2008

Once again, courtesy of my digital  photograph files, I am looking back to a year before the war pandemic. Today I am recalling 2008 - thirteen years ago. The happy fellow shown above was strolling around the market that Shirley and I visited in March of that year. We were in Goa in western India. Staying in a small hotel beyond the sand dunes of Candolim, we enjoyed a happy holiday which, if you are interested I blogged about here.

Early in May, I visited the west coast of Ireland - mostly to see my niece Katie and her then husband Seamus with their brand new baby girl - Cait. Hell, she'll be thirteen now...

On the 24th of that same month, a dream came true for Hull City supporters everywhere. Down at Wembley Stadium in London, our beloved team finally made it to the top flight of English football with a  scorcher of a goal from local legend - Dean Windass. We beat Bristol City and there's Mr Windass after the match - shown on the big screen at the Bristol City end of the ground. It was our day.

In August, Shirley and I went to Olu Deniz in Turkey. We kept seeing paragliders  drifting down from the mountains adjacent to the coastline. She was keen to try it and with some understandable cowardice reluctance, I caved in to her nagging persuasion. I was strapped to a burly Turkish fellow and we flew down to the beach below like a bird. Those are my shoes - above the lagoon. It was an unforgettable experience. I guess I was just a strap-on. 

In the last couple of days of our Turkish holiday, I contracted a serious e-coli infection - possibly through something I had eaten or more likely from the mud baths we visited. I was very poorly but I was keen to take some pictures of Sheffield's famous cooling towers at Tinsley before they were blown up. See below. Fortunately a course of heavy duty antibiotics - taken intravenously in The Royal Hallamshire Hospital - finally saw off the ESBL . In past times, death would most certainly have taken me.

In November, with the ESBL infection well behind me, Shirley and I stayed in Yorkshire's smallest city - Ripon. Of course we visited the nearby ruins of Fountains Abbey but the photograph I have chosen to share is of the city's then hornblower which will, I am sure, have special appeal for Meike in Ludwigsburg, Germany who absolutely loves Ripon and its hornblowers "setting The Watch" in the marketplace as they have done nightly for over a thousand years...

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The Walking Dead -The Final Season

 

I finally caught up with the first two episodes of The Walking Dead this afternoon.

I watched it on my iPad in my office with the curtains shut…the action was set underground for the most part, so was hard to follow

The genre is gone full circle …for its back at its horror roots again with the large cast of characters ( with too many red shirts in tow) battling the undead and the nasty living in the sewers and subway of Washington DC 

It’s reinvented itself yet again

Maggie ( Lauren Cohen) is back and her character is now rather unexpectedly harder and more anti Negan  than it was in previous seasons which has made her a new fan hate figure which is interesting. Cohen has some powerfully acted scenes in the first episodes which were a revelation and a sure lesson to the writers who so often have underwritten the main characters  to the detriment to the drama.

The Walking Dead is how heavily reliant on its female characters, which is fun

Yumiko ( Eleanor Marsuura) and Princess ( Juanita Sanchez above) are two relatively new faces that are starting to take centre stage alongside Carol (Melissa McBride) which is a nice change to the old male guard of its early days 

It’s nice I’m still following after a loyal ten years 

One of my first reviews

https://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/2010/12/walking-dead-frank-darabonts-tv-remake.html

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Sense

 I’ve lost track of days, but you get the gist. Tired from a good workout yet mentally energized. Something about moving the body. It’s so true. I made it through the entire workout without stopping. How many times have I quit before the finish line. I’m in the valleys, and it’s not where I desire to be.  I’m accepting that daily. I don’t multitask at all. Certain tasks if not all take my undivided attention. I must be fully present walking, talking or doing anything.  If I don’t there are consequences. I have taken spills because I wasn’t watching where I was going. Every action requires a precise reaction. I think I programmed myself to always be on the move, without regard to what was best for me. I took societal cues, ran a race not designed for a me, and played a game where the odds weren’t in my favor. I took gambles’ I shouldn’t have.  Run my race, not the one I wish I had. Success will come when it wants. The path is long, but taking the shortcut is rougher in the end. 

The journey

Is tougher

When I let 

My wants

Trump

Common sense

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Looking After Oneself

 I met a couple new to the village last night. 

They were walking their dog up the lane and I was watering the sweet peas which had climbed nicely over the garden arch.

The wife said something that pleased me greatly

“ I always love your flowers” she said “The ones in your side window”

Ive said this before but Ive always had at least one bunch of flowers in the cottage at any one time. Ever since I bought my first home back in the 1980s flowers have always been my constant. Even when I was low on money, I would always have enough for a bunch of something bright to fill a vase or a gap on the window sill. 

Flowers make a home, homely. 

In that sense they are very much like a cat, for cats warm a house by nature of perching happily in the background. 

I’ve just heard that the ponies are returning to the field for a little while

This pleased me too, as their presence, for a few weeks, will bring a lot of happiness with it.

There is a great deal of satisfaction seeing them munching through the weeds, the Ivy and the overgrown grass.

The cottage is filled with the smell of garlic and onion

I’m making a colourful butternut squash Katsu curry

I’m coasting at work a little this week as I have a few more day shifts before my next holiday. 

I find I need a break from the hospice every two months or so….

The holiday, like a cat in the background, the ponies in the field and the flowers in the kitchen window will please and heal me 

I’m good at looking after myself 

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