Compassion

What’s the trait you value most about yourself?

I try and be compassionate and care about people. It’s hard sometimes because you have to care about yourself too. If you don’t you can sink under the pressure of peoples problems.

I was bought up to be compassionate, I would watch things on TV or listen to the radio and feel bad for people in trouble, I understood some of the pain they were going through. I don’t know why? I was just doing what people around me did, but it’s stuck with me throughout my life. I hope it shows through.

Traits are hard to recognise in yourself though, it’s not something I  go looking for but deep down its there.

3 jobs?

List three jobs you’d consider pursuing if money didn’t matter.

I guess this question is asking what jobs you would consider if you already had sufficient funds and didn’t need to earn more?

I would like to do jobs that were useful and interesting, and that helped people. Perhaps someone who volunteered to support patients and visitors at hospital, explaining where various wards and departments were, offering to get people a drink of water or show the where they could get food?

Alternatively I would like to work on some environmental issues, support natural wildlife, perhaps in a hedgehog hospital?

Finally I would have liked to persue a more formal career in art. I’ve always painted but never been able to make enough money to turn it into a career. Oh and sell books too!

But basically I think it’s important that people are paid a decent living wage. So many people have been working at below the poverty rate and taking two or three jobs to survive, and that’s just in industrialised countries. Think about it, one man is likely to become a trillionaire in the near future and also being offered tax cuts to increase his income even more. Total madness.

I could do more

What could you do more of?

If I could do more exercise, I think I would be healthier. But everytime I try and do something? Something else goes wrong with me. I’m like a car that had had all it’s wires disconnected and put back in the wrong places. My head would fall off if it wasn’t screwed on! I know I need to do more but I’ve hurt my leg (well my cat stuck her claws in it) and it started to weep. Now I’ve got a cold. I just feel fed up of being a wreck.

I think I will do something about it soon, in the hope I can improve my health. Fingers crossed.

Hubbys chicken casserole

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

One day hubby turned up from  his work at a pottery with a very large casserole pot. He’d bought it and wanted to cook for friends.

We decided to make a chicken casserole and invite a few friends over. I was working that evening so he said he would prepare it. I told him what to do, put the chicken in the casserole pot, add carrots, potatoes, onion and a clove of garlic.

I came home to hubby and our guests. He opened a bottle of wine and we decided to serve the food. Unfortunately the smell of very pungent garlic wafted from the pot. My hubby had put in a whole bulb of garlic in by mistake. We were only young and were not used to the strength of the garlic. The flavour was too strong for us. I think we ended up having fish and chips from the chips shop.

It has to be Chinese

What are your favorite types of foods?

Our mother would take us out for meals occasionally when we were children. Sometimes it was Indian, but mostly Chinese. I like the flavours, the textures, the combination of ingredients. Duck with hoisin sauce, chicken chow mein, special fried rice, beef with spring onions and black bean sauce. All kinds of other things. I just like it, although I have read that the Chinese food in the UK is not authentic.

Mom got us to use chop sticks which added to the unique and special feeling it was to eat out. In those days the only other form of Chinese food was Vesta Chow mein which came in a box and you added hot water to it I think, and fried prawn crackers. But they were good memories.

No, I am a supporter

Do you see yourself as a leader?

There are too many people who think they have what it takes to be a leader. But you can do other things, like being a follower, a loner, a supporter.

If you care about people or things think about using your compassion and being a supporter in some way. That could be financially, or morally, or emotionally. By supporting others you can reinforce friendship, but also possibly productivity, or yours and theirs emotional wellbeing. As the saying goes, love one another as you would like to be loved yourself. X

Tranklements

What’s your favorite word?

Tranklements is an old fashioned word meaning bits and bobs, a collection of odds and ends, shiny things like a magpie would collect.

I think it is an old historical word from the Midlands of England. Certainly I’ve only really heard it used in The West Midlands around the Birmingham area. I think its a dialect word.

In context you could say I’m just getting my tranklements together if you wanted to gather your lace making kit or a bag full of knitting stuff. Or bits of costume jewellery, a bag full of paints or makeup.

I like it because it sort of explains what it means just in the sound. It should be used more often!

This doesn’t happen…

Describe your ideal week.

My ideal week would be to go out to a studio, paint for a few hours, make good progress on a painting. Go to choir practice. Cook tea for me and my hubby. Sit and chat about our days.

My ideal week would include going for a walk with him, he might go for a cycle ride to see a friend. He goes to bed early, I stay up late to read or watch TV.

In my ideal week I would sleep well, wake refreshed. Go for a drive somewhere with my hubby. Visit a national trust property.

In my ideal week I would try and paint some more, take some photos, go on the Internet.

In my ideal week I would still have my hubby, I would still have my studio, I would still be doing art or at least more than I am now. I’m just struggling to get back to something like an ideal week.

Sarah Storey

Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.

Dame Sarah Storey won her 19th Gold medal at the Paris 2024 paralympic games today. She has competed at 9 paralympics over several years. She started out as a swimmer but then took up cycling. Her 19th gold was for winning a road race around Paris. She also competes in the velodrome. She was born in 1977 and was made a dame because of her abilities as a sportswoman. Her physical disability is an underdeveloped left arm and hand from before she was born.