A-Z challenge 2022 - M is for Miles

Welcome to the conversations in my head with my friend Alice, previously seen in my 2019 A-Z posts and loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.  At least that's the plan.

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Are we going to talk about Grandson Miles today Wendy?

Of course Alice.  We’ve already talked about Ella so we have to include Miles and when the time comes Vinny.

Go on then.

Don’t sound so enthusiastic Alice.

Well babies are boring.  They tend to feed, puke, poop and sleep.  Not necessarily in that order and sometimes they seem to miss the sleeping memo completely.

Babies yes Alice but our 3 lockdown babies, of which Miles was the second are all toddling now so much more interesting.

They’re all still really hard to understand though Wendy.

Well yes they don’t have a great deal of words yet but they do make their feelings known.

Like when they’re angry and keep screaming?  Or always saying “yeah” to everything like Vinny does?

Some of that but they also point and shake their heads or go to the highchair when they want food.

Hmmm I bet they’re not as interesting as me.

No but they can be a lot easier to deal with at times Alice.

That’s not kind Wendy.

Neither is complaining about my grandbabies Alice.  You know I love them all to bits.

And you don’t do favourites.  Yes I know.  Come on then tell me about Miles.  You don’t see as much of him as some of the others.

No well he’s the second son for my eldest son Matthew and his wife Amy who live in Nottingham.

Brother to Noah then.  See I do listen.

Yes brother to Noah. 

Anyway Miles is Grandchild #5 and he arrived on 30^th September 2020 weighing in at 7lb 15oz even though he was 3 weeks early.

Goodness he’d have been well over 8lb if he’d waited till his due date.

Yes I think Amy was probably relieved he didn’t.  He’s quite the smiler although of course not when he’s ill and poor thing even got Covid at one point.  Spent a short in hospital but he’s fine now thankfully.

That must have been scary.

Definitely.  His Mummy had Covid too but they both seem to have recovered well. 

Is it hard not seeing so much of Miles and Noah compared to the others?

Of course but we’re in touch regularly and when they visit it’s usually for at least a few days at a time so that we have quality time with them.

And they get a chance to catch up with their cousins.

Yes although it’s quite hectic when they’re all here together.  Fun but hectic.  It’s good to keep in touch with cousins those.  I still keep in regular contact with some of mine and our kids love getting together with their cousins too.

I just realised I didn’t post a picture of Ella on her post so I’ll have to post one here, and of course one of Miles.  And I think that’s me done for the day Alice.

Well that was short and sweet Wendy.

Yes but I need to walk some miles too to work off the yummy cake that our DIL brought over earlier in the week.

Well you might manage 1 or 2 but I still prefer the Grandbaby Miles to walking miles.

So do I Alice, so do I!

Miles showing off his tummy

Ella ready for a walk.

A-Z challenge 2022 - L is for Looking

Welcome to the conversations in my head with my friend Alice, previously seen in my 2019 A-Z posts and loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.  At least that's the plan.

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Alice, have you seen my Fitbit charger?

Well I suppose if I knew what a Fitbit charger actually looked like I’d know if I’d seen it but as I don’t know what it looks like I’m pretty sure that no I haven’t seen it.

It’s the lead I use to recharge my Fitbit it’s got….

And your Fitbit is what exactly?

It’s the thing I wear on my wrist it…

Oh you mean your watch?

Yes well it’s more than just a watch it…

Why does a watch need charging?  I thought you just wound them up every so often, like clocks.

No Alice it has a unit inside it that every so often has to be recharged, like now, it’s almost flat and I can’t find the lead.

And I suppose you’ve looked everywhere Wendy?

Yes but…

Well you can’t have looked everywhere because if you had you would have found it.  Are you sure it’s in the house?

Well 99% certain.

Oh so there is a margin for error?  And if you had made an error and it wasn’t actually in the house do you have any idea where it might be?

Well most likely in the apartment in Windermere but possibly in the hotel in Bakewell.

Hmm that narrows it down I suppose.

But I’m more or less certain it’s here.  I took it away with me but didn’t actually use it while we were away.

Are you sure about that?  I seem to remember you having to charge it while we were in Windermere.  Didn’t you plug it in next to the bed?

I thought you didn’t know what it looked like Alice?

Well I didn’t know what it was at the time but now you’ve explained I can remember it being by the bed.

Yes well in that case I must have brought it home because I checked all the rooms before we left Windermere to make sure nothing got left behind.  Even you although that might have been a blessing.

Charming! 

Yes well you’re not being very helpful Alice.

Have you checked where you usually keep it?

Yes, first place I looked.

What about the bag that you had packed it in for the holiday?

2^nd place I looked and it’s not there either.

It must be quite maddening that you’re doing all this pacing up and down looking for the charger and your Fitbit isn’t recording any of the steps Wendy.

Alice I thought you didn’t know what it was for……

Of course I know what the charger is for and what the Fitbit does but it’s an annoying thing that takes your attention away from me far too often!

I don’t like you in this mood Alice.

Well I don’t like it when you put those things in your ear, turn on your music and head off for a walk without a second thought for me.  And only yesterday we were talking about the need to be kind.  You’re not being kind right now.

Found it!  Although I’ve no idea how it got under my bed.

Great.  Now can we get on to a proper chat?

Sorry Alice I need to find my Fitbit now.  I obviously putting it down somewhere when I was looking for the charger.

Wonderful, I’ll send up a prayer to St. Antony.

Thanks Alice, that would be kind but today’s word is looking so I’ll keep doing that.

A-Z challenge 2022 - K is for Kind(le)

Welcome to the conversations in my head with my friend Alice, previously seen in my 2019 A-Z posts and loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.  At least that's the plan.

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Psst it’s me, Alice here.  Shhhh  Wendy’s still asleep so time for me to get a post of my own done for a change.

Wendy had K earmarked for Kindle but I can’t be doing with all these electrical gadgets.  I mean, they have a habit of dying on you just when you’re at a critical point.  All these things that claim to be wireless, well up to a point.  An electric point where you have to plug them in from time to time using ummm a wire.  How is that wireless?

I’m so glad they didn’t opt for an electric car when they upgraded recently.  The worry of not being able to get to a charging point in time would have played total havoc with Wendy’s anxiety and that’s been affected enough by this pandemic things as it is.  She’s having to tackle the toilet demon again but she definitely has the upper hand.

Anyway I’m digressing.  I’m almost as bad as Wendy for that.

My word for today is KIND.  Something we all need to be, especially at the moment.  We need to be kind to ourselves.  These last two years have been extremely difficult and although our Government insists we should all be getting back to normal as if nothing’s happened and there isn’t still a deadly threat floating around out there actually things are not the same and the threat is still there.

And now we have all the energy shenanigans to cope with and the price increases, shortages and so on.  Working from home is never going to stop completely so BORIS, things are never going to be the same.  We need to adjust to the changes and give ourselves some slack.  Most of us have never been through anything like this before.

I don’t want to dwell too much on the situation in Ukraine but that’s another thing we’re having to take on board and, even though our Government is doing its best to deter refugees from coming here to the UK, come they will.

We need to be kind to other people.  Whoever they might be.  Lots of people moan about refugees taking away jobs, homes and resources from the people already here.  Refugees aren’t refugees by choice but by circumstances.  Just by virtue of where they were born or were living so many Ukrainians have had to flee their homes.  It must have been terrifying.

I can’t say much more about it anyway as Wendy isn’t watching the news much lately – it’s not very cheerful to say the least but at least we were happy to hear Boris and his mates will be fined for the parties that didn’t happen or didn’t break the rules.

Errr Alice, what are you doing?

Just writing a post about being kind Wendy.  You know doing things for others like letting you sleep a bit longer.

Hmmm why do I feel the need to proof read what you’ve written.  You’re sounding secretive.

Err it’s a bit too late for that Wendy. 

Alice…….

Wendy remember we’re supposed to be being kind!

No Alice we were supposed to write about how I like my Kindle!

A-Z challenge 2022 - J is for Just a minute!

Welcome to the conversations in my head with my friend Alice, previously seen in my 2019 A-Z posts and loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.  At least that's the plan.

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Wendy?

Just a minute Alice, I’m in the middle of something.

What are you in the middle of?

Catching up on other blogs and replying to comments.  There’s more to this A-Z challenge than just compiling my own posts you know.

I have worked that out Wendy but how long will all that take?

How long?  Um I don’t know exactly Alice but not long.

But more than just a minute which of course is only 60 seconds so you’re fibbing to me whichever way you look at it.

It’s just a figure of speech Alice.

Yes but here’s the thing Wendy.  I tend to take what you say at face value so if you say I’ll be just a minute it should mean that by the time I’ve counted to 60 I would have your attention but that’s hardly ever the case.   Just a minute could be an hour under your reckoning.  It’s all very confusing and I don’t like it.  If you’re busy just say you’re busy and will get back to me later.  Don’t give me false hope that you’ll be with me in “just a minute”

Well of course if you didn’t keep interrupting me Alice I would get it all done a lot quicker and yes it might be more than one minute but it wouldn’t be an hour.

But I thought we were supposed to be having a chat each day for your blog post.

Well we are but I also have lots of other things to do too so I have to fit you in when I can.

Charming!  I’m your muse yet you’re not treating me very well Wendy.

I’m behind Alice and I’m playing catch up.  I wanted to get a couple of posts done today and I haven’t even finished one yet.

Well you did choose to take a walk around the golf course when you could have been chatting to me but oh no you plugged those weird things into your ears and chose to listen to the likes of Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Adele instead.

I like listening to music when I’m walking Alice.  Did you like the music Alice?

Listening to music is not something I have a say in.  You just put it on and I can’t really avoid it.  Not unless I go to sleep.  Therefore no I did not like the music.

Oh, I never thought about it like that. 

Well you often don’t consider me so I’m using to putting up with things but I really do wish you would say what you mean in as few words as possible.

But I like using lots of words. 

That’s probably why this commenting thing is taking so long.

It’s more the linking back to the blog of the person who’s commented on my posts so that I can reciprocate but sometimes it takes a bit of navigating to find the right place.  Also once I’m on another blog it’s easy to get sucked in to reading more than one post and time just slips away.

Meanwhile I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs waiting for some interaction.

Right ok Alice, you have my undivided attention now.  What shall we talk about for the letter J?

Alice?

Just a minute Wendy …….