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Loud music

Friday, May 21st, 2010

I have a love/hate relationship with loud music. If it’s the sort of music I like listening to, then I love having it loud enough for me to sing along to, but still be able to hear it. If it’s the sort of music I don’t like, such as that really bangy music that repeats the same thing over and over again until your brain feels as though it’s going to explode, then I hate hearing it loud.

I can park where I work. I go in through a gate and then drive down a narrow single track lane to a designated parking space. There’s a pavement down one side of the lane and quite a lot of pedestrians use it as a short cut.

Even though there’s a good wide pavement built especially for pedestrians, guess where most of them walk? Yes, that’s right, right down the middle of the single track lane.

When I pull in through the gate, there’s often someone walking either right in front of where I need to drive, or to the right, in the lane, on the opposite side from the pavement. Most people show no sign whatever of realising that my car is behind them and I’m just about to drive past them, so I think it’s important to alert them to my prescence. I would hate someone to suddenly step out into the lane just as I’m passing them, and get run over.

I used to try and beep the horn really gently and not too loud so that it didn’t make them jump, and so that it didn’t sound as though I was saying rudely ‘Get out of the way!’ That often worked well. People would turn round, see my car and amble over to the pavement. Sometimes it didn’t work very well, and more than once I’ve had someone come over to me and be abusive! I thought that was very unfair, when all I was trying to do was get to work without running them over.

After the last time when a lady was really abusive to me, I decided I wasn’t going to do that again. It was unfair and unpleasant, so I needed to find another way.

That was when I had a bright idea! Now as I get ready to drive through the gate, I turn the music on the radio or CD up really loudly and open the windows. It works brilliantly! Without me having to say anything, or beep the horn, people look round and move aside, and I know they’ve seen me and aren’t going to step out infront of the car.

No-one seems to mind me having loud music, no-one has complained. So I can recommend it as a pedestrian alert that’s abuse free. I like loud music!

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Half a cup of coffee

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

At most social occasions or meetings a cup of tea or coffee is offered. I like my tea quite strong with not much milk, so I’m quite wary of tea that someone else has made, because most people don’t drink it like that, and so they don’t make it like that. I just can’t drink weak milky tea. To me, it’s revolting! So I usually choose coffee. Although it’s often made with cheap, poor quality instant coffee, and doesn’t taste very nice, I find it easier to drink poor coffee than poor tea.

I’ve recently started asking for half a mug because I need something because I’m thirsty, but I don’t need a whole mugful, especially when it isn’t very nice. I thought it would be a good idea. It would cool down quickly enough for me to be able to drink it, and it wouldn’t be wasteful. It should have been a good idea, but it wasn’t.

I’ve found that everyone that I’ve asked for half a mug of coffee has carefully measured out half a spoonful of instant coffee granules, and then filled up the mug with hot water hardly leaving any room for milk. I’ll be saying ‘that’s enough thank you’, and they keep on filling it up. So now instead of having a strong mug of indifferent flavoured coffee that’s drinkable, I have an extemely weak coffee that’s horrible. I wonder what part of half a mugful people don’t understand?

Today I thought I’d got it under control. I’d been chatting, and was late getting my drink. It was being cleared away, but I was told I could help myself. Great! I can make a proper half mugful that’s strong enough to make it drinkable. I put in the coffee, and started pouring in the hot water from one of those flask jugs that you push down at the top. A young girl had been helping with the coffee, and she came over and started to help me push down the button.

I’d rather have done it myself, but I thought I might as well let her do it. When it was half full, I said ‘that’s enough, thanks’, but she carried on. I said several more time that I’d got enough, but still she carried on pressing the button until the mug was filled to the top, hardly leaving any room for milk. Oh dear! I suppose I could have put some more coffee in, but I didn’t want a whole mugful. So I just had a couple of sips, and then threw the rest down the sink.

I’ll have to try choosing a cup instead of a mug. That might solve the problem.

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Snowdrops

Monday, March 15th, 2010

I love snowdrops. They’re a sign of hope and new life and the promise of Spring after the Winter, which this year has been long and cold and very snowy! I love the way they peep through the snow even when it’s quite deep. Their persistence and determination to reach up and out of their snowy bed into the light is quite profound. That’s what we sometimes need to do if life has got difficult and is holding us down. Like the snowdrop, we need to focus on our goal and aim for it with all our strength and determination.

