For fifteen years after my first dog passed, I decided against getting another companion animal,even though “Silver” had been brilliant, and it was heartbreaking not to have him. I knew that I was going to be by myself and working full-time, so it wasn’t fair.
I sacrificed what I must say now is an essential and enjoyable part of my life. I made the right decision, however ,as I really did not have the wherewithal to look after a dog.I wish more people realised this before jumping in both feet to acquire one.They need you and they need your time.
I’m pleased to say that once my partner and I were in a position to spend the time,money, and effort in having a dog.Tedi came into our lives and he is nothing like “Silver” but he is a brilliant dog too.
However,being dogless all those years was a sacrifice, which I’m glad I made.
I wear it all the time,except when I’m at work,my grandma’s bracelet.It is well over 100 years old, and even at the time my grandfather bought it for her it was an expensive piece.
I don’t even know how I was given it,my mum must have passed it on to me when she was alive. I’ve had it valued. its cartage is high, so I asked the jeweller to put a safety chain on it as the clasp is quite worn. I feel safe wearing it now, and because it’s almost pure gold, it won’t make a mark on my wrist.
When my grandmother (known as nanny) was young and courting ,things were much harder for people, and she would have had a small wrist. So I’m pleased the bracelet fits me,the style of it helps as it’s not round but elliptical.
There is a pattern on the top side of it,and this has worn through time ,which, of course, makes it more valuable to me.It reminds me of her as I remember staying with her for the whole of one summer,she had the most lovely birthday party for me,I must have been about five.
Dublin was our safety net, and I now know my parents were concerned as 1960’s tenement Glasgow was not a good place to be,so I was packed off.
It also makes me think how much my grandfather loved her,he was a Cooper at Guiness’s, which must have been a very good job at the time.He gave her an expensive piece of jewellery which has proved stylish and timeless and helps me remember many happy times. Isn’t it funny what love can do?
I once met a girl who said she was a natural follower.It’s a valid point,she had been in a managerial position three months and hated it so much that she asked for a transfer to her previous position in another area .
Her company asked if she would be willing to be a floating manager,covering sickness as she had the ability and the skills etc,but hated leading or being seen to lead a team of people she knew .In other words, her team of followers had not acted as followers at all but were instead would be leaders.Hence the girl had had a miserable time managing her team.
In the end, she loved being a floating manager because she could do what she was good at without having to manage a team of people who she knew and who thought they knew her.
Following on from that humble example, we have dictators,as per the current situation in Tunisia,where the “laws” of Tunisia have been overturned in order to facilitate “change” in the country.Basically what the President says goes.
In Tunisia today , someone thinks they are a leader,but they can only lead by force or by undermining the constitution of that country .It is potentially very dangerous to believe you have “the right” to lead,particularly for those who oppose your leadership and are no longer protected by the laws of the country.
All the financial ,health ,and business scandals in the UK where I live and that have been unearthed so far have been leader led.
These scandals ,for example Dido Harding “Test and Trace”, Robert Maxwell “Pension Funds Scandal”to mention two.
Billions of Public Money frittered away so that one individual can get a benefit either for themselves, or their friends or their family.
The interesting thing is that these are figure head leaders,bogey men, and bogey women.Put in that position to do the dirty work and then blamed and pilloried and held up as an example.
Leadership in the UK is on the whole faceless and nameless.Things happen, and you never quite know why.That is not healthy either. No one can be accountable, yet our fate is decided.
I suspect these non-leaders follow no one but themselves and are actually convinced that nameless,unaccountable control is a valid aim and that no one would follow them anyway,but they know what’s best for us public and our purses.
So,yes, neither a Leader or Follower be if you want to get ahead or indeed keep your head.
I love sausages,so to motivate me to eat fruit,I make my five favourite sausages,because generally I find fruit rather boring.
I buy the skin of the sausages on the Internet, and this has been very much a trial and error process.However,I now have the perfect vegetarian gelatin based skin to use with my sausage making machine.
So my favourites are
Banana Sausage
Strawberry Sausage
Tomato Sausage
New Zealand Kiwi Sausage
Blueberry Sausage.
I make one batch flavour a day and freeze them.I aim to have my five favourite flavours each day and cook them many ways. I never get bored with them.
What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?
She tweaked it, and suddenly the blossom fell.
Blossom
“That’s Blossom! “she thought to herself.Some petals fell to the ground, and she gathered them up and took them home to make the most delectable perfume. The other petals she left on the ground as the flowers had seed in them and would make blossom next year.
Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.
There is no special someone.Everyone I’ve met,everything I’ve read, and everyone I might meet has,does, and will have an impact on me.All positive because we communicate and learn from each other.
Even the worst evil can have a positive impact as the world turns against it and reminds us that we can stop it when we choose to.
It was the beginning of her shift,she had resigned two weeks ago, and tonight, after five years ,she would leave and never come back.Well ,she might come back as a customer at Christmas , Wankroses Christmas Food had been quite good and they usually had quite a good range of spices which were handy at Christmas.
