Relevant Thought for the Day

I receive a daily email Bible verse and Thought for the Day from Living Light, and part of today`s was so apt it said:


“Even sickness - that appears to have absolutely no use - has little gems and hidden jewels that are revealed, often through other people. Paul had many people to help him get away, and although we can’t escape from illness we can allow people to help us and be alongside our suffering. Illness is not glamorous and we have to learn to agree with Paul, that we will boast of the things that show our weakness - not an easy thing to do!”

To read the whole piece click here.

I have been and am so thankful to everyone who are helping me at this time.

Key thoughts

Waking up in the middle of the night, and unable to get back to sleep my mind started wandering! 
And I didn`t like where it went.

I found myself thinking what would I do, if I were taken ill in the night and the emergency people needed to get in.  My front door was locked, the key taken out of the lock as always, the back door was locked too.  Ok, no problem if I was able to go downstairs, but what if I wasn`t.   How would they get to me.   

It made me think, should I somehow keep a key outside somewhere, in the way that people used to leave their keys under the doormats when they went out, or under a stone.   But, Imagine doing that today!.    Should I put one in the shed - yet in the dark it would be hard to find, and in these days of security would that be safe to have one there in the daytime. 

I wonder if anyone else, especially anyone on their own, has pondered this and if they`ve come up with a solution.

Inspiring hymns

Turning on the television this tea time to watch the BBC Songs of Praise, having not been to church today, I found it a very inspiring one, with many several hymns that seemed to speak to me, and my current situation and worries.   

Helpful advice recalled

 I remembered a bit of advice yesterday, given to me by a friend many years ago, when I was worried and afraid to tell my mother something, which I knew she`s have to know in the end - and that was that - I`d only make myself feel worse by keeping worrying about how to tell her knowing I would have to in the end.  So do it and get it over with.

So, when she rang me yesterday morning and said "are you alright", I did tell her a "watered down" account of what had transpired this week, and what I `might` have.  

And, yes, I do feel much better for having done so and at least got that worry off my mind.

Tests

I got to the hospital in good time yesterday, and we found the department quite easily, once we`d managed to find a space on the car park.

Having reported in at the correct desk, it wasn`t long before I was called in to have an ECG, then back to the waitng room.     

After a fairly long wait, thankfully I had my friend there to sit and chat to, or at least for her to do most of the chatting thus keeping my mind off of worrying somewhat, I was called through again for lots of questions and other tests.    Back to the waiting room.

My name was then called again, to go and have a heart scan, that duly done - back to the waiting room.

Finally we were called in to get the results of all the tests, and that revealed that they think it is Angina, but I need to have a further test, on another day.   And depending on the result of that, I may need another test or something at Papworth - that really has alarmed me.   

I`ve now got 5 different tablets to take each day - but, as I said to them, I don`t mind how many tablets I have to take, so long as it sorts things out.

I am just so grateful to my friend for being with me and coming with me at such short notice.   and also for the kindess and help of all the medical staff, whose manner and attitude gave one confidence in them.

My big worry now, is what or how to tell my Mum.

Scared

Well, I rang the surgery yesterday at 8.15am, and was told that a doctor would ring me back.   I asked about what time that would be and was told within 2 hours.

Ten minutes later the phone rang, and it was the doctor.   After asking me lots of questions about my pain, he said he`d like me to come up to have an ECG test, and made an appointment me for me for 8.50 a.m. 

Off I dutifully went, and within a few minutes of being there I was called through for a nurse to do the test.  Then back to the waiting room for a few minutes before I had to see another nurse to have my blood pressure, pulse and other tests.    Back again to the waiting room to wait to see the doctor.  It may be a little wait, I was warned.   But within a short time, I was called in to see the doctor.   After more examination and lots of questions it seems its possibly either to do with a muscle, or could be angina.   That I didn`t like the sound of, especially when he said to me, if you have the pain for more than 20 minutes dial 999.     He then arranged for me to go for tests as the N&N hospital today.

So, I`m feeling pretty scared.    

I rang a church friend yesterday, and she is going to come with me as I didn`t feel I wanted to go on my own.

But, I am very impressed with the prompt and efficient service I received from my surgery.

A pain in the.....

I`ve got a pain.  
I`ve had it since Saturday.  
It`s in the chest, or is it in my stomach? - it`s sort of in the middle between both.   Where`s the diviving line, I wonder between one and the other?  
It seems to move and at times I feel it round my back too.
It`s not a sharp pain, more of a achy type I suppose you`d call it.
I`m getting worried as to what it is.
Wondering whether to go to the doctors, or whether to wait a bit longer.
It doesn`t hurt when I`m sitting doing nothing, nor when I`m in bed. 
Maybe it`s just a muscle I`ve strained.  Yet, is it something internal?  something serious? 
All kinds of thoughts are going round in my mind.
I don`t feel right, but I don`t feel ill exactly.
I`m in a quandry over it.

Still Here

I`m still here, I just haven`t had anything interesting to blog about.    The snow has now all gone and after a day of rain yesterday it`s so good to see the sun shining this morning.   It really cheers one up.

I`m glad too that the rain has stopped and the snow gone, as I`m having my Mum here for the day.  She`s coming to church in the Wheelchair Taxi (that was a great discovery that a firm has one of those in which they can just wheel her in, in the chair and strap the lot in, so she can come independentely.*)    Then after that I`ll be transporting her to mine, and maybe for a ride this afternoon if the sun`s still shining.  It`s the easiest way to find something to do to occupy the time with her here.

*It`s not that I won`t go and pick her up in my car, but it does save me time on a Sunday morning, so that I can get dinner prepared a bit before going out.   (No, I`m not wasting time writing this - I`m eating my breakfast of a marmalade sandwich with one hand while doing so!)

 

Frozen Veg

This snow is causing some really strange effects -

I heard on the radio the news story that local growers can`t harvest cauliflowers because the ground is frozen.   It set me wondering ...... since when did cauliflowers grow under the ground and have to be dug up?! 

What`s wrong with manually cutting them in the way crops used to be harvested? 

Lost Bird?

Looking out of my window the other day, after it had been snowing, I became aware of a small bird which I`d not see in the garden before.  It stayed pecking about for quite a while, and wasn`t bothered by the starlings and blackbirds who were all bigger that it was.

The next day, it appeared at about the same time again, and again today.  So I got my camera out and tried to get some photos of it through the window.   I didn`t want to go outside with the camera for fear of frightening it away.   I`m not sure what it is.   I`ll have to get a bird book to try and find out.   It`s quite quick moving and is quite prettily marked.

Time for sand?

For several days over the last week our pavements have been very tricky to walk on because they`ve been covered in ice, and no attempt has been made to grit or sand them.

It was great to wake up this morning and see clear pavements, no frost, no ice, no snow.

Looking out of my office window mid-morning at the street - what did I see?   Yes, a big council lorry piled up with sand and two men enthusiastically throwing shovel full after shovel full all on the clear pavements!   

Why, oh why couldn`t they have done it when the frost and ice were making the pavements trecherous,  instead of when they were safe to walk on?

Strange Logic

Hearing this news story today of the concern now being expressed about the number of young people not in work.  Is it really any surprise?  Surely a lot of the problem is caused by the raising of the retirement age, or those working beyond retirement age.   I fail to see the logic in making people work longer when there are so many young unemployed people.

It seems to me that there is a very easy, logical solution - to either hold or better still, to lower the retirement age.   That way people, like myself (who will now have to work beyond the current 60, because our birthdays fall just after the cut off date)  would be able to retire having worked all their lives  and leave jobs for younger people.

But, I guess that`s just too simple!

Aims for 2010

Well, the start of a new year, and I`d better review the resolutions I set myself at the start of 2009, before deciding what, if any, I`ll make to try and keep for this year.

So, what was I aiming to achieve in 2009?

• to be more organised at home, by filing mail items as they arrive, rather than putting it to one side to do later
• to spend more time practising playing the piano
• to set out earlier when going to work or anywhere, instead of leaving everything till the last minute
• to learn to sometimes say "No" instead of "Yes"
• to write my blog each day, and to restart my "Blessings day by day" one
• to complete the needlework picture I started 3 years ago!

Oh dear! - reading those - I think I only really achieved one - and that was to file my mail when it came instead of piling it up on the desk - well, most of the time anyway!

So what are my intentions for 2010?

• to make more time for hobbies and things I want to do - including trying to restart my piano playing
• to be more organised and not leave everything till the last minute
• to write my Blog daily (or at least 4 times a week).  And, I`ve closed the Blessings day by day one and started a new one on the same lines "Giving Thanks....." which I intend to write a daily item on
• to give more time to my Mum
• to complete that needlework picture which is now 4 years old
• to enjoy life!

 How successful I shall be in any of these we`ll have to wait and see!

It`s 2010!

A Happy New Year

to

YOU

I wasn`t going to stay up to see the New Year in, but in the end I did, and this firework display in London was well worth waitng for

Rekindled

One of the things I used to enjoy doing was baking. I haven`t done much for a number of years now, for various reasons, but recently I`ve felt inclined to again - and here is the result of this afternoon`s batch of baking.

It was the perfect way to spend a cold dull winter afternoon.

Where did 40 years go?

Where have the last 40 years gone?   Realising, as I wrote yesterday, that I`d been working in the same place for that number of years, has set me thinking about my life.

It`s a frightening thought to realise that those years have gone by as quick at that [clicking my fingers].  It doesn`t seem anywhere like as long.  And, even more scary is to realise that over half my life has gone - well, unless I live to be 112 !

What have I achieved in that time?  
Not a lot really.  I still live in the house I was brought into as a baby.  I`m still single.  In fact have never had a boyfriend.  I`ve only worked at one place (disregarding school holiday jobs) - although I have worked up from being on the shop floor, to being on the check-out, then on to the cash office, and now finally to the head office.  Leaving school early, I lost touch with my friends from those days, and haven`t a close best friend, in the way lots of people seem to have, and, actually thinking about it I guess that my Church family are the closest I have to friends, although the vast majority of them are a lot older than me.
I`ve not travelled outside this country (but have no desire to), nor really far in the UK.  I think one of the best things I did was learning to learn to drive about 14 years ago.  That has made quite a difference to me.

But, am I contented with my life.  

At the moment - YES!

29.12.1969

On this day, the twenty ninth of December in the year nineteen sixty eight, I walked for the first time as a very young employee nervously and apprehenively into the retail establishment where I was to work.   It was in my home town and only a short walk from my house. 

I was greeted by the manager, Mr. C.....  a fairly elderly (or at least elderly to me) gentleman, and introduced to the other staff.   Yes, in those days managers were shown respect and call Mr. ....  and not by their first names.  It would have been unthinkable to call him Jack.  In all the years that I worked there with him, no-one ever called him by his Christian name.

We worked from 9 a.m. - 5.30, closed for an hour from 1-2 for lunch and at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays as it was half-day closing in the town.  A 41 hour week.  Everyone started and finished at the same time.  There were no different shifts, as today.  And, ofcourse definitely not open on a Sunday!

Now, 40 years on, I am still working in the same building in the same business.    What changes I have seen in that time though!  Some for the better and many not.   During these years I have seen at least 9 different managers come and go.   Some through retirement, some moved to other branches, one for dishonesty, another `asked to leave`, and so on.   The business has been owned by at least 6 different companies at various times through those years too.

I can`t say that all the time has been happy, most of it has, but there have been times and with certain managers when I have seriously felt like walking out and not coming back.    But, I stuck it, and in the end the manager/s went before I did! 

There have been amusing incidents with staff and customers,  sad ones too, as someone once remarked, we really should write a book about life in a store.   Maybe I`ll share a few of those on here in the coming weeks.   (it will give me something to blog about!)



Little did I know that when I walked in the door in 1969, that I would still be there 40 years later.

One thing I do know for sure, ........ I shan`t be there in another 40 years time!........ well, unless the government raises the retirement age!!!

Lucky Numbers

Having commented on Z`s blog the other day about a box of chocolates I remember from childhood and which used to be a favourite of ours, but which few people, if any, seem to remember I thought I`d see if I could find any info on them on Google.   Just to be sure that I wasn`t dreaming them up!   Although I well remember the delicious No. 6 (or 9 if you turn it the other way round), it was a round domed chocolate with a gorgeous soft caramel filling.  Yummy - my favourite out of the box.

So, I typed in Cadbury`s Lucky Numbers and here`s what I came up with

Lucky Numbers

In 1958 Cadbury launched a new assortment of chewy sweets, some covered in chocolate and some not. These Lucky Numbers each had an individual number on the wrapper, hence the name. The brand was retired in 1968
http://www.cadbury.co.uk/ourproducts/yesterday/Pages/Yesterday.aspx

and even a site had the tv advert words for them

Cadbury’s Lucky Numbers: Late 1950s
Lucky Numbers, Lucky Numbers — chocolate and chew.
I’ll be lucky, you’ll be lucky … they’ll be lucky too!

and then -
I came across this one, with memories of all kinds of sweets and treats - what memories that stirred up!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/lancashire/content/articles/2005/10/27/lists_sweeties_feature.shtml

Finding Peace

So, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day (wonder why we call it that), have come and gone for another year. 

I sat pondering last night over what had been my favourite part of those three days, this year.   
Was it .....

.....the delicious roast goose, which despite my uncertainty over whether it was cooked, or whether it was going to be tough, was cooked perfectly and very tender.

......or opening my presents - lots and lots of toiletries this year, plus a nice cheque from my Mum as she was unable to go shopping on her own without me.

....or spending time with my Mum

....or  enjoying having the day off from work on Christmas Eve and being able to make mince pies and other items.

....or the Christingle service, the Sunday before,  or the morning one on Christmas Day.

No - none of these, although I had enjoyed all of them.   

The best part of Christmas to me was..... coming home from the Midnight Communion service, and sitting in the dark in my front room at 1a.m. in the morning, the curtains open and with just the light of the streetlight outside giving slight illumination to the room and the Christmas Tree, and in the absolute quiteness and stillness thinking about the wonderful service we`d had, of what Christmas was really all about and feeling an immensely deep sense of peace. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL