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[Oct. 12th, 2009|12:12 pm] |
I have just received word that my aunt has finally died.
Random thoughts / feelings -
- Relief
- A fair helping of guilt (of course)
- Sadness
- Why the hell should I be feeling guilty or sad? She was my aunt, yes, but she lived in Holland and I can only remember meeting her twice in my whole life, the most recent time 12 years ago at her brother's/my dad's funeral when I wasn't exactly feeling sociable. I don't even remember what she looked like. Hell, we barely even had a language in common, English was I think her fourth language.
- Is her husband still my uncle? Someone who was married to my aunt and got divorced isn't my uncle any more, I'm pretty sure, in fact I think he might even have got married again. How does it work with death?
- Was it really necessary to keep giving a pretty elderly woman chemotherapy up until a couple of weeks before her death, when the cancer had already metastasized to various places including her brain? Sometimes I think modern medicine has a lot to answer for.
- More sadness. I knew my uncle a bit better than my aunt, he was much more talkative. I don't want to imagine what he's going through right now.
- Perhaps the bad memories of my dad dying (also of cancer) will leave me alone now. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 3rd, 2009|05:07 pm] |
Bestest charity shop trawl ever, despite stupid bloody back pain and subsequent exhaustion.
I bought:
An old hostess trolley in dark stained wood with barley twist legs. This will house lots of plants.
A beautiful bone china willow pattern tea set consisting of three cups, three saucers and three small plates. These are clearly very old.
Two original paintings, one quite large watercolour landscape in a tatty frame (you can have the frame if you like, Angyl) and one small botanical study of a blackberry in what looks like acrylic, beautifully done and framed.
A cream bathrobe, very floofy (but missing its belt, damn)
A bright red silk dress which looks unworn
A blue silk waistcoat (which I shall probably give to my brother)
Two pairs of shoes - an unworn cream suede pair and a mint green pair with multicolour wooden soles
A pair of black linen-mix trousers
A smart-casual black jacket
A burnout silk chiffon top in rose and plum shades
A ribbed khaki top which I plan to use as the base for a costume.
Total cost? £15.50
This insane list of bargains was brought to you by the St Luke's twice-annual sale of 'all clothes, shoes and handbags are 50p' |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 17th, 2009|08:07 pm] |
Good things about doing some gardening for my mother's very elderly neighbour:
- A real sense of achievement. In three hours I removed about a dozen would-be trees, at least as many brambles and a huge amount of ivy and a horrible spreading Hypericum. Beat that, paper-shuffling desk jobs.
- Excellent exercise, see above.
- Being paid, at least in part, to eat blackberries (he did say he didn't want them going to waste). Yum.
Bad things about said gardening:
- OW EA ARG FIRE ANTS OWWWW!!!
Cunning little buggers they are too. They don't just bite you as soon as they get onto you, oh no. Then only a couple would get their mandibles into you before you brushed the rest off. Far too small a punishment for disturbing their preciouss nest. Instead they use pheromones to coordinate their attack so they all bite at once. The 'fire' bit comes from the formic acid they spray into the wound, and it really does feel like being burned. |
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| This is why I love personal ads... |
[Jun. 2nd, 2009|10:57 pm] |
This is the start of the profile of a guy who tried to chat me up online today:-
"I AM A MALE 5 FOOT 11 INCHES LOOKING FOR A TRUE GIRL. A GIRL WHO CAN REALLY SHARE HER HEART. I REALLY LOVE BOOBS."
He didn't get very far.
A couple of weeks ago I got something equally amusing; the worst chat up line I've ever had used on me.
"Do you have a bandaid? Because I scraped my knee when I fell for you."
Yes, really. |
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| Writer's Block: Significant Change |
[May. 28th, 2009|08:47 pm] |
Reading the other answers to this, there's mostly the obvious pair of "No and you shouldn't ever have to" and "Yes, and it was a disaster". But really, we all act differently with different people. I swear less when I'm around my mum or grandma; some people I feel I can talk to about stuff that makes me miserable and with some I put on a cheerful face; my accent even shifts North or South depending who I'm speaking to. And these are just a few of the most concrete examples off the top of my head. So really, what's the chance you could remain exactly the same when a big new influence enters your life? And shouldn't there be some things you'd be happy to change for a partner, if it meant a lot to them? Especially getting rid of bad habits. My mum told me she was terrible at arriving on time, as I still am, until she had small children that absolutely had to be picked up from nursery school on time. And now, she's....well, still not great at timekeeping, but better than most of my family.
