How much?

I`m going to write about an observation today, and I wonder how many others have noticed the same, or maybe even do it?......

...We queue up in supermarkets and shops with baskets of shopping or maybe even just a single item waiting to pay. Once we get to the till and the items are rung through the assistant says "that`s £2.75" or whatever the amount is, and, it`s quite surprising the number of people who then ask "how much". Not in the tone of surprise or questioning that it is that much, but because although they`re standing there to pay they`re not really concentrating and listening. It almost seems to come as a surprise to them to be asked for money! Thus making the poor cashiers have to repeat everything again.

So, come on all you shoppers, save the cashiers voice, time and patience, and pay attention!

Just one day to go

Yippee! One more day to work and then I can have 17 days holiday (counting weekends), what a nice thought that is. Not, that I mind going to work now-a-days, but the thought of a holiday and a break is always good, isn`t it.

I`m going to be busy for the first week of that holiday though, but enjoyably busy doing something I always look forward to, and plan my holiday for. I know a holiday is supposed to be time to have a rest and to relax, but I`ll do that on the second week - at least I hope I will, although I`ve already got a few things in mind that I need to do that week too!

And, then maybe I`ll find time to get back to writing a more daily post on here.

Peace Shattered

I was about to sit down to write an entry on my blog, saying in an hours time my peace would be shattered. My parent would be home from her holiday.

As I sat down to write that, I became aware of the room getting darker and darker, although it was only an hour or so just past the middle of the day. There was an eerie feel about it, so I decided to log off and switch my computer off. The instant I switched it off there was an almighty crack of lightning and crash of thunder and more followed, the worst I think I`ve ever heard and a deluge of rain fell, so my peace really was shattered in more ways than one!

I was pleased in a way, to hear the rain though, as I somehow always feel safer with a storm if it rains than if is doesn`t.... is there any logic to this?

But what a lovely week I`ve had, able to sit quiet and think or do things without chatter and interuptions. Time to be me. Abilitity to do things at my own speed, which is fairly quick.
Time to relax and feel calm.
It`s not going to be easy to settle down again to not being just me in the house.

Unconventional Lunch

I`ve had a very unconventional Sunday Lunch today. I wonder why it is that Sunday lunch in traditionally a roast dinner? And that is what we normally have, the only variation each week being the meat - some weeks its beef, other weeks, lamb, pork or chicken. But today, being on my own, I decided to do different. I had a toad-in-the-hole. And, it was delicious (not ofcourse that I`m praising my own cooking!).

It`s one of my favourite dishes, but one which I seldom get now, as working every morning and always having our dinner at mid-day, I can`t make it, and my parent is now too shaky with her hands to make one and put one in the oven. But I don`t think she`s think it was the right thing to do for a Sunday lunch. So, "while the cat`s away the mice will play", as they say.

Freedom

I`m feeling free!

I`ve got the house to myself for a whole week, and what a great feeling that is. My parent went off this morning for a weeks holiday, so I`ve time to be "me", to do as I like, to relax, free from the stress of being on edge with her being there. It`s not until times like this that I realise that I don`t totally relax at any time when she`s here, because I`m always conscious of that presence. Of the frustrating interruptions to what I`m doing, or to my thoughts when trying to concentrate on something I`m writing.

So, I`m going to make the most of this week!

Wireless in the Sun

I`m puzzled...
Why is it that adverts on television for using wireless computers often show people sitting in the sunshine in the middle of fields or gardens, happily working away on their lap-tops?
Whenever I take my laptop outside to use, or even into our summerhouse, I just cannot see the screen, it acts like a mirror, and all I see is myself reflected back, and that`s not what I want to see!
Any expert out there that can tell me what to do, so that I can work outside and enjoy the sunshine? Is there some sort of filter, sun-shade or something for computers? Or are the adverts inaccurate? It`s quite frustrating.

Who put that post there?

Who put that post there? that was a question I was asking myself yesterday afternoon, after having done had a large shopping session in a supermarket. I was loading the boot of my car up, and having got more bags of shopping that would fit in the boot (around a walking aid also in there - not mine, I hasten to add), I went to open the rear door of my car to put the remaining bags in. Turning quickly and remembering to avoid walking into the shopping trolley beside me I found myself knock against something and unable to save myself I went sprawling to the ground.

