Thanksgiving edition

It's a dullish damp feeling kind of a day here as I've been around for a walk seeing the bird nests up in the trees and trying hard not to go skating on the many yellowish brown leaves that are around.

While the year had been better than last - could hardly of been worse - for some it still remained trying with shortages due to supply line issues but it is time to reflect upon those things and people who have made things the best they can for us by their time and service.

Over here we're a bit remise in marking Thanksgiving.

Wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving next week!

Best wishes, Jo. x

Sweet or Sour?

It's early in the week as we get to work on this weeks post as the money request for next years littles get together has come in.

What might on any other day be called what it means to be socially a girl has been argued over for well over forty years as I can think of.

One approach as been to argue it's kind of like this poster on the face of it more passive, reflective and sweet.

But is that poster even right when Miss Piggy is sassy and not opposed to doing karate moves on Kermit, that pink for girls is just about 100 years old and originally it was blue for girls and would being more aggressive really be that much better?

What if instead of Barbie or Bratz, we had a female action figure together with things like vehicles and weapons reflecting that being female doesn't mean you can and may well be in the war and that perhaps something science or sports based was in that mix too?

Rather than arguing over what is "truly" our gender roles are we just left things more as they are as you find work best for you and supported individuals right to be whatever and whoever they are?

Isn't sweet better than sour too?

Getting about

Last weekend I was away which usually brings into focus those things I can't change being disabled such as difficulties getting into coaches with my legs as I had to use a rail replacement bus rather that the train  due to engineering work or getting up a long stairwell to have a wash and that when you're staying with friends.

That's pretty much the thing cos you can't expect them to fix everything like stairwells just for you any more than anyone else.

It doesn't mean that they're not things if you are staying together you could do to help like this for instance:

If I ran with a tray in my hand even assuming I was able to hold on to it with my hand shaking, it's very likely it would be at an angle with the risks of spillage as I'm so unco-ordinated which is why it's so important to either let us go around with someone to help us get food before people start pushing and diving in or for you to actually get and carry it for us.

It is okay to ask if I or anyone like me would like some help in situations like this and please consider our difficulties where you're getting yours and I'm trying to get mine so I don't loose my balance, tripping up.

Small things often make our lives better.

Putting or being put in your place?

Well, how do you think such a magnificent attempt to usurp authority is going to go here and is there indeed a way her "good time" can end up being anything but thinking she's calling the shots now?

I mean when in the past I tried tell someone what they could do when I'd really crossed them it never ended well invariably worse than if I'd of just got on and took whatever they had decided to do when it came to making  me pay for it.

Has anyone ever got away with that?

I'll be away for a few days and better be good I guess but as I'm likely to have to get my behind in gear packing my stuff, remembering to lock the door when I get out early I'll conclude by thanking everyone for following  as this blog is hardly promoted and for your comments.

Regards  Jo.

"Red bum at night, right tearful day to stay"

Opal Plumstead revisited

This week I am revisiting a book that appealed to me a few years ago not least as with current events it has been taking me out of where I need to be, that boarding school girl and just be surrounded by groan up stuff that doesn't do me much good

This book was published in the autumn of 2014 and concerns the life of one Opal Plumstead aged 14 who got a scholarship to attend school planning to go on to university when she was older.

Alas her plans are shattered upon her father being sent to prison and so unable to take up the scholarship and having to get a a job at the Fairy Glen sweet factory to keep her family as was often the case in 1913. 

To start with she struggles with getting on the staff who think she's "stuck up" and snobby unlike them but she takes a shine to Mrs Roberts, the business owner introducing her to the Suffragette movement.

She also meets Morgan, the son and heir to the business who she feels she finally has a soul mate in but with war on the horizon bringing many forced changes it can only change Opal's life forever.

As a piece of historical fiction it helps to bring to life the lives and events of that whole era that lead to WW1 and in  its aftermath the widespread social  changes of Great Britain that I enjoyed learning about when I was younger.

To me setting things in their everyday context makes it easier to comprehend just how peoples could change so suddenly in an era without social insurance and where to see the doctor cost money.

Many boxes, one you

 Yes I know technically I'm in a state of disgrace but I can still talk to people 'kay?

Sometimes I do wonder if people write responses to subjects rather than any critical understanding of what the question was put in the first place if my experiences around various sites are anything like typical.

One of the first things I think you need to do is get a clear indication of how that person is feeling and what it is they are looking for in terms of an answer as some people are just wanting to be given "the fix" and a pat on the back.

Others still remain very much questioning their own previous thoughts  and perhaps may be better served taking a step back and then exploring a few things which are not permanent and are less likely to cause any issues further down the line of it is they find it wasn't what they were looking for.

I think you really can rush at changing major aspects of your life without fully considering if that is you which having had a few about turns over the years I can understand.

The other thing is sometimes we are so keen to emphasis individual difference we may ignore how much we may actually share something untypical but possibly a part of what makes us unique.

There's nothing wrong with having a different interest or hobby than your peers, you're you in all that as much as having my disabilities makes me what I am too to the point I wouldn't not want to be me as much as it is a challenge at times.

Another reset needed

It's been a quick transition from late summer to autumn with it getting much cooler and for their being torrential rain that meant it wasn't able to get out much plus that districts from being stuff.

Somethings have been coming along fairly okay like getting things for the next get together and things for Christmas but there are other things on my mind.

I was struggling several days ago just getting head into gear, missing off tidying things away before going into this tiny hidey hole for hours and emerging to the mood music so with how things are right now with me it wasn't long before the cane came out.

You might of wished it had stayed at this point, a few strokes but it won't anymore so the gym knickers came down and that's when it all started.

Several days on and there remain welts that are raised apart from lumps from a well caned bottom that feel warm and sore with searing burning sensations amplified if I sit for any length of time that intrude on my thoughts so I can't tune them out of my head.

However you wrap this thing up, I am very conscious of been disciplined, the unpleasant sensations that lead to you feeling tearful but knowing you brought this on by you inactions.

I don't need nor deserve sympathy for what lead to this because I know what it is I am meant to do and how things will run from now on if they don't because the emotions, the unpleasant feelings are what need to burn into me to deter this kind of attitude.

My job is to take and learn from it without exceptions.

I'm paying the price for my own actions and inactions these days.