Purple Dragon

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Try everything twice. On one woman's tombstone she said she wanted this epitaph:

Tried everything twice...loved it both times!

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down (keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches)

3. Keep learning: Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain get idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh, spend lots and lots of time with HIM/HER.

6 The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. LIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love: Whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

11. Forgive now those who made you cry. You might not get a second chance.

And if you don't send this to at least 4 people - who cares?

But do share this with someone.

Remember! Lost time can never be found.

Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

This looks interesting. Dunno if it works or not, though.

http://www.mythings.com/tips/3073/

I don't want to get into a huge discussion or argument or anything - I'm just asking for some views here. Again, perhaps my own blog isn't the right place to do this, maybe I should be on Ask or Answer, but I don't want to be lambasted by a hundred folk I've never met.

What it is, is this :

How bad would it be if the whole world was one world?

If we didn't have emi/immigration, national boundaries, nationalities. If I wanted, I could get on a plane right now, and fly to anywhere, without needing a passport or visa. Just go.

Why is it so important to be British, American, Australian, Italian, Kurdish, Iranian, and so on. I could list countries all night, I guess. How about if we were all just Earthlings

My parent's families were Welsh, down to my grandparents on Dad's side and Mum on her side. I was born in England. My husband and my children are Scottish. OK that makes us all British, but even those 3 nations have their racisms / nationalisms.

How fine if we all just believed, or didn't believe, in god. Not the Christian God, or the Muslim one, or whatever. Just God. Or not.

I guess what it all comes down to is : why do we have to emphasise our differences so much, when all those differences seem to do is alienate and cause wars, fighting, dissent?

We are all just folk really, when it comes down to it. We all eat, sleep, pee, bleed.

I wish we could all just celebrate our similarities instead.

I guess that is just naive.

I could have asked this on Ask or ANswer but that would have meant going into the whole story about Sue and I didn't want to. So I'm asking you lot.

Sue's nurses have asked us to provide some poetry for her, so that her nurse can read some to her during the day.

I don't do poetry. I have views on it that could be construed at offensive, so I shan't air them here

Anyway, the stuff needs not to be maudlin first off. Last thing she needs is to be miserable! It needs to have a 'beat' (all I can think of is Dr Seuss!). They don't need to be epic poems because once the nurse gets to the end there is a good chance Sue won't remember the beginning, but they need to be long enough to keep her attention focussed for a wee whiley.

Anyone got any suggestions? I can buy something off Amazon and send it down, you see, but I can't buy something I have little experience of.

When I was on the course on Sunday I saw a woman wearing a pair of shoes that I totally fell in love with. I found them yesterday on eBay and bought them for a snip. I also found a pair of ankle boots that I have been after for a while. Won them too

I get a pain in my face. In my cheekbone actually. Like a headache but in the cheek. Usually when I waken the following day after one of these cheekaches, my blood vessels have burst in the white of my eye. Last week it wasn't too bad. The week before it was so bad that folk commented. I wonder what it will be like tomorrow.

I spent the morning in my kitchen, spring cleaning. My god the tops of the cupboards was disgusting! I was appalled. You don't just get dust up there - you get the grease and steam from the cooking creating this gunk that you have to scrub off with a brush covered in washing up liquid. Anyway, it is all sparkly in there now. I did the tops of the cupboards, all the doors, and the surfaces. I also got rid of loads of tat that had accumulated. Do everyone else's kitchens act as magnets for things like small lego pieces and hair bobbles??

I plan on doing the insides of the cupboards and the drawers next week.

The bloke is coming to build the kennels on Monday. Yippee!

I have seen a suite on eBay that I rather fancy. I refuse to buy a new one because my kids have destroyed a suite every year since we have lived here. The two chairs for the current suite are fine but the couch is an embarrassment. I never take folk in the living room now - they come sit with me in here. The couch eats people, especially small children. So far they have managed to escape, but it is only a matter of time. Anyway, the suite I have seen ends at some ungodly hour tonight, so I shall have to stay up late. Groan Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Isn't it funny how the setting sun highlights features on your lawn that you never notice in full daylight?

I slept as if drugged last night.

Didn't get out of bed till 7.20 which is when Himself called me to ask why I hadn't called him yet.

I fell out of bed and onto the loo while still talking. He asked me how many children were in my bed (one or two, sometimes even three, crawl in thru the night). I didn't know. It turned out to be none. We must have all slept unconscious!

Perhaps yersterday's massive thunder, lightning and hail storm cleared the air and gave us all the sleep we needed.

I know some people say there are no coincidences, whereas others think they are major things that happen to guide us thru life.

