J is for

…oh, it has to be John – doesn’t it?

John is my much maligned other half. We’ve been together now for 27 years and married for almost 26 years.

We met at work and I would be lying if I said it was love at first sight. It was probably just the opposite. I couldn’t stand him. he was opinionated and arrogant. Always there putting his views across in a way that I just couldn’t take to. But then there was the evening social event that we both went to and had nobody to talk to. Except for each other. He offered me a drink and then, rather embarrassingly, discovered he had no cash – and neither did I. To cut a long story short, we spent the evening chatting spurred on by the fact that other people were staring and pointing at us, decided to leave the venue together to wide eyed stares from colleagues. On the way out John said ‘If you fancy going out some time, give me a call’ I think he was being polite. My response was ‘Oh I couldn’t do that’ to which he replied ‘OK – what are you doing on Friday?’ For some reason my answer to that was ‘Do you want to come back to mine for coffee?’ I don’t know what I was thinking but that was all I could say.

Anyway, coffee over and he left after a very chaste peck on the cheek. I hardly slept all night. I had butterflies. I was restless – what was going on – I didn’t even like the man. Or did I?

Less than six months after that evening he proposed to me and seven months later we were married. A whirlwind? Yes I suppose you could say that. There have been some very tough times, especially when the boys were young but we overcame everything and are now getting used to spending more time on our own again.

As this post appears in the ether we are nearing the end of the first week of our holiday together – just the two of us this time – so if there are any reports of an Englishman being thrown overboard in the Atlantic – it may just be him! Only joking – of course that would never happen…

I is for …

…Ignorance, and I don’t mean lack of learning.

I mean bad manners, inconsiderate, idiotic behaviours.

For instance – drivers. Why do some drivers think they own the road? You know what I mean, you’re pootling along quite happily and then some idiotic, inconsiderate person decides you’re in the way and cuts by you, forcing you to take evasive action. Or if you’re on a narrow road (as a lot of local UK roads are) they pay no heed to who has right of way and just charge towards you just squeezing through without doing any damage.

Another example, people who walk through doors and don’t even think about looking behind themselves to keep it open for you to walk through.

And another. People on mobile phones, talking soooo loud it makes your ears hurt and showing absolutely no respect for a single soul about them.

And manners! It’s not just young people so I’m not blaming any particular generation here. people who can’t eat properly, can’t use cutlery, talk with their mouth’s full of food – euukkkk!

Just a short ranting post from me this week! Check out the other contributions at Jenny's blog – I’m sure they’ll be kinder than mine this week!!!

(Oh, by the way – off on my holiday tomorrow so won’t have the opportunity to visit many posts for a couple of weeks. I’m setting mine to post automatically – fingers crossed it works – and I’ll ask somebody to link me back so that I don’t get into trouble for not keeping up with the work while I’m away!!)

More rambling….

Ah well, another week of crunching and popping over – only two trips to the chiropractor this week but progress is being made, I can move almost normally and I’m virtually pain free, which is brilliant.
Tuesday took John and I off to Colchester to see the lovely Ellen perform in a short drama piece for her AS level. With three other girls of the same age (16-17) she wrote, directed and produced a 20 minute performance about the Land Army girls from the second world war. I know I’m probably biased but I think it was brilliant! It was marked by the drama teacher for the course work part of the exam – I had to stop John paying him to mark it as A!!
Work was mad this week – I can’t say too much about what’s been going on but I’m just so glad not to have to wait too much longer for my holiday!
The week was rounded off with my day off. After a trip to the chiropractor I popped into town for yet more retail therapy – I had to take one of the dresses back that I bought last week and just needed a few more bits for the holiday.
And finally the piece de résistance of the week was dinner with the lovely Jaydubblah and her husband. You will probably recall that Jaydubblah and I met through Twitter and met up in person for the first time last summer. We thought it was time to introduce the men to each other, which we did over dinner last night – take a look here for more details and a sneaky peak at her Weekend Reflections post!
Well, as I may have mentioned several times in the last few weeks we’ll be off on Friday – all may go quite on the Blogging front for a couple of weeks although I’m going to try to pre-set a couple of things to publish while I’m away. I would blog from the ship but usually internet speed is so poor and so expensive that it prohibits a quick update – we’ll have to wait and see!

