Tag: dailyprompt

#1372 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Daft Questions2 Comments

Of all the pleasures of a self-directed semi-retirement the joy of not suffering the futility of annual appraisement interviews ranks quite highly. In fact never having to engage in the whole silly game of being appraised with questions like the one below, simply to tick a box, is fabulous.

What will your life be like in three years?

The tool of appraisal, feedback and goal setting in the right hands and minds should be a positive interaction in the workplace. If only such things could be honest, organic conversations. Hopes and ambitions  shared in either direction shared with no judgement with the aim of increasing well being and contentment.

We all lie because honest uncertainty never ticks the box.

The joy of being human is that none of us can predict what our lives will be like in three minutes time let alone 3 years.

On Saturday whilst doing a very regular car journey, and while stopped by a red traffic light, a boy racer lost control of his car and skidded backwards towards me. His car stopped 3 yards from mine and he sped off. Nothing happened. In the 3 seconds or so when I was certain he would crash into me I knew my time would be up. But it wasn’t, the red light changed and I drove off.

What will my life be like in three years? I have no idea, and that is just fine with me.

#1371 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.

A recycle, repurpose, reuse and re-home Festival/Holiday weekend, held once a year in the Autumn.

Whole communities could offer their surplus stuff for free or for a charitable donation. Just a pile of stuff on a table outside the front of their homes or at an agreed community space. A whole weekend so everyone gets the chance to both donate and treasure hunt. One person’s rubbish is another person’s treasure hunt.

I am a big second hand shopper. It is the most sustainable way to live, giving stuff that has already had a life some extra years of use. The illustrations for this blog are my latest acquisition. A Gentleman’s Working Kimono Jacket.

The lining

It pairs very nicely with a pair of winter Corduroy trousers that also had a life before me.

Bring on the festival of re-use.

#1368 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn art, Pandemic ponderings3 Comments
Isolation 2020 ©theoldmortuary

What historical event fascinates you the most?

History in general fascinates me. In many ways it is the imperfection and biased recollection of facts and events that makes history all the more intriguing. Academia strives hard to nail down historical facts. While human memory throughout history differs in subtle and monumental ways. Humans involved or indeed uninvolved in historic events have an opinion on how or why something happened depending on their own prejudices or expectations.

Someone writes or records in some way their viewpoint on an occurrence and that becomes a fact which others might question. And then more research is done and another book/paper/ theory is let loose.

For this reason alone my choice of fascinating historical event is the Covid Pandemic. Because I experienced it first hand and that only 5 years down the line there is swirling abiguity about some of the facts and outcomes of the virus that stopped the world.

My earlier daily blog, Pandemic Ponderings, records the event as it impacted my small space in history. Do I remember things the way they actually were. Would reading them again surprise me?

200 years down the line on 2225 how will  the Covid Pandemic have altered the world?

On reflection my family and friends were relatively lucky and yet we experienced huge grief and sadness. The harm of that period lives on within each of us.

Almost every human in the world felt something similar and many were so much more badly damaged than us. How will all that unhappiness in a whole population have shifted the shape of our world for ever?

Out of bad experiences good things rise, different paths are taken. Enforced choices become the lived experience.

I am capable of swimming every day in the sea, with friends I would never have met had it not been for the Pandemic. I moved house to be next to the sea so swimming was easier and then a whole other, quite bonkers world opened up.

For a whole worldful of people to have a single event that changed them is unprecedented. 

It makes you think, doesn’t it.

#1364 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn FamilyLeave a comment

Describe a family member.

Picking one family member would be too tricky in a very small family. These 3 brightly coloured autumn leaves, resting on brown mushy ones, almost exactly represent my actual knowledge and ability to describe family members. The top-of-the-pile green and red autumn leaf represents the two genetic family members that I know best, my children. Whom I would only ever describe in the broadest of brush strokes,simply to save myself from being an embarrassing mother.They are both fabulous individuals who are making their way in the world as reliable and kind individuals. And have in turn created my grandchildren who already know me better than I ever knew my own grandparents.

I am the leaf in the middle in shades of yellow and orange and am not about to describe myself.

My parents are represented by the bottom of the pile leaf in shades of black and red. I probably knew my parents better than most people do, as I occupied their world as an only child, in a way that siblings would never do. My parents were hard working aspirational, working class people. During my childhood they floated into the middle class by becoming professional people, I don’t think they ever noticed or were bothered by such things. I took a powerful work ethic from my dad who would relax after his salaried work  by being a perfectionist D.I.Y er and carpenter. My mother worked as an administrator and occupied her spare time working voluntarily in our community. I have always been quite community minded.They were both talented creative people who really didn’t give enough time to follow their creative dreams. I suppose it is my similarity to them that makes me aware of just how well I did know them. But writing about either one to the exclusion of the other would make me rather sad.

Beyond them is the mush of brown autumn leaves. I did not know either set of grandparents well. My mum’s parents were running small businesses and my dads parents were remote. I was the only grandchild in their lifetime. Neither side were hugging type grandparents, or involved in playing or adventures. We just seemed to exist, occasionally, on the same orbit and as long as I was good and quiet with my head in a book then all was well. This is not the way of contemporary families, but although this description of a small family may seem joyless  there is much to be thankful for in a family that knew the value of hard work and were reliable, law abiding citizens. I am disappointed in myself that I was not interested enough as a young person to know any of my grandparents well enough to describe  even one of them  successfully .But I am not sure they were all that interested in me either.