Here’s one of my snowdrop photos. They’re so delicate and beautiful, and I hope they’ll encourage anyone who needs a bit of help and strength to dig themselves out of a difficult place into the light and the sunshine.

Snowdrops in the rain

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A sad goodbye

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

A while ago, I wrote about my favourite radio programme. It’s on from 9.00am until midday, so it’s the show that I listen to while I’m at home in the morning before I go to work.

The presenter is very funny and quick witted and I really enjoy his banter. But he’s leaving and moving on to another job in another area. It’s his last show today. I’m going to miss it. I’ll also miss emailing him comments and answers to questions that he reads out with such humour.

Change is hard, even small changes. It will take me a while to get used to a new presenter with a different style, but that’s what life’s like. Nothing stays the same. There are always changes and we have to get used to them and move on. We can’t live in the past with memories that have long gone, we must embrace the future with all it’s discomforting changes, and be flexible enough to change with it.

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The thaw that came and went

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

At last the snow we had struggled with was chased away by heavy rain and warmer temperatures. I could get my car out, and for two days, I drove to work on clear roads!

It’s looking really pretty again today, as it’s been snowing overnight, just as the weather people predicted. There are reports of closed schools and closed roads on the local radio. I’d like to take a day’s holiday and stay in the warm and off the roads today, but I can’t as I have a deadline to meet at work.

So I’ll put my boots and other snow requirements in the car and head out carefully. It’s nowhere near as deep as it was a couple of weeks ago, but apparently it’s a different type of snow that is more icy and slippery than the lovely powdery stuff we had before.

I don’t like the travel difficulties that the snow produces, but I do love the way the countryside looks. Here’s one of my snowy shots…..

Trees in the snow and fog

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It’s beginning to thaw

Friday, January 15th, 2010

At last it’s got a bit warmer. It was a few degrees above freezing this afternoon, and it’s started to thaw. For the first time in over two weeks, I can see a bit of the road I live on. The two ruts in the single track that cars have made in the snow have melted and I can see the road.

My car has been snowed into the drive for over a week. I hadn’t attempt to dig it out as I didn’t want to drive on the 4 inches of compacted snow that covered my road. There’s been a foot of snow in between the car and the road, so this morning when it was quite soft and beginning to thaw, I moved some of it by pushing it aside with my foot when I was wearing wellies. That worked quite well. I’ll have another look at in the morning and see if I can get it cleared so that I can get the car out of the drive.

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More snow

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

The snow had just started to think about melting yesterday. It was falling off the trees, and the roads were clearer, but there was still lots of snow on the pavements.

But now it’s back! It started snowing yesterday evening. It was very fine, not great big fluffy flakes like last time, so I didn’t think it would do much, but it did. This morning there was another 5 or 6 inches of snow on my car, and lots at the side of the road. My road has been reduced to one lane where there’s deep snow at the sides and tyre tracks have been imprinted into the middle of the road. I don’t know what happens if a car meets one coming the other way!

I went out to take some more photos as the snow would be looking nice and new and white. I wear my wellies as the snow is too deep for my walking boots, and I put them on the heater for 5 minutes. When I put them on, they’re lovely and warm! There was no nice blue sky today, no sun and it was very cold. I wanted to walk further than I had done last time to get some different views, but I changed my mind as my fingers soon became so cold that they were hurting and didn’t work properly.

So I turned back home to the warm and put a chicken casserole and baked potato in the oven. Nice warming comforting food, just right for this sort of weather!

This photo was taken of the last fall of snow in the village where I live when the sky was blue.

Footsteps in the snow

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Waning enthusiasm

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

My newly found enthusiasm for local buses is waning. After my success on Friday, I checked the timetable and confidently set off through the snow to catch a bus to work. I’d timed it well, so I only had a few minutes to wait, and by the time the bus was due, three other people had joined me at the bus stop.

Just on time, the bus was seen at the junction in the distance, so we knew it wouldn’t be long before it appeared round the curve in the road to pick us up. After a few minutes when it still hadn’t reached us, we began to think that something was wrong. And it was! Instead of using the route listed on the timetable, the bus had gone a different way. That meant that the four of us were left standing at the bus stop while the bus headed off to our destination on a different road.

We were disappointed and frustrated, but we decided that we would walk up to the next stop so that the same thing wouldn’t happen to the next bus, due in half an hour. The couple who had ski sticks set off at a fair pace, so I walked slowly with the elderly lady with a walking stick.

She was chatting away to me telling all about why she was going into town, and I was glancing at her as I walked and listened. One minute she was there, the next she’d disappeared and was lying full length on her back in the snow. It was so fast! Her feet just went from under her. I asked her if she was ok and she was, so I retrieved her walking stick, helped her onto her feet and brushed the snow off her so that she didn’t get cold. She thought it was funny, but walked even more carefully after that.

We got to the next bus stop in plenty of time and all chatted as we waited. The time for the bus came, and went. We waited and waited. My toes had become blocks of ice by this time and it was impossible to warm them up even when I kept moving them and stamping them in the snow.

Eventually half an hour late, a bus arrived. I asked the driver if it was the 11.26am bus on time, or the 10.56am bus late. He said no, it was the 10.16 bus very late!

Once on the bus, I enjoyed the snowy views again and it wasn’t long before I got to work. I was concerned about getting home though. I wanted to try and get home before dark, but if a bus was likely to be an hour late, that wouldn’t be possible, and I didn’t fancy walking on snow and ice in the dark. So I was very glad when someone who lives near me offered me a lift home.

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Winter wonderland

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

The snow hasn’t melted yet, and it’s still really, really cold. I’m having difficulty keeping warm, but I expect it’s the same for lots of people. The newscasters have been saying that we’re having the coldest winter here in the UK for 30 years, then I heard that it was the coldest since 1963, and I even heard one newscaster say it was the coldest winter for a hundred years! I expect they’ll sort it out soon and let us know what it really is.

I’ve been snowed in for a week now. The main roads aren’t clear, and my estate road is treacherous. The car is snowed into the drive, and I haven’t attempted to dig it out. If the road clears, then I’ll start digging.

It’s quite fun walking around my village in wellies ploughing through deep snow. I’ve managed to get some milk and bread from the village shop, so together with what’s in the freezer and the cupboards, I’m ok for food now. Work was closed for most of last week because of the snow, but on Friday they were open. I walked up to the main road to have a look at it’s condition, and decided that I wouldn’t be driving on compacted snow and ice.

While I was out, I saw a couple of buses. Frequent buses are a new novelty in my village, so I decided that I’d go to work on the bus. It was fun. I had a wonderful view of the stunning beauty of the snow covered countryside.

Once the bus dropped me in the town, the roads and pavements were clear. They must have been gritted more often than the rural main roads. I went to the supermarket after work to get a bit of food, but realised that I wouldn’t be able to carry much as it was a bit of a walk after I got off the bus. I managed to get the essentials though.

You have to be a lot more organised and prepared if you haven’t got a car waiting to take you and your shopping home. I keep a torch in the car, and I remembered to take it with me, in case it was dark by the time I needed to walk home from the bus stop. I knew there wouldn’t be a Moon to light my way home as it would have already set.

I could have done with a rucksack as well though. That would have been a much easier way to carry the shopping, and it would have kept my hands free to steady myself if I slipped. So now I’ve got one of those rucksacks that folds up really small and can go at the bottom of my bag, because I enjoyed going on the bus and I’m planning to do it again.

This is one of my snowy shots…..

Winter wonderland

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My feet are lovely and warm

Friday, November 13th, 2009

We’ve had such an amazing October this year, that I was wearing summer clothes all through October and into November. In the last week or so though, the weather has changed and become much more the usual expected cold, wet November weather. My feet have been really cold. I just couldn’t get them warm.

I needed to swap my shoes for some boots, but the ones that I wore last winter are quite a few years old now and are quite scruffy. I did glance at the window of the shoe shop next to where I work, but I didn’t go in. Even though there were some lovely boots there, I couldn’t justify buying a new pair on my now very part time salary after my hours have been cut.

The other day, I popped into a charity shop. I work on a very hilly road, so I tend to call in to this charity shop half way up the hill to get my breath back! As soon as I walked in, I saw a pair of expensive looking brown boots! They looked as though they were my size! I couldn’t believe it! I picked them up, and yes they were my size, they were real leather and they were brand new – they’d never been worn! (I wouldn’t have looked at them if they’d been used)

I wanted brown ones rather than black like my old ones so that they would go with my new brown coat. I looked at the price, and it said £10! They would have cost at least £50 and probably a lot more than that when they were originally bought. I wonder why someone gave them away having never worn them? I’ll never know, but now they’re mine. They’re warm and comfortable and they feel lovely! I’m really enjoying wearing them, and I don’t have to feel guilty about spending a lot of money on them. That makes them even nicer to wear!!

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