Archive for September, 2009
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 17, 2009
I have been very busy at work lately so I decided to dine out this afternoon. Arriving home late morning I asked my ex. if she would like to have lunch out somewhere. It’s been a while since we did this although we did it every day on vacation! We drove some miles out of town to a nice country village pub we know, one of many we know actually….LOL and settled down to a nice meal. During the meal somebody came in who was looking for a free table. We indicated that the adjacent table to ours was vacant. She and her husband came in and sat beside us at the next table. Me, being the open and gregarious person I am began conversing with her and we discovered that we were both born in Liverpool. She was now living in Cardiff, Wales and was meeting, with her husband, three other people who had not yet arrived. When they did arrive and after a few minutes, one of the new arrivees spoke to me and said, ‘Don’t I know you’, aren’t you Shirley Anne the electrician who came to do a job for me a couple of years ago’? How could I deny it? Isn’t if funny that no matter where you go in this world you meet somebody you know? She asked if I could do another job for her but that she would call me at a more appropriate time. It seems I cannot escape work even when I’m not doing it!
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in General Chat | Tagged: Life, People, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 16, 2009
Looking out of my kitchen window today I thought the grass had all turned brown. The lawn is almost completely covered in brown leaves. I looked up to the tall trees and much of the leaves have turned brown but still hanging on except for the occasional one falling. It will only take one windy day I suppose and the trees will be almost bare again. At the moment where I live we are having reasonably fine weather with little wind. That looks set for a few days more. We are only seven days away from the Autumnal Equinox marking the beginning of Autumn and the end of what passes for Summer here. I like this time of year and am looking forward to the months ahead. I am glad we have seasons and would find it unbearable having the same weather all year round as some places do.
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in Weather | Tagged: Weather | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 15, 2009
This morning I had to journey about twenty miles to a job but didn’t have to be there until 9.30 which was ok by me as it meant I would miss any peak hour traffic should there be any. I started out early enough to get to my destination at the time I’d agreed to be there. Usually I arrive early to anywhere I am going so that I don’t keep people waiting unecessarily. I did arrive on time this morning but only just. I had only gotten a couple of hundred yards or meters if you prefer when I came up behind a driver who seemingly had no road sense in that she had placed her car so awkwardly for the manouvre she was making that it made my passing her difficult. Time wasted. Oh well I thought, it’s going to one of those days. Do you ever get days like that where every idiot gets on the road at the same time as you? Finally I got past and continued down the road behind another driver who was giving the parked cars on her left a wide berth……a very wide berth. In fact she was on the wrong side of the road. I couldn’t see the reason for that because I was passing the same parked cars and was still inside the road markings separating our side of the road from the other! When we arrived at the next junction she placed her vehicle in the centre of the road as she was turning right. She had stopped to allow oncoming cars to pass. Unfortunately she had blocked the road so that nobody could pass her on the inside whilst she waited to complete her turn. Time wasted. I continued to the next junction and came up behind someone again turning right. I was turning right too so we both waited our turn. However when we did move off she was giving way to all other drivers when she didn’t have to as there was plenty of space for everyone to pass. Coming to the next junction the lights had just turned in my favour but an oncoming vehicle was turning left into the road I was turning right into. No problem, he had right of way and I carried on behind him. I don’t know how long it takes to find the accelerator under one’s feet but it certainly isn’t minutes…LOL. I was forced to stay behind a crawler. Time wasted. When I eventually got an open road I was met with a roundabout and thought, I’ll be here a while. It is a busy traffic spot and it is sometimes difficult to negotiate. This morning however I sailed through and thought great, nothing now but the main route between me and the next town. We were travelling at 30mph in a 40mph zone because some idiot didn’t want to rush things. It didn’t matter that there was a stream of traffic behind him. When the speed restriction had been lifted to 50mph he managed to creep up to 35mph. Seemed like a token gesture to me. Why is it that when we are in a hurry there are always people frustrating our need to get there? Time wasted. It didn’t end there either. When we reach the town (to drive through it to my ultimate goal) I got behind somebody who didn’t know what he was doing. He was undecided as to which lane he needed to be in. He indicated but made the manouvre in the opposite direction and did it all at about 15mph in a 30mph zone. Great! Eventually I made a left turn and was promptly stopped by some clown darting out of a side road in front of me. We reached the set of lights but were held up again for quite a while. Time wasted. After that all was plain sailing again until I reached my destination. I pulled up outside the house just as the occupant had arrived back from taking her children to school. I was spot on time! Don’t ask me how. I sometimes think things are all planned and we simply just go through the motions. I wonder what the drive would have been like had I started on my journey one minute later or one minute sooner than I’d done so? I’ll never know. I find I get days like this where everything seems to frustrate or the journeys are filled with dangerous occurances because people are not watching what they are doing. Do you have such days?
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Motoring, People | Tagged: Behaviour, Motoring, People | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 14, 2009
So there I was sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon with lap top on my, well, where else? Sitting there and sort of watching the tv at the same time….aren’t women supposed to be able to multi-task? I heared an unusual vehicle pull up outside the house and a minute later the doorbell rang. My ex. answered the door and I could hear male voices and people going upstairs. I looked out of the window behind me to see a fire tender parked. My instincts told me that they were surveying the potential fire hazards in the house but I was to be proved wrong. Ten minutes or so later the front door closed and they departed. We live in a four storey house, that is a basement or cellars and three floors for living above. It transpired that they had fitted a smoke detector on each floor in the stairwell area which meant four detectors. These are completely self contained and last ten years without a change of battery then are disposed of and replaced. We had been told they were ‘on the house’, ‘free’, ‘ex-gratia’. Of course the expense is covered by our taxes. Previously this service was offered only to senior citizens but it appears to have been made available to every household. Very nice. One small problem was the fact that the one they’d installed in the basement needed re-fitting as it had become loose on the ceiling. I fixed that problem myself.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Government | Tagged: Government, Safety | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 13, 2009
Well I enjoyed my afternoon at the pub and my team won four goals to nil. I behaved myself and left earlier than I would normally do and arrived home around seven. This morning whilst lying in bed I was contemplating getting up and working out on my treadmill before having a bath and getting dressed. I’d had a good night’s sleep and I didn’t feel I had to continue to lie there so I got up and put on my sports clothes and running shoes. I went downstairs and did three and a half miles of training runs and walks over an hour. I felt great. Vigorous exercising and running really does get the blood flowing and the blood vessels dilating and makes you feel good all day. What prompted me to ‘get my finger out’ so to speak was looking at my profile in the mirror! Gosh, my tummy was beginning to get noticeably larger! Victim of the dreaded cider, lager and other weight increasing liquid comestibles. I do keep a close eye on my waistline but I am not a person who will deprive myself of things just to be a certain clothes size. Besides I am not slight in physique but more average. Neither am I overweight, normally that is. Weight problems do not weigh heavily on my mind but I am always aware of my weight increases. The first thing I notice, that is after I look in the mirror (something I do every day because I dress and undress in dront of one), are when my skirts begin to feel a little tighter than usual around the waist. I am a health conscious person too when it comes to food and I endeavour to eat healthily (see my links to the left) which I normally do. Today I can just relax and enjoy the lovely weather we are currently having, play my guitar, look at some blogs and generally chill out. My main meal was prepared earlier after I’d bathed and dressed. It is Chilli-con-carne and it will taste much nicer later when I eat it. I find that is always the case with spicy meals, the spices have time to permeate the food when left for a few hours. I will have it on a bed of boiled rice. Bon appetite eh? Have a nice day everybody!
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in Activity, Exercise, Health | Tagged: Activity, Exercise, Food, Health, Hobbies | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 12, 2009
I went out to the pub last night and had a jolly good time as they say. Friends there asked if I was going to be working today to which I replied, ‘No, I shall be having a lie in bed but just watch, somebody will phone me and I’ll have to get up’. You guessed, somebody called at 8.15 and asked if I wouldn’t mind doing a small job as it was fairly urgent. It was some distance away but I said I would go and I did. The job didn’t take long so I was preparing to return home when somebody else called about work and because they were literally just around the corner I went to see. I ended up doing that one too although it was a bigger job. That’s it I thought but yet again somebody phoned and asked if I could do another job. This one turned out to be even bigger so I asked if I could do that on Monday instead. That was agreed and so I’ll be there Monday morning. When I thought I was finally going home and old guy, whom I’ve done many jobs for in the past asked if I could repair his faulty garage lighting. He is a frail old guy and lives in the same town as myself so I said I would call on my way home. OK, it was a slight detour from my normal route home from where I was but I went anyway. Another satisfied customer! Yey another person phoned me and I thought, ‘Oh no not again’. It turned out she wanted me to defer coming to her house for a few days until she had other work carried out in her house. She didn’t want too many people there at once. I was grateful she didn’t ask me to do it today! I have plans to go to the pub this afternoon to watch my favourite football (soccer) team playing…..Liverpool FC.
Nobody will drag me from that plan…………………LOL
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in Work | Tagged: People, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 11, 2009
The sun has been shining all day, no clouds, no wind and warm, not hot but just nice and warm. It was a similar day yesterday and most probably be the same tomorrow (hopes). I have finished work for the day and the time is now my own. I am not sure what I’ll do but I’m going to enjoy it. Hope you’ll enjoy your’s too.
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in Life | Tagged: Activity, Happiness, Life | 1 Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 11, 2009
Just paid Lauren a visit again to have some facial hair removal. It hurts terribly but as they say there’s no gain without pain. She does a great job but even so some hairs remain stubbornly defying all zaps. They will give in eventually. I often wonder why hair grows readily in one place but is easily removed in another. Anyway that’s my last zapping session for two weeks. It was necessary to have sessions once weekly but now I don’t need it so often. Thought I’d be having a restful day with no work scheduled but wouldn’t you know it, someone just called? Well it all pays for my zapping sessions eh?
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in General Chat | Tagged: General Chat | 4 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 10, 2009
I went to somebody’s house this morning to do a small job. Turned out there wasn’t a fault after all but the girl and I chatted awhile about her pedigree dogs (she breeds long haired Dachshunds). At the moment she has nine and they are all lovely little things. One unfortunately is completely blind. She went on to talk about her forthcoming divorce and how her husband had been lying about his job in Saudi Arabia and how she and their nine year old son, who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome, went to Saudi and presented her husband with the divorce papers to the amazement of all his friends who were totally ignorant of his deceitful ways with his wife. Anyhow she mentioned how hot it was in that country. I mentioned that I’d recently been to Canada, Montreal and Quebec where at the time the temperature was surprisingly hot, in the mid thirties (celsius of course) but that it can get very cold there too. Temperatures of minus forty are not uncommon. She said that at least they have seasons and that we don’t have seasons here in the UK. Well she is wrong of course but I know what she meant. Over the last few years I have noticed that our Winters are warmer and our Summers cooler so that the effect is a more even temperature throughout the year. Obviously the temperature span is still quite wide and if you consider the average temperatures over a year are probably in the range of -5C to +25C for most of the country it proves we still do have seasons, it just sometimes feels that we don’t.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Weather | Tagged: Weather | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 9, 2009
In the summer of 2005 a Liverpool FC football supporter named Michael Shields was in Bulgaria celebrating Liverpool’s win. He was arrested and found guilty of attempted murder of a Bulgarian man. Although he was innocent and after somebody else had confessed to the crime in the presence of many people, he was still placed in gaol for fifteen years. That was commuted to ten years a little later. After serving two and a half years in Bulgaria he was allowed to complete his sentence back in an English gaol. Today he was given a Royal Pardon by the British Government and he is now free. However, a pardon does not mean that his name has been cleared from any wrongdoing but it is a step in the right direction. I wish him and his family the best during these happier days and hope true justice will be served in due course.
It is so sad that this sort of thing can so easily happen, especially in a foreign country where the laws are different. How many more incidences like this are played out unnoticed with the accused remaining in gaol when they are innocent?
