Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board
Voicelessness and Emotional Survival => Voicelessness and Emotional Survival Message Board => Topic started by: October on October 15, 2006, 01:40:40 PM
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I have spent enough time here complaining that life is unfair, so it is time to stop all that and take a more positive approach.
So, on the good side, I have cut the back lawn today, and trimmed the bushes around the house some more, until the hedge trimmers broke. :lol: I took them back to dad, and said, the good news is I have brought the hedge trimmers back. The bad news is, they are not working any more. He is going to try to fix them; I offered to replace them but he says they are very old anyway. I said, let me know when they are mended, because I want to borrow them again. :lol:
I cut my neighbour's hedge too, which was a good thing to do, because we had a nice chat, putting the world to rights, as you do. A lot of the time I isolate myself too much, and it is easy to forget how important small chats with people are in reminding us of who we are.
D went into town with a friend - I took them and later picked them up again. They each bought a makeup set, which I think is so nice for them to do. Exactly what two 13 year olds should be doing together.
What else? Younger brother is coming tonight for a fortnight with m&d, so that will be nice. He asked me what my fav whiskey is, so he might be bringing me some duty free, which will be lovely. He brought me some London Dry Gin about 5 years ago, and it is still unopened, because I don't like drinking alone, and always forget to offer it to friends. But I think I might manage the odd small whiskey, over the winter. But it is just nice to be remembered. When I was at m&ds they looked up his flight on teletext to see when it is due, six hours beforehand, which is kind of touching, really. Now it is about an hour from landing, they will be watching all the time. :D
So there we are, lots of nice, simple, positive stuff. No need for high drama, which after all is the stuff of N lives. Cut out the drama queens, and those who wreak havoc in our emotions, and keep with the garden fence stuff.
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I loved your whole post, October.
And especially this:
how important small chats with people are in reminding us of who we are.
It's exactly the kind of thing that my father did during his 40+ years in this town, that made the little clerk at the dry cleaner's burst into tears when someone took in his robe to be cleaned and she found out he was dying.
He made each little chat, each encounter, a dance of welcome.
And he always assumed everyone else was just as welcome as he was.
I think you and he would have gotten on wonderfully, October.
HAPPY SUNDAY and what the heck, Monday too! :D
Hops
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I loved your whole post, October.
And especially this:
how important small chats with people are in reminding us of who we are.
It's exactly the kind of thing that my father did during his 40+ years in this town, that made the little clerk at the dry cleaner's burst into tears when someone took in his robe to be cleaned and she found out he was dying.
He made each little chat, each encounter, a dance of welcome.
And he always assumed everyone else was just as welcome as he was.
I think you and he would have gotten on wonderfully, October.
HAPPY SUNDAY and what the heck, Monday too! :D
Hops
And the rest of the week to you, Hops!! :lol:
What did your father do? He sounds very special.
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He was a geography teacher.
I loved watching him draw maps when I was little.
(This was pre-computer...)
He worked in army intelligence during the war...a total nerd, he would never've made it through Basic, but he was commissioned to make maps for the allies. One of his officemates in Oxford was Ian Fleming, which impressed me terribly. :)
Hops
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He was a geography teacher.
I loved watching him draw maps when I was little.
(This was pre-computer...)
He worked in army intelligence during the war...a total nerd, he would never've made it through Basic, but he was commissioned to make maps for the allies. One of his officemates in Oxford was Ian Fleming, which impressed me terribly. :)
Hops
I am impressed as well, so I don't blame you. :D
I used to like drawing maps at school, but it is really hard to get every detail right, and not miss out a few inlets around the Scottish coastline, so if he could do that accurately, then he must have had infinite patience. :)
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Well, he did have great patience (he put up with me :)), mixed with a touch of OCD.
Perfect for maps. Professional perfectionism...carried over to doing things "just so" at home.
But he was so sweet it was not distressing, except when he was cooking and the directions would say "cube the celery". You could've played dice with Dad's celery cubes! :)
Hops
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Well, he did have great patience (he put up with me :)), mixed with a touch of OCD.
Perfect for maps. Professional perfectionism...carried over to doing things "just so" at home.
