Archive for December, 2009
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 31, 2009
Do you ever get bored with it all? Do you realise that you are riding a Merry-go-round and cannot get off? Well you can but that is your decision. It is New Year’s Eve once again, last week it was Christmas, next it will be St.Valentine’s Day, followed by Easter and so on. Nothing changes, we go through the same old routine year in and year out. We are bombarded with advertisements, slogans and are constantly encouraged to buy this product or that product or told how important it is to celebrate this or celebrate that. It is a merry-go-round driven by money, your money! I am not suggesting we all give up and become recluses but we are under pressure all the time when we need not be. How much did you spend this Christmas and more to the point, why? Why do we celebrate Christmas anyway? Unless you are a believer what is the point? People do things because of tradition. How long ago did we start celebrating Halloween and why? Why do we do things because everyone else does them? It’s all part of feeling a part of the community of society, we don’t want to be left out of things even if they are silly things. Has nobody a mind of their own? Has nobody an alternative? Recently I was reading Nicky’s blog (the CFG) and she spent Christmas day afternoon having a picnic. I admire that. Be different, do what YOU want, not what is being dictated by all around you. Start a new trend. Start by getting off this stupid Merry-go-round!
I hope you all have a good forthcoming year everybody. Love
Shirley Anne
Posted in Behaviour | Tagged: Behaviour, People | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 30, 2009
It’s almost year’s end and still they call. I have decided to cease work until next year………LOL. As it is my diary is already beginning to fill up and the requests keep coming in. Even as I write this my phone is ringing! Sheesh! Come on folks, take a break, I will still be here next year! Hopefully.
Today a couple of guys at my local pub are holding an ‘open bar’, that is all drinks are free for a few hours! I was invited to go along about ten days ago but I don’t think I will. In any case I am out elsewhere dining with my ex. today. I might just switch off my phone so as I am not receiving calls for work. My house phone will be switched to answerphone mode.
Back home after a great meal and a slight detour to the supermarket to buy in some drinks I am sitting watching a bit of television. During our meal I did get a phone call. I’d forgotten to switch it off! However I’d missed the call and instead received a text message telling me I had a message on my voicemail. I waited until we’d finished dining and listened to the voicemail message. You guessed it, another call for work. OK, this one is by way of a small emergency as the guy has lost part of his lighting in the house. Have you tried walking about in the dark? I will attend tomorrow morning as arranged.
Getting back to the supermarket, we were at the checkout when a lady followed behind me and began emptying her trolley. She was accompanied by a very young boy, possibly her grandson. She had bought similar items to myself, mostly soft drinks (honest….well not that honest…LOL). I stooped toward the child and asked if I could come to his party and have some of his lemonade. He looked a bit bewildered but then smiled. The lady looked at me and said, ‘Oh this is a normal spend, we aren’t having a party’. Then she said, ‘Didn’t you do some electrical work for me’? ‘Most probably’, I replied. I meet so many people it is hard to remember them all! ‘I might want some more work doing, have you got a card’? she asked. ‘Sorry’, I said but I gave her my phone numbers. Seems there is no escape for me. Must be fate or maybe I’m just so good people can’t help employing me! (She says coyly, leaving her trumpet in the corner………..TeHe).