Trying to change something that you're not ready to change, though, or trying to remodel yourself entirely to what they want - obviously not that healthy and almost certainly doomed to failure. But trying to change yourself? Yes. It's entirely reasonable to want to be the best 'you' you can be for someone special. And most of us have a bad habit or three we could stand to lose. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|05:40 pm] |
Nooooooo!
Earlier this year I took over my brother's allotment. I've already planted potatoes and sown peas, as well as spending many hours weeding the couch grass out. Now I've just learned that thanks to a fuck-up on the part of the council and my brother mislaying the contract he signed, it's not mine any more. I've also now got around 200 various flowering perennials I've just sown that aren't going to have a home when they come up. I'm really upset about this happening, and on the practical side....anyone want any perennials? I think I'm going to have a few spare. I don't know what yet, it's from a mixed packet. |
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| Writer's Block: LiveJournal Book Club |
[Apr. 25th, 2009|03:51 pm] |
A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson.
If you're not familiar with this, it's a popular science book, but so wonderfully well written and funny that for entertainment value it beats most other books I've read. In addition to this, I think that everyone could learn a great deal from reading this book, no matter how scientifically literate or otherwise they were. Reading this book also really affected me, making me feel several different emotions, but the overwhelming one was just how insignificant the problems I've been stressing about lately are. Everyone should read this. |
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| Writer's Block: Been There, Done That |
[Feb. 2nd, 2009|03:01 pm] |
If it was midnight-to-midnight, then I can't think of a particular day I'd want to relive over and over. I can think of a couple of nights, though. |
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| Still alive |
[Dec. 6th, 2008|08:19 am] |
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For those who know I went to the A&E last night: I'm still alive. I've just got home after spending the entire fucking night there - got there 10:30pm, let out 7am. They don't know what's wrong but they don't seem to think it's too terminal or they wouldn't have let me out. I'm going to bed now, I'm writing this so people can know how I am without ringing and waking me up. |
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| Police car meme. |
[Nov. 14th, 2008|05:54 pm] |
If you saw me in the back of a police car, what would you think I was there for?
Answer me, then post this in your own journal (or not) to see how many different crimes you get accused of committing. |
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| Writer's Block: Eat Your Vegetables |
[Oct. 6th, 2008|09:06 pm] |
I can't remember why I tasted it, but tinned asparagus. Worst idea for preserving something EVER. Sitting around in water for months makes it go slimy and watery and stringy, and there are sulphur compounds in asparagus (which are what make some people's pee smell funny after eating it) and I think they reacted with the metal of the tin to produce a really offputting smell. Not so much 'something I've eaten' as 'something I've briefly tasted then quickly spat out'.
Very nearly as bad are tinned mushrooms, they also go horribly slimy. Tinned strawberries, also really yuck. Squishy watery things with an unpleasant metallic taste from the tin. |
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| Meme of impressive propagation |
[Sep. 25th, 2008|10:15 pm] |
Comment here and I will:
a) Tell you why I friended you.
b) Associate you with something -- a fandom, song, color, photo, etc.
c) Tell you something I like about you.
d) Tell you a memory I have of you.
e) Ask you something I've wanted to know about you
f) Tell you my favorite userpic from your list
g) In return, you don't need to post this on your own livejournal because you probably already have. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 5th, 2008|11:30 pm] |
At 5-something this morning, I heard muffled but familiar banging noises from the living room.
So I got out of bed and put a t-shirt on.
Went into the living room, where as expected there was a very soggy cat playing with an almost equally soggy mouse.
Grabbed the cat by the scruff of her neck with my left hand.
Cat automatically dropped mouse.
Grabbed stunned mouse with my right hand before it could run.
Put mouse in temporary mouse container in the bath along with a small handful of muesli and eggcup full of water.
Fed cat a handful of breakfast food in the hope she would eat it and then go to sleep
Cat ignored food and disappeared back out into the rain in search of a new mouse.
I went back to bed. It occurred to me as I was getting back into bed that the whole thing had taken just 5 minutes to deal with, which goes to show how used to this I am getting.
Oh....and I expected a soggy cat because she only seems to bring mice in when it's raining outside. Either she finds them easier to catch when it's raining, or she eats them outside when it's a nice night. |
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