Tuesday 30 October 2012

Spare a thought for New York and America today

Okay, it's rare I post twice a day...lets face it, rare I post regularly let alone daily but today I feel I have to put my feelings in writing.

I don't watch much news; all the bad news drives me mad and makes me sad about the state of the world.  So when Hubby showed me the footage of New York last night I sat in stunned silence.  Stunned silence thinking about the millions that would be affected and stunned silence at those that insisted on staying in their homes.  Stunned silence at those that insisted on staying in their home and then filming the ever rising water right outside their water side homes.

I couldn't help but wonder how those affected would fare; would their insurance cover the damage; how would they keep their families safe and how scared these must be as the weather worsened.

This morning Hubby and I sat safe in our beds watching the news as pictures of the devastation came in; of New York streets being underwater, of facades on buildings having been ripped away from peoples home (and thanking someone that they were safe), of a crane being bent completely in half.  The photos are still dark so I am sure there will be much more devastation yet to be assessed.

I watched in amazement at the differing weather conditions across America, at the snow that is piled up to 60 inches high in some areas.  One cannot help but be amazed at the power and the sheer size of the storm and one cannot help but feel for everyone involved and the repurcussions for America.

Which is why I was disgusted when people were tweeting Sky News this morning in disgust that the release of Assassins Creed 3 will be delayed as a result of the devastation to New York.  Really!  Really!?!  What about the 13 people who are known to have died in this storm and the many injured?  What about the financial repurcussions for New York, other areas, USA and above all the citizens of America.  

I am disgusted that people can be so selfish and a big part of me was sad that those thoughts are indications of what some of the world is coming to.

My heart goes out to all Americans today, for the devastation they face, the financial worries both personally and as a country and for the fear they must be facing.  I know that if nothing else Americans will band together to recover as they did after 9/11.

 

What I learned this week


What I learned this week….

Well, this week has been pretty uneventful unless we count the colds we have all had.  It is the first I have suffered in a year so I am not complaining….much

  1. You can be around your Beautiful B for over a week and not catch the humdinger of a cold she has even if she does often occasionally forget to put her hand over her mouth while coughing;
  2. It can be incredibly frustrating to listen to Beautiful B cough and cough and cough when she refuses to take medicine (“it makes me sick”); I wonder who she could possibly have got that trait from (not me, it’s pills that used to make me sick at her age);
  3. You only need to be around one of your bestest friends for 2 hours when they have a cold to fetch it home with you;
  4. A wonderful hubby will wait on you hand and foot to nurse you better and make you hot chocolate (using milk!) and bacon butties for lunch;
  5. Your ears feel like you are still in the aeroplane that fetched you home from honeymoon;
  6. Despite feeling awful you can still get out of bed because you feel the need to do the washing and transfer it to the dryer;
  7. It’s easier to breathe through your nose when sat up than led in bed when full of a cold;
  8. Having a cold is a fabulous excuse to stay snuggled up in bed reading a book all weekend with occasional snoozes;
  9. The Hunger Games trilogy is addictive;
  10. You can read a whole book in 3 hours flat if not distracted;
  11. You can get frustrated when you lose the battle with your eyes on a Sunday night when you want to finish the third book in the trilogy;
  12. On the Monday you can feel much better and just amuse people with the squeaky voice you are left with;
  13. Oh and, you can then nurse your Hubby because you passed it onto him.

Now what did you learn this week?


Friday 26 October 2012

Who or what to blame....

On the day we got married, Beautiful B was full of a cold.  For how poorly she felt she looks fabulous on the photographs and you would never know.  The poor mite struggled more and more as the day wore on and by 6pm gave up and had to go home and put herself to bed. 

Hubby and I went on honeymoon and have returned and over 2 weeks later she is still coughing.  and coughing.  and coughing.  

It's my fault; she refuses to take medicine "because it will make her sick" - she sounds like I did when I was young.  I drove my parents mad; I would take medicine but not pills for the same reason which became a problem once I got to 12 and couldn't have the banana tasting medicine as it was no longer strong enough.  