Shirley Anne
Posted in General Chat | Tagged: General Chat | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 29, 2009
I had this vision on Christmas Eve. I thought I’d finished work for the rest of the year. Funny how things change. Yesterday I attended an emergency request and today I did a job for a guy who would have had me there yesterday had I been daft enough to go but he paid me well. Yesterday was a national holiday here in the UK but I didn’t mind the emergency call out which also paid well for the very short time I was there. Today however is just another working day. Many people will have taken a long break lasting from Christmas Eve until the 4th January and I had this fanciful idea I might do the same. Fat chance eh? Being self-employed I tend not to refuse work but I do try to spread it out. Clients of course don’t know my age until I tell them and then it would only be during the time I am working for them. Well they may consider me too old and ask somebody else! I am quite capable though but I am selective in the work I choose to do, I specialise in smaller tasks which none of the regular electricians seem to want to do. That is because they are usually tied up on large contracts. It works well for me because it means I get heaps of work. I don’t need to push myself too hard, I don’t need to guarantee myself a minimum income each week but I get it anyway! The thing is I can take time off pretty much when I feel like it. A nice position to be in yes but I’ve worked hard all my life to be able to take things easy now. So no, I haven’t finished working yet but I hope I can at least see the rest of the year out without doing another tap!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Time, Work | Tagged: Rest, Time, Work | 8 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 28, 2009
Last year just before Christmas, the eldest of my two brothers and his wife paid me a visit at home. To be exact it was my ex. they had come to see believing that I no longer lived here. We invited them to a meal at home which was the Sunday just before Christmas day. A day later they made an excuse for not coming so the date was off. He has been this way with his siblings for many a year but I have always persisted in trying to stay in touch with them. I used to visit quite regularly on my way home from the place in which I used to work as it was en route. Anyway last year we had bought them a Christmas present each which they never did receive. This year I decided to try again by visiting them, once before Christmas and then again today. They were not at home on both occasions. Now of course I could have telephoned ahead but knowing my brother he would have made another excuse for not being available. So we did not phone in the hope that we might catch them by surprise. Failed again! I don’t know why he is like the way he is with us all, no-one has offended him and there is no solid reason for his attitude. Of course our two sisters live outside the country and my other brother lives something like 50 miles from him, I live about 15 miles away so I am the nearest. Like I said, I do try but it seems always to be in vain. It makes me feel like giving up but he is my brother. I am not sure if I’ll ever get to see him again because of the way he acts. That’s family for you I suppose.
Shirley Anne
Posted in Family | Tagged: Behaviour, Family | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 28, 2009
Well it’s Monday morning and still holiday time here in the UK. Even so my cellphone rang this morning at 0755 hrs and woke me up! I had planned to arise at about 0900 hrs so I was a little displeased that the phone broke my rest. A lady was asking if I could call and see what was causing her electrical power to constantly keep tripping off. As I was awake (LOL) I agreed to visit her and within the hour I had bathed, dressed and was at her door. Fortunately that was only two miles away. It was cold, frosty and foggy with black ice on the roads, not safe conditions in which to drive if you are not careful. Within five minutes of my arrival I discovered the problem. It was the gas boiler which supplies hot water and heating or part of it’s associated circuitry that was causing the power switch to trip. Isolating it was easy enough so the power was restored. She will need to find a gas service engineer to rectify the fault. Here in the UK (for my overseas visitors) unless you are a registered gas safety engineer you are not allowed to work on gas appliances. I am not qualified in that field so was unable to proceed any further. I was paid for my visit and for locating the problem and was home again less than an hour after leaving home. Such is the life of a much (it seems) in demand female electrician. Now what am I going to do with the rest of the day? I’ll think of something!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Work | Tagged: Weather, Work | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 27, 2009
Looking at my blog stats today I noticed one of the referrers was a blog site in Bangladesh. When we place tags on our posts we can find that post crop up on somebody else’s blog as a possible related topic to some post they have themselves posted on their site. When they click on that link they reach your blog and discover your blog site. This is how we get many visitors and possible future friendships developing. This is the good side to the Internet. It is nice to know that people around the world can read your blog and learn about you. Of course I reciprocate and view their sites too. In doing this I find I am connecting with other people who have visited the same site and then off I go to look at their sites too. The number of connections could be endless if we are not careful! It’s a bit like using a dictionary, one word leads to another which then leads to yet more words. When I first started ‘blogging’ I got but few visitors. Now I have a regular group of people visiting and the list seems to be getting bigger. I only hope I can make their visits worthwhile. To that end I plod on……..
