A Little Inspiration From Ellen

In my WP Reader last night was this post from Ellen, the creator of Gone Floatabout:

https://gonefloatabout.com/2020/06/27/polynesias-beautiful-underwater-world/

So beautiful!!! I need things like this to revive me. What an amazing planet we live on!

I’ve only ever been diving once, that was in Turkey – but it is one of the most special memories I have. I would love to have chance to explore more of our magnificent oceans.

Life is not about politics. It’s not about the economy or the housing market. For thousands of years our incredible planet has been turning. People didn’t have supermarkets.

Never lose sight of our inheritance. Look after it. Keep it clean and healthy. There is no home like ours!

Oceans Apart

I am such a softie these days. If anyone has been reading my posts for a while – you may know that the man I love is now living on the opposite side of the planet from me and has no plans to return to England any time soon. 😦

However…as I have mentioned many a time, I knew that would be the case when I met him, and I have had a long time to prepare myself. Currently, I need to be near-ish my family and support network. Much as I would love to book myself a one-way ticket to Adelaide, Australia, that is really not a clever thing to do right now.

So instead you all have to put with me being a hopeless romantic and occasionally lamenting my lovely Goldfinch being so far away from me. You are all so lovely!!! What would I do without being able to pour out my feelings in my posts? Thank you for putting up with me! And oh your gorgeous comments!  ❤  I am deeply grateful for the supportive and kindly comments that have come my way from so many lovely bloggers.

When you are in love – songs take on a completely different significance to you – have you found that? Even songs you may have found a bit corny in the past are suddenly just perfect at expressing exactly your feelings.

I wrote a goodbye letter to Goldfinch …and I put it into his suitcase so that he could only read it when he reached Australia. But I took photographs of it because I wanted to keep a record of all I said to him. I can’t bring myself to read it again because I am sure I will be in floods of tears. But one thing I do remember saying is that whatever he chose for his future (and I wished him to be happy and healthy as possible), if he ever needed me, then I hoped I would be able to come immediately to be there for him.

When I saw that Jim had selected the theme of OCEAN/SEA for this week’s SONG-LYRIC-SUNDAY I found several songs running around my head. But I opted for this one because it is so lovely and soppy – very much like me when I think of Goldfinch!

Oceans apart, day after day
And I slowly go insane
I hear your voice on the line
But it doesn’t stop the pain

If I see you next to never
How can we say forever?

Wherever you go, whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I took for granted, all the times
That I thought would last somehow
I hear the laughter, I taste the tears
But I can’t get near you now

Oh, can’t you see it, baby
You’ve got me going crazy

Wherever you go, whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you

I wonder how we can survive
This romance
But in the end if I’m with you
I’ll take the chance

Oh, can’t you see it, baby
You’ve got me going crazy

Wherever you go, whatever you do
I will be right here waiting for you
Whatever it takes or how my heart breaks
I will be right here waiting for you
Waiting for you

 – Written by Richard Marx

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Please do feel free to join in the fun and link back to the SONG-LYRIC-SUNDAY post from our current host Jim aka Newepicauthor, the creator of A Unique Title For Me:

https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/2019/02/02/water-cohesion/

The Adventure Of A Life-Time

I have a lot of unfinished posts in my drafts folder. I feel I ought to have a spring-clean and decide which I should give up on and which I have the enthusiasm to complete.

Back in August Sarah Elizabeth Moore hosted a writing challenge called The-August-Write-Away. I loved her series of daily questions. I just didn’t have time to complete a post for every single day.

So this is one of the posts that I am really reluctant to give up on:

• Day 6 – What grand adventure do you wish you could go on?

I have had many adventures and I am sure there are many ahead.

I have been been so happy with Goldfinch this year…so happy that I want to share a life-time with him. I want to share the adventure of a life-time with him. That won’t be possible I know. But…still it’s nice to dream. So dream I will in this little post.

I have always thought it a wonderful thing to build your own boat – a bit like Gibbs in NCIS. I would love it to be a wooden boat with elegance and stability. With a huge romantic sail!

After we have finished building a boat, Goldfinch and I set sail away into the deep blue. We would have all the time in the world to enjoy our voyage of a life-time.

There would also be plenty of swimming and diving when we were out a sea. We would swim with whales and dolphins and bejewelled fish of every colour. There would be so much to observe and learn in the ocean.

We would walk hand in hand along many beaches watching the magnificent sunsets. So many perfect days and perfect nights, staring up at the starry heavens.

We would travel to every port and harbour and we would meet the people who lived locally, taste their cuisine, dance to their music, and explore their culture.  We would be meeting members of our human family we had not met before. We would visit every land on the planet.  So much to learn, so much joy.

 There would be no such thing as passports and visas.  Just love!!!

It would be a grand adventure indeed…the adventure of a life-time. It is a wonderful dream I shall hold dear to my heart.

Perhaps, one day I will open my eyes and he will be there…to tell me, all the worrying is over. I have been asleep through momentous changes, but I have woken up in a new era of peace, where there is nothing to fear.

Maybe then we can make a start building our boat in preparation for our grand adventure.

Adventure awaits…no matter what happens in between. I look forward to many a grand adventure. I would love to be able to share those adventures with Goldfinch. But we will have to wait and see.

 

 

The Last Person I Would Want To Be Stuck On A Cruise With…And I Will Tell You Exactly Why!

My sister Mandy is married to a lovely man with a lovely mum.  She is lovely.  Not only is she lovely, she is also a Super-Mum (as I revealed in a post named “Would You Like To Meet The In-Laws?”)

However, she has a problem.  It is a problem that I find difficult to comprehend.  I try to be understanding, sympathetic, compassionate, but frankly it baffles me!  My sister’s mother-in-law is a PANICKER!  In one particular situation she loses all sense of reason and her behaviour is incredibly unpredictable.  Do not be out at sea with this Super-Mum – who knows what might happen?

I first realized this when we took a trip to the Isle-Of-Man (or Mann, I am rather confused about whether it is supposed to have one or two “N”s because everyone seems to think differently.)  I have made that trip many times because we had great friends over there and we thought it a lovely escape for a weekend.

The Irish Sea can be a rough crossing indeed.  I don’t suffer too much myself with sea-sickness, but I have been on crossings that have been so turbulent that almost everyone had to be out on deck with severe regrets that they had breakfast before they left the house!

But, one thing that has always reassured me when I arrived at Liverpool to set off for the crossing to Douglas, is that the Sea-Cat can only sail when the water is reasonably calm.  If it is too choppy, they have to use a different kind of vessel.  The Sea-Cat (I am no expert in ocean vessels) kind of skims across the surface of the water.  It can only do that when the sea is reasonably calm.  I have been on journeys that were changed due to weather conditions.  Our two hour Sea-Cat crossing was changed to a four hour trip on the “Ben-Me-Cree” which took us to Heysham instead.  Then we had to travel by coach down to Liverpool.  That boat the “Ben-Me-Cree”, it seemed to bob around like a cork in water and we felt the heaving and swaying dramatically.

So turning up at Liverpool Docks on a sunny day with the faintest of breezes and learning the Sea-Cat was definitely running I was a happy bunny.  I like travelling with a group of friends and family members.  We have fun!  This was the first time I had traveled with my brother-in-law’s Super-mum.  She is a lovely lady…but almost from the start she started to show signs of anxiety that I had never seen in her before.

It became much worse.  There are times when the Sea-Cat seems to slam down onto the water quite forcefully.  She started to become alarmed to an extent I had never seen before.  We all kept telling her that was normal.  But she was not able to accept our reassurances.  She started running around and screaming in panic shouting “We are going to sink!”

Her own family were trying to retrain her, but they were unsuccessful.  A couple of the crew on-board became involved because she was so frantic.  Other passengers just stared in amazement.  I was bewildered.  How could a woman who was normally perfectly rational and capable deteriorate so quickly into this abysmal state of panic?

Her angst only dissipated when we were safe on dry land.  When she had fully recovered she apologised to everyone who had been worried by her state of panic.  Then she told us it was not the first time, or the worst time!  It seems that travelling by water is not advisable in her case.  When they were on vacation in Spain they went out on a hover-croft with a large group of fellow tourists.  The stampede of panic she had caused after she became convinced that the hover-craft had been damaged and they were in danger of imminent cap-sizing was so severe, that she had been formally told by the company running the Hover-craft tours that she would not be allowed back again.

I do love her as a member of our extended family, and I don’t want to be unkind about her, but I swear, she is the last person on earth I would go on a cruise with!

Coffee Cups (Cherry Chocolate Granola)

Another working week over and done with and now it is Sunday….my day of rest…NOT!!!

Even on my Sunday I am up bright and early because I have a lot to do today…but first I am determined to enjoy my breakfast….I have had fruit all week for breakfast (and salad for lunch and dinner every day I was at work)…but today…ooh la la…I am having cherry yogurt, I bought it for Goldfinch and forgot it was still unopened in the back of the fridge with a use-by-date of 14-05-18. And because I have never been in the habit of eating yogurt naked….I nipped into Waitrose straight after work last night to buy some granola, and fell for chocolate cherry granola which I can only imagine is going to taste incredibly yummy. I have just made my coffee and am waiting for it to percolate and then I am going to enjoy.

Aaaaah…..so nice to have time to feel I can just dawdle along in first gear for the next hour or so…so nice!!!

Speaking of granola…I had an odd experience in a health store on Wednesday. My landlady asked me to buy her some spelt muesli. They did not have any in Sainsburys supermarket, so I nipped into an expensive health store across the road where they do stock lots of spelt foodie items. I meant to nip in and have a look round to see if I could find what she wanted. But as soon as I walked in a shop assistant bounded up to me and asked if he could help me. So I told him I was looking for spelt muesli…his face reflected panic. I followed him around the store twice before I realized he did not know where to look. I was sure we had passed a section with cereals. He came along with me. He picked up some spelt flakes off the shelf and handed them to me. I thanked him but said I was looking for muesli. So then he picked up granola off the shelf and gave it to me. I started to find myself becoming a bit giggly. I said that it looked nice, but I knew my landlady already had granola, she had asked me to buy muesli. He replied “but granola is muesli, they are the same thing”. I told him I think they are slightly different. He asked me how. I looked at him really finding it hard not to express my amusement. I described granola as being a bit crunchier than muesli. He started reading the back of the packet of granola. Then he said to me “I’ll tell you the difference between muesli and granola. Muesli you have with milk at breakfast time, whereas granola you have with fruit and yoghurt and you eat it in the afternoon.” I was really taken aback at the confidence he delivered his conclusion to me…and I was dying to laugh but politeness helped me to restrain it. Anyway, he then said that they didn’t sell muesli. I thanked him for helping anyway. Within moments another shop assistant appeared with a bag of gluten free spelt muesli in his hand.

I bought myself a coffee cup this week….I have been looking for one for weeks, but didn’t like the colours I saw, but fell in love with the one I saw in Robert Dyas homewares store. But then two days later a friend nipped round with some clothes I had lent her and she gave me a coffee cup…I remember telling her how guilty I feel every time I buy a coffee because of the difficulties recycling coffee cups so I intended to buy a coffee cup to have in my work bag. So now I have two as you can see from my photo!

The taller one I bought and the shorter is the one she bought for me. Oh…I can help save the planet in style!  Every morning when I turn on the news before I head out for work there is a news item about single use plastics – bad bad bad….  Ever since we watched the beautiful BBC Blue Planet and especially the recent Blue Planet ΙΙ, we have all become very upset that our magnificent oceans and the myriad of sea creatures that leave us full of wonder and awe are being damaged by our daily coffee purchases amongst other things.  My next purchase will be a re-usable water bottle, a solid one that I can wash out again and again.  I must do this because I do buy a lot of bottled water. I can’t bear to think of harming the creatures in the ocean I am fascinated by.  (I heard that by the end of the year plastic drinking straws and cotton buds will be banned.  I am not sure who uses cotton buds anymore anyway.  Every health professional sternly tells you not to stick them in your ears.  Maybe some people have other uses for them.  But my life will not be cramped by the absence of straws or cotton buds.)

My lovely lovely wonderful Goldfinch is somewhat of an expert on waterways and the environment.  He says much more needs to be done.  I am sure he is right.  I am sure the vast majority of people would be pleased to make sacrifices where needed to preserve this incredible planet.  I asked him last week, what does he think is the next practical solution to take.  We are getting rid of plastics we don’t really need and re-using coffee cups and drinking bottles more.  I asked him what is next.  It sometimes seems a bit overwhelming, but I think most of us understand that we all need to do something or give something up.  The collective effort can achieve huge results.  Do you know the story about the starfish on the beach?  I don’t have time right now, but I will relate it in another post.

My other exciting buy this week….Higgledy Piggledy Pies…four new vegetarian varieties and on offer in the Waitrose supermarket. I can’t wait to try them.  I have not baked a pie in ages.  Pastry…not very waistline friendly.  But I feel in the mood for baking savoury things at the moment.  I am an occasional baker.  I bake for friends.  They love my bakes and tell me I am an amazing baker and should apply for one of these TV baking shows.  I know better.  I am not a great baker at all.  BUT I DO KNOW HOW TO READ.  I obey the recipe precisely, every letter!  It is a very clinical mechanical way of baking, but yes the bakes come out well.  All credit to the recipe writers.  I never remember the recipes.  If you asked me to jump up and bake a sponge cake or shortbread right now, I would not be able to do it.  My head does not retain recipes.  But I have made hundreds of cakes and biscuits by faithfully following other people’s recipes.

I found a recipe for a dish that looks absurdly simple but delicious. It is so simple that I can actually remember it. Take one 600g tub of fresh veggie soup, the type you find in the chilled section in the supermarket, and heat gently in a saucepan and then add 400g tin of cannellini beans (after draining and rinsing of course) add any seasoning you desire. pour this concoction into an oven proof dish. Then take a fresh garlic baguette and blitz it in a food-processor (or you can grate it if you don’t own a food processor) It should be nice chunky crumbs, not fine crumbs. Mix this with grated cheddar cheese (the recipe specified 75g but I would probably leave that to the eater to decide how cheesy they want their supper to be). Sprinkle your cheesy, garlicky bread crumb mix over your bean and veg soup base. 15 minutes baking in an oven that has been pre-heated to 200°/fan 180°/gas 6.  This recipe could turn out to be an easy tasty simple supper for when friends come crashing through the door.  Or it might be awful.  I am going to experiment on a friend and his two teenagers who are coming over for dinner next week. So long as I serve chips with it they will be happy! And a naughty pudding. I think pudding will be something simple like brownies…..I refuse to put in excessive effort for teenagers because most would be just as happy with a gooey cake that came straight out of the box from a supermarket.

By the way, if you don’t own a food processor.  I have never had one up until a year ago.  There was life before my food processor… and life after.  The main difference is making my own hummous which I do most weeks, my own pesto…yum yum yum, and things like home-made coleslaw are so easy to make.  Whizzing up cookie crumbs for a quick cheesecake base etc.  I like it.  It is hard to imagine life without a food processor now.  I don’t buy gadgets generally.  My sister and her husband have all sorts of juicers, spiralizers, pop corn makers, doughnut makers, an ice-cream maker.  I am sure these are all fine things in themselves, but my cute kitchen can’t store too many gadgets.  But the food processor definitely deserves it’s place.

I finished my cherry yogurt dressed with cherry chocolate granola and my coffee some time ago and now I am going to have a shower and get going…busy day ahead.