The sunshine is lovely again – we were moaning the other day, thinking that Autumn isn’t happening and we’d gone straight into Winter. It’s great to see the sun shining after a week of dull dreary, rainy weather. We need to get the best we can out of such lovely days before Autumn and Winter really do pull in again. We’re making up for lost time!
I must say I’m not thrilled with the darker nights and mornings, yuk. I don’t mind rain, cold, wind, whatever, I just don’t like having to be shut away because it’s dark. I’ve never been a dark lover, give me light nights and mornings any day!
My grandma was a bit of a loner and preferred dark nights and the curtains closed. She certainly didn’t like people looking at her. My dad was also a bit of a loner. I suppose being down the pit in the dark and horrible mucky tunnels, all he wanted was peace and quiet when he was at home. I understand that now as an adult but having to be quiet, especially if he had a nap, wasn’t much fun to an energetic child.
Genes will out
I do think that ‘things’ are passed down through the generations as I have a cousin who is just like my grandma along with her dad, my uncle. Genetics have a lot to answer for, don’t you think. I think I have an equal half and half of my parents. My mum was an extrovert as was my brother, especially in their younger days. While I took after my dad’s side with a quieter nature – although I can be noisy when I want to!
It’s strange isn’t it how things are passed on through generations. However, we can’t change what we’ve got can we, so we have to get on with it.
As a friend of ours always says when we ask if he’s OK “when I woke this morning, and pushed my arms to one side, they didn’t bang on wood!” Do you get that? It’s a good way to say you woke up alive for another day, unlike a lot of people who don’t have that luxury.
A good dose of a serious illness makes you appreciate every day – it certainly did me. Rainy days, sad days, not-feeling-well days, doing things you don’t-want-to-face days and all the other things that seem awful at the time. They really aren’t that bad when you consider the alternative.
Enough of the preaching from the pulpit now, I don’t know where all that came from, so I’ll tell you what we’ve been up to.
Making up for Lost Time
We’ve had our first few breaks for freedom with our group of friends at The Venue. We used to meet every week before all the covid troubles. It was the first time I’d seen my friends face to face instead of our Friday morning video call. Although it’s a good way to keep in touch, it isn’t the same is it.
When we got together it didn’t seem to be a year and a half since we were face to face. Although the ones who have been doing the gardening, weeding and tidying in Cleveleys have seen each other before now. Sadly I can’t do it, unless they wanted to keep picking me up off the floor, which would get boring for all of us. Anyway, we haven’t forgotten how to make a noise when we get together, that’s for sure.
We’re still our usual noisy, laughing selves in our naughty corner – in the doggy dining room. It’s better round there because we can be more rambunctious than right in the middle of the place! It’s great to see old friends again and we had our first lunch together for a long time.
Being silly…
Then it was a beach clean in the middle of all that awful wind and dreary skies. But people still came along, including 40 people from AO.com. They also went to The Venue for coffee afterwards and said they’d thoroughly enjoyed it, in spite of the awful weather.
The core of our group and anyone else who fancies it always stay for lunch after the beach clean, so it’s been like making up for lost time. There were certainly a lot there for coffee too! There’ll be no holding us back now!
It was really lovely to see Alan and Jean again, Dorothy and so many more friends who we’ve missed. There’s nothing like having friends is there, who you’re glad to see again and have hugs from. We made our usual din with lots of laughing, being silly and measuring each other with a tape measure that we just happened to have!
The poor young waitresses were new to us and didn’t seem to know what to make of this band of noisy, rowdy pensioners. There’s no wonder! We’re hoping they’ll get to know us, our wacky crowd.
How old is old?
When I was young, I used to think older people were very, very, old. That is people in, say, their thirties and above! There was a five year gap between my brother and me. When he had his twenty first birthday, I remember telling him that he was ancient. Getting old and infirm and whatever old age brings us seems to be light years away when you’re young.
What I want to know is how on earth I’ve gone from a twenty year old to what I suppose I am now, an elderly person! A friend was saying after the beach clean that she’d been to the doctors and told the nurse that she was about 29 in her head and old in the body – which is what I always say. I can’t reconcile the two, I don’t know about you?
Not until I look in the mirror do I see this stranger looking back at me, with lines and wrinkles and an infirm body. Then I realise that, in fact I’m not in my 30’s, but a lot, lot, older than that. But at least I’m still here to tell the tale after a long, hard, rocky life to get here. I just hope I carry on and on and on, that will do for me. I’ve got some annoying time to have with my family before I get dumped on the scrap heap!!
Jaunt to Cleveleys
Making the most of our new found freedom, Jane and I went to Cleveleys on Friday afternoon (top photo) to have a mooch round the shops. Especially as the sun got out and it was lovely. And what a difference we found when we did, hardly having been out for months.
The place was packed with people and visitors, and it’s nice to see it come back to life. The thing that struck me most was that people were acting as though the virus had never happened. Hardly any masks were worn outside which is OK. But nobody was attempting to keep their distance at all and inside the shops was worse.
We wore masks in the shops but scarcely anybody else did. They must be made of braver stuff than us two, that’s all I can say, especially with covid soaring again! I only have to get within two inches of anyone with a virus and I catch it! That’s not exaggerating, I’m famous for it in our house, you ask my lot. They shudder if I’m near to someone that’s got something. If we’re out somewhere and somebody only sniffles, Jane gets me away from them post haste!
Coughs and Sneezes
I’m lucky too as I always get it ten times worse than anybody else, and it takes me ages to recover. My immune system must be awful, that’s all I can say.
Kevin also informed us yesterday that good old Norovirus has reared its ugly head again and cases of that are soaring as well as covid! That’s all we all need, and having had it before I don’t want it again. And a few years ago, myself, Derek and Kevin all had it at the same time. We could have done a comedy of us three, grasping buckets to be sick or going at the other end. Jane had her work cut out running round after us all. It was horrible. And it was at Christmas too!
Speaking of which, we bought one of those digital thermometers that you point at your forehead so yesterday Kevin decided that he would take everyone’s temperature. He gets these fads of making sure we are all healthy, that’s a laugh with me I must say.
Nurse Kevin will see you now
I was victim number one which read as 36.6, followed by the other three. We were all around that number so then followed a debate of what it should be. I opted for 37 celsius while the others were in the 36’s range. Of course, I was right as usual (big headed aren’t I. Well not really!) but you have to prove you still have your marbles don’t you, or a fate worse than death might happen!!
Anyway, then he decided to test our oxygen levels, which ideally should be not far off a hundred. Mine was 94 so Jane went into overdrive and wanted to send for an ambulance! (No I didn’t, I just gave her that ‘look’)
Then Kevin and Derek had a go and theirs was also down, so they decided that the low readings were faulty when the battery warning light came on! New batteries and another try and mine was still low, along with my blood pressure which was quite low as well. So there is some doubt as to whether I’m alive or not!
It’s strange that my blood pressure was always very high for years for donkey’s years. Then when I had pneumonia last year, it turned out to be low, very low in fact. They thought the machine was broken and sent for another! I had to come off tablets or goodness knows what state I would be in if I was still on them! I’ve been off the tablets since then and it’s still low.
It looks like there’s no hope for me is there. I will have to pull my socks up as my Aunty Gertie always said. Which meant look lively and be well and don’t mope around!
Anyway people, I’d better go now as I wasn’t intending waffling on health things. I’m sorry the blogs have been sparse for the last few weeks but I’ve been instructed by Jane not to do any for a while as she is so busy and hasn’t the time to put them online. So until next time bye bye.
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