Shirley Anne
Posted in Friendship | Tagged: Friendship, Language | 2 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 26, 2009
I am feeling a little better today now that things are back to normal. The one day in the year when everybody in the Christian world goes mad is done with for another twelve months. I wonder just why people don’t sit back and have a real think about what they do in the approach to the day. There is nothing wrong in having a good time, there is nothing wrong in getting together with friends and family and letting your hair down once in a while. It becomes ridiculous when you overdo things as many do. The one good thing, actually there are several good things for not following the traditional Christmas way of celebrating and that is not having to cope with what follows. Pressure from others can be irresistable and we can so easily succumb to what our peers are doing because ‘it’s tradition’. Why? We make it hard for ourselves unnecessarily. So what are the benefits of not following after tradition? Well for one, and I think this is a good one, you don’t have to eat turkey sandwiches every day for the following week! You won’t have to eat too much food because it will rot away if you don’t. Your purse will be fuller than it otherwise would be. You will have done what you want to do instead of just being another sheep. You will be more relaxed, far more than if you did the whole ‘Christmas thing’. I read another girl’s blog yesterday and she went out for a picnic instead of sitting down and gorging herself on all that Christmas food we call ‘Christmas dinner’. Her stomach will be thanking her for that and even more so her waist! Then there is the drink………oh yes, we all do it don’t we? Just that other glass of wine, that one more beer. You know how it goes and before you know it you’ve had too much and then you don’t even remember a lot about the day you had spent weeks preparing for! I didn’t watch television yesterday, it remained switched off the whole day. I didn’t listen to the radio or play any music either. Have you tried doing that these days? It is surprising how much we use these things in our lives and when we decide to take a day free from these outside influences it becomes difficult. We become so used to things, just like the traditions we adhere to. Today however I switched on the tv. and watched the news. The first thing I saw was an outside broadcast from London showing the crowds of people waiting outside a major high street store for the Boxing Day sales to begin. I wrote about this a day or so and why I would never do that. What are people searching for? Why is it so necessary to queue all morning for that special bargain? It all smacks of materialism to me. Alright, there may be a chance to buy something you desire but would otherwise not be able to afford but do you absolutely need it? Will it really make your life that much better? The best things in life are those which are free. The best things in your life are the people in it and Creation itself. Enjoy these two things, the rest is superficial. Have a nice day!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Behaviour | Tagged: Behaviour, Family, Food, Happiness | 3 Comments »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 25, 2009
I wish it was tomorrow. I hate Christmas Day. Well it’s not the day really, it’s being alone. I know, I’m not the only one in this situation but that knowledge doesn’t make it easier. I enjoyed last night when my youngest son came home and we opened presents there and then. He has to work today. It was nice the previous day when my eldest son and his wife dropped by and we did exactly the same. He has to work today too! My ex. is at her mum’s house today. No invites for me though. It makes it harder when I cannot see my siblings too, two of them live in France, one lives in Cheshire and the one who lives the closest, in Liverpool, never bothers with me. Roll on tomorrow when things get back to normal. At least I will have the company of my ex.. I don’t know what I’ll do if and when we get our own pads.
Shirley Anne
Posted in Life | Tagged: Life | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 24, 2009
Well the big day is almost upon us and we wait expectantly for it’s arrival. I will take this moment to wish you all the best Christmas of your lives and hope you get out of the day what you wished for.
I don’t know why you are celebrating the day and I am not asking but would just like to ask you to find a moment to think about why the holiday was brought about in the first place.
Merry Christmas everyone! Lots of love
Shirley Anne xxx
Posted in Religion | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Shirley Anne on December 24, 2009
Some time ago I wrote a post headed ‘Reflections’. This morning I am reflecting on things yet again. It is 2am and I am sitting here not wanting to sleep. My eldest son and his wife called earlier to see my ex. and I with a view to exchange Christmas presents because he will be working on Christmas day and I, that is we, won’t get to see them until after Christmas as a result. So we did just that and opened our gifts. I had a few drinks and am still knocking them back! During their short stay it began to snow once more and we now have a couple of inches of it blanketing everywhere. According to the forecast we are expecting rain by morning and hopefully the snow will have all but disappeared not long into the day. I am sitting here reflecting on times past and how things used to be. When we are enjoying life we never consider that changes can and do happen in our lives and when they do we are often surprised. My life has changed dramatically over the last 20 years and even more so in the last 7. In some ways things have improved but in other ways they haven’t, in fact they have gotten worse but that, as they say, is life. I am enjoying my rum and coke and will soon have emptied the bottle! I am in no way tired but I guess I might sleep later. There is no need to arise early tomorrow, or should I say today? I have no plans except to deliver some Christmas presents sometime in the afternoon. Plenty of time to do that. It is great to know that time now is no problem at least for a few days. No doubt I’ll be getting bored soon enough so I will make the most of it whilst I am able. Good morning everyone!
Shirley Anne
Posted in Behaviour | Tagged: Behaviour, Drink | 2 Comments »
