Promises to yourself seem pointless. So much can change. A promise is a childish thought , a wish for something to be or to happen.
It is more preferable to assess a situation for what it’s worth and do the best you can with the current circumstances. A promise is perfection and life isn’t perfect.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
Filed under Short Stories
I would like to have dinner with Goofy and because he’s Goofy he would bring all his other cartoon friends and along with my dog, we would have a great time. All the plates would be licked clean, there would be paper wrappers all over the floor and overturned water bowls on the floor. Fireworks and party poppers would be banned and afterwards they would all go out to the garden to play. ( imagine that).
In AI reality the image created is somewhat different and quite frankly a bit spooky, though I’ve got to admit quite arty.
Most likely because of Copywrite Laws ( bless their little socks) I couldn’t have my desired photo with Goofy, Pluto , Donald Duck and the Mouses. Instead I have this surreal image of a dog barking at a load of Ancient Greek God Party Goers. And here it is below. Make of it what you will. The caption made me laugh too, yes truly surreal.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
Filed under Short Stories
A purchase is a choice based on availability
A decision that can result in insanity
To identify what is best
Something that beats the rest
Is certainly no mean feat
Very often it ends up in defeat
Closing the computer lid
Because someone put in a higher bid
What has been my best ever purchase
I’ve wracked my brains till I’m red in the face
Although it caused me grief at the end
My little Audi A2 was my bestest friend
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
Filed under Short Stories
I know A & E can be very busy and also they really only want to deal with serious situations.
However my partner and I were subjected to a doctor’s decision to give my partner an arthritis drug which caused him extreme heart palpitations. Not very funny , and he now will be on statins all his life.
It took us about three years to really find out the source of these palpitations and unfortunately when the heart starts beating very fast it is very scary, so each time we had an “episode”, we generally contacted the health service, initially ringing 101, but once we went to A& E at our local hospital and he was seen very quickly and a male nurse began the routine of preparing him for an ECG or whatever they do, it involved sticking needles in him and quite quickly a hospital porter picked him up and we were brought somewhere else within the hospital to be assessed. I was able to go with my partner. Which was fine.
What was even more fine was that it was determined that he was fine, things calmed down all his results were fine. I smiled and said “that’s a relief”. So the hospital porter appeared again and I followed as we were wheeled back to the original cubicle at A&E where we’d been.
I thought we were there to be discharged which I believe we were, but A&E have different priorities. So we waited a while, and I listened to the conversation some poor man was having with a Social/Health Worker telling him that he had to go home and that hospital was not the right place for him and she was there to complete his “assessment so he could go home.
I on the other hand was quite desperate to go home. It was then that the same nurse that had prepped my partner rushed in and began to go through the same procedures my partner had been through when we first arrived.
I had to intervene , ” don’t you remember us , he’s already had the assessment , we’re just waiting to be discharged. No he doesn’t need that.” I pointed at the needles. I said “honestly , no!” It was a tricky situation as I’m not medically trained.
Luckily, there was a look of ” Oh yeah” in the nurse’s eye and he nodded and went away. The next thing someone came and said that we could go.
To be honest, A&E wasn’t that busy that day and the misunderstanding was quite understandable , but when we got home and were sitting down having a cup of tea, we both laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.
All’s well that ends well, but we could have been in a permanent loop and never got out of that place.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
Filed under Short Stories
Duolingo (the language application) works for me on so many levels I would certainly miss it if I couldn’t access it and also the benefits to me of learning something new, making connections and the potential for endless permutations which on the most basic level help my memory skills and on a broader level introduces new cultures to me.
At the moment the romance languages are my goal. I have a Spanish Copy of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick which I want to read in Spanish, it colours my life to be able to do this. I stumble over actually speaking the language. This is not surprising as in my real life I don’t speak very often, so why indeed would I suddenly be able to speak any language fluently. I do however find, that the saying quite ordinary things in Spanish or Italian lifts my mood and makes light of the day when you find yourself translating some tedious chore. Even if it is just to myself.
So there you are, it’s a lifetime app for me, I can see me in the nursing home contemplating Chinese characters representing specific syllables or a whole word, how wonderful is that? Duolingo even offers Navajo, which I have tried, and will return to, suddenly life is full of things to do. Do I feel bad about it? Why when it colours my life?
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
Filed under Short Stories
A bit like a game of charades, it’s a book and a film. The book though wins the day, by the late great Ian Fleming, written in 1964.
Ian Fleming probably more well known for his 007 books, in truth Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has a sense of adventure about it , fun adventure and Ian Fleming obviously loved cars and probably was quite handy at fixing them or at least dabbling.
It’s a book that gives you a wanderlust and a sense of adventure. How to avoid traffic jams and how to not get stuck on Goodwin Sands when the tide comes in while you are having a nap. It also has a sense of continuing adventure, so it encourages you to have adventures.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
Filed under Short Stories
Humanity like Nature is messy. Much as we’d like progress to be some constant improvement graph , neatly representative of a World that improves every decade and that we can look back and say “My; how far we have come?”.
For many reasons History is not like that. There are times and places where “knowledge” which is for the greater good is ignored and forgotten , some would say erased because of someone else’s idea of their good , whether greater or not. Individual ego sometimes wins the day rightly or not.
Those protected by Ivory Towers can analyse this record, and those of us of us lucky enough to have the time and money can read and learn about how easily the lastest technology in marine development can be ignored by such great progenitors of progress as the Roman Empire, basically they were not good sailors. ( I regularly listen to The Great Sea by the late and great Historian David Abulafia on Audible, it is really a rather good adventure story). Others were better equipped to roam the seas, the Romans were better at conquering land. Just think what might have happened if they had chosen to learn good seafaring techniques.
We have forgotten more than we have learned in many instances. So erasing is not a good habit to practice and certainly not in an historical context.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏
Filed under Short Stories
Which outdated technology do you miss the most, and why?
The old pumpity,pump blood pressure sleeve with the mercury gauge indicator and the stethoscope to listen to the blood flowing again after the sleeve had cut off your circulation.
Electronic Blood pressure machines just don’t hack it. In fact, I’m sure they are responsible for the over prescription of pills to control blood pressure.
There was an art in the medical professional listening to the specific tapping sounds(Korotkoff sounds) with their stethoscope which let them know that as air was released from the cuff and the blood had begun to flow again through the artery at a pressure determined by the heart(the systolic pressure).
The diastolic(lower number), comes from the flow matching the resting rate of the heart as the cuff is deflating and blood is flowing freely.At that stage the tapping sounds stopped and a quick look at the gauge gave you the diastolic pressure.
Yes, medical professionals this is an art and a skill that we really don’t want to lose.
A sphygomanometer
Namaste and Thank You for Reading🙏
Filed under Short Stories
Excuses, Excuses they all have their uses,
Some are lies especially about the pies,
Some just delay the punishment for a day,
I wasn’t there me l’awd, after being cautioned by PC Plod,
The best ones are so watertight they can deflate the need to fight,
Time is up, isn’t it better that we make-up?
And then you realise that all this delay, is really cause you’ve nothing to say,
A writers block is not a WordPress tool, In truth I’m losing it and I feel such a fool.
Or perhaps my worry is unecessary , and an “excuse”is just a form of rationalising therapy.
Crumpled up paper
Filed under Short Stories
Do you think we’re shaped more by our experiences or by who we are?
Thank you for thinking what I think matters oh, great algorithm.Actually I realise I do have something to contribute to our planet’s rich tapestry,although it understandably can be lost in the translation as we are so diverse.
I will use a sweet analogy, the liquorice allsort.Actually they are a revolting mixture of sugar,colouring and liquorice that if you are foolish enough to indulge in will make you feel quite sickly.
The sweets themselves are made to be attractive and even have a liquorice figure head in the form of Bertie Bassett.
Unfortunately in our healthier living times they have effectively been consigned to history.Their aniseed and coconut content not really impressing anyone.
And there is the rub,we are shaped by our tastes and how our bank of information on various subjects that affect us are supplemented and sometimes just like Bertie Bassett we are consigned to history.
Did I answer the question,I’m not sure.
A hound is cuter than a sweet.
Namaste and Thank You for Reading🙏
Filed under Short Stories