So I have described a group of people who were my small family. Nothing flashy, nothing bad. Secure and loving in their own ways and an excellent foundation for whatever I have made of my own life.

theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Serendipity1 Comment

When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

Successful means a positive outcome no matter how large or small the original effort Sometimes success occurs, unplanned and with no effort from the midst of abject failure. No one person represents success without failure and no one person represents failure without some success. We are all a mixture of both.

#1353 theoldmortuary ponders.

#1352 theoldmortuary.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What makes a good neighbor?

Most of my current neighbours are unknown to me. They live across a small service lane at the back of the house.  I have no neighbours opposite the front of the house. Neighbours to the sides are known just enough to exchange brief pleasantries and take in one another’s parcels. I suggest that this is an ideal situation. My neighbours cats are quite another matter , choosing the planters in my yard as elevated toilet zones. I am almost certainly smiling and polite to their owners, not knowing which house sends their feline occupants my way for their daily ablutions.

Adversity shows up the power of  really good neighbours. We were burgled in London some years ago. Sympathy and support from 6 of our neighbours created a friendship that went way beyond the immediate aftermath. The parties that roamed between our 6 dwellings were legendary and had aftermaths of an entirely different nature. The ribbons of those friendships flutter and circle the world now. Markers of a time and a place.

I would choose paragraph two neighbours over paragraph one. But have no need of another burglary to create an alchemy of exquisite neighbourliness. Good neighbours are whatever serendipity provides. I wouldn’t want a bad one, all other sorts are a bonus.

#1350 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn Moral Compass, Serendipity2 Comments

What principles define how you live?

Hmmm,

I am mostly very law abiding.

Rules and protocols require a little more consideration and questioning.

Wisdom and my moral compass fill in the gaps. Kindness, good listening and reflection are also good gap fillers.

And the aesthetics of everything colours life, sometimes with little effort and other times with a good deal of thought and experimentation.

Saints are not my cup of tea, so failure on all these principles happens and thank goodness for that. Saints are soooo tedious.

I believe net curtains are the work of the Devil. Especially above ground level. Make them plain and call them Voile. Nobody’s windows need to look like fancy underwear. Another lesser known principal but useful all the same.

#1346 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

I could never identify the hardest personal goal that I set myself because the minute I achieve goals they hold no significance or value to them. Imposter syndrome I suspect or some derivative form of self-deprecation.  The most useful goal was certainly to learn to comfortably swim in the cold sea near my home. Not because it is a hugely valuable skill but for some fairly unfathomable reason it gives me an extra kick up the pants to get on with things and procrastinate less.

A valuable life lesson with an obscure  start in life.

#1342 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?

I am not a huge small talk person. Some people are adept at such things and have one or two key topics to discuss with strangers. When people discover that I dabble with paint and have exhibited a bit, they often ask who my favourite artist is. The truth is that I have a carousel of favourites.

I am not the greatest fan of Salvador Dali but one of his paintings is forever on my carousel of favourites.

So much going on, and that light emerging from the cliff is something I try to emulate often. Just a little peep of unexpected brightness.

Mark Rothko also spins perpetually on my Carousel.

Right now, as I write this, I am eagerly planning a trip to see The Vanity of Small Difference by Grayson Perry. A man who, like me grew up in Essex and observed class and possessions with interest. Same place and we are the same age.

It is 13 years since I last saw his brilliant tapestries. This week I suspect that he, will once again, be my favourite artist when I am fresh from seeing them again.

Does all this switch back of favourites make me fickle? I am the same about everything that I have an interest in. Certainty is, for me, always enlivened by uncertainty and new information.

#1324 theoldmortuary ponders.

On By theoldmortuary.designIn SerendipityLeave a comment

Write about your most epic baking or cooking fail.

My epic fail occurred one Christmas when I was batch cooking sausage rolls. Enough to feed a substantial quantity of festive guests. I had a large range style cooker and every shelf was filled with unctuous sausage meat enrobed with the best flaky pastry that supermarkets could sell. 30 mins cooking time was the perfect timing to pop to a neighbour for a tiny Seasonal drink. Unfortunately, the neighbours didn’t do tiny and I didn’t do portion control or observe my 30-minute time slot. An hour passed in a twinkling and I was full of festive spirit ( gin). Once home I was in no rush to rescue my baked goods.  They were already past anyone’s judgment of edible. When the oven cooled down I swept them into a carrier bag to feed the birds in a local park after Christmas Day. Off to the park I went with a gaggle of over sugared children. I handed over the bag of sausage rolls and paid little attention to  the bird feeding, just taking some mental breathing space. Somewhat irresponsibly I had weaponised children and was not paying attention. Each tiny bite-sized sausage roll was a rock in the hands of small children. Birds scattered, fearful of their feathered lives. Other parents and park visitors judged me as I realised that for the second time in 48 hours I had failed to adequately assess the sausage roll situation.

Nobody remembers that I did clear up the mess, no birds were actually harmed and that everyone had a fabulous hour or so in the park.

Every Christmas when a sausage roll passes the lips of any child or adult who has knowledge of that day. Somebody pipes up with the legend of me killing birds in a local park at Christmas time with over cooked sausage rolls because I had drunk too much gin.

All other years my sausage rolls have been fabulous. Nobody ever mentions that.