Wednesday Hodgepodge - 13/11/24

Joyce sets the questions for the Hodgepodge each week.  Her blog is here where you can find out more and see who else is taking part.

1. What's something you think is under appreciated. Explain.  

Being flippant here - the amount of time everything takes.  Everything always seems to take longer to achieve that you anticipate.  Especially if it involves trying to contact a company on the phone and actually get to speak to a human rather than a machine!  I had to ring for help in a multi storey car park last week and initially I was confronted with the message "Your call is important to us.......you are currently being held in a queue"!  I needed a human.  I needed someone to make the exit barrier go up.  I needed help not an annoying recorded message.

2. As winter approaches how do you stay productive? 

I'm not sure that I actually do.  Of course I try to keep on top of the chores etc associated with running a home and I try to keep up my walking when the weather permits, but on bad weather days I tend to hunker down and be very unproductive.  Well I probably read more which is satisfying, especially when you're trying to complete challenges, but it's not really a productive hobby.

3. What's a popular food you don't like? 

Avocado.   We went from not really having them, except when in season, to being able to get them all year round and all the cafes including them on the menu.

4. What do you think is more interesting-art or history? Elaborate. 

I think I prefer History.  It can teach us so much, a lot of which is so important.  

Art is such a subjective subject.  I love seeing art where an artist clearly has talent and has captured something accurately, but modern art bemuses me.  I know that art is also about self expression but some modern art to me looks like a toddler could have painted it and the prices that some of these "masterpieces" fetch are just ridiculous.

5. What advice would you give to someone half your age? 

Make time for yourself and your family if you have one.  Don't strive for perfection, life is short.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

This day next week I will be travelling to Vermont to visit my son and his family.  I can not wait!

 

Friday's Fave Five - 8/11/24

It's Friday again so time to look back on the week and find the things I'm most grateful for.  Susanne keeps us on our toes with this.  You can find her blog here and see who else is taking part.

1)  Lots of grandchildren time last weekend.  We babysat Nathan and Ella on Saturday evening while their Mummies went out for a meal and then we had them during the day on Sunday while their Mummies attended a Golden Wedding anniversary celebration.  We had pizza and birthday cake when they came to collect them as it was our DILs birthday.  But of course I forgot to take any photos!

2)  Keep fit class on Tuesday and then coffee with my "Ladies who Lunch" friends afterwards.  It's definitely a class for seniors (I'm one of the younger ones there) but I do enjoy the social interaction.

3)  Grateful I didn't get stuck in a lift on Wednesday.  I'd gone shopping to the nearby Westfield shopping centre which is huge.  I parked the car, got in the lift just as the doors were closing and pressed for the floor I needed and nothing happened.  I tried other floors but the lift just sat there.  I decided to press the "open doors" button and the doors started to open, but, after they got about four inches apart they closed again!  At this point I was beginning to feel a little uneasy as you can imagine.  This happened several times so I then decided to press the alarm button. The alarm was very loud!  I wasn't sure if I should hold the button or not but the noise was so loud I let it go and then the doors opened fully and I moved VERY quickly out of the lift.  Phew.    

I also had to seek help when leaving the car park as the barrier didn't go up - it's all supposed to be automatic, based on Number Plate recognition.  Fortunately, despite initially getting a message saying "your call is important to us but you are currently being held in a queue" I soon got through to a human and the barrier lifted and I was on my way!

4)  A catch up with my best friend Wednesday afternoon.  Neither of us had grandchildren duties so we were able to relax and have a good chat.

5)  The foodbank was able to reopen this week after a 2 week closure while the building was rewired.  I'm thankful that this was able to be done so we now have lighting and sockets that work properly and the heaters are working again so we're all set for the colder weather.  It's sad that the service is needed but I'm grateful to be able to help out with some great volunteers.

I'm off to a craft event tomorrow with a couple of others from the knit and natter group so I'm looking forward to that.