Weekend Reflections

I had a good look around this week for a suitable reflection and found it in the garden table! I had to enlist the help of John to tilt the table for me but I think it’s worked. Take a look at the other contributions over at James Weekend Reflections.

You can’t quite see, but the vibernum is full of berries

This Heather never fails to give a lovely display of pink bells at this time of year

You need to stand on your head for this one!

H is for …

…HOLIDAY!!! (Or alternatively V is for Vacation!)

I bet not many of you thought I’d choose that now did you?? I have to admit to being a little late with my homework this week – I hope Mrs Matlock hasn’t noticed. I have had a rotten week at work this week which makes the fact that I go on my next holiday next week all the sweeter.

As a child we always had a holiday. I don’t really know how my parents ever afforded it, but each year would have a week at the seaside. I have memories of a place called Littlestone in Kent. My abiding memory is that you had to walk down a huge incline of stones to get to the beach – and I remember being petrified of sliding down!

A big contrast to the holidays that my children had. Son1’s first holiday was to Spain at the tender age of 18 months – what a performance to take all the baby paraphernalia with us! We had a few holidays after that on the Norfolk coast when times were hard, often sharing a static caravan with our friends and their daughters – far cheaper to split the cost. As years went by we were able to venture further afield to Spain, Canary Islands, Cyprus and, of course, the US. The regular visitors among you will know that during the past year John & I have become cruise-aholics and next week will see us take our fourth cruise in little over a year. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not made of money – just SKI-ing (Spending the Kids Inheritance!).

So next week we’ll fly to Barbados then sail to St Lucia, St Maarten, Tortolla and Antigua. Then we will sail back to the UK via Madeira – which means six days on the Atlantic – hold on to your hats, it’s gonna be breezy! So, all being well in a few weeks I’ll recount our adventures – in the meantime I have to work out how to set my next posts to publish so that I don’t get into trouble for being late with my homework!

Don’t forget to pop across to Jenny's blog to see the other H posts!

That’ll teach me!

Yesterday I had some retail therapy. Shocking. I didn’t ‘need’ anything. I didn’t really ‘want’ anything. I thought a bit of exercise would be good for me, you know, gentle stroll around the shops, spot of lunch while we were out. A large department store was having one of it’s (almost) monthly 25% off days. Used to be just twice a year now it seems like it’s every few weeks  but I needed wanted  decided to look for curtains for son2’s bedroom, he inherited a blind when he moved in just after Christmas but it’s not the nicest looking blind in the world and I persuaded him to go for curtains instead. Problem was he wanted to choose them really, but I thought I’d go a nd get an idea. I found some that I thought he’d like and took photo’s thinking that, if he liked them, I could order them on  line and still get the discount. I knew which ones he’d opt for but I had to let him choose. Typically when I went on line they weren’t there last night. But they were this morning – how can that be? Anyhow – they’re ordered now.

While I was in said department store i thought I might just have a look for ‘a’ frock for the forthcoming cruise (I’ll bore you more about that soon). Spotted a nice one. Very 50’s in style, green and black floral pattern with a belted waist. Mmm nice. Then another, similar style but large purple pattern. Mmm nice. Then another, different completely black and white, little off the shoulder number. Mmm nice. Then a shift style, silky, black and beige sort of colour. Mmm nice. Then a top, pinks and purples, floaty material. Mmm nice. Finally a little cocktail number in purply blue and a little diaphanous (now that’s a word you don’t hear very often!) I confess I bought them all. Without trying on a single one of them. How greedy am I? Very. I tried them on when I got home, fully expecting to take most of them back but apart from the shift style they all fitted a treat. They are now laid out across the bed waiting expectantly for their holiday!

Then I bought shoes. I hate buying shoes. Especially ‘fancy’ shoes ‘cos I know I’ll have trouble walking in them. But I bought two pairs – one of which are *shock horror* purple!

Anyway this post is called ‘That’ll teach me’ I expect you can guess from that that I have paid dearly for my little foray. The back, hips & thigh are killing me today – feels like I’ve gone back three days  - deep sighs – never mind more crunching tomorrow!

  Here’s a sneaky peek! :)

Ouch! Crunch,pop,ouch!

