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 The simplicity of my day to day. |
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This is where I write my thoughts, feelings and my daily trials, tribulations and happy things
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| If you were given the opportunity to spend the day in a recording studio with a musician who would you choose and why? What song would you request they sing for you? If it’s one of today’s singing artists I haven’t a clue. But if I can return to the sixties in Liverpool and the Beatles, then a whole day spent with Paul would be tremendous. I think I was a little bit in love with Paul, his accent and his boyish face. I still think he’s one of the nicest musicians around. What I always appreciated was the way he stayed normal in the face of such media exposure and his children were brought up to be normal kids, out of the spotlight. He brought them up in the English countryside and they attended the local school there. It was so sad when he lost lovely Linda the love of his life. I guess if I had to choose just one song, then it would have to be Yesterday. |
| Prompt: Imagine you're opening your own writing-themed restaurant. Name it and provide a list of signature dishes. Be creative! Maybe I’d call my restaurant Shakespeare’s. It would attract the cultured type of customer I think. Or maybe Hemmingway’s. The dishes on the menus would definitely have to appeal to the poetic palette. Entrees: Punctuation Pate. Freshly Formatted Fish Main: Grammatical Goose Pie. Show but don’t tell! Dessert: Dialogue Date Delight. Point of View Pudding |
| Prompt: What do you think is the most economical way to get work done? Do it yourself? Barter? Hire someone? If you've done a project recently, could you give us some ideas to help us tackle our own future projects easier. Well in monetary terms doing it yourself is the way to go, but only of course if you are able to do it. I keep telling my husband the time is coming when we’ll have to employ someone to help with our big garden. He’s definitely banned from roofs and ladders now but we’re fortunate in having a strong son-in-law who is happy to help out (if my husband agrees to let him) It’s difficult to come to terms with having to outsource anything when you’ve always been able to do it yourself. If I had the choice and the money these are the things I’d outsource. Window cleaning Oven cleaning Car cleaning Mopping I don’t mind vacuuming, in fact I find it therapeutic 😂 |
| Prompt: Ten Things To Do In January" says Charmaine J. Forde • Read a good book • Get a Library Card • Walk 30 minutes a day • Send a Birthday card to a friend • Invest in a Fitness Tracker • Buy a Coin jar and save those quarters and nickels • Donate to a Charity • Volunteer 45 minutes of your time to an Organization • Take a Yoga Class • Volunteer at Bingo night a Nursing Home Have you done anything on the list? What would you add to the list for a January activity? I have joined a yoga class although it’s chair yoga, not so ambitious. Yes I did send a birthday card to my sister-in-law for her 83rd. I have read a good book. We all live here by Jojo Moynes. It is a Romcom, not my usual genre but I enjoyed it. I already have my library card. Have had it for over fifty years. Definitely donated to a charity or two in December. I walk in the swimming pool for forty minutes a day. Does that count? The only other thing I’m adding is to write more. |
| Prompt: "The key in letting go is practice. Each time we let go, we disentangle ourselves from our expectations and begin to experience things as they are." Sharon Salzberg What do you think about "letting go"? Is it always a good practice? What does ‘letting go’ really mean? Letting go of the times someone did or said something hurtful isn’t always easy but hanging on to the hurt isn’t doing any good either. Spending precious time reliving the incident or the slur is pointless because the person who did the hurting doesn’t know that’s what you are doing. I remember a very sad and tragic case here when four children, siblings, were walking home on the sidewalk after going for an ice cream, when a drunken driver mowed them all down and killed them outside their home. The parents were obviously devastated beyond belief but a few weeks later outside of the court where the driver had been sentenced, the father told the media he had forgiven him. He said to not do so would bring him and his wife nothing but a life full of hatred and they chose to let go. They have since been blessed with two more children. Money that was collected by the community, to help with the funerals, they used to pay for playground equipment in a memorial park to remember their beloved children. |
| Prompt: "Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step." Mariska Hargitay Do you ask for help when you need it? Or do you hesitate? I am very reluctant to ever ask for help except from my husband. I hate to bother the children, although they’re all in their fifties and hardly children😂 My thoughts are they have their own families to worry about. I did make an exception last year. We were very concerned about our youngest daughter who has mental health issues. We were receiving multiple phone calls daily from her and we’d kept it from her siblings. But the stress of dealing with her by ourselves was taking its toll on both of us so I asked the others to deal with her demands, tantrums and dramas for a while. She was instructed to call them when she needed to and we blocked her for a month. The relief that somebody else had taken the burden just for a while was indescribable. As for asking for help with things we both can manage ourselves, like household management, gardening etc we will continue to do them ourselves whilst we still can. |
| There are more and more cases of animal cruelty in the media. One today of a person flinging a cat against a wall and then posting it in social media. Thankfully, the couple were arrested. What are your feelings on animal cruelty? Cruelty in any form is totally unacceptable in my opinion, but towards innocent animals, who are at their owner’s mercy, is despicable. I often find myself watching a news item when both human and animal are involved and my feelings of sympathy are stronger for the animal. I find as I get older my feelings have changed towards the eating of other sentient creatures and wonder why we as humans feel it’s okay. I stopped eating lamb years ago after seeing sheep transported in big trucks, crammed together in stinking hot weather on long journeys from the farm to the abattoirs. I love cows for their intelligence and patience. Big brown, trusting eyes watch on as they see other members of their herd killed to feed us at the top of the food chain. It might not be classed as animal cruelty but how can it not be? I might yet be a vegetarian, I’m almost there. |
| Use these words in your entry today: rebellion, strategy, maneuvers, peanut butter, bread, signs, resolve, and dance. I think this is my first blog this year. There are signs I might be planning a new strategy this year at Writing.Com. I resolve to write more, enter different contests such as the Bradbury which entails writing a new story each week. To do this there needs to be a rebellion against apathy which has been creeping in to my psyche lately. Those new stories will not be amazing even if I manage to conjure up the ideas. They’ll be just your bread and peanut butter short stories, certainly nothing gourmet. 2026–what will you bring? I wish for only good things for everyone. I hope if you get the choice to sit it out or to dance, I hope you’ll dance. |
| Luck is not as random as you think. Before that lottery ticket won the jackpot, someone had to buy it.”― Vera Nazarian, Do you buy lottery tickets or the scratch off cards? Do you wait for the large pot or do you buy them weekly like clock work? Would you consider lottery tickets as gambling? Yes I buy lottery tickets, one a week costing $10. In Western Australia the lottery is run by Lottery West, they siphon off a percentage to give to local charities. Groups, such as school P&C’s can request a grant for items they’re fundraising for from Lottery West. So although technically the lottery is a gamble it is offset by the charitable side. We’re not very brave as regards gambling as my husband and I have seen the dark side of it. John’s father was a bookie in the UK when we met and we both worked in the industry. No, our gamble is regarded as a flutter in the faint hope (miracle) our numbers come up. If they did, at our time of life we’d give it away to our family. |
| Prompt: 2025. Was it a good year or a bad year? Write about this in your Blog entry today. That is a good question to ask oneself at the end of a year and I’m loathe to complain, although at times it’s been challenging. Whenever I hear myself complaining about life I’m reminded, usually by my husband, that so many of my cohort aren’t even on this earth anymore. It is true enough that life is precious and I’m lucky to be here and still able to do the things I do. And yet 2025 has been difficult in many respects. The hardest was losing our dog, Lucy. She was my birthday present to myself when I was 69. I told her when I met her at aged six weeks, that we’d grow old together and I guess we did, except she didn’t stay the course. My health and that of my husband wasn’t too great either last year, but it could have been worse. Our mentally ill daughter has given us the most cause for concern in 2025 and still her grip on life is tenuous as she battles her demons. The state of the world’s political unrest, although it’s not always front and centre in my mind, seeped into my psyche and unsettled me last year. Well, they were the downsides, now for the times which brought joy. John and I reached a milestone 60 years of marriage. Our family came together and gave us an emotional celebration. Our grandchildren and great-grandchildren have given numerous reasons to be proud and smile often throughout the year and will continue to do so I’m sure. I’m looking forward to starting a new year and hope it’s going to be a good one. I expect it will be a mixed bag like all the other years I’ve been around on this carousel we call life. Happy New Year to everyone at WdC. |
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