Have a good weekend all.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 6/11/24

Joyce provides the questions, we provide the answers and everything is shared here.

1. What is one good thing you often take for granted? 

Drinking water that is fit to drink.  (And gas and electricity come to that).  It's rare that our supply gets disrupted.  I can't even begin to imagine what it's like in a war zone.

2. What's the boldest piece of clothing in your wardrobe? 

Umm have you seen photos of me, actually probably not as I don't enjoy having my picture taken, but you would note that my wardrobe is pretty conservative.  I'm not sure that there is anything in my wardrobe that fits the description "bold"!

3. Do you think common interests or common values are the key to people getting along? Elaborate. 

I think common values are more important.  If you don't agree on the fundamentals it's hard to find middle ground.  Whereas I think it's healthy to have some common interests but also different ones, especially when you're both retired and spend a lot of time together.

4. November 6 is National Nacho Day...do you like nachos? How do you like yours? Do you make them at home or only order out? 

Not a big fan.  Definitely don't make them at home.

5. Have you spent any time in Washington D.C.?  If so what did you think? If not, is that a place you'd like to visit? What do you think about politics as a career choice? 

Yes we spent a few days in Washington DC after my son's wedding in Vermont in 2014.  We did the touristy things but we liked it.

Unfortunately I think there are 2 kinds of politicians.  Those that actually want to represent the people of their local area and try to make a difference.  And if they manage to make their way up the ladder all well and good.  And then there are those who like the idea of power.  I'm glad that none of my kids have made it a career choice but if they decided to in the future I'd back them all the way.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I'm preparing this on Tuesday evening to a background noise of fireworks.  It turned colder today so I'm glad I'm not out watching a display.  Even on my walk to the library in the later part of the afternoon I felt I needed a hat on as my head felt cold!  And now the clocks have gone back it gets dark so early.  Time to snuggle up under a blanket with a good book I think.

Book Review - Tell me Everything - Elizabeth Strout

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With her remarkable insight into the human condition and silences that contain multitudes, Elizabeth Strout returns to the town of Crosby, Maine, and to her beloved cast of characters—Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess, and more—as they deal with a shocking crime in their midst, fall in love and yet choose to be apart, and grapple with the question, as Lucy Barton puts it, “What does anyone’s life mean?”

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known—“unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them—reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”

I just love the way Strout writes. I can't really identify why, but she just has a way of drawing you into the story, even when there isn't that much of a story. Maybe it's the characters - she really gets inside their heads. Maybe it's the descriptions of the places and the time of year. I find it really hard to pinpoint but I just know I've loved reading her books.

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#SoCS - 2/11/24 - Chill

 If you want to take part in SoCS head here.

Today's prompt is CHILL

For a long time I thought a chill was something you could actually catch.  Like a cold, or even flu.  I was constantly warned about catching a chill if I went out with wet hair or just went out when it was a bit cold without adequate clothing on.

Which is, of course, nonsense when you consider that "chill" in that context would have been referring to the cold "feeling" of the outside or, if like me, you grew up in a house without central heating, also referred to the bathroom, a downstairs room with two external walls and a roof.  It was freezing in there during the winter.  The little electric heat bar around the light did little to warm the room.  In fact when very young I can remember being bathed in a tin tub in front of the gas fire in one of the living rooms which was much more comfortable until I outgrew the tub.

But the possibility of actually catching a chill is even more unlikely than catching a unicorn.  (Don't tell any young children that.) 

Language is a funny thing and still evolving.  Chilling, to older people like me, means cooling something down.  Putting something in ice, or the fridge or just an old fashioned larder. 

To a younger generation* chilling means to relax.  That's what I'm currently doing.  Chilling in front of my laptop composing this post.  Later I might (that's probably a definite) chill with a book or in front of the TV.  I need to conserve my energy as I'm babysitting 2 of my grandkids this evening and they do not know the meaning of the word chill in ANY form!  I might need to chill a glass of Prosecco.

