New paintings and regular art updates.
I wish I could do something about my new neighbour but I don’t want to speak to him. He’s there now, I think he does a bit of hammering to let me know he’s in. I thought my house was on fire when I came home from visiting a friend, but no he was just burning stuff in the back yard again. The smoke was drifting over the top of my kitchen. Anyway his front door just slammed and he drove off. Happy Christmas eve! I’m going to finish my banana butty and cake bar tea.
Share what you know about the year you were born.
I was born on a beautiful planet
A long time ago.
We hadn’t visited the moon
And Superman hadn’t flown.
The world was overpopulated
With a few billion less people
No such thing as a Tesla existed
But we were not bothered.
Shops mainly closed on Sundays
And had half days in the week.
Butchers shops had sawdust
My head was a lot closer to the ground!
No mobile phones, lucky to have a phone box
Wimpy meals instead of McDonald’s burgers
Coffee was in a bottle, liquid, with chicory?
Sweets had not shrunk.
No sweeteners, no noodles, except in Vesta meals
We hadn’t been decimalised!
We were not in Europe (common market).
And Dr Who hadn’t time travelled yet.
Enough information?
No I’m not waiting for Santa, that’s tomorrow night. I’m just tired out, too tired to sleep, the bedding on my bed is too heavy and presses on my feet. These old legs ache at the knees, so when I turn over they hurt. My hips are starting to hurt too. If I had the money I might treat myself to a reclining chair? But then I worry the cats would get in the mechanism. Oh dear, possibly squashed kitty! I struggle to get up from the bed, I think my arms are not as strong and it pulls on my back as I try to fling my legs out to combat my upper body weight. I’m currently exposing myself to decaffeinated coffee to restore my fluid levels but attempting not to take a stimulant (but as you can see from my writing I’m fully awake). Why do brains do this (keep you awake with plans, worries, anxieties, also hearing my heartbeat and the traffic noise outside, even the cats snore!).
Tonight will soon be this morning, 7am, maybe I should tire myself out with a bit of housework? My coffee is getting cold. Good morning.
Are you a good judge of character?
What’s on the inside isn’t the same as the outside. You might think one thing about a person based on their physical appearance only to find they are completely different to what you expect.
I’d say mostly that I’m a good judge of character. I’ve met many people over my career and my home life, and mostly it’s been OK. But not always, on a couple of occasions I had to give up on friends who tried to split me and my hubby up, I found out one was saying things about me to needle my hubby into leaving me. I realised that the language he was using was in her way of speaking. It was her attitudes that he was spouting. When we talked it through he thankfully understood that. The second situation was a woman that tried to have an affair with him. She was always calling round when I was out. He told me what she was up to, and we ended the friendship.
Other people have fooled me at work, but you cotton on eventually. It can cause heartache when you mistakenly trust people. But you have to live and learn.
When Covid happened I got used to living in my bubble with my hubby and my cats. I never really came out of that isolation. We were both travelling less and as we both started to suffer with various ailments we often didn’t feel like visiting people or travelling far. I saw friends, but not very often.
Then when I lost my hubby last December, and I had various health issues I virtually stopped going anywhere except to the shops, appointments or the choirs I am in. My one day away this year was a coach trip with a group I am in to the Welsh coast to visit a relative. I was there for 5 or 6 hours then caught the coach home. I’ve found I cannot drive there on my own. I was too used to having my hubby with me as a passenger and I didn’t realise how much I relied on him as a support (and I was supporting him). Nerves and anxiety and illness seem to stop me.
Now I don’t like to bother people, so I try not to ask for help. I stay inside as much as I can, curtains closed, door locked, just occasionally going to the shops when I have run out of most things. I find big supermarkets overwhelming and go round them in the evenings when they are quiet. I know I need to break out, I’m to comfortable with the isolation, but I’m sure it’s not good for me. Plus I miss appointments because of anxiety. I need to pull myself together.. But my curtains remain closed!
I’ve just watched a drama documentary on TV that explains how important blood donations are. They are used for blood transfusions, and only certain blood types can be transfered between donor and recipient. I decided to look up more information. See below.
From Google :
“The eight most common blood types are A+, A-, B+, B-, O+, O-, AB+, and AB-. These types are determined by the presence or absence of the Rh factor protein and the A and B antigens:
There are also many other blood group systems, including the Duffy, K antigen (Kell), Lutheran, and Kidd blood groups. The International Society for Blood Transfusion has identified 42 blood-group systems in addition to the ABO and Rh systems.
When matching blood types for a transfusion, it’s important to consider not only the A, B, and Rh antigens, but also minor antigens that aren’t routinely detected during blood typing. A process called cross-matching can help detect these minor antigens. “
See : http://blood.co.uk to arrange to donate.
People were meeting for sunrise at Stonehenge this morning as today was the shortest day of the year in the northern Hemisphere. This is the Northern winter solstice.
Apparently the day was less that 8 hours long, although it was so cloudy and grey it might have been shorter for all I could tell.
Of course on the equator days and nights are pretty much of equal length and I presume the Southern Hemisphere had its longest day either yesterday or today. What will it be like in six months when it’s summer here again? Who knows.
To all my friends, I’ve decided to donate to a charity this year, so sending out love and seasons greetings on social media. X Christine
Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?
A year ago I didn’t think I would go through so much, grief, hospital appointments, memories, loneliness.
Stepping through that year, from there to here, then to now, I had hoped that I would be starting to have better times by now, but the administration of suffering is hard to maintain. One thing after another, a bill here, a repair there, treatments, investigations, infections, tremors, everything. I must have cost the nhs thousands. It’s hard to keep up and also chase things up.
I’m not really where I wanted to be now but hopefully will be in 2025.
Cold seeps in from outside,
A slight windchill wicks away warmth.
House walls don’t hold heat
Leeching and sucking
Taking the warmth from me too
I sit and doze and wear extra jumpers….
Remembering us together
Keeping each other warm.
Mallaband-Brown