So Beautiful B coughs and coughs.  Some of the time she forgets to cover her mouth.  How she is still at work I do not know.  If I was one of her patients I would probably ask for another nurse; who wants to go to hospital for a hip replacement and come out with a cold as a leaving present?

So my cold could be Beautiful B's fault.

Then I went to see my best friend R who was full of a cold.  I sat next to her on the couch and looked at the wedding photos her boyfriend had taken of wedding guests R had ensured were in the photos. 

So it could be R's fault.

Then I went for a flu jab because I am apparently at risk;  I have asthma alledgedly (is that spelt correctly, mmmm) even though I haven't had a full on attack since I was 32. Does asthma cause your chest to feel tight during exertion?  If so, maybe I should be using the inhalers.  Anyhoo, I also take a stream of medication for things such as slipped discs, painful hands and arms, migraine blah blah blah.

So it could be the flu jabs fault but then Beautiful B looked at me with amusement when I said that because although they inject you with flu nastiness it does not cause you to get a cold and she "could get me a leaflet to prove it".  No thank you honey, I have enough to do sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose and wiping my streaming eyes just so I can work.

So apparently it isn't the flu jabs fault but I love Beautiful B and R and therefore don't want to blame them.  I don't like flu nastiness so I am going to blame them because I can.....

Thursday 25 October 2012

Random musing

When you open the wardrobe and discover a pair of shoes that you don't remember buying is it a sign that you have too many shoes, the early onset of senile dementia or both?

Hubby has been thanking people who let us out of side roads etc when I am driving so I can just concentrate on the road so maybe he is worrying about senile dementia also...

Short and sweet today and yes I have lots of news of hen weekends, 40th parties and weddings but I have a cold (courtesy of Beautiful B) and cannot post photographs on the work computer (yes, it is lunch time) due to the security protocols.

 

Friday 5 October 2012

The big 40

So I hit 40 and unlike my mum I celebrated being 40 because I am more comfortable in myself than ever before.  I have a loving family, a Hubby who adores me as much as I him and a daughter who has an inner strength to behold and does me more than proud every single day.

I bought a posh dress, I returned that dress to the shop as Hubby told me another suited me more.  I guess it is unusual for a Hubby to have such fashion sense - mind you, he needs to because without his help I would live in black and dark colours.

I arranged for Beautiful B and I to have our hair done - after all, its not every day I hit a milestone.  Then I spent 10 minutes moving the curled bits at the sides of my face up and down in front of Hubby going "Up or down, up or down, up or down."

The DJ arrived, Angel carried the cake in and I thought it was the best cake ever.  Angel and Beautiful B arranged for a novelty cake to describe me to a T and that is exactly what it did.  The buffet was arranged and I had a vodka to calm my nerves - after all, people may not come.

Except they did, and I worried I couldn't get round them all and they had all come to see me.  Angel told me to relax and enjoy it - the vodkas situated around the room bought for me helped; after all it would have been rude not to drink them all.

The buffet arrived and it took me 20 minutes to realise it had arrived; Hubby spent the evening with my purse to make sure everyone was paid because the vodka started taking effect and I was busy flitting around like a butterfly.

I was truly spoiled with the presents and very humbled by the amounts some people gave me.  It has enabled me to buy a new camera which has been broken in during the hen weekend and bought just in time for that, the wedding and the honeymoon.

But none of that mattered; what mattered was that my nearest and dearest and much loved friends took the time to come and celebrate with me.  I was humbled at the number of people who cared enough to come.  Cards and presents didn't matter, copious amounts of alcohol and food didn't matter.  What mattered was the time I spent talking to everyone, some of whom I had not seen in months or missed working with terribly.

Hubby even smiled for photographs; all great practice for the wedding photographs and I have some wonderful photos to frame and will cherish the memories and photographs for a long time.