Still clutching a bag of shopping, I hastily got up, hoping no-one had seen me, and rapidly gathered up the scattered cartons of cherries, peel and other baking items that had been in the bag that fell with me. Looking round to see what had caused me to fall I found that at the back of the parking spaces were bollards, and it was obviously one of those that I`d hit myself against. With a sore smarting knee and hand - neither of which I dare look at to see what damage I`d done to myself (because I`m very squeamish), luckily my skirt was long enough to cover my knee so that I couldn`t see it. My hand, when I dared to glance at it after quickly stowing ther rest of the bags in the car, had been protected by the fact that my sleeve was a bit long, so thankfully no blood there to deal with.

I drove home, about a 25 minute journey, all the while with my knee smarting and making myself keep thinking I must not faint I must get home first. And I succeeded, unloaded the car, put the shopping away before I was then brave enough to survey the damage and bathe the grazes with water.

I`m still feeling a bit shaken up this morning though. Why they need to put posts where people want to load cars up, I just don`t know!

What`s your age?

This was sent to me by a friend, so I thought I`d share it with you on here....

YOUR AGE BY EATING OUT
Don't tell me your age; you probably would tell a falsehood anyway-but your waiter may know!

YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATH

This is pretty neat.

DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!
It takes less than a minute.
Work this out as you read.
Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!
This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat.
(more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757 ....
If you haven't, add 1756.
6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.


You should have a three digit number


The first digit of this was your original number
(I.e., how many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)

The next two numbers are

YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2007) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

Insight

What I`ve been feeling these last couple of days has led me to some deep thoughts.

The way in which I feel I`ve betrayed the trust of these two birds took my thoughts to the way in which Judas betrayed Jesus. I began to see him in a different light. I`d always thought of him as a person who had done something wrong deliberately, but now I begin to wonder.

I had no intention of harming these birds, in the best of intentions I wanted them to find their rightful home and owner. In the same way, did Judas genuinely think he was doing something to help Jesus and to help the people in what he did?

If he did, I can well understand how devastated he must have felt to go to the length of hanging himself when he realised how much he had actually betrayed Jesus, instead of helping him. I can actually feel a kind of sympathy for him.

And this morning, hearing someone talking about how we react and do thing differently when we are under pressure or stressed, to how we would were we not, made me realise too, that if I hadn`t have had a stressful morning at work that day, I probably wouldn`t have done what I did, I would have tackled the situation differently. How I wish I had.

(Don`t get alarmed, I`m not going to hang myself!)

Home

Well, homing pigeons do go home.... but.... not to their rightful home. Guess what I found on the back lawn when I opened the door this morning?!


Yes... one of them was back pecking about on the grass, but although he came and ate some seeds from my hand again, we didn`t see him again for the rest of the day, and there`s no sign of the other one. I`m worried

Betrayed

I`m feeling awful. I`ve betrayed two creatures that had trusted me. Yes, it`s those pigeons I`m talking about (yes again!, sorry if you`re bored with reading about them, but this may be the last post about them).

The advice I was given about them, was feed them for a few days then stop feeding them and they`ll go home, or away. So, since Saturday I`ve not fed them, I didn`t even go out into the garden for them to see me Sunday or Monday, and yesterday - no sign of them. Opening the curtains first thing this morning, what do I see... the two pigeons back. Looking out of the window at them dinner time I saw that they were merrily pecking away eating the leave of all my plants in the pots I`d set last week, and my parent said they`d been doing it most of the morning although she`d been trying to frighten them off. And, seeing her waving her walking stick should have been enough to send any of us running off! But, to no avail there they remained.

The time had come to do something more drastic, I thought, so getting a couple of cardboard boxes with lids, and the bag of sunflower seeds, I went out into the garden this afternoon and they came running towards me. Once they were pecking away at the seeds on the ground, I managed to get hold of them, one at a time, and pop them in a box each, put the lid on, made some holes in the lid, then boxes into the boot of the car, and off I went into the countryside about 20 miles. Stopping in a layby in a country lane I got the boxes out, put some seeds on the ground and let the pigeons out. Got back quickly into the car and drove off leaving them there.

But, I now feel awful, that I`ve done that to two creature who had trusted me. That I`ve abandoned them. Will they be alright? Will they find their way to their rightful home? Will they get run over, or get caught by foxes or anything, I do so hope not, they were such lovely birds. Part of me is wanting to go back and get them!, So much is going through my mind. It feels that I`ve betrayed them. I`m regretting what I`ve done. Was it for the best for them?

Have a look at one more picture of them. Their plumage was so beautiful in the sunlight, almost at time fluorescent. Yes, he/she is sitting on my hand, they were so tame.

