Friday 15 May 2015

Stirring the pot



No not tea-pot. I don't drink tea. I might be Welsh and old but I don't drink tea. That might lose me a few readers but I have made my confession. On the credit side, I do collect interesting tea pots and my pride is Great Aunt Mary Ann's tea pot which is large and must be at least 75 years old.

Having digressed in the first sentence I hope you are bearing with me! Many people seemed to enjoy my first blog so sadly that has encouraged me to keep on keeping on. When dumped - at any age - one has to undertake activities never previously 'enjoyed'. Having got to my grand old age without ever painting a wall is, I feel, perhaps a cause for celebrating. But part of the reason having being continuously told I wasn't good enough to try was a little confidence destroying.

Well having had a carpet laying ceremony booked for next week for quite a few months, and the walls looking decidedly 'mothy' paintwise, I thought I would give the process a try. Later in the year I will probably employ 'a man' to have a go at most of the house. But for now  I thought a lick and a promise might suffice.

My mother used to do all her own decorating. She was good at it but she was another who told me I was useless at anything like that. However she also used to say she could 'hear' her father [a professional painter and decorator] telling her off whenever she was decorating. Through study of family history I see that I descend from a very long line of builders and decorators but without any of the genes rubbing off on me!!

Determined to be independent, I set about removing shelves from walls and cleaning resulting dirty marks. So far so good. Lining up my tools, my first fail was being unable to open the paint pot. Having got help for that I carried on. I stirred the paint pot. Used a small brush and tried to do the even stroke bits until I got bored and then splashed it on.

So the first coat is drying. It is not quite as easy as I thought, but also quite rewarding! I am writing this before the final coat sets and the final disillusionment sets in. I can always add plants and ornaments to cover the rough bits, but it will be fresher and I feel some sense of achievement! 

Please don't expect any pictures of the finished effort. But I have enjoyed the morning and am moving onto my next challenge. Just hope it looks a little bit better than this one!

Tuesday 5 May 2015

On being dumped after 50 years




One of the exciting things about life, I have always thought, is that however much one plans, one never knows what will actually happen next. So I have ‘embraced’ the uncertainty, and tried to work with it making the best of whatever life throws at me. Even horrendous, life changing events have to be treated as a stepping stone into another scene in life's rich tapestry - a terrible mixed metaphor but hopefully one with which others can concur.

As one gets older the not-so-good events often seem to outweigh the better events. Our pool of old friends and relatives seem to shrink as we lose them to ill health and worse, but then that should make us enjoy even more the lovely events like birth of new babies - and if they are our own grandchildren even better! But others' grandchildren can also be greatly enjoyed! - and celebrations. Weddings, anniversaries and birthdays can have heightened enjoyment as we age. Or is that just for me? Because I no longer worry that my outfit is the height of fashion or if anyone will be wearing the same one or colour. And as my daily meds do not allow drinking I know I won't get pissed and show myself up. And I don't have to dance so that my hosts don't think I am being anti social, now they just think the poor old girl is probably too arthritic. I'm not, I am being anti social but only I know that! And if I do dance and look daft, nobody is going to talk about me the next day. Or if they do it is of the 'Did you see Old Aunty B/Grandma, didn't she enjoy herself, bless her' sort of comment. Whilst I am still glowing at being able to kick my legs that high at my age!

However one event I didn't see coming was being dumped after a 50 year relationship, so in the spirit of making the best of it I decided to turn it into a blogging experience. For what purpose I am not quite sure. To share the new opportunities this now gives me? To rant and get my own back? To inspire others similarly afflicted? Maybe just because I can? Anyway whatever, watch this space. Or not. And laugh at the picture above because we don't have enough opportunities to laugh, especially when we really want to lay on the floor and have a tantrum. Something that really looks better on a little one than an old one.....