Sainsburys Sandwiches and Paramedics

Yesterday busy day, was whipping round the shop pleased to be in the air conditioning in 30degree heat.  I was standing at the checkout waiting to pay when suddenly the floor started moving underneath me. 

If you stand on the beach paddling in the sea, and watch the sea flow away from your feet, you get a feeling of moving backwards. It was like that.  

I reached out to grab something but there was nothing to grab. A kind lady asked me if I was all right.

"No. I feel funny my head's spinning." I was heading for the floor when I felt a chair pushed under me and I flopped into it.  First aiders were called as I sat head in hands. I was given some cold water to drink and started to stop shaking -as the panic had set in. 

I hate being out of control.

Luckily for me, or unluckily for them. Two paramedics were in getting their sandwiches and I soon found myself sitting in their ambulance being tested for everything from heart attack to lack of water hydration. 

I called my husband from work. Poor man. I couldn't drive home while my head was on a roller coaster.

The paramedics managed to get me a Dr's appointment in half an hour's time. They said the choice was that or A&E.  It was a miracle to get a Dr's appoint so Andy my husband took me.

The trouble?  EARS!   I have a severe ear infection affecting my balance. You don't die of ears - but it certainly feels like you're going to! 

Today the world is still spinning - I have to try and find an antibiotic that has nothing in it to set my allergies off - but at least I know what is causing the dizziness. It's like being on a North Sea Ferry in rough seas.  

Sometimes like now, if I sit really still and don't move it's ok.

A big thank you kind people who helped me yesterday. 

Onwards and upwards........

 

The colours we wear....

Have you noticed that in my part of England (South East) that people under the age of 30 all wear black clothes in the Summer in 30 degrees of heat? 

Black absorbs heat - white reflects it. Doesn't anyone have any sense any more?

Look abroad, colours, red, white, blue, turquoise orange, floral on white backgrounds, floaty, bright, reflecting Summer and the sun it brings.

Look at UK, black makes you look thinner, colour makes you stand out. You mustn't stand out.

I remember my mother's clothes from my childhood, blues, greens, white, cream, salmon pink, checks, florals, white skirts and ski pants. Chunky cardies for the evening.

I spent my working life in art. Television graphics then camera work. I wore bowling shirts green patterned with two red macaws on the front was my favourite. Plain white, green, blue, acid pink - ok that was a bit of a mistake with my red hair. But colour was big in my life.

I worked with one artist who only wore black every day. When I asked him why, he said it was easy to wash together and it didn't lose it's colour.

Black is not a colour to me, it's the absence of colour.

My clothes now are tailored to what I do. I dress like an actor playing a part. 
I was body shamed by a skeletal woman in black super tight jeans with sunken in cheeks who looked like she'd just been dug up.  Laughing at me in my white cut off trousers and blue and white striped tee shirt.

All women at a certain age get into nautical wear my son told me, ok for most people but I did look like a pirate!

I was laughed at for my red hair in the Doctor's the other day while I was picking up my perscription. I was wearing my white sun hat, ray bans and a turquoise summer dress.
I noticed two elderly women wearing black trousers and dull grey tops were staring at me.
"Not another bloody red head, there's too many in this village." One said and the other agreed. I gave them my Paddington hard stare forgetting I had my Raybans on.
Well that worked - not - they laughed at me.

I will not dress to "fit in" I am an individual and as such I will wear what the hell I like.
I will not be body shamed by someone a breath away from death.
I will wear my red hair with pride. Part of my Irish ancestry. 
I am annoyed that purple - one of my favourite colours - 
is now a transgender colour. WTF??
I have rainbow shoes but I'm not gay. 

Colour belongs to everyone. I remember years ago in the BBC I was working with a Canadian girl whose family had just moved to the UK.  People in Canada told her, you will see a lot of coloured people over there.

She told me she was really disappointed - where were all the coloured people?
"What were you expecting?" I asked her.
"Blue, green, red, orange - you know... colours."
On that note I will leave you with a lavender field and a poppy. Enjoy the colours.

17th Century life - well almost!

Today is a cooking and garden day.

I have already made a loaf. Then made some rosewater (for the first time), see below, gorgeous colour and wonderful fragrance.

I have picked strawberries to have with cream, and some sage with flowers to make the house smell nice,

Plums and pears are growing, so are the potatoes, mint and garlic, alongside the roses and peonies and lavendar. Everything in my garden has a use and is beautiful.

Reading the domestic life of a Goodwyfe of the 17th Century, I find is not so different from what I'm doing today, except I have an electric cooker to work with. I do have a fire pit but it's in the shed.  It's easier obviously in the 21st century. Instead of a huge barrel with soft soap and water I have a washing machine.

But what is missing in this century is that most people don't have the pleasure of eating food they've grown themselves, the fragrance of bread baking in your house, picking fruit and veg as you need it, and the pride you feel in the achievement of a days housework.

There used to be a craze in the 80s for intermediate technology. Perhaps we should go back to that.

I'm off to learn how to use an English Longbow this weekend. That should be interesting.
Have a good week everybody.


 
 

History is History

I have just been told there is no room for any further History books, fact or fiction. Strange as The Witchfinders daughter is the Penguin book of the year 2018.

There is always room for EVERY type of book, always more to learn. From the bolt counters to the fashionistas. 

Why isn't every museum closed down? Why is there a fashion museum? A Roman museum?  Because it's amazing and interesting to hear the stories of the past.

The passion for History is shown in this country by the amount of people visiting historical sites, watching historical tv programmes with Dan Snow and Lucy Worsley et al,people re-enacting in their thousands the battles of hundreds of years ago from The War of the Roses up to WW2.

History is not a thing of the past, we are making it right now.

Timeteam is another example, archeology as well, with the recent programmes on Pompeii and Egypt. 

How do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been?

Why do people research family history, local history, any history?  Because it's in us, it's what we're made of.

In case you haven't guessed by now, it's my absolute passion!

 

Expect the Unexpected

Yesterday at 2.15 I had horrible stomach cramps, and I knew then, that I had some form of Norvovirus. Waking to traipse to the loo every half hour during the night was exhausting.

I've been on a Sealed Knot Camp where we were warned to take our own water, and boil any that came from the water bowser. We did just that.

So how did I get it?  I wash all the time, allergies make you do that, so scared of cross contamination. But it could have come from a supermarket trolley, a door handle at the doctors, or people I met at Bristol, anywhere in fact that I had been during the past week.

It's debilitating, can't sleep, can't do anything for very long. The tablets I'm taking to make it stop make me want to sleep all the time.  

The sort of unexpected I'd really like, is to wake up feeling on top of the world, no pain, no earache, no virus's. Just me. A day of just being me like I used to be. Last two years have been intolerable. I just get better from one thing to go down with another.

A couple of times I thought I was actually going to die.

My writing increases during that time as I feel I can't leave a book unfinished. Somehow doing that always gets me through.

So I look exhausted, have lost weight, and have white hair, which I wish friends would stop saying it suits me and that people pay to have it done.

So what's next?  I have no idea, but I hope it's going to be excellent for a change!