Up and listening edition

We're here.

Just wakes up and fixes breakfast and school is back as people filed past my window this morning and I'm trying to ward off the many viruses about part from the usual things like taking tea out and sorting the recycling which here seems to be never ending with various over package items from Amazon.

It's also time where the bigger things from CatMas having been skimmed through tend to be looked at in more detail like any kits or stuff such as books of which I did read the one about the legendary Blue Peter editor Biddy Baxter between the comics over the last week and a half given my reading issues.

Then there are things like records and cds with records usually requiring a quick clean first and that's where we are this week on the blog where we open the shrinkwrapping and start drifting back to the mid eighties and nineties with music I do know but somehow never all gathered in one package here.

I felt this double album was extremely well put together and sounded great on my stereo

Blown about

 

For some of us given the rather extreme weather we have been experiencing in the last few weeks and indeed is forecast for this weekend it's likely both your hands are going to busy trying to stay decent, avoiding blushes while out.

Perhaps that life hack of our Late Queen, of sowing weights in the hemline may help deal with such potential mishaps?

Conversations

It can be taxing I guess when you thought you'd seen off all the challenges of the past whither it was getting in Mom's good books or for that matter she thought you'd grown up so no longer required quite the handling you had when you were younger.

New potentially self absorbing interests though enter as others leave.

The honest answer with me would run something like this:

"Mom, sometimes I just don't seem to be able to stop myself although I know what you said the other day".

"Just saying you're disappointed with me and saying I can't go to the shopping mall on Saturday with my mates doesn't seem to work".

"It may seem odd, Mommy, but those spankings did help me then to turn around my attitudes and behaviour and yes I think although it'll hurt it'll help me remember not to disobey you."

"I'd like you to give me a spanking for this." "Shall I fetch the hairbrush for you?"

*based on actual incident in the past.

Does respect still exist in families?

I've been deliberating for a few days about where I was going to put this post but actually I think it belongs here rather than my more "littles" blog.

As most of you are aware I lost my mother a while back leaving Dad and Myself as surviving household members, other immediate siblings being in relationships apart from us.

Dad has some mobility problems coming through the impact of cancer on his kidneys making its way into breathing apart from sciatica and likes to visit Mom's grave where whilst cremated there lies a headstone a couple of miles away.

Unexpectedly my younger brothers wife rung following her much delayed operation for Carpal Tunnel and he spoke with her and in the course of which he asked if they, the next time they were going could take him to the grave.

They would have to past the turning to us to get to it from where they live and she agreed with dad saying should they want a quiet moment then he'd step away.

Come Sunday, they turn up and indeed they do take him but he only finds they elect to stay in the car while he goes down a pathway rather than all walking with them pausing near the adjacent church.

They also reject any and all attempts to open a conversation about where he'd been, how they find it, or even ask him how he was feeling afterwards.

It was as if they just wouldn't speak to him as his sons father and a fellow family member even on the face of it another fellow human being where many of us just would even to those we don't know well.

We have empathy and yet there was none showing, leaving him feeling he was being deliberately ignored.

He was very emotional upon his return to which I got the full blast of -and although I could use not being the sole dumping ground of his emotions you couldn't help wondering just what my brother and wife were really playing at treating him more like ghost.

Thoughts on Christmas and the last year

 So it is a few days after Christmas when in the grown up world the papers held under the Thirty Year Rule and a few others come out to embarrass senior politicians and their friends and talk around the Kings's New Years Honours starts leaking although you're not supposed to say a word to soul one you've had the initial letter and your reply until the official announcement is given.

We also had severe storms with rain here which worked into flooding and half the road losing power for a good number of hours.

Following events last year I started to see some people I'd know for a number of years here, renewing connections that lead to a few invites for coffee and the odd community based day trip just get a break from things apart from going out exploring which really helped with getting past some of the depression I was going through.

I did get to the first Ikklespace picnic in ages Sammy had laid on which did see things improve with me, being able to contribute more with the group and act more from the fun loving side rather than feeling a sad, lost child.

On the upside, I did redo much of my littles outfits to match more where in my head I am, however others may see it, were more of an emphasize on quality sometimes more tradition, other stuff more what modern school girls wear such as in sports wear.

I'm less interested in exact replication of a period so much as just being the little side of me taking the  benefits of the modern era, more in tune with the spirit of modern co-ed prep schools with the mix of ancient and modernity.

Not everything of the past was great although much is worth keeping if not defending.

Some of that was visible when much against the odds and with a bit of work from Jennifer and Katie I did actually get to Summer Camp where I felt the most relaxed for a long time just getting along with play, having fun and helping out a bit.

Eventually some of the clothes I'd bought for Winter 2022 camp actually got worn as some of the changes I had been going through over the last few years finally came together even if they may not be what some might as above all I just need to be me and not someone elses idea of what  littles is.

I continued to enjoy the women's soccer and their young following seeing girls going to the park for a kickabout tearing up the old gender divides.

I don't feel inclined to play by the rules of the past anymore than today's girls and that runs beyond groan up talk to littles life.

I hold with inclusiveness for all, girls and boys of all shades and tastes not being told what a girl should be or do either in the Big or Little worlds.

That's my take on this thing as show not just at Camp but the Halloween party from start to finish which I quite enjoyed not just with littles activities but socially too.

Christmas comes soon

 It's that time of the year when I take a break with everything that is on as while things have changed over the years and we do less taking presents to people nonetheless we still have people come and drop in at odd hours as suits them.

Then I have my cards and presents for people to do which all takes time and with my hands A LOT out of me as I struggle to write my name some days.

There are many fantasies people have over christmas and indeed many a tale about just how christmas turns out for naughty girls and boys from them that always want but don't give to those who are really rotten but perhaps a trip to lapland is what we're looking for.

*** WISHING ALL A WARM HAPPY CHRISTMAS ***

Getting ready for Christmas Week

This will be last full post on here until after Christmas  where I've been a bit busy writing cards and having my hair trimmed and restyled. 

Preparations for Christmas week here usually involve the traditional 14 day Radio Times that I still find easier to navigate than on screen electronic program guides apart from forgetting what I saw on screen seconds later.

Some of us read comics rather than the Economist and this year's 68 page special is one we'll be opening up to dip in and out of in what has for decades been a christmas ritual for some of us with seasonally themed cartoon strips with characters we grew up with like Dennis, Minnie and Gnasher and newer ones.

That's what the edition just after christmas as it usually pauses a week before looked like in the early 1980's before we went to full colour, glossy paper and bigger sized edition and no doubt there will be after Boxing Day edition this year to tuck into which after all the news on tv I'll be glad of.