But he was so sweet it was not distressing, except when he was cooking and the directions would say "cube the celery". You could've played dice with Dad's celery cubes! :)
Hops
That is so sweet!! I don't think my dad would know what celery looks like, let alone be able to cook with it. :lol:
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Hops
My grandfather used to time his boiled egg with a stopwatch....very carefully. Eminently sensible too 8)
the grass continues to grow October :D and all the trees here are very leafed and green. Where is autumn?
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Hops
My grandfather used to time his boiled egg with a stopwatch....very carefully. Eminently sensible too 8)
the grass continues to grow October :D and all the trees here are very leafed and green. Where is autumn?
I drove to see parents and yb earlier today, and thought that same thing. Some trees are turning copper, but most are still green, and no sign of autumn, as you say. :D
However, the hedgetrimmers are now mended, and I can now start to procrastinate finishing off the hedge once more. Add it to the list of things to be put off til next week. :lol:
My grandad used to hold an apple in two hands, and twist it into two halves, and then he used to say, who wants the biggest half, and then when we said we did, he would say, there is no biggest half. Half means they are both the same.
I am not sure if we thought that was funny or not, but we liked the splitting an apple trick. :lol:
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October, why procrastinate today when you can put it off indefinitely? (it's too wet anyway!) The hedge top here is now too tall to cut. It's been liberated :D
I like the apple halved, must be a skilled technique. Like catching the newly bought jam-jar lid before it realises that you're going to open it (if you're too late and it senses your approach, it clings on to the jar and refuses to budge...obstinately...)....okay. Back to reality 8)
are those words by my post stuff very trite?
i can't decide. Naff or not naff? Silly or sober? Hmmm. Maybe I'll do an advert instead! "Eat at Joe's"
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October, why procrastinate today when you can put it off indefinitely? (it's too wet anyway!) The hedge top here is now too tall to cut. It's been liberated :D
I like the apple halved, must be a skilled technique. Like catching the newly bought jam-jar lid before it realises that you're going to open it (if you're too late and it senses your approach, it clings on to the jar and refuses to budge...obstinately...)....okay. Back to reality 8)
are those words by my post stuff very trite?
i can't decide. Naff or not naff? Silly or sober? Hmmm. Maybe I'll do an advert instead! "Eat at Joe's"
Not naff. Very sensible. I like the idea of indefinite procrastination. Why do it at all, when it only needs doing again in the spring.
The prob is, I managed my side of the hedge, and then the trimmers broke. So I could leave it, but it looks as if I have fallen out with the neighbours, (even though the other side is, technically, theirs to cut) because I usually do it. So I can't leave it too long...
However, there are black clouds gathering again, so maybe tomorrow will do.
Garden waste is due to be collected next Wed, so as long as I sort it before then, all will be fine. Or after, for that matter ...
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You know, i worry about us! You do their part of the hedge, i do my neighbours' lawns and have the muscles to prove it (just in the one arm, so it looks very lopsided). How about topiary.....?
There used to be a garden in nhbhn vbhbjhbhb (ha right number of letters!) which had hedge chickens and the like. Why do people....? I guess it's a passion (there's a fine line between 'hobby' and 'illness' :P)
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Naff? Definition please?
PP
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Naff? Definition please?
PP
Kipper ties. Wide lapels. Leggings. Anything with polka dots. :lol:
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You know, i worry about us! You do their part of the hedge, i do my neighbours' lawns and have the muscles to prove it (just in the one arm, so it looks very lopsided). How about topiary.....?
There used to be a garden in nhbhn vbhbjhbhb (ha right number of letters!) which had hedge chickens and the like. Why do people....? I guess it's a passion (there's a fine line between 'hobby' and 'illness' :P)
I do their part of the hedge, because they probably haven't checked the deeds to realise that bit of my garden is actually their garden. And because if they ever did find out and cut down 'my' hedge, I would be cross. My whole house is surrounded by hedge or trees or something green. Like the castle in Sleeping Beauty. :lol:
So, finders keepers, and it is mine because I cut it and maintain it. :lol:
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I wore leggings and t-shirt the whole time I was pregnant and for about 3 years after!