The experience of working in a mainstream supermarket had been new to her, and she felt she had fitted in quite well.
Being on the till had seemed quite daunting to her at first ,but she had soon realised that it wasn’t really that difficult,that the powers that be felt they had reduced the complexity of the task to scanning a bar code and swiping from left to right.
She laughed to herself whilst sitting there that her slender wrists movement and a gentle rotation of the hand were done with such aplomb that the customers were in awe of her deftness.
In truth,the customers were in awe of her friendliness and understanding.Something ,she learned that Wankroses Management needed lessons in.
So here they were, an hour and a half into her last shift.She wasn’t allowed near the tills or running the self checkout, which gave the duty manager an absolute headache but made her smile.
“Rules was rules”.
She, on the other hand, knew there was a lot that needed done; so she wasn’t going to be bored on shift. She began by pulling products forward on the shelves which had been in dissaray.There was a spillage by a customer of a fruit yoghurt,she cleaned the squidgy mess up,and put the yellow warning sign over the wet patch so that no one would slip on it,while the wet floor dried.
It was as she came out of the back of the shop;she saw the young man with a rucksack on his back go straight up to the Lottery and Cigarettes area.
Definately, an 18-25 check she thought to herself,and watched as one of the young shop assistants who was as bright as a button and that she really liked went behind the counter and served the young man.
She wasn’t paying much attention as she tidied up some giftwrap and noticed that the young man had left the store. The young shop assistant came over and said to her.
“Would you have age checked him?”
“Well, yes,I think I would,no harm in asking for ID.”
“Oh ,I should have done,I nearly did.”
Just then, the young man returned and walked up to the young shop assistant with a letter and handed it to her.The young lad had been a mystery shopper and the store had been caught selling restricted goods to an underage shopper.
Too late,the Duty Manager came out and started telling everyone that he had heard from another shop that the mystery shopper was in the area and that to be extra careful.
The young shop assistant burst into tears and held out the letter.
Funny, she tried a month or two back to warn the Store Manager that things were not as they should be when the duty manager was on.
It was the second sale of restricted goods to a minor in one month.
All that happened after her talk with the store manager was she had been subjected to further sexist behaviour by said Duty Manager, and things went from bad to worse.She decided it was time to go.If there isn’t a willingness to improve things will never improve.
The said Duty Manager that they were now so short staffed that she would have to do all the things that the rules said she shouldn’t do as the poor bright as a button shop assistant would have to be interviewed and do her training again in the back of the shop.
At the end of the shift, when the shop staff were standing at the door waiting to leave and saying their final goodbyes to her .
The Duty Manager passed by her, and she said “Freedom ” straight in his ear. Knowing that the Duty Manager certainly was not a free man,but she was free now.
I can feel the frustration of the mob ,how dare I?Our Sacred Sir Paul,who never has done harm to anyone and has done so much good.
Yes,but he is not my favourite Beatle, and I don’t like his sense of humour when I see him being interviewed.
I also am not vegetarian and will never be,although I’m not in total disagreement with Sir Paul’s views on this and have definitely reduced my consumption of meat and increased my culinary expertise with the more common vegetables.(My carrot Byrriani is to die for).
Also,I look for good animal welfare standards whenever I shop and am concerned that gung-ho trade deals by governments may let unacceptable imports enter into the food chain.
However,I will never be vegetarian, and neither will my dog.
Anyway,my disagreement with Sir Paul started with the break up of the Beatles(I think it was his fault).I never knew what really happened and my disagreement may be totally illogical.
However, the Mull of Kintyre debacle was the decider.He was living the “Good Life”even before Tom and Barbara(Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall) on a Scottish Peninsula, that he bought.He now lives between London and New York.I don’t believe that is compatible.
Plus ,the bagpipes and the video of that record.No wonder he produced Band on The Run.
Anyway, what I know of Sir Paul is only the Publicity Sausage Machine(albeit vegetarian).I know nothing about the real man,so no hard feelings; and my virtual nice clean tee shirt has been ruined by the virtual rotten tomatoes thrown at me.
Career is not a bad word as long as you don’t take it too seriously.Otherwise, you go careering into Death… which is a fate worse than Life.
Oh, and pages of cv’s are mostly boring, and no one cares about your hobbies, which really are far more interesting and tell them more about what kind of person you really are.
Indeed,recruitment for most jobs now is analouge and homogenised.They want to fit the peg to the hole and not the other way round.
I will have to view the prompt slightly differently,in that I hope it wasn’t the last live performance I will see and that I have more theatre, concerts and comedy to see.
It was Macbeth in a field at Buscot Lock. The Touring Theatre Group’s name escapes me for the moment ,but they were all male and had great voices and had no problem portraying their characters.
I love sitting on camp chairs with a small picnic beside me and a plastic beaker of apple juice and watching a different version of my favourite, life unravelling play.
I like to be at the back and move my chair if anyone sits in front of me and I can’t see.I try to get on higher ground.It was a nice evening and I didn’t buy a programme.
thenotsomightyom 