Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?
I have a special thick glassed ,rectangular ,jug which fits nicely in my fridge that I fill with water and infused with crushed juniper berries and a number of spices such as cinnamon,nutmeg,fennel and a hint of chilli.
Like proper Gin,it doesn’t need to be infused or distilled(alcoholic version) for very long. My ideal is 3 hours in the fridge and then I use a strainer to pour the liquid straight into a highball glass,a piece of lemon and top of Fever Tree Tonic,my favourite being either the aromatic version or the light Mediterranean version.
The juniper gives me the gin flavour and the fact that there are no artificial additives or sugars added to either the infused water or tonic gives me extra hydration and I can enjoy my favourite drink without the drawbacks of a traditional alcoholic gin.
It was a warm evening, Milo the mouse was driving into the City to have a nice dinner. His secretary had booked a table at ” Le Grand Raton” his favourite eatery .
When Milo arrived at the restaurant, he was greeted by the concierge who was very happy to see him as he was a very good customer. Milo always tipped generously and had a very good sense of humour.
Milo sat down and had his meal, it was very tasty and of course he had a cheese course to finish. He paid his bill and left a generous tip.
He had parked his car a few streets away in an unlit alleyway. He wasn’t worried as he walked along, but he began to feel as if he was being followed. He reached his car and had pressed the sensor to open it , when he felt a black paw claw at his back. He was surrounded by about twenty cats, he was pulled away from is car and down the street.
Milo was very frightened and really thought that he wasn’t going to survive as the cats were beginning to scratch and pull at him. He looked around, but there was no chance of escape.
Suddenly, Milo heard a bark, and the cats scattered.
It was Stan, although Milo didn’t know his name yet . Stan was a dog who lived on the streets, he was quite old and was always suspicious when there were a lot of cats gathered , it usually meant they were up to no good. The cats were scared of Stan, no one messed with him , so as soon as they heard him bark they ran away.
Milo was a little bit bruised and battered and as the cats had disappeared he sat for a short while in the street. Stan walked up and in animal language , nuzzled him and asked him if he was OK.
Milo was so grateful to Stan for saving his life, he asked Stan if he was hungry. Stan was always hungry. So Milo said they should go to the restaurant and Stan could have what he liked. Stan liked that idea . It was while they were sitting together , that Milo thought , it would be good to have a bodyguard like Stan, so he asked Stan if he would like a job and would he come and live in Milo’s big house with him, that he had a big garden and there would always be plenty to eat. Stan said yes.
And so Milo and Stan got together and their adventures began.
Prompt : If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
If the World didn’t sleep, then it would deteriorate very quickly, sleep is regenerative. How dangerous to think we can live without sleep. So sleep is not wasted time. The time would not be extra , it would be taking away from something that is necessary to us.
So practically, the only people who really would make an effort to go without sleep are those who feel they can fill their time with more activities than others to gain an advantage, or those who just can’t sleep for health reasons( insomnia ). Insomniacs can’t sleep as much as they need and learn to live with the feeling of being tired .
It’s the first group that interest me, the second group have my sympathy and I hope they find techniques that help them. They know not sleeping does not give them “extra time”.
The people in the World who deliberately eat into their own “downtime” and ignore it’s benefits either have to do it, eg. medical staff, people in the armed forces, emergency response staff. They will work almost superhuman hours and achieve superhuman results because they can, but then they need rest and recuperation to recover. They cannot continue at the maximum response for long, their adrenalin may keep them going , but eventually they will burn out and will need to have back up.
Those who make a choice to not sleep to gain an advantage over others , end up on a slow burn and probably cannot think straight. Although in their mind they are functioning at full capacity. They don’t have back up and see whatever they are doing as helping humanity or giving them a distinct advantage against it. They can do more , because they have stolen time.
They know little what damage they can do or what ill effects it will have on their well being. Yes , they may think they are functioning at full capacity, but they are inevitably not. They are an electric car who needs a recharge, the warning red light has come on. It’s time to switch off. The other cars who have had their charge go off on their journey knowing they have a time limit , the more cars being charged the more complete journeys. Those that have stopped half way are those that ignore they needed to be recharged. They have broken down and will need to be rescued.
Please, please , be a World that allows sleep, it is part of our Survival, we all need downtime and rest.
Peeve is not a commonly used word. Indeed, it’s a long time since I heard anyone say it or even write it. I obviously don’t move in the right digital circles. It’s a good word in a bad way and perhaps I will try and integrate it somehow. Seems a shame to waste it. Or should I say it would be peevish to waste it?.
So perhaps we should start with a definition, as a verb, it’s to annoy or irritate. Certainly plenty of things in daily life that will do that. Though I think to peeve you really have to be at the extreme of annoying or irritating without actually doing physical or emotional damage. Possibly there are many other words that would do that which is maybe why peeve has became less frequently used.
As a noun , “peeve” is a source of annoyance, there is even an example of one such peeve on the internet.
“another peeve of mine is these so called reality shows.”
In honour of the Internet, I will say that yes that is one of my peeves.
Reality shows are for losers, make your own reality and make it yours no matter what it is. Whatever happens life is not a voyeurs game, you can pick on a sore and it will become septic and can make you very ill. Reality shows are a very specific form of the entertainment machine and a classic example of picking on sores.
If you stand and watch someone bandage someone else’s sore and watch it get better, what you have learnt maybe it’s good to cure and make better, but do you understand the mechanics of how that bandage worked or what medicines they used or the care that went into the cure and the difficulties that the curer faced. No because you are a voyeur and everything happened in a thirty minute time-slot on demand.
Thank you internet, one down , two to go.
Hysterically, I am struggling to find the other two, as annoyance and irritants are just maybe not that important to me. There is just too many things happen that are positive to be peevish about much. Perhaps that is why peevish almost sounds like a Victorian word to me and why has gone out of use. Maybe the Victorians were more peevish than us.
“Barnaby was a peevish scamp”. Poor Barnaby.
Anyway, I suppose I get peevish if anyone around me says they are bored. As there is so much to be done that can improve things for everyone. Even if it’s just saying hello to someone.
One to go! It peeves me to see too many goals set for the sake of it and targets. Targets are are very often wrong and when they are, they can skew the planet and it’s people. It’s more the arrogance of the people who do the setting that peeves me. The disastrous effects their beliefs can have on others goes way beyond me being peevish.
My favourite person , currently , I admit being a fickle person this can change with the breeze and I restrict myself to one at a time as more than one requires too much thinking .
At the moment though it is Mr Smith (Down the Road) as he epitomises the good Everyman I so much admire.
He volunteers at an animal rescue centre and he used to keep a Jackdaw who had an injured wing and couldn’t fly. He reared it and it became quite tame and he was very attached to it.
In truth he said” that nothing ever lives forever”; and he sees a lot of life and death with his volunteering.
He needed to buy a warm coat for his dog Bellla, and he tried on two in the shop, both of which he liked , but he could only afford one. One day he’ll get the second one, always handy to have a spare. Bella was so good, even though she wasn’t really” a try on coats sort of dog”.
Mr Smith is married to a lovely lady who works in the local Coop and obviously they are a couple who get on very well. They’ve got two sons and three grandchildren which keeps everyone busy.
He has a clapped out classic car for odd journeys called Morris. His wife though insisted that he got a four by four Kia for when he has to do the various jobs and chores that having grandchildren , volunteering at a Wildlife Centre and doing his DIY projects require.
I think he’s actually very fond of his Kia as recently he did comment about the unreliability of the “other love of his life” his old Morris Minor.
People like Mr Smith make me happy , as they always have time for others and they are also very self sufficient in themselves.
He laughs at Politicians and Politics and says they should get a life. That if all they’ve got to do is shout and guffaw in a dusty old museum like Chamber than they really don’t know what real life is like.
So for the moment, and actually probably forever Mr Smith (Down the Road) is my favourite person.
This picture isn’t actually Mr Smith as he is a very private person, but it does represent his love of all wildlife.
I have no favourite animal as all animals(life) are important to me. In truth, we all relate to each other and have need of each other.
From a bunch of single celled , protoplasmic free-living or parasitic , dwellers in our ocean to the mighty Big Five of Africa they are all important.
Pet animals and Farm animals have their role too. Anyone who has seen that spark of life arrive at some ungodly hour and bleat and want to suckle is dumbstruck at it’s magnificence. Or the abandoned pet who puts their trust in those that help them back to good health when all that trust, by rights ,should have gone.
And to those who say they are just animals, well I really don’t understand that. I can only assume they are denying Life itself which is sad. Nature is a cycle of life and death and animals play their part in that. We should cherish that cycle, because if we don’t the cycle will be broken and inevitably there will be a catastrophic imbalance.
Instinct is a bad adjective It describes a feeling that is based on unquantifiable reason,and innate belief in right.A distinctly human belief that we must follow.
Instinct as a noun refers to animal behaviour. Instincts are part of the make up of animal behaviour whether learned or genetic An animal who has lost its’ instincts will probably not survive in the wild.
A human who purely relies on instinct in our algorithmic and logical world will probably not thrive,yet can survive.
We can all quote our successes when we follow our instincts.They probably don’t bear too much critical analysis; but if the result was a success then who can argue with us. Our instincts won the day.
In summary instinct is part of our natural world and one of the many tools we use to negotiate our challenging life. They can guide or misguide,but they are always there.
thenotsomightyom 