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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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| https://www.writing.com/main/redirect?htime=1675952742&hkey=a33828960c8d328edcc4... This image of a bird in the long grass is titled ‘maybe I’m lost’. The advantage a bird has, and the reason he would never find himself lost, is his ability to fly. He’d simply take flight and get his unique bird’s eye view to establish his whereabouts. I used to have a fear of getting lost. I think it stemmed from the absolute terror as a child when you realise you can’t see your mother. I remember that feeling once when I was on a beach. I was surrounded by hundreds of happy faces, but none that I recognised. My heart raced in my six year old body as I searched for a familiar face. People stopped my panicked run and asked me, “Are you lost little girl? Where’s your mummy?” I think that’s why I always stop for a minute and take my bearings when I go to a strange place. Maybe it’s the shopping mall which has multiple entries. I always take notice of which is the closest store as I enter the mall. As for losing my car, I’ve done it so many times when I’ve not noted which part of the car park, or which floor in a multiple story car park. Even though it’s been seventy years since that little girl was lost on that crowded beach, the feeling is still with me at times. I’ve been convinced my car has been stolen many times, only to find it after searching for an extended time. Funnily enough in a foreign country I don’t fear being lost. I think that’s because everywhere is new, different, and I’m a tourist. I know that as long as I’ve remembered the name of my hotel I can always get a taxi back. This once happened to a friend of mine when a group of us were camping in the sand dunes. She got lost in the dark. We had put a portable toilet tent a few hundred yards away from the tents. In the night she told her husband she was going to go to the toilet and to leave a light on. He was half asleep and thought she was back and turned off the hurricane lamp. The poor girl got totally disoriented in the dark and lost her bearings. She was wandering around in the pitch blackness searching for the camp site. It wasn’t until someone in the group heard her shouting for help that she was rescued. Her husband was never ever really forgiven. |
| https://www.writing.com/main/redirect?htime=1675691323&hkey=bf41df3e402d0d0f0fbd... This image of a stick at the mercy of the wind and tide reminds me of a childhood game. My brothers and I would drop sticks over a bridge and race to the other side to watch the progress. Some would get stuck in a whirlpool or on a rock whilst another would race to an invisible finishing line. The owner of the winning stick would be delighted and would declare victory. I wonder if children still play this simple game these days. Being cast adrift has so many meanings. There have been many times throughout my life when I have felt aimless, with no direction, much like those sticks twisting and twirling attempting to gain some sort of traction or control. When one loses health and vitality and at the mercy of doctors, medications and other medical professionals one can feel adrift, powerless. My health is compromised at the moment and the word adrift is as good as any to describe how I’m feeling. It’s similar to being on a boat which has lost all power and all on board are searching for land amongs miles of ocean, Sometimes a glimpse of land can be enough to give hope that all will be well. |
https://www.writing.com/main/redirect?htime=1675606117&hkey=864556b6d7124573476b... This image is unsettling to me. Why? I have no reason other than my distrust of cats. Unlike dogs cats are aloof, supercilious, independent creatures. I have been a cat owner in the past. I say ‘owner’ but that’s not really correct. Perhaps it’s the other way around. A cat may choose you to deliver life’s necessities. Even that statement isn’t correct. Cats can hunt for themselves. A cat will not starve without human input. I have lots of stories about the cats in my life. The first was when I was maybe aged seven or eight. Her name was Whisky. A wild sort of beast. She was a Persian with very long hair but refused to be groomed. I wrote to a newspaper’s animal expert and asked how I could remove the knots and tangles from her fur. Along with advice, I received praise for my handwriting. Our next cat came with us when my family moved house. She refused to stay and even though we’d moved about five miles she found her way home. After several rescues we gave up and she simply returned to our original home, which was a five acre property and went feral. It wasn’t until my husband and I were living in Australia after emigrating from our home in the UK and we had three children did we allow another feline into our lives. My daughter was about seven years old and she pestered enough to make me weaken my resolve to never have another cat. Her name was Lisa. A lovely name but she was never called it and was Pusscat until she died. She hated coming inside the house and sat on a post outside the kitchen window. That was the nearest she ever got to any of us. I did feed her but I think she preferred hunting her own food. She lived a very long time. All through my life I have had dogs. I’ve loved each one and they’ve loved me unconditionally. I have photos of all of them, memories of all the funny things they’ve done and the times they’ve shown their love toward the family. Yet I can’t say the same about the cats. I simply don’t believe they needed me. At the most it would be toleration. Cats get attached to places not people. |
| https://www.writing.com/main/redirect?htime=1675518794&hkey=77afbedabd3c8f66a3f0... Inscrutable. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when staring back at the face of what I imagine to be a huge silverback male gorilla. There are so many similarities between our species it’s almost scary. I’ve always been fascinated by gorillas, chimps and orangutans ever since I saw the movie ‘Gorillas in the Mist.’ The image of this gorilla staring into the camera caused me to pause and stare back into those eyes. What was he thinking? Would he deliberately hurt me for the pure pleasure of dong so? Or is he more intelligent than we may give him credit for? I believe that this creature, so strong and powerful wouldn’t deliberately destroy simply because he can. Unlike some members of our so called civilised society. It’s unfortunate when we compare them to animals because animals wouldn’t behave the way some human beings do. https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjOz... There have been many cases where primates have behaved in ways which prove they think and act as humans do. I wonder is it fair we continue to enclose them in zoos as exhibits for us to observe, laugh at, sometime ridicule or tease? My thoughts are that there are so many amazing wildlife series, such as those produced by David Attenborough, where we can see animals behaving naturally in their own habitats, at least while those habitats still exist and mankind doesn’t continue to ignore the needs of other creature with which we share this world.  |
| * Do you think teachers, police, and fire department personnel are adequately compensated for their jobs and why? If not, how would you suggest increasing their compensation (e.g. increase taxes to use for them, or ??)? It’s not a matter of if we should pay them more, it’s imperative we do. The police force in Western Australia is depleting rapidly. There have been a record number of resignations over this last year. And who could be surprised? Violence is on the increase, a young policeman can have no expectations of coming home for dinner after his or her shift. Respect for authority is at an all time low. Police, teachers, nurses were once looked up to, but now they are abused on a daily occurrence. I have no idea why anyone would actually sign up to these professions even if they attracted a high remuneration. But in fact they are poorly paid jobs taking into account the dangers involved. I think governments must pay more money to attract the type of people who are willing to be there in an emergency. Paramedics are routinely attacked when attending a call out. Drugged up patients off their heads scream abuse at the very people they’re trying to save their lives. I’m all in favour of paying a levy on my drivers license each year to ensure these angels of mercy get the remuneration they deserve. |
| With advances in technology and construction, should generating electricity start employing nuclear energy again? I don’t believe this will ever happen. That technology is declining gently into oblivion, a golden age which is long over. Commissioning of new nuclear power plants peaked in 1984. The cost of building new plants is prohibitive. Electricity generated by nuclear has come down from a maximum of 18% in 1996 to barely 10% now. While the increase in electricity generation from renewables, solar, wind, geothermal based energy has constantly risen to around 38% now. Nuclear simply can’t compete economically. Tensions arising from the war in the Ukrainian and Russia’s attack on Zaporizhzhya’s Nuclear Plant last year exposed the dangers and risk to a world where attacks are likely as a form of warfare. Nuclear power plants need to be constructed where the high requirements for water to cool can be met. Yet there are concerns about constructing near rivers and lakes as these sources are all ready in high demand for drinking, agriculture and other high priority uses. So no I don’t imagine a world run on nuclear energy. |
| What do you think of using blog prompts to get entries for creating a psychological profile of the blogger? Words 111 I suppose the prompts would be thought up by a psychiatrist or psychologist. They would be framed in such a way they would deduce from the answers given, how the blogger sees the world, his deepest thoughts, his hopes, dreams and perhaps his Achilles heel. It’s devious though, because if the blogger knew he was being analysed there wouldn’t be genuine responses. I can actually believe this would work. Is this what Andre is doing? Trying to get us to reveal ourselves, lay our souls bare? I love blog prompts, personally. It does make me take a real look at how I see the world. Sometimes I surprise myself by my thoughts. |
| * Which do you think is more important to explore and why: outer space (objects in the universe) or under water (life and objects in the water environment)? Which would you choose to explore if you could? Words 222 I know it may sound strange but outer space just doesn’t grab my interest, although was amazed in 1969 when man first landed on the moon. I think that was the last time space news really grabbed my attention. It just seemed incredible to me that the moon we see each night, no matter where we all are in the world, could be reached and walked upon. We watched, holding our collective breaths, when Armstrong placed his foot down on the moon’s surface. I imagined he may simply sink, that the surface was made of stuff we couldn’t possibly know anything about. I think the reason I was so in awe was the reaction of my father. He was born in 1910 so was almost sixty years old in ‘69. He simply could get his head around the moon landing. These days I often have the same reaction to all the technology we have access to. What a century from my dad’s birth to today! What a leap! And yet we still haven’t explored our own planet. Under the oceans is life we haven’t even seen yet. Creatures beyond imagination living lives in complete darkness. Until we fully understand everything about our own home then the race for distant galaxies, which we’ll never see or live on, doesn’t mean that much to me. |
| * If you were allowed to learn magic, who would you most and least like to have as your mentor: Merlin, Harry Potter, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Sapphire Foxx, Jeannie from 'I Dream of Jeannie," Glinda Witch of the North, or Magical Monkey Max (Andre's cousin)? Explain the whynots and what would be your first magic and what would it be used on? I’m wondering if this is a trick question. It presumes magic is real and someone can teach it to me. I wonder what a world with actual magic would be like. I suppose it would depend if it was only available to a few or it was a common commodity. Who would be the few? Those in the prompt’s list? I don’t really trust any of them, especially that Magical Monkey Max. He’s not to be trusted to handle a wand not after… well perhaps I shouldn’t bring that up again? Gee, the world would be a terrible place to live if everyone was outdoing each other, making spells, disrupting other’s spells etc. No one would ever know what was what! No thanks I’ll not take up the offer of magic lessons. I’ll stick to slight of hand stuff. You know, the coin in the ear or a good card trick. |
| * Are the Olympics still a worthwhile event since they are very expensive, have become political, and just benefit a few, if any? I agree the Olympics are expensive, but you know what? Everything is expensive these days, but few are as worthwhile as a sporting event which brings the whole world together. So much, time, money and energy is spent on defending our individual countries. Eyeing each other with suspicion, plotting to be the best, to be the first in so many fields of endeavour. And I guess this goes for sporting endeavours too, but the camaraderie which is shown at the Olympics is so heartening to see. Young people proudly carrying the flags of their countries is so wonderful. Children who may not show promise academically but are sporty can dream of representing their country one day. If there is ever going to be world peace we must first show we can compete on the sporting field and still be able to congratulate the victor. Every four years people from all different countries can sit in their lounge rooms and watch with awe as the best of the best show their strength and talent to us all. How wonderful. |
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