Me? I think they are something that you need to think about, and that they are being pointed out to you to consider.

I have had two in two days.

I am reading a storybook, and the heroine is featured on a website that is anti her religion and her job, called 'Kali Three'. I figure it is probably just a made up website, and I can't be bothered to check anyway. However, another book I am reading* just said "This is the Age of Kali which the scriptures foretold". Kali isn't someone who is normally a feature of my day.

The second one - I subscribe to something called "Daily Peace Quote". Todays quote was -

I cannot believe that war is the best solution. No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.
- March 22, 1948 letter to Truman from Eleanor Roosevelt

The book I was looking at* said "...why else would hundreds of thousands of lives be sacrificed for a few metres of mud in a foreign land? Historians are still divided as to which side really won the battle, so minute was the victory against the face of such enormous losses."

Now I shall have to meditate quietly on these two coincidences to see what I am being told.

*Live Patanjali! Yoga Widsom for Everyday Living, Jacqueline Koay

The thrill of grandparents!

1. She was in the bathroom, putting on her makeup, under the watchful eyes of her young granddaughter, as she'd done many times before.
After she applied her lipstick and started to leave, the little one said,
"But Gramma, you forgot to kiss the toilet paper good-bye!"
I will probably never put lipstick on again without thinking about kissing the toilet paper good-bye...

2. My young grandson called the other day to wish me Happy Birthday.
He asked me how old I was, and I told him, 62.
My grandson was quiet for a moment, and then he asked, "Did you start at 1?"

3. After putting her grandchildren to bed, a grandmother changed into old slacks and a droopy blouse and proceeded to wash her hair.
As she heard the children getting more and more rambunctious, her patience grew thin.
Finally, she threw a towel around her head and stormed into their room, putting them back to bed with stern warnings.
As she left the room, she heard the three-year-old say with a trembling voice, "Who was THAT?"

4. A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like: "We used to skate outside on a pond I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony. We picked wild raspberries in the woods."
The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this all in.
At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

5. My grandson was visiting one day when he asked, "Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?"
I mentally polished my halo and I said, "No, how are we alike?''
"You're both old," he replied.

6. A little girl was diligently pounding away on her grandfather's word processor. She told him she was writing a story.
"What's it about?" he asked.
"I don't know," she replied. "I can't read."

7. I didn't know if my granddaughter had learned her colors yet, so I decided to test her. I would point out something and ask what color it was. She would tell me and was always correct. It was fun for me, so I continued.
At last, she headed for the door, saying, "Grandma, I think you should try to figure out some of these, yourself!"

8. When my grandson Billy and I entered our vacation cabin, we kept the lights off until we were inside to keep from attracting pesky insects. Still, a few fireflies followed us in.
Noticing them before I did, Billy whispered, "It's no use Grandpa. Now the mosquitoes are coming after us with flashlights."

9. When my grandson asked me how old I was, I teasingly replied, "I'm not sure."
"Look in your underwear, Grandpa," he advised, "mine says I'm 4 to 6."

10. A second grader came home from school and said to her grandmother, "Grandma, guess what? We learned how to make babies today."
The grandmother, more than a little surprised, tried to keep her cool.
"That's interesting," she said, "how do you make babies?"
"It's simple," replied the girl. "You just change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."

11. Children's Logic: "Give me a sentence about a public servant," said a teacher.
The small boy wrote: "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant."
The teacher took the lad aside to correct him. "Don't you know what pregnant means?" she asked.
"Sure," said the young boy confidently. 'It means carrying a child."

12. A grandfather was delivering his grandchildren to their home one day when a fire truck zoomed past. Sitting in the front seat of the fire truck was a Dalmatian dog.
The children started discussing the dog's duties.
"They use him to keep crowds back," said one child.
"No," said another. "He's just for good luck."
A third child brought the argument to a close.
"They use the dogs," she said firmly, "to find the fire hydrants."

13. A 6-year-old was asked where his grandma lived.
"Oh," he said, "she lives at the airport, and when we want her, we just go get her. Then, when we're done having her visit, we take her back to the airport."

14. Grandpa is the smartest man on earth! He teaches me good things, but I don't get to see him enough to get as smart as him!

15. My Grandparents are funny, when they bend over, you hear gas leaks, and they blame their dog.

Got the new Rachel Morgan book this morning - White Witch, Black Curse. When I say Rachel Morgan, she is the heroine .. the books are written by Kim Harrison. I haven't read any other of her stuff, if she even writes anything else, but her Morgan books are brilliant. This is No7 in the series and I'm loving every one of them!

