Too Busy...

I might need one of these in a few days.  It has been non stop for me, and usually I am at 'stop' at all times.  Instead of lounging around on Saturday as I required I was forced to spend hours of good football time at a birthday celebration, O joy!  This morning was communion, tomorrow is another meeting, Tuesday work, Wednesday I have to travel to the big city where my niece and her friend are performing in a concert and then on Thursday I sleep!
This is too much for my frail eight stone body!   
Rush here, wait for buses there, walk this way, walk back again, then do the same tomorrow!  It's not right!  I hardly have time to burn my dinner before I am preparing for the next day.  Tsk!  
I m off to prepare thoughtfully for the next day now, I'm visiting my bed....

Too Tired to Think Post

Old Tech But Working Tech

A short time ago I suddenly realised a favourite radio programme was about to start on Radio 4.  This is the type of programme I usually wish to keep so off I run to the tape cassette recorder (ask mum kids) and search for a free tape.  
For many years I used to have a double tape deck and was able to make tapes according to my own desire, those days sadly have passed and few have any sort of cassette player with which to listen.  Now it appears we much insert disc into deck and record from the TV (which also has radio) and keep a disc.  However two problems arise here, one is the inability to play around mixing and matching with these and the other my discs fail to work.  Yet another of the hundred and one things that need attention in this house.
However if it works I will be able to improve my collection of tapes and this is a must as I am sick of hearing those I made 20 years ago!  They themselves are now historical!  For many years I have had to do without this tape machine and when I hear them now it takes me back sometimes more than 20 years.  Tapes from the Open University, BBC anniversaries of D-Day, war programmes, historical recordings, various UK towns, all sorts of things lie there.  However I find so few programmes to record today and this machine does not do the 'DAB' system so many more channels are lost to me which is sad.  
I particularly like short 15 min programmes on a variety of subjects but being there to record them, no timer on this either, does make things irksome.  of course I could mention the buzzing on the reception that will not desist no matter where we go but I will leave that aside as I can ignore that, usually.  Too many drama's, book for women, boring or irrelevant stuff on radio these days.  Hopefully things will improve.  

 

Last Thursday

This sky, taken yesterday, returned today.  I didn't see it!
I was sitting indoors teaching the temp assistant how to work the till, greet people and make sure they didn't cheat her.  "I chat up the old women, you chat up the old men," I said, "Just don't chat up the young men as they will believe you!"  
So having spent a delightful and quite busy day I then proceeded to Tesco to forget to buy the things on the list I left on the bunker!  Grrrr!
Home I trotted to search for information for those who had enquired, poor lass could not help there, and as the Internet at work was down until late afternoon nothing could be done, so I did some when I returned.  
Looking at maps of the area from before the war and soon afterwards shows something of the war damage and something of how many houses were demolished in later years by a council not listening to the people.  Things are different now but at that time councils just did not listen to anyone.   Fun looking at maps, until I fell asleep...
Still, this is my last regular Thursday, from today I will have more time to myself, to do all the museum stuff lying on this laptop!  

SatLaffs

Friday, a Day of Rest

 

My working week is over and I am glad.  

I appear to be tired all the time and unable to get rid off this latest bug.  It has been hanging around for weeks and still loves me, which is more than anyone else nearby does.   My mind is confused and I made several daft mistakes at work and was glad to get home.  

The day was good otherwise, the kids at the 'Superhero' activity loved it today.  They made a survival kit and this allowed them to use their imagination, which they did, and the mums and kids were delighted with the results of their labours.  The lass and her helpers running it were completely shattered by the end!   I keep out of the way of the actual work at such times.  It is good to see the kids, many are regulars, and we will miss them when they have gone, but as there is yet another week or so until they return to school we and the mums will still be hankering for the quiet times ahead.  

Then we can clear the mess that appears to litter the floor on a daily basis, it's not there when we open!  Being tired and weary today I just ran for home and left others to deal with that for a change. 

  

I wonder if I will have the energy to watch this weekends football....?

