His birthday

Posted on April 2, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Life, Blogging, Thinking, Age, Birthday, Hubby, Virus, Celebrate, Life today, Getting out, A day outLeave a comment

Another year towards three score years and ten? I’ve had a quiet day with him today. Is it true men get grumpier with age or is it just the current situation? This is a ‘reading the paper’ face.

How do you keep safe in the world? He does the shopping at the moment as I need to stay in. But we had a trip out today, the pharmacists is not within easy walking distance, so I drove us there. Then a little detour up to the shop on the hill to get supplies and a few beers for a birthday drink. I did that because I knew what I wanted and I’m quick when it comes to shopping. Narrow isles meant some dodging backwards and forwards to leave a healthy gap between customers.

Then back in the car and down the opposite hill to give the car a bit of a run. (It’s been sat for a week and with cold nights I was expecting it to have a flat battery, but it had started first time).

Tonight I went and got us a takeaway Thai meal as a treat. Restaurants are allowed to sell take away food at the moment. (so much for me staying in!)

But that’s why I’ve been quiet today. Quietly celebrating my hubby’s birthday.

Five minutes to save the world

Posted on March 31, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bad story, Creative writing, Disaster, Distopian, Random, Reprieved, Sci fi, Thinking, What if?Leave a comment

Time marched on. Suzanne looked up into the blue sky and saw a bird up high. But the bird was blowing a line of smoke from its back and its wings did not flap. What was it?

She remembered her childhood, when the Great death came. Each of her grandparents, and her mother were gone in a week. Her father tried to raise her, but he had to work and earn money. So he was always away in the woods, cutting and sawing for people who could not gather firewood. They lived in an old house. Central heating did not work, no one knew how to fix it, and there was no longer a gas supply.

She looked up again, the bird, or whatever it was, had flown over the horizon, and the smoke was disappearing into the beauty of the blue sky.

Over in Omereca, a man stood by a screen, his hand hovering over the red button. Yes or no? He had the choice. The clock was running down. Would he press and destroy everything?

His aide ran in as the clocked ticked to 11.55pm.

Sir, he said quietly, the plane, its come back! They have images, there are people there, they saw woodsmoke.

The Restidebt took his hand away slowly from the button. Now we start to rebuild he said as they left the room together.

Solo

Posted on March 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Life, People, Refugees, Single, Solo, Thinking, Virus, Water, World4 Comments

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I think about the people who are on their own at the moment. There are a lot of them out there, either divorced or widowed, or never met anyone they want to share their lives with. My hubby and I might get on each others nerves at the moment, but at least we can talk to each other. Self isolating for us means looking after one another.

Being solo must be so much harder. Humans are social animals. If people don’t have the Internet, or friends to phone things must be so much more difficult.

Maybe in a few weeks all this will be over. But will the population be decimated. And what about countries where people cannot isolate, places where refugees are gathered together without proper sanitation or clean water supplies. The world is a huge place, maybe going through huge change. If we don’t sort ourselves out, become kinder, what will happen?

Stay safe xxx

The cold is seeping in….

Posted on March 29, 2020March 29, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Chilly, Cold, Garden, House, Insulation, Ivy, North wind, Spring, Thinking, Walls, Weather, WinterLeave a comment

This is the first day of spring, but it feels like mid winter. Our house isn’t that well insulated and if it gets cold it stays cold, high ceilings means that the heat rises and warms the upper part of the room before it gets to us down here on the floor. The wind is gusting from the north and whistling through the gap round the seal in the front window and kitchen. We had new windows put in, but I guess they were cheap, all we could afford. The front door slams when you go through it because they measured it wrongly, so the top sticks out more than the bottom, giving it a very strange cant.

The North Wind cools the house, rubs the heat away as it pushes past the walls. Out kitchen bathroom extention only has thin walls. It really needs an insulating layer outside, but instead ivy is taking over and a wisteria has been planted at the end. Plants don’t keep us warm, but the blackbirds like to nest in it.

Now I’m cooking our evening meal, the heat from the oven adds a little to the warmth. I could microwave the food, but the gas cooker gives a bit of extra heat.

One day it will be warm outside, the leaves will grow, and we shall have spring and summer. X

History?

Posted on March 27, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chaos, History, Life, Opinion, Survival, Thinking, Time, Writing2 Comments

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What will history make of 2020 and the Covid 19 virus? It is clearly momentous, but what will be the outcome.

Will we return to our profligate ways as if nothing had happened, and slip back into old routines after a hiatus of several months, or is this a game changer where we will all be poorer and have to be more self sufficient.

Maybe the survivalists that have been prepping over the last several years have it right. Or the environmentalists who have urged us to stop global warming will see a glimmer of light from this current situation.

However you look at it there will have to be questions asked about the leadership of the world. That doesn’t mean that people have necessarily done wrong. Just that the chaos of the virus has too many ramifications to take in. It’s too great a problem to allow us to get all the right answers. That said there are some strange leadership decisions out there. Maybe some leaders should engage their brains before they open their mouths….

I keep getting things like this.

Posted on March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Caring, Fact check, Fake fact, Help, Hoax, Misinformation, Stay safe, Take care, Thinking, Use your brainsLeave a comment

It’s a Hoax…. received_527588088181683

My friend sent me this and when I questioned it, she checked and confirmed its a hoax.

I didn’t want to say that to her, but I’ve had this as a voice recording, and also purporting to be from the NHS over the last few days. People want to help. But if they are hoaxed into sending misinformation or completely wrong stuff then it’s not fair on them. They are only trying to help.

She wanted me to stay safe, and I appreciated that. But we need to be careful not to send misinformation. If people get a false sense of security it means more lives will be put at risk.

Stay safe, fact check

Sending love.

Life goes on….

Posted on March 24, 2020March 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Family, Filters, Home, Life, Lock down, Stay safe, Staying in, Thinking, Time, Virus, Wash your hands, WebLeave a comment

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Another digital pattern that I drew that cheers me up.

Life goes on, as I sit at home, with just about enough food to last a few days, the opportunity to rest seems to have left me. I’m not sleeping for long each night, I get up and start watching the news.

But I’m not in a refugee camp, or one of the homeless sleeping rough. I’m only going to have to stay in for a few weeks, I’m not imprisoned. I might even get to have a birthday party because that’s after the 12 week ‘lockdown’.

Life goes on, I get on my partners nerves and he gets on mine, but we have been together several years and know each others ways. I admit I do nag him though. We need to stay safe.

We also have a garden which we can get out into. It might even look good if we put some work into it.

Friends are important, in our social media age. I’m probably chatting more to people now than I was before. Some social media things are worrying though. There is something going round on messenger, which first came out as a voice clip, supposedly translated from doctors in Italy. Now it’s a written message, the same wording, saying its from the NHS? It says things like drinking warm water every fifteen minutes will was the virus into your stomach. It won’t! The BBC did a fact check on this. The drinking thing does not keep you safe. The best thing to do is keep home, wash your hands, stay safe. I’m just worried things like this message will make people complacent about the virus.

Anyway. Off to do some spring cleaning again….

Stay safe, keep well and wash your hands X

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Thinking