Shirley Anne

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I’ve been rather busy this last week doing various things but on Monday E and I went out for lunch. I had woken up to find my face rather swollen and had to pay the doctor a visit. I wrote about it a few days ago. As I was not dressed for work but rather in casual smart clothing I decided to put it to good use by going out! On Friday, although I had work to do I decided to go out again and got dressed accordingly. We went out again for lunch and to the same place we’d been on Monday, not because we wanted to do that but I was visiting somebody late in the afternoon who lived along the route to the restaurant. Usually we choose different places in which to dine. So far this year we have dined out seven times and four of them at this same place and it is not yet the middle of February. We go there because it is a carvery, it is good food, we are always made welcome and we have a good relationship with all the staff as we also have in the other places we visit. If we didn’t go out I think it would drive us both mad. It is fine getting things done and working hard around the house but unless there are times to relax and enjoy life as well then it isn’t worth living it I think. Life is getting more difficult for everyone these days and we all have to economise, however we must also make provision to spend more time relaxing. All work and no play isn’t good for anyone. Most of what E and I do in this respect is dining out but we do other things occasionally too like going a show or to the cinema. Driving around the country to visit different places is good too but it is becoming so expensive to go anywhere in a vehicle these days. I do possess a free transport pass which I can use after 9.30 in the morning so if I want to go somewhere I can do it without much cost. E unfortunately isn’t old enough yet to qualify for such a pass. During the summer months of course it is nice to relax in the garden at home and as we now have a patio we can make good use of it. The problem with staying at home though is that there is always the temptation to do some work! ‘A Mars a day’ notwithstanding I shall get my rest and play anyway!

Shirley Anne

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A few days ago I published an article about a dream I’d had. I posted it on my Dreams and Visions page where I store all of my remembered dreams. I mentioned what I thought dreams were really about and why they are so confusing. I said that I thought that they are simply our minds browsing the days events or any previously stored memories but without any rational reasoning. Well recently I had another short dream which to me proves a point. Over the last week or so I had been somewhat ill, nothing serious but it kept me from being active and kept me from working. This meant that much of my time was spent with my laptop computer. Now although I write a lot and read a lot when using the computer those activities do not take up all of my time so I end up playing a game or two. I am not into arcade games so I have none of those on my computer but I do have one game which requires a deft hand. That is Ricochet’s Lost Worlds which is basically a game of manoeuvring around the screen to clear it of objects whilst avoiding being hit. The item you control is a gun of sorts which can only slide along the bottom edge of the screen. It sounds very boring but there are 160 screens to get through, each one different and it is a very challenging game. However, that isn’t the game I meant to talk about. The game I am found playing mostly, when I have spare time, is Mahjong Titans, of which I’m sure my readers are familiar with (see picture on the right above). There are several screens to choose from but each one has the same rules, pair off tiles until they all disappear and the screen is left blank. The screens initially are randomly filled with several layers of tiles in a pattern and not all of them as a consequence are resolvable but the fun is in trying. Once or twice I find myself playing the same screen for an hour or more desperately trying to clear it. It becomes addictive. Well this night I actually dreamt about playing the game but with a twist. All the tiles were in fact real people, people I know in my life but the game rules had changed and all I had to do was remove them rather than pair them off. It sounded easy but the people kept moving about and wouldn’t ‘play the game’. I became so frustrated and then I awoke with the game unfinished. How that relates to my life is a matter for conjecture but it proves that my dreams are usually composed of events that have really happened in my life but have become mixed up in my subconscious mind.

Shirley Anne

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Continuing about my work and how long I will carry on doing it I find myself even more in demand and thereby reluctant to stop altogether. Many people close to me tell me that I am too obliging but when I get requests such as complete loss of power I find I want to help. This was the case on Saturday. Now Saturdays are my sabbath days of rest but when an emergency situation arises and I have been asked to help out then that is what I will do. My philosophy and the teaching is that the sabbath was made for mankind and not mankind for the sabbath. I was about to enjoy my Saturday afternoon watching television (I was watching the Masters Snooker semi-finals, something I like to watch) when I received a call from a lady whom I’ve worked for many times and she asked if I could help her as her food freezer wasn’t working. Now I do not repair fridges and freezers when once I did years ago but then my employer supplied the necessary equipment for that sort of work. I talked her through the possible reasons for the problem which was most probably a loss of power but she maintained that she hadn’t a clue how to go about that. I arrived at her house fifteen minutes later. Now this lady is currently having her downstairs floors levelled which means all the floorboards being removed and new floor joists installed, quite a big job and she has to live upstairs whilst the work is carried out. That being the case it was most likely that her builder had accidentally switched off her freezer whilst raising the kitchen floor. It took me ten seconds to find the problem. It had been switched off at source! Whilst she is having this work done the builders are also doing some work on the roof and have erected scaffolding at the front of the house. When I arrived I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that scaffolding leaning over by as much as 40 degrees from the vertical having been blown over in the high winds we had been experiencing the night before. It was only a supporting stay which had become embedded in the soil preventing it falling over completely. We telephoned the builder several times but could not get a reply. I had to leave and return home. No sooner I got home I received another call from another lady whom I’ve worked for in the past. She asked if I could go to her daughter’s house as all her electrical circuits were not working. By this time it was late afternoon and already dark. When I arrived about twenty minutes later I discovered a genuine fault. The RCD unit had tripped but wouldn’t reset, thus disconnecting all of the supply. Switching off all circuit breakers didn’t solve the problem so that meant I also had to disconnect the circuits neutral cables too. Still the RCD would not reset which meant that it was faulty and would need replacing. However it was an old type unit and would be better to replace the whole board with a modern version that is easy to repair should anything go wrong. Of course I do not carry such things in my vehicle, no electrician does and as it was too late to purchase one and too late to do the work I had to effect a temporary repair. I by-passed the RCD unit so they could have power over the weekend until I could return on Monday to fit a new board. So that was my Saturday in tatters! I actually had scheduled work to do on Sunday morning, only small jobs this time and only because my clients could not accommodate me during the week. Normally I wouldn’t work on a Sunday as I don’t do on a Saturday. At least I was back home within two hours and had the rest of the day to myself. I did return to replace the distribution board on Monday morning, an up-to date version of the old one which enables the lighting circuits to be isolated from the RCD controlling the power circuits so if it trips the lights won’t be affected. I also discovered a fault in the washing machine which was probably the reason the old RCD kept tripping and eventually giving up altogether. I was told that several times in the past it had caused the RCD to trip. Some people never learn. Her failure to get the washing machine repaired caused her having to pay for a new power board to be fitted and she still has to do something with the washing machine.

Shirley Anne

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On Wednesday, after some morning’s work, E and I decided to dine out at one of our favourite places some 12 miles out-of-town. I had been working outside in that fine drizzle type of rain, not enough to prevent the work being done but enough to make me feel a little irritated. By the time I had returned home the weather hadn’t changed so we were reluctant to chop up any more of the trees we had felled on Monday and Tuesday. There is no urgency to do that as we have two more weeks before the green waste bins are next emptied. When we arrived at our destination we found the car park practically empty and consequently there were plenty of empty tables inside. Of course we usually dine mid-afternoon and therefore expect fewer diners. We were pleasantly surprised to find an empty table next to the fireplace. This fireplace stands in the centre of one of the rooms and is open on two sides. A young couple occupied the table on one side so we took the table on the other side. It was so nice to be able to sit by a log fire for a change although anywhere in the dining rooms is pleasantly warm. I had a bottle of red wine which I didn’t drink completely, in fact I took it home still half full when we left. We both had a cola drink too. I chose sea bass for my main course and E chose a gammon steak. Neither of us had a starter but we chose something from the dessert menu later. When we had finished eating E had a coffee and I finished the glass of wine I had left. I wasn’t feeling well for some reason and I went to the toilet. On my return my brief uneasiness had disappeared. E mentioned that it could have been the heat from the fire which caused me to feel strange but I have my doubts about that because I remained sitting next to it without any further problems. Whilst out I received a couple of calls requesting my services. That work will more than pay for our lunch by the cosy fireside.

Shirley Anne

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I had the day to myself on Friday as I was released from my jury service until Monday. Not wanting to let the opportunity pass by to enjoy myself for the day I invited E out for an extended lunch, well they are always extended when I dine out. I love the experience of wining and dining out and generally socialising and it is nice to do that with friends and family but it is nicest when in the company with someone very special. In my case that would be my ex partner E whom I love dearly. I take the opportunity to dine out with her as often as I can so that not only do I get to enjoy myself but that she can enjoy life more than she usually does. As is the case I often ask her if she is happy so that I can help her to be happy as much as I can. She is hard to reach sometimes but I persevere for I don’t want her to feel unhappy if I can do something to change that. I wonder sometimes what makes her tick, what it is she wants out of life because I feel she is missing out on things when she should be getting the most out of life. I know she enjoys her outings with me but she is often reluctant to show that. So it was that we both went to one of our favourite haunts in the next town on Friday and had a carvery lunch with dessert and drinks. I polished off a full bottle of red wine and later had a liqueur coffee with a cream topping, similar to the picture on the right. We both had soft drinks too, she was drinking Pepsi-Cola and I was drinking the diet version in-between my sips of wine. I like the taste of the cola following the wine and sometimes I mix the two in the same glass when I am tired of drinking the wine neat, which isn’t often (LOL). We arrived at the restaurant/pub at around 1.30 and we left just before 5.00 stopping off at the supermarket for some rum, whisky and cream. I wanted to enjoy another glass or two of a liqueur coffee! I am off to work on Saturday morning which will be yesterday by the time you read this so I will not be able to have a drink, if I want one, until late in the day. I probably won’t indulge as I value having a healthy liver which needs a break now and then! I might have a drink today, Sunday but then nothing until the end of the week when I have finished my jury service. Mind you, I may get on a case that lasts longer than this coming week but in any event I will enjoy a drink or two at the weekend. I might even surprise the staff at my local pub by paying them the first visit for over six weeks. I love life and I love people who are prepared to enjoy it with me. Life is too short not to enjoy it.

Shirley Anne

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For those who may not know I don’t work on Saturday unless it is for emergency purposes. I also take Sunday off as a break from work much the same as most people I think. Last Friday evening I wasn’t particularly tired when I eventually went to bed around midnight and so as I usually do in such circumstances, I watched some television. That usually helps and this time was no different. Even so I didn’t get to sleep for a couple of hours and consequently I woke late in the morning. No problem with that as I had no plans to do anything except have a session on my treadmill when I did get up. Saturday morning then, I got up around 9.30 and began to get ready for a ‘run’ but my toilet requirements kept me from doing so straight away! Now it was around 10.00 and I began to go downstairs when the phone rang. Someone wanted me to do a job and it seemed urgent when I listened to the message later but in fact it wasn’t urgent and in any case I would not have been able to accommodate the caller as it wasn’t in my field of work. I did my half-hour on the treadmill and after cooling off a little I bathed and went back to my bedroom to dress. Just as I was beginning to dress the phone rang again. Someone else wanted me to do a job but I explained that I wasn’t available on Saturday but could do it another day. He called again later to confirm that I could do the job on Monday afternoon (I had two other jobs in the morning). Again it wasn’t really an urgent job. It was about noon when I eventually came downstairs and no sooner that I got there the phone rang again. Yet another job which wasn’t urgent but I was asked if I could do it there and then. I turned down the offer! What is it with people? I am a very obliging person and I think it is rather selfish of people to expect me to work on a weekend just to suit their requirements. Most of the time the requests are for work that can be done during the normal working week so I expect people to call me at those times and not pester me at the weekend. I don’t mind receiving requests at the weekend for work to be done during the week and I don’t mind working during a weekend if it is a real emergency but I need a break too! Emergencies are rare though but it seems that one faulty switch or one faulty power point is an emergency to some people!

Shirley Anne

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Shirley Anne

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I have just read one of my daily ‘words’ from Scripture the essence of which tell me that even though I may strive to be perfect in every way I know that I shall never attain perfection for as long as I live. The reading points out that I should be telling myself daily that I know I am not perfect but that I am better than I was before. A good philosophy to be sure. There are areas in my life though where I struggle to get better for I will forget the promises I make to myself and over-indulge. On Friday I spent the afternoon, late afternoon that is, at the pub. I sat there for a couple of hours watching people come and go whilst I was reading a newspaper and having a drink.  Eventually the pub filled to capacity but I remained seated and alone by choice.  Later I began to mingle and before long found myself in the company of friends. Drifting along with the conversations, meeting new people and generally having a good time robbed me of my sensibility and I ended up shall we say, slightly inebriated! Horror of horrors I hear you say but it is all so easy to forget one’s promises not to get drunk when one has had too much to drink and therein lies the danger. Switching to soft drinks is the better solution and one that I should endeavour to embrace more often. Let’s hope I eventually learn my lesson and be a little more responsible in future. I arrived home in the early hours after the fifteen minute walk from the pub and was so hungry I rustled up a meal. Still not tired after my escapade I took to surfing the Web and posted comments on other folks blogs. I was beginning to doze off when I made my way upstairs at five in the morning! I remember looking at the clock at five-thirty and then fell asleep, in the correct attire for the occasion I might add and not in my normal clothes! I awoke at ten fully refreshed and most definitely not with a hang-over. I drink far too much water after drinking alcohol to end up with a splitting morning-after headache. Dehydration or lack of it is something I have under complete control. It only remains for me to keep myself under control when out enjoying myself.

Shirley Anne

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I went to the pub on Sunday evening, more of a rarity than a regular habit these days although at once or sometimes twice weekly isn’t exactly rare. I could have gone during the afternoon but I know what the place is like at that time. It would have been packed to the seams and had it not been raining most would have sat outside because the weather was quite warm. There is a very large ‘smoking area’ outside which is usually packed with those who still cannot give up the habit. Usually, if it is a nice day but not hot and sunny, I sometimes like to sit outside. I prefer sitting indoors though, especially if it is too hot outside. As I went there at eight o’clock there were only a few people there. One group sitting close to the door all know me and although I said hello I was more or less ignored. I sat at the bar and was greeted by the staff and the manager who chatted with me on and off all the evening. I entered into a conversation with a couple of men at the bar and later two guys came in and stood at the bar close to where I was sitting. They engaged me in conversation too. It turns out that the younger of the two had been a professional footballer and played for Wolverhampton until he retired from the game at 36 some 15 years ago. It isn’t unusual for professional footballers to appear in the pub as there are quite a few living in the vicinity and quite famous ones too. I won’t mention any names of course but many of them play in the Premiership. The only women in the pub left after an hour of my being there and I was the only female customer left. The remainder of the punters were men, about fifteen of them! I had gone there with the hope of seeing a couple of friends but it appears that everyone had spent the afternoon there and were gone before I arrived so in that respect it was a waste of time. I did enjoy myself though, albeit mostly in my own company. I left just before the pub closed and returned home. The pub is a very welcoming place and regulars, including myself, are greeted by name on arrival and bid farewell by name when leaving too. Sometimes though I think my trips to the pub are a waste of time but it is better than sitting at home with no-one to talk to.

Shirley Anne