No topiary for me, I discovered years ago there were only the same 24 hours in each day and if you grow all the greenery round the house you don't have to waste time opening and closing curtains.
I've been on a twenty year mission to liberate British women from ironing clothes, it's a kind of evangalism with me now, I get this mad gleam in my eye and have to try and convert people.
Though I'm sure with some of my older relatives ironing was a sex substitute, they'd get all misty eyed over pressing underpants....
I used to live in a magic house in the woods in Arkansas, still waiting for the handsome prince who in my story does the gardening, cooks breakfast and then b*ggers off somewhere to let me get on with my work!
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Naff!
Tricky...well....see what October says but naff I'd say is: not cool like when you're a teen watching your Dad dance to popular music (that's naff unless he was Fred Astair): or...naff is a joke that makes you groan rather than laugh...naff is not stylish or even ironic, it's silly but not funny. Not wise. Foolish and crude.
Naff is: kitsch that isn't good-looking! It's a failure of a thing, it simply doesn't work. I think!
But there is a brand called NafNaf i think? Hmm global marketing!
October yes leggings! (Does 'leggings' translate PP?)
So, finders keepers, and it is mine because I cut it and maintain it.
and the law used to be that if you did it for 12 years....it's yours! i think.
Write, when pregnant you can do *anything* and automatically not be naff. Deffo :D even eating coal.
if you grow all the greenery round the house you don't have to waste time opening and closing curtains.
i like that image I really do! 8)
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I used to live in a magic house in the woods in Arkansas, still waiting for the handsome prince who in my story does the gardening, cooks breakfast and then b*ggers off somewhere to let me get on with my work!
My d has cured me of ironing. She always takes clothes from the ironing pile, puts them on, and they look perfectly fine. So eventually I thought, she is right, and what am I doing? So I have hardly touched an iron for months.
Should have made clear. Naff is the fashions, music etc from two years ago or further. Not naff is the stuff we are wearing today, which will be naff in two years time.
Risking offending people now, but what is it about black kitchen worktops? Everyone is fitting them, because everyone else is fitting them. Do they not realise that black kitchen worktops of today will go the same way as avocado bathroom suites of the early 1980s? Or is it just me? :?
And for the slight obsessive side of me, how can they possibly tell they are clean?
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But there is a brand called NafNaf i think? Hmm global marketing!
Yes, a brand that people of a certain age would never even think of buying!
Write, when pregnant you can do *anything* and automatically not be naff. Deffo :D even eating coal.
Agreed!
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October, you been looking in my closet?
Kipper ties. Wide lapels. Leggings. Anything with polka dots.
My favorites. Except I did have to give up the kipper ties because of the smell...
Okay, I give. Wot's a kipper tie?
Hops
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what is it about black kitchen worktops?
hahaha ..haaaa! :D They're reproducing overnight in a kitchen near you. :shock: :D Like triffids. Invasion of the black worktops.
as avocado bathroom suites of the early 1980s?
I still have the original 1985 fawny-browny suite and expect it to become fashionable 8)
how can they possibly tell they are clean?
Wipe over with anti-bacterial cloth and then crouch down to worktop height and check surface by looking across the level towards the wall.....ahem...not that i do this with my fawn worktop of course... :? :P
Ahhhh kipper ties I can smell 'em now....
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hahaha ..haaaa! :D They're reproducing overnight in a kitchen near you. :shock: :D Like triffids. Invasion of the black worktops.
I'm only jealous, of course. Except if I were having a new kitchen, I would choose white marble, not black. Black is in, so to my mind that is a very good reason not to buy it. Like putting a date stamp on the work surface. :lol:
And don't get me started on laminate flooring, and decking in the garden ... (If I could choose, I would have ceramic floors. But I can't, so it is ancient carpet and like it.
I still have the original 1985 fawny-browny suite and expect it to become fashionable 8)
I think you are ok with that. If it is never the height of fashion, then it can never become dated. It becomes a timeless classic. 8)
Wipe over with anti-bacterial cloth and then crouch down to worktop height and check surface by looking across the level towards the wall.....ahem...not that i do this with my fawn worktop of course... :? :P
Did you see Kim and Aggie last night? That woman had 70,000,000 bacteria on her worktop. But how do they know? How come such a round number, and how come 70,000,000, and not 65,900,450?
