Time to be out

Seeing we had some good weather not unsurprisingly I have been out of doors a far bit  this last week or so and one thing I always found handy was the able to read a map and to take a smallish one me in case either I get lost which can happen or for extra details about the terrain or area  that might prove most useful.

One thing I always looked forward to seeing when I was younger were the Dandelion's coming out after Winter even though as you can see in this photograph the soil is fairly dry underneath, they  are all out and I can enjoy blowing the seeds away which always seemed magical to me.
It was taken on my new camera last weekend.
I shall most probably be out distributing our communities monthly magazines on foot this week depending on how soon they get to me from the printers as it's sometimes as a bit of dash to get them done in time.
I don't know about you but sometimes it seems there aren't enough hours in a day to cram it all in but somehow we just manage it all right, making for a rich life.

Back to school drama

That's Easter over with although I've only just joined the nom'ing after yesterday's bad head which wasn't helped by the grump who while doing something to do with his radio antenna decided to plow through the front door which opens inward right where I and Mommy were stood almost knocking is over.
His response to being asked to be careful next time and a Grrr from me is is to shout and slam the door staying in such a funk all day. I could easily of been seriously hurt and that's his response???
School resumes until the next break in early May which makes little sense but if my memory serves me right may day was added as a part Socialist nod by the then Labour Government in the late 1970's even though we have a bank holiday - Whit - in late May anyway which means no sooner than everyone gets back to the ways of school, then we're off again!
I had a *******@mymailsupplier.com "your mail has been hacked"  email scam that purports to say they have control of my account and have pictures from a non existent webcam showing me enjoying unspecified content at unspecified sites and wanting bitcoins that unless I give them within 48 hours they'll send to contacts.
It's so fake fake fake you can find copies with just a different email address  sent to online  easily and never refers to any named account holder like me so it's obvious they really hold nothing.
That said this account is about eleven years old and apart from changing the password totally for safety because I know it was breached in a security breach involving two social media networks, I have established a new email at google mail which my tumblr, GT account and this blog use and to which my BFF now knows.
Parley Meant resumed so they can do nothing for a few weeks about the B word mess while getting paid for it too!
   

Easter hols edition

Just getting back in the swing of things as we're off for Easter Hols here not that would ever stop me from engaging in a pillow fight if I had anyone over and certainly after school resumes in our dorm.
The week saw the latest phase in the long running business around the ending of my INDEFINITE Disability Living Allowance claim (never ever trust anything set up by politicians to mean what it says) and having to apply for Personal Independence Payment a kind of the same but different social insurance program to meet the extra costs of being disabled that assumed by raising the bar on how you may be effected by your disabilities you'd reduce the bill but actually has cost more.
Having tried to tell me they had not received my completed form on a letter with a date on a Sunday that no government department works on we now had a letter from an assessment provider in the WRONG region to say they are in the process of either having or going to write to a health specialist you advised them of - for me my own Doctor - for further information which may be a report.
This may prove interesting as on two occasions in connection with the social insurance program called Employment and Support Allowance for being unable to work that report was sufficient to not require me to attend a so-called medical which isn't actually an physical/mental examination of you to see how your conditions affect you but rather to go through a tick box of questions and controversially write any observation about you from the moment you enter the assessment centre such as if you look 'well groomed' or appear to able to carry a shoulder bag and decide on that basis if you could undertake tasks.
Obviously, don't have your hair brushed and make up done!
We shall see how this works out but when they say it could take up to sixteen weeks aka FOUR MONTHS (!!!!) for this to be resolved adding the start date of my claim could potentially take it into FIVE months.
It's amazing to think any one in government seriously thinks this constitutes good practice when it comes to customer service but having seen on the Countryfile program on tv farmers are waiting four years for payments from another department well the mind boggles!

The Put 'Em Rights

While my BFF was away in sunny Scotland, I was doing something rather different really apart from having a laugh on well known children's authors website.

There are some books written by Enid Blyton I'm familiar with because I read them when I was in first childhood either owning or borrowing usually from girls and others because she was most prolific author I am not .

The Put 'Em Rights comes under the latter although the subject matter is something I am very familiar with which is travelling preachers usually of a evangelical sort who come as the name suggests to galvanize people to action around social or moral issues of the day.
In this particular story it's the impact of travelling gypsy preacher  who inspires Sally, a Ministers daughter, to form a group of six children to do "good works" in their village of Under Ridge after a meeting on the village green.

In modern parlance they act as Social Activists, attempting to put situations right such as a dog being physically and emotional maltreated, a woman with a dirty house and equally dirty baby, a family facing eviction and anther facing lack.

What they discover in their eagerness is often situations are more complex than they originally thought and also less clear-cut such as the mother has a mental illness - depression - the family facing eviction are not only being evicted by the father of one of the boys but for theft which when they get further into it is a father taking the blame for what a severely mentally disabled boy has literally taken a shine to, oblivious to the notion it is theft being in human terms more like a magpie from that point of view.

What is more and I feel is one of more worthwhile aspects to this story is while they start of on the basis of changing other peoples attitudes to the right they soon learn their own are not necessarily any better with Sally being impatient and self righteous, Podge is well looked after but careless in looking after his possessions such as a bicycle  just assuming as they go messing or are stolen because he doesn't put them away safely his parent will just buy  him another, not appreciating the sacrifice they made in buying him them.
Amanda starts to realize she is really is very lazy and selfish being allowed to do nothing and get out of taking turns in helping.

Although Enid doesn't say this (and forgive my C.S. upbringing  and background for dropping a religious point in) what she's alerting the reader to is the notion that caring for everyone else's values and attitudes without looking at your own first is foolhardy.
We may be better off caring about other peoples but working on our own, transforming those we encounter by it even if we may not be perfect rather than coming over as somewhat pious, lecturing others.

