew has to have the name “at the end of the first line”, as the whole point was the skill in rhyming awkward names.

A well known example being – Sir Christopher Wren
Said, “I am going to dine with some men.
If anyone calls
Say I am designing St Paul’s”

So here are my attempts.

King Charles the third
"This crown is absurd
So heavy one fears
It'll just sit on one's ears"

~~~

Camilla the Queen 'Consort'
A title, insult and retort
Causing such strife 
As mistress and wife.

~~~

Charles and Camilla
Appear quite vanilla
Leaked phone calls broadcast 
A quite salacious past!

I’ll just take myself to the Tower, I know the way I’ve been there before 😬

 

Crowning Quandry

Note to self :: next time your brain thinks of something, keep your gob shut!

It was such an innocent thought. I was sitting in a meeting of local residents and complex neighbours about a planned street party for the coronation, with activities and games here too, my brain pondered “hmm, I could maybe create some bunting, must Google for a pattern, maybe” I googled, I oowed and it began.

A series of red, white and blue crowns strung on a triple thread chain. Simples! Well in truth it hasn’t been that difficult, I made a start in batches of six (for no reason) of each colour, tucking ends as each six were completed (I hate tucking ends) and propped them neatly in the basket. After a while there was a neat bunch of batches in the basket and I realised three rows would fill it, nice and neat, all very mathematical and logical. Merrily I continued reciting the pattern mantra sounding like I was summoning up some dark demonic creature, until the basket was full.

While chating to BFF and doing the mental maths I was taken aback to work out, I had completed one-hundred and eight crowns, tucking in two-hundred and sixteen ends, taking approximately fifty-four hours before I began stringing them together.

So what’s the quandry? Well, it’s the coronation itself.

It is a major historical event, more rare than Royal jubilees, weddings or funerals, such an event of poignant pageantry with links back to centuries, literally with the 12th century anointing spoon. Next level with the regalia and symbolism.

But

It’s the heads the crowns are being plonked on; the history, the reputations, the insecurities, the fragilities, the egos and the politics. It’s been awhile since the U.K. has had a divorced King on the throne, We go back to George IV (Jan 1820-June 1830) who didn’t want his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, crowned Queen Consort so issued divorce papers (which were quashed), she was excluded from the ceremony and died suddenly a couple of weeks after her estranged husband’s coronation. So we go back further to good old Henry VIII who wasn’t divorced when he ascended the throne but sure got the Guinness Record Holder by the time he died (twice divorced). Honestly, soap opera scripts have nothing on the absurdity of human behaviour compared to the historical royals.

Which brings me to Charles and Camilla (and Diana). How things happened and how it was played out through the media has not just tainted the institution it has permanently stained the Monarchy in perpetuity. What sits uncomfortably for me, is the behaviour of C&C before, during and after his marriage to Diana. It is a clear fact of families that relationships break down and couples divorce, and it was inevitable that Charles and Diana would divorce. It is almost certain that the divorced partners will go on to establish new romances, but having ‘the mistress’ prominent and even befriending the naive bride seemed especially cruel.

Okay, so nobody wants to carry the moniker of ‘marriage wrecker’ or ‘adulterer’ nor be reminded of past bad behaviour, but trying to gloss over, control the narrative around a person or situation, that sticks in the throat. Mistakes have and will be made, who knows how things will change.

And finally, one huge favour …… for the love of patient nerves, please hang your Union Flags the right way up 🇬🇧