My "bump" was in 2016, aged 48, when I suffered a stroke. This blog charts my recovery. (Header clipart licensed by pngguru.com.)
I knew immediately what I wanted to do today, but it took me ages to find this mix on YouTube. It is very long but I liked it – I listened to all 11 minutes, but I can happily listen to Marvin all day. Actually, there’s another really good version by Usher, but you’ll never top the original.
This song is fifty years old. Don’t kid yourselves that we never knew.
for Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC), climate.
Just watching the News here. The main items, of course, are UK news.
Boris Johnson.
They knew about him before he became mayor of London. They certainly knew about him afterwards. Like his cousin in the US, former advisors made small fortunes with their revelations. Unable to grasp the detail. A bit of a buffoon.
But he has charisma. Oh, the applause he received when he promised to lie in front of the bulldozers if they started digging at Heathrow Airport.
When he happened to campaign on the right side in the Brexit referendum (and it was a margin call) he became impossible to ignore. He was promoted to the cabinet, and was a part of the government which… approved the new runway at Heathrow. But no matter, talk is cheap. Say one thing, do another. Talk is cheap.
But he has charisma. Conservative MPs elected him their leader. He has charisma. He unified the party. With a straightforward message on delivering Brexit, he won a General Election. Decisively. He has charisma. He’s now trying to row back on the original Brexit agreement, but no matter. Talk is cheap.
COVID. Takes us all by surprise. We appreciate the value of Test and Trace. We will test some more. 10,000 per day, by the end of the month. We miss that target. So we increase the target to 25,000. We miss that target, too. Early on, Johnson promises a “world-beating” Tracing App. Nothing materialises, world-beating or otherwise. But no matter, talk is cheap. But over the months, testing increases, quickly at first, but more slowly between May – September. The “second wave” has been promised since July.
Testing is being shown as woefully inadequate. “Nobody could have predicted the need”, says a Johnson supporter. “We predicted it in March”, say the WHO. But no matter, talk is cheap.
But it is worldwide. Peru’s president: we will defeat the virus. Echoes of Winston Churchill. I bet their public love them for it.
Now tell us how. Talk is cheap. India has a says it has a refreshingly low death rate. Because it isn’t counting them all. Talk is cheap.
inspired by Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) of 18 September 2020, reconcile.
Where women were concerned, Paul’s mother, Mary, just wanted her son to be happy. There were various “nice to haves”, but in general, if Paul was happy… Even as a youngster, when he was seeing a woman, it tended to be a big deal – Paul did not go much for “casual”. She had seen him marry Beth, incredibly young, but she seemed to be a stabilising influence on him, although Mary no longer saw as much of him.
When grandson Jake arrived, she was ecstatic. Wasn’t it about time?
But then came the divorce. Divorce was not really a word in Mary’s vocabulary – socially conservative, she believed that life was life, although she had sufficient experience to know that relationships are never as smooth as we would like. In the months following the divorce, she had witnessed Paul retreat into his shell. He argued that it was a good thing, but she saw the negative effects.
Mary learned about Anna, therefore, in dribs and drabs. The biggest indicator was when she happened to see a shirt, which clearly belonged to a woman, on the floor in Paul’s bedroom. Paul would tell her in his own time, but she was pleased he was meeting people again.
Over the next couple of weeks, Mary teased information from Paul, little by little, until it became an established fact. Paul could have guessed what would come next – Mary would like to meet this new woman.
It took a few more weeks, but Paul convinced Anna to meet Mary. Apart from Jake, she would be the first “family” person anybody had met. The date was set for a Sunday lunch, one weekend when Jake was staying with Paul – all three would meet and head to Mary’s. Mary would provide the main course, Paul dessert.
On the day itself, Anna had slight butterflies, but really, she need not have worried. So long as Paul liked her, it did not matter to Mary.
I’ve written a background to these characters, in the posts below.
Yay, it is Friday again, and Fandango has just published his Friday Flashback post. The idea is that he picks a post from this day in a previous year, to give newer readers a better insight into what does and doesn’t make him tick.
I have always liked that idea, so shall also post my own reminiscence. As much as anything, it reminds me of where I was, where I am now, and how far I have come. Hopefully, you will find it entertaining along the way.
Oh, and thank you to Jennifer at Paperkutzs for allowing me to use her image.
Only had to go back a year today. Despite the title (my dumb attempt at humour) I was still quite new to WordPress, and was introducing myself to people. This one explains some of the charity work I did at the time. I’ll put the link to the post below, but I’ll write a line about what has happened post-COVID afterwards. The full post below is about five minutes.
D’oh, I mean diary, honest! As I have just moved to WordPress, I thought I would briefly share what I will get up to today. Every other Wednesday, I go visit the ward where I was once a patient. So I’ll have lunch and will trot out to the bus stop (I no longer drive…yet) … Continue reading “Dairy”
I considered these guys my “main” charity, obviously because of the “stroke” link, but I fell out with the charity, before COVID was ever a thing, so I stopped volunteering in February of this year. As it happened, COVID then struck, and my time helping my other charity, Age UK, expanded to fill the void.
The cat looks very introspective,
Reviewing life from her perspective,
From time to time I hear her sighs,
And then I see her close her eyes.
Dreaming no doubt of mice, she lies content,
her energy drained her gusto spent,
It causes unnecessary trouble and strife,
When you try to discover the meaning of life.
for Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC), introspective.