The outcome of this book is unsatisfactory in one respect, and that is underneath much of the plot is class attitudes and prejudice. 

Bobby is 'working class' his mother unusually for 1946 has to work as his father is in prison and he feels very much ill at ease with the other five middle class children who haven't struggled as he has.

He starts off being friendly with them, almost an equal but Sally's socially superior attitude starting from how she tries to stop a mother from spreading gossip only goads this woman into revealing the awful truth of where Bobby's father is as his own mother has been hiding it feeling this whole thing has just been a matter of the children playing "goody-goody" to make them feel superior. He feels crushed and for all their mixing he can only ever be with 'his own' although they do make up and share ice creams.

In some respects I feel rather than resigning oneself to your lot, Bobby would of better served by having those children apologize for how he'd been treated and encouraged to give breaking out of his social class a second chance and from that be at the point he is able to take advantage of his own abilities rather than in effect limiting himself because of what had happened. 

Although the ending could of been better thought through, I did feel this was a novel well worth reading.

*There are some alterations in this 1992 version - some of the essential social commentary is diminished although later editions are more altered as sadly the case with most of this authors stories.

Value added edition

I was reminded a few days a ago that what you might just casually assume we'd all go with isn't always so when told of the tale of a disabled person on a community weekend shopping trip who demanded it return in time for her other pre-arranged event when people were asked how long they wished to be out for, expected to be dropped off by the door and even run home while the others were still out.
Fortunately those in charge had some gumption and refused to let her dictate to others how long on a collective outing they all should be. 
Sometimes people may ask well what sorts of ideas do I subscribe to.

I'm easy going, preferring to reach agreement but will not stand for emotional manipulation or the idea that 'special rights' on grounds of gender, disability or sexuality trump anyone elses.
It isn't necessary to agree a person's point of view but to respect that is theirs and so should be heard.
When faced behind following cold logic or humanity in a situation, put humanity first as its stall of values underpin all others.
Also at SN a number of us while looking at the origin of spanking in our lives talked in outline about our own experiences of it in our schooling which with me is directly relevant as it is a run on of that.  

Colour therapy

You may of noticed a few comments around how the present situation in this country is having a adverse affect on me and I think a few times I have mentioned coping strategies.

Recently I was given this unique product, part of whole series of small books with various inspiration quotes and things.
Although in so far as the general public goes, they see colouring as a relaxation technique as fairly modern although the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung prescribed it as far back as the nineteen twenties and today many medical practitioners and occupational therapists are suggesting it has widespread benefits across many issues.
Personally I've always found colouring  relaxing apart from just fitting in well within my younger than my years frame of mind but moreover because using colouring as a therapy uses parts of the brain that enhance focus and concentration, it helps too with organization skills, memory which is something I sure struggle with and positivity.
What this book has is small selection of drawing to colour but included with it is a cd of relaxing music that is designed to listened to in tandem with the colouring to enhance the relaxation and lead toward a meditative state of mind.
It is something I would suggest trying out.

Pushing away

As I'm typing this it's raining hard  from what I can make out of the gloom just showing through my bedroom window at this hour so whither or not I get outside remains to be seen although after another day where the politicians singularly failed yet again discussing and voting on trade options after the EU but NOT passing an actual withdraw agreement that EU Rules require before they can start negotiating trade outside of it with us.
It's hardly surprising then that a return to the constants in my life has been around in the last month or so across the board as much as because all that "groan up" stuff I've struggled with motivation. 

I have been spending more time out not just walking although I have been doing that too but also sat in the park, just focusing on what's around such as the various flowers that are starting to emerge from the winter, passing insects and birds and trying to keep my mind more more on what I need to do rather than being diverted toward those things that really I have little control over.
I have been doing a bit more reading, reading more of the kinds of stories I loved in original childhood with mysteries and adventures and connected with it spending a bit more time on a website for people who like that kind of fiction, talking with them.
Being in more of a child-like mindset makes for a big difference not least when as it was at the weekend Mother's day over here cos our relationship is still very much child to parent.
As well I have been around SN as tensions lead to toward issues in my emotions and breakdowns when it comes my behaviour that can be talked through as much as with someone like me spanking or at the very least a reminder of its likelihood really helps with it as I easily get into oppositional conduct striking out.
That sites recent changes seem to have reinvigorated it not just in having a software update but also when it comes to interaction with more discussion as well as 'fun' threads.

Mother's Day weekend

While the silliness in the groan up world continues unabated, yesterday when I was working away on writing this was over here, Mothering Sunday/Mother's Day which obviously meant that I got mine a card - pretty funny in an affectionate way actually - and a present.

There's something in the argument that thanks is best served frequently when it is often our Moms do things for us typically when they have other things to be doing to and it can be in the form of things we do for them but it's probably as well to have a focus for showing our appreciation such as a nationally recognized day.

That said I did channel my Inner Brownie too as I was doing things for the community such as delivering a magazine when I faced a pretty big challenge as making way around putting them in letter boxes I noticed a large temporary structure outside one property.
This structure on wheels with brakes started from the upper storey windows and came right to the ground totally obstructing access to the door and letter box being low and not having much height between the individual bits so I wasn't inclined to crawl under it to get to the door!
I started to think what I had on me as there didn't seem to be much activity so knocking on the rear door wasn't going to be an option and I had this idea that involved taking an elastic band the magazines had come bundled with, wrapping it around the magazine  which I could roll up into a tube shape and hooking that on the far end of the door handle.
There was just about a metre and a quarter I could just about stuck my hand through to get to the door handle so having rolled the magazine up and wrapped the band around it on the second go I got on and was able to pull it back toward me to make it secure.
A great example of resourcefulness and being prepared I'd say as I don't know many who'd go to that much trouble to deliver their magazine.