And another 40,000,000 in her microwave. Presumably dead, unless bacteria are immune to microwave cooking. :?
So many questions, so few answers ...
Ahhhh kipper ties I can smell 'em now....
:lol:
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No Laminate! No decking! We need laws against this type of thing 8)
how come 70,000,000, and not 65,900,450?
I didn't see them but I know them. They must have counted them all :o yes sure really, ...
hehe :D
what if he was wearing this? http://www.noveltiesgalore.com/prod/c66/673/kipper_ties_jazz.html
PS. that was for Hops
PPS. This is for October's inner urbanite-city-chic-works-60-hours-a-week-and-demands-only-the-best-because-she-deserves-it-damnittt! Would you like matching tiles with that madam? 8) http://www.granite-kitchen-worktops.co.uk/form.htm?type=44
Bargain! About 3 grand for a small kitchen! :shock:
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Thanks, P...it's a lovely tie to be sure, but I'm still confused. Ain't no fish on it!
Me, I'd like lovely old wood planking countertops. I've never liked granite...too coooold.
But as a second choice, I'd take some kind of tile. (With grout the color of....stains.) :)
Or maybe soapstone. We've got a quarry near here.
Fat chance I'll ever afford renovations, so it's 1964 frozen-in-time kitchen for me!
(Of course, for a Yank, that's oooooooold.)
Hops
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No Laminate! No decking! We need laws against this type of thing 8)
PPS. This is for October's inner urbanite-city-chic-works-60-hours-a-week-and-demands-only-the-best-because-she-deserves-it-damnittt! Would you like matching tiles with that madam? 8) http://www.granite-kitchen-worktops.co.uk/form.htm?type=44
Bargain! About 3 grand for a small kitchen! :shock:
Sounds like a bargain. I always wonder why God gave me such expensive taste, and so little money to indulge it. :?
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Thanks, P...it's a lovely tie to be sure, but I'm still confused. Ain't no fish on it!
Me, I'd like lovely old wood planking countertops. I've never liked granite...too coooold.
But as a second choice, I'd take some kind of tile. (With grout the color of....stains.) :)
Or maybe soapstone. We've got a quarry near here.
Fat chance I'll ever afford renovations, so it's 1964 frozen-in-time kitchen for me!
(Of course, for a Yank, that's oooooooold.)
Hops
Retro is in, so you should be fine with genuine 1964. All that orange and brown. :shock:
I don't think I would like wooden worksurfaces, because of all those 70,000,000 germs. But wooden floors are lovely, as long as they are genuine, and not laminate. Or else very expensive laminate; that would be ok, with underfloor heating. :D
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Hops.....it's the shape....i don't know why exactly... :?
October
I always wonder why God gave me such expensive taste, and so little money to indulge it.
so you could have dreams.... :? Having taste is not the same as having money. You might have money but no taste - how much worse would that be?? 8) ahhh the price of everything and the value of nothing :D
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Oh Portia ,
I love Love this
ahhh the price of everything and the value of nothing :D
Too cool I remember my hippie days Mr moon and I did not have a penny and those were some of the happiest days of my life.
The values were love and kindness no one proving themselves to anyone really it was like that !
Well there was some competion like who's jean's had the coolest patches on them. 8)
But I digress.......................in the wayback machine.
Maybe those values are great adding more serious responsibility.
new page
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Hops.....it's the shape....i don't know why exactly... :?
October
I always wonder why God gave me such expensive taste, and so little money to indulge it.
so you could have dreams.... :? Having taste is not the same as having money. You might have money but no taste - how much worse would that be?? 8) ahhh the price of everything and the value of nothing :D
I am not sure that would be worse. Those with money and no taste are not aware that they have no taste. They think white leather car interiors are really cool. But it is impossible not to know that you don't have enough money. :( And this is not just not enough money for a second holiday, this is not enough money to eat, kind of poor. :?
However, as you say, the dreams are fun. :lol: