Our Autumn Season Blogs
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The Emergency Chicken – The Saga Continues…
The Emergency Chicken – the habit of needing to have a chicken in my freezer for any and every eventuality – is not always a distant memory. I confess that I still have days when the thought that I haven’t got a chicken ready and waiting for the emergency that will demand that I run to the freezer, triumphantly pull out a frozen chicken that will feed 6-8 people and yell to anyone who will listen “see, told you we’d need this one day” still nudges me in my quieter moments. I am resisting. Sometimes though it is hard.
Radiators & Drains
When Milla and I sat, and discussed our plans to make a Podcast, we talked quite a bit about content. Being two women who can talk rather a lot with little encouragement, we didn’t find ourselves short of topics. We made a very long list of things we wanted to chat about. Some of them have already discussed, others are still to come and some are still on the back burner.
“Oh, of course we must add Radiators and Drains” said Milla.
“Well yes, obviously“ I replied, nodding along knowingly.
Virtual Insanity
Every now and again, during the course of my work, I need people to sign documents. I do not make this request lightly. I will need to meet with the person to ensure the signing process is correct. It’s to confirm that there is no fraud or undue influence). The documents are normally of a vital or essential nature. They require a ‘real’ signature. As in, you pick up a pen (in your choice of colour, though blue or black is preferred). Using their hand, they then write their name. I don’t think this is a difficult request. We’ve signed documents for hundreds of years. And yet….
What If…?
When I grew up, there were lots of ‘What if?’ questions in my house. My sister and I were curious kids, and we were actively encouraged to find things out. We’d have to consult a book due to the great Google not existing back then. I used a library. I loved that it was full of so many books and so much information. How times change; I haven’t set foot in one for years. When my kids ask me questions these days, instead of suggesting that they look things up in books, I immediately tell them to do what they do best and ‘search it up’ online.
The Happiness Question
Confession: I am a secret iPad Scroller. I can sit browsing for hours; Facebook, Twitter, news channels, online shops and just about anything on the internet generally. Give me a spare hour (and I don’t have many) and they pass in a blur of moving through those pages, swiping down and up. My favourite place for this is the sofa, whilst lying down. Normally with only one eye open. It tends to take place on a Sunday afternoon, shortly before a small afternoon nap, though (subject to work levels) it can be any day of the week.
What’s Wrong With Good Enough?
It’s Friday morning and I scroll through Twitter/X/whatever it’s called. I come across a tweet (do we still call them tweets now we are living in the new X world?) that began “I thought I was fine but…”
The poster said he had three kids, a full time job and a book coming out. He felt as if his daughter hated him and he was doubting everything.
I’m Sorry. It Isn’t You. It’s Me.
There is a song called ‘What a Fool Believes”, by The Doobie Brothers, sung by Michael McDonald.
It contains these immortal lyrics:
“As he rises to her apology/Anybody else would surely know/He’s watching her go”.
Whenever I hear this, it makes me grin (and sing along, very, very badly). I imagine I can see a woman, totally at ease with herself. She is looking directly into the eyes of the man in front of her. She’s half smiling, maybe she reaches out and touches his arm. And she is telling that man, gently but confidently, that it’s over, but it isn’t him, it’s her.
You Are Not Alone
Not so long ago, I got up on a Saturday morning and I couldn’t see the point to carrying on any more. Not to the extent that I really wanted to hurt myself. Just to the extent that it went through my mind that I just wanted to disappear. Now, before I did this, I did have one rational thought. I tried to call my sister. Inevitably she didn’t answer. I left her a message, asking her to check on the kids for me. On that day, I think this was my last attempt to try to find someone to help me. With that, I turned off my phone and decided instead to roar off in the car as fast as I could.