* It seems I'm part of that younger generation as using chill in that context started in the 1960's just after I was born.  I'll take that lol.

Book Review - David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

David Copperfield is the story of a young man's adventures on his journey from an unhappy and impoverished childhood to the discovery of his vocation as a successful novelist. Among the gloriously vivid cast of characters he encounters are his tyrannical stepfather, Mr Murdstone; his brilliant, but ultimately unworthy school-friend James Steerforth; his formidable aunt, Betsey Trotwood; the eternally humble, yet treacherous Uriah Heep; frivolous, enchanting Dora Spenlow; and the magnificently impecunious Wilkins Micawber, one of literature's great comic creations. In David Copperfield - the novel he described as his 'favourite child' - Dickens drew revealingly on his own experiences to create one of the most exuberant and enduringly popular works, filled with tragedy and comedy in equal measure. This edition uses the text of the first volume publication of 1850, and includes updated suggestions for further reading, original illustrations by 'Phiz', a revised chronology and expanded notes. In his new introduction, Jeremy Tambling discusses the novel's autobiographical elements, and its central themes of memory and identity.

The only other book I've read by Dickens is A Christmas Carol. Which feels like a walk in the park compared to David Coppperfield. It's a tome of nearly 900 pages. I chose it because it's on the BBC 100 books list I've (very) gradually been working my way through but it also worked for one of the prompts for the 52 books 2024 challenge I'm trying to do this year.

There's no doubt that Dickens was a great writer of his time and I definitely want to have read some classics during my lifetime. My bookshelves are full of crime fiction and chick lit but there are a few classics on there, although not all have been read.

I did enjoy reading Copperfield but Dickens' writing is so flowery, especially during some of the speeches given and the letters written in the book that I did find myself skim reading a little at times. It was interesting to get a view of how the world was at the time and I enjoyed seeing how the story unfolded and then what became of the various characters. Soooo many characters to keep track of. I did start making notes of what happened in each chapter in an effort to keep things clear in my head but gave up halfway through as I was falling behind on my reading schedule - I had given myself a month to read the book and it took me that length of time.

Will I read more books by Dickens? Probably, but not just yet!

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Friday's Fave Five - 1/11/24

It's Friday and time to look back on the week and to find the 5 best things.  To join in or find out more visit Susanne's blog here.

1)  My eldest brother seems to be doing a bit better.  He's had a couple of spells in hospital recently mainly due to issues with his medications (he's on chemo treatment for cancer on his bones but he also needs insulin and blood thinners and of course pain relief).  He's home again now  but they seem to have got his medications balanced and he's back on his chemo regime.

2)  A visit to my other brother and SIL on Monday.  We haven't seen them for a while so it was good to have a nice lunch and a catch up.

3)  A get together with Hubby's family, also on Monday.  His sister who passed away recently would have been 60 on Monday so we got together to raise a glass in her memory.  We met in a big pub and lots of her friends came too.  

4)  

I finished it!  Yesterday - so just within the month which I'd allocated for it.  I managed 2 other books in October which leaves me 8 left to read in the 52 book challenge for the year.  I have them sorted - just waiting for one from the library.  A couple are fairly short but there's still a couple that I think might be a bit hard going.  

5)  An easy day at the Foodbank yesterday - we were actually closed as the church has been having electrical work done so we were just giving out emergency bags to people plus a few extras so my shift was only for 45 minutes.  It gave me time to get some gardening done - it was a lovely sunny autumn day so I managed to cut back all my lavender, something I've been meaning to do for quite a while.

We have a busy weekend ahead with grandkids - we're babysitting Nathan and Ella tomorrow evening - it's my DIL's birthday on Sunday so my daughter and DIL are out for a meal tomorrow evening and then they're out to lunch on Sunday with DIL's family so we'll have the kids again during the day.

We also had them on Wednesday as my daughter and DIL were at a wedding.  

Thankfully there's nothing in the diary for Monday!

Have a good weekend all.