#1404 theoldmortuary

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Storms1 Comment

Storm Ingrid is punishing us today. We have barely cleared up from the last unnamed storm of earlier this week.

“Storm Ingrid is punishing us today”

This phrase came from a weather report but it made me laugh for an entirely different reason.

I used to work in a children’s hospital in Brighton. It was everything you might imagine such a place to be, the staff were dedicated and lovely as you might expect in such a place.

One of our Medical Secretaries called Ingrid was also a much in demand local dominatrix. She enlivened tea breaks with her stories of  her additional occupation. Sometimes she would  slip out during her lunchbreak, do some dominating and come back. We could sometimes spot if she had been servicing a foot fetishist because she returned to work in a different colour tights. She sold worn tights as part of her lunchtime deal.

For a little while we had an Australian radiologist who had recently retired from providing radiology services to remote areas of Australia. It had been an interesting but at times lonely career. Living and working in Brighton was somewhat of an eye opener for him. Ingrid took him under her wing in all sorts of ways. Sometimes he would go off with her for lunch. He was unaware that we all knew what her sideline was. After ‘lunch’ with Ingrid he would return to work late and flustered. His mood unpredictable for the first part of the afternoon.

” Ingrid has been punishing him’ was our code for leaving him alone reporting in a darkened room.

After a few months he moved back to Australia. His retirement tour of the U.K finished after only one city. We never saw Ingrid again…

#1403 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering2 Comments

I love a soundbite. A tiny little statement or sentence that sums something up.

Nostalgia is not a Strategy – Mark Carney at Davos yesterday.

Headline grabbing from the Canadian Prime Minister at Davos when most headlines are grabbed by the Pussy Grabber.

Far be it from me to disagree with a Prime Minster with integrity but how can anyone possibly strategise without nostalgia.

Strategies are built using current information and past experience.

People are usually only sentimental or wistful about things in the past that were successful, pleasurable or effective.

All things that would be admirable in a strategy.

You might wonder why my humble blog is pondering the lofty soundbites of a World Leader. Well, when Mr Carney was running the Bank of England our thighs briefly touched whilst sitting on the underground in London. In truth the only famous thigh I have ever briefly touched in a non professional situation.

I don’t imagine he remembers that moment so I will not be firing off a quick email to him to help him with his next speech.

But if you are reading this Mark.

It is impossible to Strategise effectively without Nostalgia.

Learning from past mistakes etc.

#1402 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Stonehouse Lawn Tennis Club, Storms1 Comment

The Game of Storms. Trouble in Paradise. In the past week the tennis club that I help to run has been the location of an entirely different sort of competitive game. Last week Storm Goretti shed a large bough from one of our Ash trees into the gardens of our neighbours.

  This week an unnamed storm dropped one of their Sycamore trees into our walled allotments.

A storm tit for tat that needs to stop. Thankfully neither incident caused any harm to humans.  Humans though,on either side of the wall have worked together to clear the debris.

The smell of recently felled hardwoods has filled the air with woody fragrance which is a small recompense for the sound of shrill chainsaws that has dominated the usual peace of the place.

Not so tranquil days at the club that overlooks Tranquillity Bay.

We are so lucky that no-one was harmed.

Love All

#1401 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn 2026Leave a comment

We missed Blue Monday by having an entirely normal Monday with a 3 year old. So I just put ‘Blue’ into my photo archive and these 3 grids were reflective of the last 6 weeks.

Rather more bright and beautiful than most December/January grids this set include Singapore/Australia/Hong Kong.

Which may also explain why we had no connection to Blue Monday yesterday.

Having a sun surge in late November and December has made the winter months much more tolerable. And filled my grid with beautiful blues.

#1400 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn blogging, SerendipityLeave a comment

The old mortuary ponders. I am one of life’s great ponderers. Not a Great ponderer. A ponderer who does a lot of pondering.

1400 ponders is a moment. Before this collection of ponders there were the Pandemic Ponderings, when the world skipped a beat and my daily ponderings started.

#1399 theoldmortuary ponders.

Yesterday’s ponder was about 2016. A year when a Global Pandemic was a historic fact. In 1918 a third of the world was infected with The Great Influenza ( Spanish Flu). Maybe as many as 100 million people died.

Global pandemics were things of the past or theoretical predictions. We were blissfully unaware in 2016 quite what was just over the horizon. In 2026 we are all too well aware that enormous scientific and medical progress did not protect us from another one.

I wonder if I would have started a daily diary about mundane and ordinary life in 1916, inspired by that earlier pandemic.

I think I would have considered it and maybe even started one. But writing a daily diary has never worked for me until blogging came along. Inexplicably a daily writing habit is now second nature. I love it. But I doubt I would have gained the habit without those long pandemic days when life took on a whole new level of mundanity.

Always one for irrelevant details, blogging has only increased my thirst for the minutiae of daily life and a bit of positivity. I suspect every aspect of my life has altered for the better.

#1401 and beyond . More sunflowers and more Silver linings.

#1399 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Friends and Family, SerendipityLeave a comment
New Year Fireworks 2016. It all started so well.

There is a current trend of looking back to 2016 as some sort of benchmark year.

Was 2016 a genuine wrinkle in time. I do not look back on it with any great fondness. I had an iphone and took some great photos.

But 2016 was a hard year with tough decisions, sadness, badness and unkindness.