I am currently reading the Revd Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman. I enjoy his books, have read most of them, and Merrily is such a human heroine. I hope he gives us another one soon. The ones so far are : The Wine of Angels, Midwinter of the Spirit, A Crown of Lights, The Cure of Souls, The Lamp of the Wicked, The Prayer of the Night Shepherd, The Smile of a Ghost, The Remains of An Altar, The Fabric of Sin and lastly To Dream of the Dead.

I am also waiting for the next Odd Thomas book - In Odd We Trust. I can't seem to get hold of a copy just now. I have the previous four in the series - Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd and Odd Hours. Also highly recommended, written by Dean Koontz, although I don't generally care for his books much.

I went on a child protection course yesterday.

It was to do with the gymnastics coaching, and it was compulsory. We have to take the course every three years.

Madly, our senior coach, who was also on the course, works as a primary teacher and has to take the same course every two years for the council.

So she gets to do the course, then do the course again, and then ... do the course again! Bonkers.

Like Disclosure, which you have to have for every post of responsibility, you have to achieve these courses for every area of child contact.

I currently have Disclosure for playgroup, primary school and gymnastics. I nearly had one for Beavers as well, but quit that before it went thru. It is BONKERS. You have to pay something like twenty quid to get the Disclosure thru, and if I were to do something that revoked my Disclosure for - say - primary, then gymnastics wouldn't necessarily know that it had been revoked and I could continue working with the kids there.

IMO there should be one Disclosure issued, reviewed annually or something, and once you do something bad (assuming you do) then it should be revoked. There should be listings under your Disclosure number of the places you work with children, and those listings should be kept up to date by both Disclosure Scotland and the schools/clubs you work with.

Having to achieve these things thru so many different organisations is costly in both time and money.

I have just collected some books from a fellow FreeCycler.

There is one called Judging Justine. The spiel on the back says :

He'd asked her out for a dare but rich boy Wes Grayson fell hard for Justine Sutton, and even at 18 he'd known no other woman could complete him.
Then Justine abruptly fled gossipy Lewiston and for 17 unforgiving years Wes never saw her again. Until 7 months ago in Chicago, when he tasted her intoxicating sweetness once more - and once more she stole away with her secrets.
But suddenly Justine was back, unwed yet scandalously swollen with child. And Wes was a man obsessed, throbbing with anger, sorrow and one consuming desire. Even if the whole town taked, he had to learn Justine's secrets. And he had to know ... was this his child?

Intoxicating sweetness? Swollen with child? Scandalously, no less! Throbbing with anger?

I'm in fits. It is almost worth reading it.

First off, thanks to everyone who dropped me a note about this yesterday - it was great to feel so supported.

I am writing this with my pupils about 100% dilated and it is a struggle.

When I got the ths hospital, they did the tests that show them when my blindspots were.
Next they took me thru and checked my eyesight on the letter thingie.
Then they put anaesthetic in my eyes (which stung) and poked something in them to check how spongey they were.
Next came two sets of drops to dilate my pupils, after which they asked me if I had anyone to drive me home as I wouldn't be able to see properly for 4-6 hours afterwards.

Then I was seen by a trainee Dr who shined really bright lights in my eyes. Then another one, who did the same. Then the consultant, with the trainees watching (more blinding). Then the consultant went out to get his senior because he could see something in my right eye but didn't know what it was.

In the meantime I went and got my retinas scanned (with the obligatory bright lights) and recorded and both eyes photographed (with flash) four times each.

The boss bloke had a look (yep - bright lights), identified the problem with the right eye, and also pointed out a similar, smaller problem in my left eye.

The upshot is - I have recently had a cold, flu or throat infection and it has spread itself in my eye, leaving bits of swollen retina in its wake.

No treatment except time.

I have to go back, and go thru it all again, in two months time.

When I came out of the hospital, I couldn't see a damn thing and I had to cover my eyes and be guided down the street by Himself. I had put the report the hospital had given me on my tests and results (complete with the proper name of it) in my pocket and my jacket flapped open, and - yep - the bloody report fell out and I didn't notice till we were 10 minutes into the traffic jam in the middle of Aberdeen. So I've lost it.

Anyway, I have a cracking headache, can't be out in bright light, and I am totally emotionally drained ... I want my bed

The saga continues ...

GP just phoned to say I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon at the hospital in Aberdeen.

My GP just phoned to tell me the optician had faxed my results thru and phoned him to discuss the results.

He wanted my permission to refer me to the opthamologist at the hospital.

I can't remember if I blogged about this before, so I will give the background as well. Sorry if I'm repeating myself.

