Sandals are my favourite things to wear and as they come in pairs, that neatly spares me from thinking of a second item. Which would be a hard task.
My feet are free spirits who dislike full enclosure at any time of the year. This year in particular my feet have prolonged sandal wearing until exactly this point when a very late summer holiday has taken us to Asia.
A dark November switched overnight to something warm and exotic. Sunbeams on my toes. They are somewhat tired toes, slightly puffy from a long period of travel but very excited to see sunshine.
My toes particularly enjoyed my evening bob in a rooftop pool. No anaesthetising chill forcing them into socks and boots, just a quick dab and they were ready to see the night.
The end of PHEaAT. Pre-Holiday -Ess ntial and Accidental Tasks.
The run up to a holiday has several essential tasks and chores. Known to all the world over. Packing, passports and visas. Dog or pet holiday care ( they took 7 bags) are all fairly standard. As are at least two loads of last minute laundry. I would also add as standard, but the little talked about talent of preparing meals using up the fresh ingredients from a fridge. My tour de force this week was Merguez sausages wrapped in bacon served with organic curly Kale, mashed potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. All pushed to the last supper because of their use-by dates apart from the Organic Curly Kale which had slipped from his organic best only two days after purchase. Visually he was in his prime long after his date of despair. Firm of shaft and as curly as a 70’s film star. He struggled to assimilate with any of my PHEaAT creations earlier in the week. I cannot guess if last night’s concoction was too his Organic credentials but his fate was sealed. A green vegetable accompanying the unusual foods last standing in the fridge.
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
What a perfect prompt for this morning. My head has had a very busy night whilst I slept on.
I have a fair bit of experiencing no sleep. Night shifts, 24 hour shifts and a head that gifts me insomnia when times are tricky. Hence the swan images. I am pretty good at appearing to float calmly while life throws me curve balls and incendiary devices. Under the surface though I am paddling furiously and not always in the right direction.
My head is a bit busy right now but I am sleeping well. But my dream world is very creative. Writing an in depth blog overnight that in dream world was rather good, in my opinion, but that I have no recollection of the details. In another remembered dream loads of paintings in shades of orange.
This more or less accurately answers the question. In a world where I didn’t need sleep I would be more creative.
But we all need sleep and a lack of sleep absolutely affects how creative I can be. However if the streets at night were safe for women I would walk more. Night walks in central London gave me some of the best experiences of walking through famous and architecturally beautiful streets without crowds. I felt safe in a way I could never feel in a provincial city or in the countryside.
So that just leaves me reading and nibbling. Great for knowledge, not so good for the waistline.
Bobbers do inspire some random pondering. Anne Bobber took a walk this evening to see the new moon . Some intrepid swimmers and divers were still in the water one of whom said he chased a huge squid.
These are waters that we swim in very regularly, with no idea that we might have close encounters with much sea life especially something squid-like and huge.
Some delving into Squid Fishing websites does suggest that squid are attracted to the piercing clear light of a cloudless New Moon. So the swimmer may not have been mistaken. But that does also make me ponder that squid of all sizes must be there while the bobbers bob, which is not something we have ever given much thought to. And maybe we shouldn’t.
Says one squid to another.
“I was in Firestone Bay for the new moon, and I saw a huge bobber”
No. A rusty old bollard for boats to tie up to at a little harbour called Mutton Cove.
Even at a distance it looks like a muffin.
Today is about getting jobs done but the sunshine was too good to just dash from A to B without visiting the sea. Today is the last day my stats page has the column of shame. Earlier im the month there were an inexplicable 900 readers of my blog on one day. Which made my daily count of between 20 and 40 look pretty silly.
Thank goodness the 900+ have dropped off my stats chart and I am back to low level success.
Two examples of things not exactly looking as they should.
What’s the first impression you want to give people?
It is my birthday weekend so with more accuracy than is normal I can say I have been making first impressions for exactly 68 years and 2 days. Most of them are absolutely way beyond my control and because I have never been famous the first impression I create has almost never been recorded. There will be H.R records of interviews where my first impression has been recorded. Groups of friends will have anecdotal memories of first, second and third impressions. My point being that first impressions are largely out of my control. On occasions I may set out to make a favourable first impression but without feedback how would I ever know if I had achieved ‘favourable’. I think I am a bit of a ‘slow burn’ for most people. I try to be friendly, kind and effective with an open mind. I am loyal until I am not. I am not too invested in creating a ‘first impression’ because I genuinely believe that is largely beyond my control. However a ‘lasting impression’ has far more heft and gravitas. Something that is built up over time by doing my best to be a decent human being.
I have made a start on my hand painted digital Christmas Card. A Work in Progress production with a working title of Baubles in a Bag. There was an artists gathering this morning . Talking and creating is the aim. I like to have a simple project on- going while I natter. I am puzzling how to get some texture into the paper bag. There is an uncanny similarity to my Apples in a String Bag.
So the baubles are going to have to be in a paper bag, more bag less baubles
Actually a few more baubles are in the bag.
Just one more bauble to paint and I am going to have to commit to painting a paper bag. At the moment I dont think I can paint my way out of this paperbag.
I blame Instagram. I mostly use it for art but I am a very guilty scroller of my Instagram feed.
Who knew, for instance, that you could restyle a cardigan by wearing it upside down.
Which I tried today and it seemed to work. But I sense the West Country mischief fairies saw a woman with her cardigan on upside down as someone deserving of a prank.
Acid green cardi upside down.
A regular dog walk was complicated by very gusty weather a large umbrella and two dogs simultaneously doing a poo. Somehow, I blame the mischievous West Country Fairies, my car keys fell into the autumn leaves without me noticing. Time was already a bit short , I was heading to a Dry Bob to celebrate two bobbers birthdays. But I had no choice but to retrace the whole dog walk kicking autumn leaves to find the missing keys, which I did.
I blame fairies because I have never worn my cardigan upside down before and unbelievably, in a long life I have never lost my keys before. The two must be linked . Isn’t that how superstition and folklore starts?
But the mischievous fairy was not done with me. I went to pick up some ordered library books. All the books I have ordered over the last 6 months have arrived , 7 books in total. I cannot possibly read 7 books in the next two weeks. I may never put my cardigan on upside-down again, whatever Instagram suggests.
There is no doubt that it works, but is it tempting fate?
The mischievous fairy struck again , I arrived home, after another dog walk at the time parents collect their children from the local school. For 30 minutes near 3:15 parking is tricky. I have never arrived at that time and failed utterly to find a space, but today that happened. Awkward because I really needed to use the loo.
Needs must, I parked near the cafe where we had noisily gathered for the Dry Bob, walked in, in my lurid green upside-down cardigan, used their facilities. Knowing that in a busy place only three hours later I would be remembered as a customer of the day. Quite the day!
Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?
I can’t actually say, as I met either end of the scale professionally. Now for the famous end of the scale it is somewhat comforting to say that the most famous person I ever met was an entirely likable human being. What is less comfortable is that the most infamous person I ever met was also an entirely likable human being.
Along the way of life I have met all sorts, not all of them were entirely likable human beings. Maybe I was just lucky with my two extremes. Doughnuts have been used to protect the identities of the famous and the infamous. Humans and doughnuts are all a question of taste
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