Feather brained

My pigeons, well, not mine really, but just seeming to have made this their (we hope) temporary home, set me thinking on how insulting some of our expressions are to birds. For instance the definition of feather-brained as being - lacking seriousness; given to frivolity; silly, not serious in content, attitude or behaviour. And of bird-brain as being stupid.


Yet watching the behaviour of birds, they do have brains and they do use them sensibly.
Ok, maybe these 2 pigeons didn`t use theirs sensibily enough to fly home yet, but they certainly know how and where to come and get food. Having given them some seeds this afternoon, I put the bag of sunflower seeds on a stool in the summerhouse where I was sitting, and it wasn`t many minutes before one of the pigeons spotted them there, so he (or she) trotted up to the entrance, round the door and jumped up onto floor of the summerhouse and then proceeded to jump up onto the stool to peck at the bag of seeds!

"Where`s my Tea?"

"Where`s my Tea?"

I thought when I got up this morning that the pigeons had gone, they were nowhere to be seen in the garden.... but then at dinnertime they were back, plodding round the corner of the garden by the house, and eagerly came to eat seeds from my hands again when I went out into the garden to see them after dinner.

Then, at tea time when I was in the kitchen getting tea, and D was laying the table, they were out there again. Looking up from my cooking I saw that one of them was standing looking up at the kitchen window. Next thing I knew he (or she) had flown up and was sitting on the kitchen window sill looking in at us! and, not content to just sit and look it kept jumping flapping its wings against the window trying to get in.

D went out with some bread for them, and they came to his hand, but finding it was just bread they pecked at it without eating it - they wanted something better than bread! I went out and gave D some sunflower seeds which he held down to them and they soon greedily scoffed them from his hand.

So, they`ve not left us yet.

Pigeon Post

The pigeons are still with me, As soon as I went out into the garden this afternoon and stooped down they came to me... so I just had to come in and get some sunflower seeds for them. And, this is what happened....and they both came and stood eating out of my hand.




So then I came indoors and tried to find who to ring to report that they were here. First I looked in the phone book, nothing under pigeon racing, homing or other such words, so I tried the RSPCA found a number and rang it, but again without a lot of success as the nearest one that I rang only works a few hours on certain days, according to the recorded message, and today wasn`t one of them!

I then searched the web for Pigeon racing/homing, but on not finding anything useful, tried searching for the Rspca and at last found a contact number for Kings Lynn, so I rang them. There, the girl answering the phone was very helpful and she gave me a number of the pigeon racing club to ring.... I rang them. The young lady there was also fairly helpful. I had got the number off one of the birds leg rings, so on giving her that and she found it almost straight away as belonging to someone in Leeds! I couldn`t read all the other ones number so we couldn`t search that one. She then gave me the phone number of the person the first one belonged to for me to contact them. I said, don`t you get in touch with them, but she said no, I had to! I`ve now rung that number and left a message as it was an answer machine! So, I await them ringing me.

We`ll see what the next installment is tomorrow!
Unless ofcourse the birds have flown off before then!

The tale of a pigeon

Looking out on to our garden though the rivulets of rain running down the window on Saturday, I spotted a pigeon in the garden. Nothing very unusual about that you may think, and at first neither did I. But yet, it looked different to the wild ones we sometimes get, it`s plumage had a different colouring and appearance. Then I noticed, as it plodded (yes, it`s quite fat, so seems to waddle and plod around), that it had rings on both it`s legs. So we assumed it must be a homing or racing pigeon and that it would soon fly off again.

Next morning, on looking out again through the wind and rain, it was still there - but, now there were two of them and they had almost identical plumage. No, we weren`t seeing double! One had a yellow ring on one leg and a pink ring on the other while the other one had a yellow ring on one leg, but a blue ring on the other. Wonder if it`s a blue one for a boy and pink for a girl?!

It`s now four days since they appeared, and they`re still staying around our garden. Maybe because it`s rained constantly for four days they don`t want to fly in the rain?, are they homing pigeons that have lost their way home with the wind and weather this weekend? are they "on holiday"?

They both seem to keep together and keep pecking about in the gravel by the window and looking at the window. So this afternoon, when it had at last stopped raining, I went out with some sunflower seeds, thinking they`d probably fly off when I approached, but no, one of them, now up on the shed roof, put it`s head on one side and look curiously and enquiringing at me. So pouring some of the seeds into the palm of my hand I held it up towards the pigeon. Taking a tentative step or two towards my hand he (or she) then stretched its neck and started pecking the seeds from my hand. Having eaten one handful, I offer it another one which it immediately came to eat and this time came so near that I could feel the silkyness of its breast feathers brushing against my hand as it ate. A lovely moment. To think that I could get so close to it, and that it trusted me to not harm it. It also confirmed my thoughts that it wasn`t a wild bird, but must be used to being close to people.