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Justice, Law | Tagged: Justice, Law, People | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 8, 2009
The older I get the more wise I become. That should be the case for everyone. I am more convinced of things now than I once was. I am a very hard working girl when I get the work and I strive to make my life a bit easier as the years go by. One day I will not be able to work and will have to rely on my pensions and savings. To that end I try to save as much as I can. I already have pensions which pay me monthly. It seems to me however that we are all struggling against an unseen force or forces which keep the ordinary working person down. Unless you are fortunate in this world to be financially independent you have to work. Nothing wrong in that of course and it is as it should be. Haven’t you noticed through the years that as you seem to be getting on top of things the whole situation swings against you. Suddenly we find ourselves in a recession and all our life savings have ceased to be a source of income hat we might have been relying upon. In fact those savings could be dwindling away because we cannot make ends meet with the wages we get. Prices always go up, never down. Fuel costs the earth and is taxed to the hilt (here in the UK it is taxed at around 75% to 80%). Similarly, alcohol is highly taxed. Even the food we eat is costing us more. Our whole lives are really controlled by others and by situations and conditions totally out of our control. I am more convinced that we are working harder for less and being kept in our place by those who really pull the strings. All things are meaningless as it says in Ecclesiastes. We are meant to be this way, to work hard and toil because this is our lot. Therefore be happy in what you do in this meaningless existence.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Life | Tagged: Government, Life, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 7, 2009
I was rather a naughty girl yesterday and spent the whole afternoon in the pub getting back home sometime around seven I think…LOL. I remember grabbing a sandwich before going upstairs to my bedroom to put my coat and shoes away and slip into something more comfortable. Yeah sure! I woke up four hours later in bed, fully clothed to a half eaten sandwich and wanting the toilet. OK, I know, I should know better and you are right. My main problem is I get into conversations at the pub and keep drinking alcohol when I should switch to something else. This I am going to need to do in future. Anyway I got undressed and went to bed properly this time. As I don’t sleep for long periods my night in bed was broken several times until I finally arose at six. I am ready for work. Monday morning blues? No, for me every day is a blessing. Hope you all enjoy your’s.
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in Behaviour | Tagged: Behaviour, Drink, Happiness, Work | 4 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 5, 2009
It’s not often I have a lie in bed in the mornings but this morning was an exception. Usually I take four or five hours sleep each night and it seems as though it doesn’t really matter when I go to sleep but I wake up four to five hours later. Last night was no exception. I went to sleep some time after one in the morning and awoke at six twenty, just five hours later. I got up and went to the toilet as I always do then went back to bed and had another three hours sleep. After that I just lay there thinking about different things and not wanting to get up. I did of course and it was almost noon when I got downstairs. During my working week I always arise at seven even if I’ve nothing scheduled. I have to be ready just in case. It is nice to be able to have that extra lie in bed once in a while without being disturbed. Usually somebody will phone me and break the solitude.
I think we can be too demanding of ourselves sometimes and we should take these moments when the opportunity arises.
I’ve nothing planned for this weekend but I’ll be ready and relaxed for any eventuallity.
Shirley Anne x
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Posted in Health | Tagged: Happiness, Health | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on September 4, 2009
I have just been watching a lovely short video on Emily’s Pages (link in my Blogroll on the left). Go back a couple of posts on her page and see What a lovely wedding…….JK’s wedding………….wonderful, really wonderful……..Love
Shirley Anne x
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Posted by Shirley Anne on September 4, 2009
I don’t often talk about my past these days but this morning was a time of reflection as I look back over the last few years. Since my full transition, almost seven years ago now (14th Oct 2002), I have seen many changes in myself and in the way I have been accepted by others. Most people know nothing about my past and accept me for who I am, just another woman. Only those who knew me before know the facts and maybe one or two of the more discerning I meet figure it out. At first and looking back now, I was very naive in many respects. My mode of dress has matured but by that I don’t mean I wear clothes for the ‘mature woman’, rather the clothes I wear are less flamboyant and more co-ordinated and tasteful. My make-up is similarly more enhancing rather than obscuring if you know what I mean. My hair has taken it’s time to grow out and I resist all suggestions to cut it ‘like older women do’. No thank you, I like long hair and as a bonus it makes me look younger too. I see many women of my age with the ubiquitous short hair and I don’t like it, for me that is. I guess that’s the rebel in me. Even at work I dress smartly, well smartly enough for work! I wear make-up and clothes that are reasonably presentable for everyday wear. My clothes do get a bit of harsh treatment at work sometimes so I wear things I don’t mind getting a bit dirty. It just means I have to have plenty to change into. My attitude has changed too and I am far less self conscious than I was at first. I get compliments regarding my youthful looks quite often and am frequently asked what my secret is. I am also asked about my husband…LOL. I am far happier now than I have ever been and being the woman now that I always was but denied is such a wonderful thing.
Shirley Anne
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Posted in Transgender | Tagged: Life, Transgender | 3 Comments »
