While you STAY AT HOME, are you contemplating writing (or finishing) a book? A novel or a poetry book, an autobiography or your memoirs? My advice is DO IT! It is such a rewarding experience to see your work finally in book form. This extra time at home could be the start of something exciting for you!
It’s been such a busy month. March has just flown by in the blink of an eye! I was looking through the ninety posts in my drafts folder with a hint of sadness last night. So many were about my hopes and plans for the spring and summer months. But they have to stay on ice right now. We are all having a taste of that. But imagine being able to show your new book to your family in a few months time and telling them, “while you were self-isolating, look what I was doing!”
But one of the posts I had started made me smile. I am so very grateful to Ashley, the creator of Mental Health @ Home, who has reviewed the first two parts of my three part series about Annabelle Riley (Learner At Love). This is the post in which Ashley reviewed Part Two of the series which is called Where Is This Place They Call “Home”?
Thank you so much Ashley for all of your support and encouragement!
Jack loves music. Probably more than I do. He is also musical. I love that he is musical. He surprises me by the range of music he listens to. He really loves modern pop music, much more than I do. It is rare than I get a bite for modern pop music. But he is always asking me to listen to songs I have never heard before and introducing musicians to me that have never been on my radar.
For the past few weeks, work has been very different. You know why. But today was different again. I was receiving “on the job” training to do things I have never done before. It was interesting. My brain is buzzing tonight as I had to learn so quickly and put it all into practice straight away.
I think I have mentioned in the past that for a long time my friends have labelled me Bridget Von Trapp (a cross between Bridget Jones and Maria Von Trapp). My interpretation of this is that although I aim to be Maria, in practice I end up being more like Bridget.
One of them reminds me of some of my weirdness with Goldfinch. I think I wrote a post a while back about why I had a weird shyness come over me and started to think he did not want to look at my body. He wondered why I was hiding myself under a sheet. He reassured me that he enjoyed looking at me. Silly me.
I had a burst of energy when I came home from work on Saturday. So I used it to do some housework, send some emails and work on a few posts to be published during the course of next week. I was disappointed that I didn’t find time to work on last week’s SHARE-YOUR-WORLD questions, but I am pleased that this post is all ready and just in the nick of time!
My parents were great. They are great. If they were strict we did not know it. They trained us, they spent time with us. We learnt from them, we copied them. They not only gave us advice and guidance, they lived in such a way that we would want to do what pleased them. They were and are lovely. I think some people misinterpret the word “discipline”. Discipline should not be about punishment. It is about training and educating, shaping someone and preparing them for life. My parents prepared us for the day when we would have to make our own choices that we would be accountable for. They provided the best possible start in life for us.
I do remember occasionally being told off for being naughty, but it usually came with questions from my parents about why I had done something and then they would reason with me about why it was wrong and why I should not do it again. They made it clear that I could choose how to behave, that I could control my behavior. They showed me that we choose who we are. They showed me how to react to mistakes and weaknesses and how to become a stronger and better person. I still remember how they shaped my thinking with beautiful reasoning that touched my heart and made me want to be a nice person.
Life was never about what we could not do. It was about what we could do. They filled our time (outside of school) with ways we could show kindness to our neighbours or others in our town who might be lonely or struggling. They also made plenty of time to play with us. They encouraged us to be active (we swam for many hours a week and we only gave up the local swimming club when our trainers there were putting pressure on us to be more competitive as we did not want to be competitive) and Dad taught us to climb trees and took us jogging and played sports with us. Mum is more of a walker than a sportsperson. But she also loved taking us outdoors. We would often go for rambles and picnics with mum.
All of us children had a grumpy teenager moment (except beautiful Milly). My parents must have found it difficult when we no longer wanted to communicate with them. But they never gave up. They could guess some of what was going on in our minds and hearts and they carefully appealed to us.
You probably have seen one of those pictures showing that if you put the big things in first, then you can often add lots of other smaller things around them. But if you concentrate on all the smaller things, it is less likely you will have room for the big things.
I have no idea.
I have had as many square slices of pizza in my life (when you live and work with 800 people everything is done large scale) as slices from a round pizza.
I am grateful for my lunch tote, my thermos flask and my water bottle.
Jim Adams, aka Newepicauthor, the creator of 
Now, did I ever tell you that I went through a stage of handling Robbie Williams’ fan mail? I was working for a record company up in Manchester, and he had recently left Take That. Literally sacks of post would arrive for him. He was in pretty bad shape back then, I am sure he would be the first to admit that.
No photos of the actual poop – I promise!
So I put on my PPE and went about the task.
Every single day at work we are bombarded with questions in connection with the …you know. It’s hard to think about anything else. I know more and more people who are self-isolating and everyone else is social distancing. Many of my friends are anxious about their parents or grandparents. It is hard to switch off that anxiety. Then there are the financial worries many are facing. We are all wondering what is ahead.
Put the award logo/image on your blog.
Normally I go to the same supermarket to do my shopping. But almost three weeks ago, I had to search five supermarkets near me in the search for toilet rolls. While I was at these different shops, I ended up buying all sorts of other items I don’t usually buy. It was costing me a fortune! Thinking about what I might need if I have to self-isolate completely for either seven days or a fortnight, I bought tinned goods that I don’t normally look at, including asparagus soup, curried baked beans, mushy peas and black eyes beans. I did eventually find toilet rolls and then Jack pinched most of them! I am just about to run out again, but I now know that as someone who works for the NHS, I have a route to obtain some! Wooh hoooh!
I had a dress all picked out for an event that I was supposed to be going to. But the event has been cancelled because of the …you know. My lovely dress will have to stay in the wardrobe for another big event. It is not really a summer dress, it is more of a winter dress. It is tapework and although it is lovely, the fabric feels quite heavy when you wear it. I showed Jack and he liked it. He liked taking it off me too. Normally, I go to a lot of large events on a regular basis, so the coming months will be very different. But it is a necessary measure to protect especially our precious older ones.
Nice. I just am. I like being nice.
Also, both us and our neighbours would sometimes lock ourselves out. Several times my Dad was called upon to provide the solution. Because he was a window cleaner he had ladders. Because our council houses were so crumby, we all had damp problems, so we all tended to leave a little window flap open to allow ventilation. So whenever someone locked themselves out of the house, Dad would climb up the ladder with one of us little ones and we would have to squeeze through the little flap. We then had to run down stairs and open the front door. I remember having to find a chair or a bench to reach the door hand handle in both our house and the neighbours’ houses.
What else? Hmm.
I don’t find animals sexy.
Or are you talking about information? There are things I like to keep to myself. What has my age got to do with anything? I ask you! What has the tiny account in my bank got to do with anything? What has my weight got to do with anything?
I am so glad I can’t read minds. I think I would find it unnerving.
Although work is the busiest it has ever ever been, and I have plenty to occupy my thoughts…I have come home from work and found myself intensely missing both Jack and Goldfinch. For the past half an hour I have been in a little sulk (it’s probably just tiredness from the crazy hours I am working for the NHS) and I have comforted myself my reminiscing on all the wonderful memories the two best men on the planet gave me.
Caramel 