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.

So

the last five months have been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. What started out as simply having my cataracts removed set a whole other lot of 'stuff' in movement. It turned out my vision was deteriorating faster than expected after having been relatively stable for many years, This was a horrible shock as you can imagine and since then Pisces and I have been having to navigate through what this means and will mean for our lives.

The initial diagnosis was very scary and since my surgery I have had limited vision which meant I haven't been able to read without the aid of a magnifying glass and even then it was hard work. But now things are looking brighter after a visit to the optometrist. This visit has been postponed beyond the usual six weeks following surgery because I developed problems with inflammation in the second eye that was operated on and I had to wait until that settled before I could be assessed. The optometrist has been able to help by prescribing glasses that should make life much easier. The relief is huge because the prospect of having to continue as I have been was very worrying and this was on top of other health problems which also need to be addressed.

So there you have it. With the glasses I should be able to see well enough to live a full life again and once I've had some other surgery - scheduled for next week - I should be much more comfortable. I'm hoping my energy levels will also increase because with all the medical appointments and not being able to see a lot has gotten pretty out of hand around here. But now things are looking up and I have a list of what needs to be tackled. Wish me luck.

Distractions

because lately real life has been rather too overwhelming.

1. Ducklings on a water slide

2. Kittens and puppies

3. Baby birds from eggs to fledging

Enjoy.

What I've Been Doing Lately

I signed up for Julia Bickerstaff's 100 Day Goal starting on 1 January. The idea is that you set out goals and work towards them one microaction at a time and this, coinciding as it did with some life changing events around here which I might go into at some future time, encouraged me to rethink a lot in my life. My goals can be basically summarised as getting my life in order, doing more things I love and reconnecting with my wider family - sadly, as so often happens, I've lost contact with some over the years.

As part of getting my life in order I decided to go back and reread Marie Kondo's The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up which I bought not long after it first came out. Just as I made that decision she burst onto the public stage again in a TV series on Netflix. We don't have Netflix but obviously a lot of people do because the internet and news media are full of people talking about Marie Kondo and not always nicely. There are memes mocking her premise of only keeping those items that bring you joy. her personal choice to have only a limited number of books has sparked outrage as has her belief that you should thank inanimate items for their service. The last of these comes from the Japanese Shinto belief system and while it's not something Westerners are in habit of - or for that matter always comfortable with - doing it's hardly going to do harm, is it. All this rage, vitriol and mockery have reached quite extreme levels and I don't understand why. It's not as if she's standing over people with a whip forcing them to throw away things they treasure after all. This is a woman who wants to help you live a better life by keeping only that which makes you happy. How outrageous.

The thing is, as I've realised during this 100 Day Goal process and while making a major decluttering effort, we all hang on to things that we no longer need. Why not move them on? Sell, recycle or give them away so someone else can enjoy or use them. Honestly I'm shocked that I've found so many things that actually spark misery and I'm wondering why I still have a lot of them. Often they are gifts that I've been unwilling to part with them in case I offend the giver. A certain wedding present that has been in my china cabinet for mumble mumble years and which I've hated from the moment I saw it comes to mind. Then there's the necklace that sits in my jewellery box - also hated since the moment I saw it and, in my excavations yesterday, I discovered a truly hideous handbag that I had buried out of sight. Why? Truth be told the people who gave me those things are no longer even with us and haven't been for some time but I've been hanging on to items which in all probability they had long ago forgotten they gave me anyway. As well as other things where my taste has changed over the years there they all have sat, a weight on me and taking up precious space in my house and life.

The thing is if you apply the idea that something has to bring joy it is remarkably easy to get rid of things but it also makes you realise what is important to you and what you need to make you happy. That's why my books are staying. Books for Marie Kondo personally are not important but for me they are a constant joy. There may be a lot of them but because I've always culled those I know I'll never look at again quite ruthlessly, they, each and everyone that remains, bring me joy - and that's fine because everyone has to make their own decisions as to what brings them joy and what they need to keep as much as what they should throw away.

So, there you go. If you want me I'll be sorting through more of a lifetime's accumulation of 'stuff' and seeking out what gives me joy.

Bolero Flashmobs

I love a flashmob and Ravel's Bolero. Here are both of them combined in two different places. What more could you ask?


This one comes from Spain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsF53JpBMlk


And this one was in Leeds in the UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILNDWCLVnpw

Yoohoo!

That's me waving just to let you knowI'm still here. I'll have to be brief because - well, let's start at the beginning, shall we.

Back in October I had cataract surgery. It went smoothly and although I was having trouble seeing due to the discrepancy in vision between the operated eye and the unoperated one that was a small price to pay for the few weeks before I could have the second done. So far so good. Then I had the second eye done - and could see even less. That was not what I was expecting. When Pisces had his cataracts done after the second operation it was like 'Wow, I can see.' He had to get new reading glasses but he could actually still read albeit with some difficulty without them. I, on the other hand, am still seeing the world as pretty much a blur. I'm only able to write this post thanks to the computer enabling me to enlarge everything to silly levels and I can only work for a short time. Then I developed some inflammation within the eye itself which has added pain to my miseries and means I can't even get new glasses which may help a little. That's my hope anyway.

So I haven't forgotten you and I'll be back as soon as I can. Wish me luck. I need all I can get.