I'm Sorry

I did not mean to neglect this blog for so long but I'll try to do better from now on - and this is a start at least. There have been reasons - so many reasons - that blogging has seemed just too hard or more accurately too time consuming. First there were the health issues which are slowly being resolved. Then I committed to the 100 Day Goal which led in turn to a massive declutter. That's still underway and it's amazing just how much junk we've accumulated over the years. Pisces is supposedly helping with the declutter but it's not something that comes easily to him so I have to keep reminding him it's okay to throw things away when they're worn out and the charity shops will actually welcome things in good condition that we no longer need or want.

Some things, though, have no future use and while they may still be in perfectly good condition no-one will want them. In going through the cupboard where we store stationery I've discovered among the useful - things like greeting cards, writing paper, envelopes etc., and the useless - silverfish nibbled or stained paper, and notepads with one page in them, quite a lot of 'why do we even have this' items. For example buried at the back of one shelf were five unused pen carbon receipt books. Why? We've never run a business and I can't think of any business these days that would use them. We all have computers after all. Then there were the four (unused again) foolscap sized index books. Again why? They're too big to be of any use for a household and again I can't see any business using them either. There were four unused booklets of check tickets - I have no idea why we would have those - and these are only a few of the mysterious and in some cases the down right weird things that turned up.

It's not just paper either. There's so much 'stuff' that really needs to go. For example we have multiple fountain pens and propelling pencils - neither of us have used either for probably thirty years and many of them are obviously broken anyway - and a whole bunch of knick-knacks the use or purpose of which eludes us. My view is that we should just accept that these will remain unusable or unsolved mysteries and unless they look like they're important - none of them do so far - they should get tossed.  For Pisces, though, this is positively painful. What if we should need them at some future time or if we can get the broken items repaired? It has made for some interesting discussions lately I can tell you. Still he's biting the proverbial bullet and is making progress. So we'll have a cleaned up house maybe not in no time but soon and I can't wait.

Anzac Day

Lest we forget.

This is Horace Chamberlain King. The youngest child of Thomas Oglesby and Charlotte King he enlisted aged 19 years and 5 months on 8 March 1915. By 27 July he had been promoted to sergeant becoming Company Sergeant Major by 15 December 1915 and then was promoted to second lieutenant on 13 March 1916. By 29 August 1916 he was a lieutenant and had been awarded the Military Cross for services rendered at Pozieres. On 23 March 1917 he was promoted to Captain. He was wounded in action on 4 October 1917 at Paschendale receiving a severely fractured humerus which was treated in England. He was mentioned in despatches for bravery in the field around this time. He returned to France on 18 February 1918. On 7 April 1918 he was wounded in the neck and shoulder and died of his wounds. He was 22 years and six months old.