 

Euro 16

So the European Championships are upon us at last!  We have waited eons since the end off the last season for some football action - that's about ten days as far as I can see!  Now tonight football returns.  Of course Scotland did not bother going this time as the hotel bills were considered too
 expensive by the SFA suits.  Instead we Scots simply check who England is playing and give them our support. This time it is Russia, a team that can be either great or feeble, Slovenia, who fail to make it but play well and Wales our Celtic cousins who at least have one or two decent players and I look forward to encouraging them to stuff the English imperialists right and proper!
Of course neither will win the thing, France, Germany, Spain and Italy must always be the front runners and one or two others will be able to challenge them this time.  The two Irish sides will put up a good show, scared of no-one and with nothing to lose they will have a hard time as they meet decent sides but hopefully they will put on a good show.
English folks around me are dubious about their chances so I am helpfully indicating to them just how rotten they are in the hope that their depression will stop the needless press hype that follows England everywhere.  The English press work on the principle that they call them 'heroes' and 'greats' and when they lose the knife is then stuck in and they crucify them, objective fact is ignored to sell grubby papers.
At least there will be something to watch in the evening as the sun goes down.

At this point I was going to scribble a new topic of enduring importance however I notice it is getting near time for the first game tonight so I must go and prepare..... 

Laugh....

A Wander

Having had a few days when nobody wished my presence (the first day started about 50 years ago) I have managed to catch up on half of the things that required doing about an eon ago.  So as the sun decided to shine even though this allowed the chilly air to freeze everything and some things that ought not to be freezed I wandered abroad through the gardens.  The thing about the cold weather is that while the plants have few flowers the cold keeps the mums and kids well away.  Only two could be seen in the play area, two too many for me, and I wandered freely among the greenery breathing almost fresh air and enjoying the sun.
A passing stranger offered me a smile, the type of smile women like her offer when fearing you are a rapist, and I only just stopped myself shouting "BOO!"   I had an encounter with a neurotic teacher on Tuesday and I am rarely in a mood for other neurotic females.  I blame the 'Daily Mail.'  Any man walking alone is clearly a rapist/murderer/paedo/ like that man on the TV and needs to be watched as they have read about such things.  The only other who approached me was this timid squirrel and I had nothing to offer him.  However as another possibly older squirrel came hurtling down the oak tree and began to chase him from what was clearly his patch this was an irrelevance.  I actually put aside some nuts for the beasts and of course go out without them.  Tsk!  

As a few birthdays are coming up I decided to shop around the charity shops.  With Christmas past I was hoping folks would have dumped their old stuff in and give me a chance to get a new jacket, shoes and birthday gifts.  How disappointing that was today.  Nothing worth paying for except one book that they were asking far too much for.  It's a charity shop not a bookshop I wanted to say to the woman.  
I noticed some things however such as a dozen or so DVDs of English football.  I noted these were not new and it struck me one lad has found himself a wife at last and his favourite videos and DVDs are being dumped.  It may be of course that she has dumped him and his goods are following or she might have tidied up in that female fashion with no comprehension of what has value and what has not.  I expect the 'Jane Austen' sets are still in their place at her house.
There are six charity shops in town, two of them attempting to be 'High Class' shops with quality shopfronts, decent adverts and higher prices than required.  Most of the staff are of course volunteers but such shops while making money appear to have the wrong attitude for charity shops in my view.  This is made worse when the bigger the charity the more is spent of staffing costs and it appears to me some require urgent and radical rethinking of their policies.  The other shops are less pretentious and a wee bit cheaper in my view and I like that.  While one works hard at making second hand stuff look almost new the other makes sure stuff is decent and puts it on show.  What more is required?  One or two of these shops have been going for years, since before I came here 20 years ago almost, and the 'Cancer' shop has taken over a million pound in its time.  A recent refurb has made it look good and sadly they now stock less books, mores the pity.  I sometimes wonder about the history of the objects on sale.  Who wore that jacket?  Why was that gift rejected?  Did the owner of the university books make a success out of their study?  I'm very taken with the 'Sue Ryder' shop as they sell furniture and have loads of everyday items usually with that one thing you have been looking for.  Naturally they did not have what I was looking for today.
Ah well, next week maybe.