Skip to main content

What a week!

 It has been a somewhat tumultuous week with good news followed by bad news all in one day.  With my head full of the complications of both I spent a totally sleepless night, pacing the house and making lists.  I find that therapeutic.  Yes I know I am odd.  When  I turned the news on I heard the Duke of Edinburgh had died.  At 99 it was not surprising but like our own death, we know it is coming but somehow we hope it never will.   I met the Duke of Edinburgh twice, once when I was only 15 years of age.  We had sailed over from Portchester Yacht Club to participate in Cowes Week and while registering  our arrival in Cowes Yacht Club we came across the Duke propping up the bar.  I had never seen television so I had only seen his picture in the newspapers but there was no mistaking him.  He was with three other men and they were being rather loud.  The Duke's contribution to the conversation was littered with swear words and I must have looked shocked at such language. No-one swore in my family, nor did my friends so it was totally unfamiliar.  He saw me staring and burst out laughing.  Then he bowed and apologised.  I was so embarrassed I scuttled away.

The next time I met him was in New York when he made an official visit with the Queen.  He was on his best behaviour of course   My children also met the Queen that day but as they had never lived in Britain, she was just someone remote I suppose because none of them remember it.

So back to the good news and bad news, both are so much more complicated during the restrictions.  I also find getting rid of things to be therapeutic but even that is difficult during a pandemic so I had better make more lists.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Playing by ear

My father could play the piano.  Not an unusual skill but he was deaf.  He lost his  hearing fighting in the army in India in the 30s so he was an adult when he lost it and therefore remembered tunes, even though he couldn't hear him.  However he didn't have the skill to learn anything new so  either you liked the old music or you didn't.  He used to say that he played by ear and then would roar with laughter.  He would have struggled in many ways with modern living but most of all during the pandemic, he would have lost his ability to communicate as he always lip read.  There must be thousands of people like him today who still rely on reading lips to understand,  in fact all of us do it to some extent, so please be patient if someone is struggling to communicate while you are wearing a mask. I went to the supermarket today and at the check out, the cashier asked me to move the trolley into a particular position.  As I manoeuvred it ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mondays

 Last Monday my son and daughter in law were due to catch the 8.15am ferry from Portsmouth to Caen.  It was 6.45am when I stepped out of the shower and heard my phone  going.  I snatched it up.  It was a video  call.  'Mum, we have big problems here,'  and before I could speak he thrust the phone into the hands of a Brittany ferries' staff member and said, 'Talk  to my mum.'  Barely conscious of my wet, tangled hair and trying to cover myself up with a  towel which thought gravity was fun, I asked what the problem was.  Apparently they had the wrong vaccination certificates and were being refused passage.  I asked what I could do and she said they could go and get a test and take a later ferry.  'Where is the nearest test centre in Portsmouth?'  I asked.  'There isn't one,' she replied, 'there  is one in Southampton, or Havant.'  What!  No test centre in Portsmouth?  They both have learni...
1 comment
Read more

Equality

 I don't want to hear another person  say that women should be equal to men.  There is no 'should' about it, women ARE equal to men but they are not treated equally.  It has never occurred to me that I am  not equal to any man.  Am I treated equally?  Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  It requires a step change in the way women think of themselves as being equal before we can hope for attitudes, legislation, economics to  follow and that is my rant for the day. Ever since I have lived in France I have noticed a stark difference between the French and the British sense of humour.  The dry, irreverent humour of the British is completely wasted on the French, and the Dutch and the Americans sometimes for that matter.  Clearly the British humour is unique.  Yesterday I gave an article to a French friend to read.  It was a humorous piece, self deprecating about a woman suffering an attack by an insect on her face with hideous result...
Post a Comment
Read more