Managing to get close to them, I managed to see that on the rings on their legs were numbers, but now the problem is, what to do about them. Someone, somewhere is no doubt missing them and waiting for them to come home. Maybe, hopefully, now that they`ve rested, been fed and the weather has improved they`ll find their way home again.

7 Things about Me

Lorna has tagged me to do this. So here are 7 things you`ve always wanted to know about me! (but I don`t think I can find seven people to tag to continue it, sorry Lorna)
The rules are: People who are tagged start by thinking about 7 random facts/habits about themselves. Each player then must write about those seven things on their blog, as well as include these rules. Players then need to choose 7 people to tag and list their names. Don’t forget to leave each person a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.

1. I can`t sit and do nothing. (well not very often) Like now, although I`m sitting down in an easy chair, my laptop`s on my lap, and I`m typing away. If I have the television on to watch, my hands are usually busy with some cross-stitch work or craft work at the same time. I often think I`d love to be able to sit and do nothing for a couple of hours sometimes, but I never end up doing it.

2. I live by the seaside. But I can`t swim! In one of my drawers though, I`ve got a certificate for swimming at the Primary School I went to - but how I got it I`ll never know, because I never went in the pool ! They must have just issued them to everyone in the class. Just goes to show that all these certificates and bits of paper we have, don`t necessarily mean a thing, do they?!

3. One of my habits, is if I`m given presents, birthday, Christmas or whenever, I always try to unwrap them without tearing the paper. However hard the sellotape it stuck down, I persist in finding the edge to peel it gently off so as not to rip the paper. I think that probably stems back to when as a little child, I was made to open them like that at Christmas, instead of rushing into them all.

4. I`ve not got any brothers or sisters. How I wish so often that I had. To have someone to share things with.

5. I collect thimbles. I`ve got over 350 of them, all shapes and sizes. Although most are made of china, I`ve also got wood, glass, plastic, metal and other ones. To look at them gives me memories of places I`ve been, and of people who have brought one to give to me. I`ll perhaps show you some on a blog post in the future.

6. I`ve never had long hair. As a youngster I used to look at others who had lovely long hair and wish mine was like it, but I was never allowed to grow it any longer than just above shoulder length.

7. A bad habit of mine, is now to spend too long into the late evening on my computer! I used to go to bed at a reasonable hour, now I find, I get on the computer and the hours just go, and often before I realise it, it`s a lot later than I think.

Statue

Just one more holiday photo to share with you, and that`s this one - a statue of a man of great talent.



The bronze statue is of cours of Eric Morecambe. It`s just a bit larger than lifesize and depicts him in one of his characteristic poses, and with a pair of binoculars hanging around his neck for he was a keen ornithologist.

It was interesting to see that his famous song 'Bring Me Sunshine' was engraved on the steps leading to the statue, and in the space around the base there are granite circles and stars adorned with one liners and the names of celebrities who had appeared on the Morecambe and Wise show through the years - what a lot of different people there were.

It brought memories of happy hours watching that tv programme, especially the Christmas specials which they used to do. Why don`t the tv people make good programmes like that any more?!

Follow the leader?

Another scene from a walk on my recent holiday.

A White covering

Walking though a park last week, we saw ahead of us a large white patch by the lake, it looked like snow, but this was in May and the sun was shining quite warmly, so we walked closer to see what it was. One first though was that it was blossom which had blown off the nearby trees, but as we got closer we discovered what it really was.... hundreds and thousands of daisies. A really beautiful sight.

(I would have shared this with you last week, but forgot to take the lead to connect my camera to the lap top. The one thing out of all the luggage that I took with me that I omited to pack!!)

Travelling Light?!

Well, my holiday is over, it`s a good job I didn`t have to travel by train or coach though....I`ve just unloaded all my luggage -
a largish suitcase,
a large canvas bag,
a medium holdall,
my laptop computer case,
a large shopping bag,
3 carrier bags,
a coat
and two jackets!

And, everything in them seemed `essential`, or like the coats `just incase` because at this time of year it`s difficult to know what to take to wear for what the weather may be like. And, ofcourse one always buys things too when away!

Makes me wonder what I did before I had a car.