Seria Ludo by Mat Collishaw

For large parts of 2016 I felt like I was hanging on to normal life while it swung me round and round on a crazy carousel.

In 2016 I discovered the Japanese word Setsunasa which means,

A tight feeling in the chest. Longing, love, sadness, nostalgia, all compressed into one sharp pain.

So when I think about 2016 that is my overwhelming recollection. But it was such a busy year and there were many positives. Looking through my 2016 photographs I have made myself aware that 2016 was far from all bad.

Time to reshape my recollections a little. Another useful Japanese word.

Wabi-Sabi.

The acceptance that nothing is permanent, and nothing is perfect, nothing is ever complete and yet finding quiet beauty in that reality rather than fighting it.

#1398 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn pondering, Serendipity1 Comment

My post-Christmas tidy up brought me some joy with the rediscovery of my old portable typewriter’s history.

My Olympus SM was manufactured in Germany in 1939 and sold to its first owner W.H Butterworth while he lived at 28, Chiltern Drive, Braddell Heights, Singapore. The original sales document is still in the ginger coloured carrying case, resting on my sofa.

I was in Singapore in November, had I remembered this fact I would almost certainly have taken myself off on a wild goose chase to see my typewriters first home.

Somewhere in this photo from the Marina Bay swimming pool is Braddell Heights. Very far distant but there nevertheless.

Why such a wild goose chase?

I quite like a wild goose chase. Sometimes a seemingly pointless task brings unexpected experiences. So I regret not chasing that particular goose but Singapore had other wildlife.

But we did not meet Otters in the Botanic Gardens, which was a dissapointment

So perhaps we should have chased the odd wild goose.

Or maybe we did.

#1397 theoldmortuary ponders

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity, WinterLeave a comment
Sunshine in a preserving pan.

I always think winter is best endured if observed and endured in bite sized chunks. Getting to mid-January there is always a natural high point when a friend makes marmalade. Something I very much enjoy on a bite sized chunk of bread. A glowing pot of freshly created 2026 marmalade is lurking in my cupboard from today. The pot arrived on the same day as another sign that Winter is loosening her cold boney fingers from our vital parts. My first bunch of Daffodils. Really my favourite flower of all time. Just dont tell the Sunflowers, Roses or Tulips. Dahlias, peonies or Leucospermum.

Winter may have loosened her fingers a bit but there is at least another 6 weeks of mood boosting required . Marmalade , Daffodils and December Leucospermum. Are todays little sunshine coloured pick-me-ups.

December Leucospermum, Mornington Peninsular

Never forgetting another December treat.

Hong Kong Fruit stall. December.

Seeing so much sunshine and vivid colour in December has propelled me through the first half of winter . Marmalade and Daffodils will carry on the good work. I have been so lucky.

#1396 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn AustraliaLeave a comment

I believe that yesterday I banished the last of the pine needles from our hallway and sitting room. A real tree is the heart of the festive season’s fragrance profile. Even a dustpan full of dropped needles in January has a fragrance. Not the same as a tree freshly felled and loaded into a warm car. But definitely a recognisable smell of Winter.

The smell of Winter, Melbourne style is the vapour that you can see in this picture.

My sense of smell and taste has been shredded by Covid. I suspect what I am left with is unlikely to change. I mourned  my changed sense of smell and taste in the beginning but now I celebrate the flavours and fragrances I have retained. I was never timid about sniffing or eating but now there  is a new/old world of things to explore that previously I might not have liked.  I also have a newfound certainty about fragrance and taste.

I like it.

I don’t like it.

I have no opinion.

All the liminal areas of taste and smell no longer exist.

So when I walked into The Block Arcade and smelled something wonderful outside Essensorie then I had to have a closer sniff

A bottle of their Christmas Spice Essential Oil came home with me.

Blood Orange and Rose Geranium would have been the two scents that hooked me in. Anything citrusy is my gateway to flavour and smell. Geranium is a new  fragrance friend, eating it would be quite a stretch. Previously I just couldn’t wholeheartedly love it. Now I could roll in a field of geraniums like a frolicsome pony in hay or a kitten in Catnip.

I did neither of those things in their stylish and peaceful shop. I just calmly bought a bottle of their potion.

Essensorie | Artisanal Natural Fragrance https://share.google/0XyqhScCeiEccP7lF

Nobody needs a giddy goat in a shop just before closing time.

#1395 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Australia, chores1 Comment
Our Raw Prawn Christmas Decoration.

Flipping tradition . 12th night being the ‘right’ time to take down Christmas Decorations. But as ours were barely up by Christmas Eve, I decided to take them down on the 21st night. Or the 14th of January.

When at a Christmas Tree Farm in Australia it would have been foolish not to purchase a Raw Prawn Christmas bauble to hang resplendently in our Northern Hemisphere tree.

Now Mr Prawn is boxed up and ready to be packed away with all the other tree decorations from around the world.

Taking down Christmas so late in January has plunged me straight into a different sort of festival. Mid-Winter Decluttering. As I write this the house looks appalling as I am mid-point of the mid-winter urge to declutter. The clutter is everywhere having been pulled out from all the places clutter gathers. Writing a blog when I should be decluttering is unforgivable. Maybe I am double pondering. Pondering while pondering what on earth to do with all this stuff.

Including the prawn!