One thing is certain:
to be fully alive involves the renunciation
of one’s past and of one’s future.
Anthony de Mello
I am not too sure what he means or if it is true, but it is worth thinking about.
A couple of weeks ago I stood at a busy crossing in Glasgow, waiting for the lights to change. Beside me stood a person in full Islamic veil. I had no way of knowing whether the person was male, female, young, old, pleasant, hostile or detached. Yes, I felt uncomfortable. And this was before Jack Straw’s comments about the veil. Leaving aside my own unease at the implications of the place of women in Islam, I have to agree with Jack Straw. He is someone who has plainly invested much time and energy in the area of race relations and I respect his views.
Perhaps I should add that I also feel uncomfortable being served in a restaurant by a young woman with a bare belly. And that is hardly hygienic either.
If a barrow holds x per cent of a ton, how long does it take one man with one barrow to spread 20 tons of gravel? Yes, the deliveries have started to arrive. The digger has extended the driveway, which will make parking the campervan much easier. That was another man, working until nine o’clock the other evening. It has been all go here at the homestead, as they say. And now the blocks and cement etc are arriving for the foundations of the extension. The founds look more like a swimming pool at the moment, so there is to be a portable pump to keep things dry.
In years gone by I would have been helping out wherever I could – in fact, I must have moved many tons of gravel in my time. Not so now, unfortunately. My role is reduced to kitchen duty and doggy-invalid duty. Herself is recovering well, only the odd squeak now and then when the stitches pull. As for Him Behind the Wheel……well, he seems to be having a wonderful time up to his armpits in mud.
At 11-00am one of the workmen said, This started off as a bad day and it’s gone away to **** Sort of sums up the day quite well. By late morning, the digger had decimated both the mains water pipe and the electric cable. No water, no electricity and a jumpy dog. Misty had her operation yesterday and has been a bit of a baby. (Just like me.) We have rested together…….it was the only way to cope with the day and with her stitches. Things are improving now though. The Hydro-Board mended the power cable, the Water Board mended the water. The garden may look like something from the 1st World War with umpteen trenches and piles of mud, but dinner is on the way and the pooch is obviously starting to get better. Her technique is to try to run away from the pain, and of course this only makes it worse.
Roll on the next few days……will life ever get back to normal?
Autumn is not my favourite season, though I must admit there is something rather nice about having the central heating back on. Rather too many mists and not enough sunshine to appreciate the mellow fruitfulness. However, the BBCs Autumnwatch might change my attitude. There is a bit much hyper-excitement for my taste, but the basic format is appealing. I am watching out for our own red deer, but I suspect their breeding rituals take place up on the hills rather than in our own glen.
There is a world of difference between a professional broadcaster and fumbling new author – so I discovered at the Wigtown Book Fair last week. The whole thing was an excellent set up, by the way. Paul Heiney was great value and had everyone roaring with laughter one minute, and on the edge of their seats in suspense at the next. His book, Last Man across the Atlantic, is now on the “to read” shelf.
The other fumbling new author I heard shall be nameless. Sufficient to say that his public speaking needs to be honed, and the book looked rubbish. So speaks the unpublished writer…….. Hmmm……. pause for thought ……….. well I cannot do anything much today. Too many doctors, builders and meetings. I know it sounds like work, but it is still retirement, I assure you.
Love is a place
and through this plce of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places.
EE Cummings
Off to the Wigtown Book Festival for a few days. I always thought it was a clever idea for an obscure Galloway town to reinvent itself in the way that Wigtown has. It remains to be seen how many people attend the various functions. So far, we are booked for a talk on old Glasgow and one on crossing the Atlantic. Misty is not sure what she would like to go to, the beach at the Caravan Club Site at Garlieston will probably be sufficient. Hopefully, there will also be the opportunity to visit the Whithorn Dig. (Last seen fifteen years ago.)
See you Sunday…….
Him Behind the Wheel has been diagnosed as having coeliac disease. This means a wheat and gluten-free diet for the rest of his natural. So far, he has a highly developed sense of the – “let’s cope with it as an adventure”. Some of the current advice for fibromyalgia (one of my own health issues) is that a wheat-free diet is beneficial, so I am joining in. There is plenty of advice online, but I am glad to be retired. How people cope with it whilst they are working is beyond me. I suppose if you have to cope then you do.
The main thing I would like to point out with this health bulletin, is that Himself was diagnosed in record time. He is full of praise for the NHS – specifically our local GP and the Oban Hospital. Nice to be able to praise them online.
Our broadband was offline for much of yesterday. Thankfully, it is restored today, before I had to begin the lengthy process of talking inter-continental.