These were the words I uttered and the sounds I heard at the chiropractor during the last week. First visit was for assessment and x-rays. £110. OK – back needs sorting, has to be done – go for it. That was Monday. On Tuesday I went for the results of the assessment and the first treatment. No real surprises, the bottom few vertebrae are degenerating and there’s hardly any space between 1&2 and 2&3. I also have an ‘S’ shaped scoliosis just above that area – fortunately(!) it’s lateral so doesn’t protrude. The first treatment meant laying on this brilliant couch that moves from vertical to horizontal while you stand on a plate – strange sensation at first but a great way to get on the couch if you can’t move properly. The he moved me to the position I needed to be in. Oh my! I cold have sworn I was going to fall off even though he assured me that I was safe! then he said the words you dread – just relax and let me take control! I don’t actually know the exact position he manoeuvred me into – I was so worried about what he was actually going to do. And then he did it. I heard the crunch. And the pop. And I uttered ‘ouch’ – no really, that was all I said! And then he stuck needles in my back! Acupuncture of course, but not the Chinese type – he did explain but by then I was like ‘OK, whatever’. £30 – for about 20 minutes of his time.

He gave me a treatment plan. Two sessions per week for four weeks. Then one session a week for four weeks. Then a review. I was doing the maths! I do think that my back is worth it though.Honestly. Perhaps I should have taken it more seriously a few years ago. Perhaps. But I didn’t have the money then to consider it – not that I have a surplus now, you understand, but I can be a little more generous to my spine these days. I went back on Thursday. No chat this time straight on to the torture treatment – more crunch, pop and ouch and needles (which, incidentally, don’t hurt at all). John timed this treatment. Six minutes. £30 for six minutes. Repeat the mantra – it will be worth every penny.

I have to say that by yesterday morning I was feeling much better. Still nagging pain in my hip and thigh but better. I went off to the hairdressers and the lovely Angela worked her magic with the colour again. You know, I swear she reads my mind. I’d been getting a bit fed up with my hair – been a bit samey for a while, but I didn’t say anything to her. Instead she said ‘I’m thinking you need a change’! how spooky is that. So I had a change – not much but shorter across the back, a bit ‘choppier’ which hopefully will make it easier to manage – or not. I have no patience in the drying department when it comes to my hair, so we will have to see about that.

I’m going to stop now – I’ve just realised how much I’ve written and if I’m getting bored writing it, I’m sure, dear reader, you must be losing interest too!!

I’ll post a part two later – with the results of my retail therapy!!!!!

Weekend Reflections

This wasn’t quite what I had in mind today – the lighting wasn’t very good this morning when I was in the hairdressers and I didn’t realise that the camera setting on the phone was black & white - doh! The small top windows are beautiful colours as well – I’m disappointed that I didn’t twig that it was the camera setting and not the light!

 

When I sit in this chair facing the mirror I see all sorts of things happening in reverse – this was taken very early this morning though so there wasn’t much going on.

Have a peek at some of the other reflections over at Newtown Area Photos – must try harder for next week!

G is for …

 

Gin and tonic! I agonised over G. I was going to go for Gardening and then I thought it was too cold for that. I thought of Goals (as in football) and, as you’ll remember if you read last weeks F is for …, there haven’t been too many lately. Then the new boss suggested Glass of wine and I thought hang on, she’s on to something there so I opted for Gin & tonic – my current favourite tipple.

As a teenager, misspending my youth, I tried a variety of alcoholic beverages. People always told me that Gin was mother’s ruin – a depressant, and I came to the conclusion that they were right and avoided it for years. Fast forward 30 years and I find myself once again enjoying the odd G&T – the first one taken whilst luxuriating on deck on the last cruise in November. I actually felt rather decadent as the waiter wheeled his cocktail trolley along the deck. It was only 2pm after all.

When I arrived home I treated myself to a bottle of Gordon’s Gin and a multipack of slimline tonics and have been treating myself to a regular G&T on a Saturday evening! I’m a lightweight these days when it comes to drinking so it’s only ever the one, although, I might break that habit in a couple of weeks when we head off on holiday again!

Don’t forget to pop across to Jenny's blog to see what everybody else has to offer!

View Full Album