The Wednesday before Easter I started a migraine. When I start them, I get cloudy vision, which then splinters into shards like broken glass, then goes grey and blurred so I can hardly see. Then the headache and nausea kick in, and I am useless until the following day, sometimes two.

This time, the cloudy vision didn't lift in my right eye, and I finally got round to seeing the Dr about it this morning. He had a look in my eyes, couldn't find anything amiss, and instructed me to attend an optician today as they have better equipment.

I managed to get an emergency appointment locally. She did loads of tests, the upshot of which is that I have a blind spot in my lower right eye and another, lesser one in the middle of my left. I knew I couldn't see anything in my lower right - that is the main location of the cloud.

Unfortunately, she also couldn't find a reason why I have these blind spots/cloudy vision and has referred me back to my GP. She will write to him with her findings and says that if I haven't heard from him by Thursday (day after tomorrow!) then I am to contact him to arrange for 'further investigation' - whatever that means.

Vaguely worried.

It all seems rather quick, doesnt it?
The GP - see an optician today.
The Optician - hear from the GP by Thursday or phone him.

Yes. Definately vaguely worried.

I am reading this Hip & Thigh Diet book.

It has menus.

I have cooked a lot of the things she lists in her menus BUT she uses YOGHURT when I use DOUBLE CREAM.

Surely replacing cream with yoghurt is illegal?

And if it isn't ... shouldn't it be?

Well, having seen myself in the thigh high boots that arrived yesterday, along with the mini skirt that used to hang off me, I have decided to welcome Rosemary Conley back into my life.

Many moons ago, the first time I quit smoking, my weight rocketed up to immense proportions. I don't know if any of you watch Friends but if you do, you will be familiar with the Monica character when she is young and wobbly. Well, that was me.

A pal of mine (Hi, Charlotte ) and her man used the Rosemary Conley Hip & Thigh Diet and it worked brilliantly so I decided I was gonna give it a shot. It worked brilliantly for me as well, giving me the body that I was obsessed with maintaining (and ultimately starving) for many years!

However, three kids later, I have more respect for my body and her workings, so although I am going to get stuck into Rosemary again, it won't be to the point of emaciation!

To quote : "The diet starts tomorrow"!

You have to check out this telly station :

Sky channel 275 on Lifestyle and Culture. Lots of exercise routines, yoga, pilates, belly dancing, bollywood dancing, it's excellent!

So, I have the top hat, the thigh boots, the choker, the shirt, the bustier, the long gloves.

I still need the black mini skirt, a nice example of which I am watching on eBay as I type I shall also need to buy some of those tights that hold everything in. It has been a long time since I had a figure like Shania Twain!

My next big worry is the make up. Usually I wear either nothing or a lick of mascara. Sometimes, if I have an appointment, I will fling on some lippy. I do have make up. I just don't really know how to apply it properly. If you look at her face in the video, she has lashings of it on and I think I might end up looking like a panda. I guess I shall have to practice when the kids are at school and can't laugh at me until I get a chance to clean it off.

Just read about this on the Raising Kids pages.

n interesting dilemma reported in today's Daily Mail concerns a heavily pregnant woman who was fined for parking in a Mother and Baby parking space at Tesco.

Laura Howard, who's very heavily pregnant and in fact overdue, popped into Tesco for some last minute shopping before her baby was born. As she's finding it hard to move around at this late stage of pregnancy, she parked in a Mother and Baby slot and was fined £90.

When she complained to Tesco, it told her to take the matter up with the warden's employer, Safe Park, who told her: ' that because there wasn't a picture of a pregnant woman in the bay that I couldn't park there… I parked in the mother-and-toddler space because I thought heavily pregnant women who were struggling could do that.'

A spokesperson for the company Brian Walker, operations manager of Safe Park UK, declared: 'Pregnancy is not a disability. It is a lifestyle choice and these bays are aimed at being wider for buggies.'

The story, however, has a happy ending, as Tesco have said they'll stump up for the ticket.

That is beyond stupid! Being pregnant is a lifestyle choice? Well, yeah, but having kids is continuation of that lifestyle choice! Eejits.

I just put the cheese back in the fridge.

I found the phone sitting in there on the shelf.

I have been invited to a fancy dress party.

We have to go as someone famous.

I have decided to go as Shania Twain, in her "Man, I feel like a woman!" outfit.

I have the top hat, choker, gloves, bustier, skirt, tights and white shirt. I don't have the boots. DO I want to buy thigh high boots just for one night? With *my* thighs?? I need the boots, don't I? Sigh.

So. Do you reckon I will look a complete tit? Me being short, dumpy and with less panache than Ms Twain has in her little finger? I am, aren't I?