John or is it Jack....

To help save money for the wedding, I got a little weekend job at KFC.  I still have my full time job but Hubby spends the weekend watching sport so all I was going to miss was cleaning.  I like KFC - it's like playing shop when you are 4 years old.  I get to go to work and have a laugh with kids who are younger than Beautiful B and have a great time serving customers.

Having moved into Accountancy I miss the customer contact I used to have when working on the front line where I spoke to customers all day so KFC gives me the opportunity to feel like I am making someones day better.  It is amazing how many regular customers we have at KFC; though why I am surprised I do not know - Hubby spends a whole shifts worth of my pay on KFC food each week.  No we don't get it free and it really can't be good for Hubby's health...

Anyhoo; there is a little old man who comes into KFC each night.  He has a walker and it honestly takes him 5 minutes to walk from the door to the counter.  He always has a small fries, large fries, tub of beans and a coffee but he has the coffee after he has eaten.  It takes him an hour to eat his food and I have taken to going to the door and helping him sit down and then fetch his food to him.  He is almost skeletal thin and one does wonder whether it is the only meal he gets all day.  

Now I talk for England - of course you haven't noticed this  ;-) so I have twittered about this little old man to Hubby and Beautiful B because I find him very sweet and I am honestly in awe of him - to come in KFC each night when he struggles to walk the way he does is some level of determination and I am not sure that I would have it in his position.


Last weekend he didn't come into KFC.  I commented on it and wondered if he was ill.  Beautiful B came home from work at the hospital on Monday and the conversation went like this:

BB:    Mum, what does that little old man eat at KFC?
Me:   Small fries, large fries, beans and coffee - why?
BB:    Is he thin with longish hair?
Me:   Yes, why?
BB:    I think he is on my ward.  He had a fall and I heard him talking to the Drs and all he could talk about was KFC and what he ate there.  He takes ages to eat his dinner so it must be the same little old man.
Me:   Bless.  Yes it must be him, I can't imagine many people would eat the same meal each day.  Does he have any visitors?
BB:    No, he has been in since Thursday night with no-one.

So I messaged Hubby:

Me:        You are going to think I am mad but long story short; the little old man from KFC is in BB's ward and has no visitors so I am going to see him.  All I can think of is that I wouldn't want your mum in hospital without visitors.
Hubby:    No, I do not think you are mad, I think your heart is huge and there is too much love for just your family.

So, I went to visit the little old man who is called John but prefers Jack.  I spent an hour and a half with him and he talked and talked and talked because he rarely has visitors at home and from the conversation it was evident that the only visitors he has are district nurses and carers.

Poor Jack visited KFC on the Thursday night and then went home.  He lost the grip on his walker which started to slide down a small slope and his automatic reaction was to reach for it.  Except, he cannot stand unaided so down he went.  When he landed "he knew his hip had gone" - what a way to say that he knew he had broken his hip - anyone else would say that it was agony.

Poor Jack lay there in the dark and rain for 2 hours before some young boys saw him and called an ambulance.  I dread to think what was going through his head during those 2 hours!  

Hubby has visited Jack with me since my first visit and called him "Sir" which I found so sweet.  Poor Jack is 80 and partially sighted so when I took some Tropicana fruit juice to him, remembering he had taken some home from KFC once and said the following evening he liked it, I had to explain what it was.

I find Jack inspirational.  At 80, he has a determination for life which is rarely seen.  You can tell from the conversation how scared he must have been at 18 when the war was on and his conscription was extended by 6 months.  You can tell how upset he is at losing his sister following a fall down a drain in her garden because some thiefs had stolen the manhole cover to sell the iron.  You can tell how he physically struggles each day yet he does daily exercises to try and keep his back, stomach and arms strong to compensate for his legs.

I think I may be in the wrong job.  I certainly think that I should quit KFC and volunteer as a carer.  I only hope that I have the same zest and determination for life when I am his age.