Tiny Tantrums

I have a friend who has a two and a half year old daughter and I'm known to her as Grumples which is a mix of grandpa, uncle and plain old grumpy!

Well .... I thought I was grumpy until the other day when I collected her from nursery !! When I got there she was asleep and although she stirred, she was not happy about being woken up ... understandably perhaps and nor would I be. It's not the first time that I had woken her up but usually she had a smile on her face but not this time .. oh no .... she threw a complete tantrum like I had never seen before ... I couldn't placate her .. the girls at the nursery couldn't placate her .. it was " no noo NOOOO" .... Anyway .. to cut a long story short, eventually we managed to get her into the pushchair and after we had got outside and she had some fresh air for a while she calmed down ....

The funny part was when she turned to me on the way home and shouted at me ... "don't wake me up again grumples" .. well that told me didn't it !!!

Anyway ... I got back in her good books by taking her to the park and going on teh slide with her .. so I think I'm forgiven ..... for now anyway "

Finally laid to rest

It's been a strange last few days ... Although my sister passed away around 6 months ago, the family have not been able to agree where she would have wanted her ashes scattered as although she said that she did want them scattered, she didn't specify where.

Then of course, there is the potential beauracrasy that has to be dealt with to be able to scatter ashes in a specific place. Anyway, let's just say that we got around that and thankfully, my sister's ashes have now been scattered in a place that I feel she would be happy with.

Shortly after she died, I promised that I would make a will, having seen how tricky things can be. Sadly, I still haven't got around to it, but I am keen to have my ashes scattered somewhere that I want when I finally go so I need to contact a local solicitor and arrange to have a will made out I think ... not being pessimistic though .. I hope I have a long time left yet .. but you never know !

The Weekend that Wasn't

That was a bit of a strange weekend really. I felt kind of edgy for most of it and realised eventually, that maybe some of this and other things I'd noticed, like grinding my jaw more than usual, were probably stress related signs.

So from today, I am determined to chill a little more .. take my time and not rush from one thing to the next and maybe even take a few very short breaks to sit quietky and just breath. Not meditate as such but I guess a basic relaxation technique as a respite from the rush. My suspicion is that I'll also get a lot more done if I do that.

Still a bit sad about West Ham being relegated but Nottingham Forest play tonight so hopefully they wll eventually get promoted so that I have at least one team to watch in the Premier league next season.

Planning on cooking a version of Ackee and Saltfish tonight (but made with tinned mackerel) ... will be better than my very dissapointing Monkfish and Prawn curry from Marks and Spencer last night anyway.

Oh well .. back to work ... mainly working writing some dental copy today but hope to find time to write a short article .. probably the one inspired by a conversation last night. Bit of a strange one but guess not much written about them ... Toby Jugs ... Should be interesting ... don't know much about them apart from Royal Doulton made a lot of them.

Anyway .. I digress .... must work now!

My Nerves are Frayed

Why ?

I'm watching West Ham united try to hamg on in the premiership - not a likely scenario seeing as we need to win the last two games and Birmigham lose the last two plus Blackpool lose one too ... not really looking very good. It's half time though and West Ham surprisingly are 2-0 up away at Wigan and Birmigham are losing 1-0 at home to Fulham .. so far, so good though West Ham are probably the best side in the league at throwing things away!

Maybe I need to lay off the caffeine and get some Chamomile tea in. that might do it!

Oh well .. back to the torture pit !!!

And that just about sums up the season .. 2-0 up at half time and lose 3-2 .... David Gold's company incorporates Anne Summers and Knickerbox .. No wonder West Ham are pants !!!!!

Strange Old Day

It's funny; I thought I'd really enjoy my lie in yesterday, or should that be 'slob in'.

Things is though that it did nothing for me at all other than make me feel all restless and agitated all day ..felt pretty horrible and my brain felt scrambled. It probably didn't help that I didn't do any daimoku (buddhist chanting) at all which is unusual for me.

After watching the first half of the FA cup final and eating some rather nice asparagus with soft boiled eggs; I managed to drag myself outside and went into town to do a bit of basic shopping at Marks and Spencer, buying myself a nice curry for the evening.

Even that didn't go to plan though as I ended up going with a friend and her daughter to Wagamama'>Wagamama where I had my usual noodle dish. I remember the first time I went to Wagamama it was in London maybe 15 years ago and I think it was the only one then and the food was excellent. I know it has been franchised since but it really isn't that great now in my opinion .. or maybe I'm just eating the wrong things.

So that put paid to my Marks and Spencer Monkfish and Prawn curry of course and I just had a light snack whilst watching a French film which I realised I had seen before.

That and the football results pointing to relegation for West Ham didn't make for a good day.

And here I am again .. it's 10am and I still haven't got up, but you know what, today is going to be better and I AM going to get up now and do some daimoku to kick start the day.

Lying in Bed Thinking

It's been one of those mornings today

I had high hopes for the day, expecting some lovely sunshine, perhaps getting up for a relatively early morning walk.

But, you know what, it's nearly mid day and here I am, still lying in bed lazing around. I haven't even dragged myself out of bed to make my second cup of tea yet ... ahhhh tea, that great British institution.

Right ... now I actually have surfaced and made that ciup of tea and where am I now? .. Yes, back in bed, and it got me wondering and thinking about what a great thing beds are. Not so much when we go to sleep, let's face it, we can sleep almost anywhere, but that wonderful feeling, when we get the rare chance, just to lie around in our beds, reading, driniking cups of tea and generally relaxing.

I also find this to be quite a creative time when I write ,... maybe because I don't have a TV in the room to distract me perhaps.

But I have been awake for around four hours now, so perhaps I will finish this cup of tea and try to forget my bed for several more hours and actually go outside into the big bad world.

Local Elections and the AV vote

Well, it was nice to feel a little bit of hope again politically, even if only just.

GOOD night on the whole for Labour though dissapointing in Scotland obviously but good to see labour gains instead of sinking, though it would be even better to see Labour put at least some of the socialism back into the party !!

BAD night though for the lib dems and thoroughly deserved I feel ... let's be honest, no one likes to feel betrayed and I suspect that is how the vast majority of lib dem supporters must feel. There must be turmoil in the party as many supporters are more left leaning and more natural Labour than Tory allies and now, having taken such a kicking, there will inevitably be calls to leave the coalition ...how long can those calls be ignored?

GOOD night for the Greens too, being the largest party in Brighton and taking quite a few other key seats. I suspect not a party that could take power, but it would be great to see more MPs so that views can be heard and discussed at the very least.

BAD night for the BNP .. in a right financial mess and with few candidates, they lost most of the seats they were defending. A good thing for this country, though my main concern is that right wing supporters are increasingly leaving the 'political' agends and reverting to street politics as can be seen with the rise of the EDL

OK night for the Tories who more or less held their position, which for them given the current cuts, is a a good position ... However, the Lib Dems won't be such an effective punch bag next time around and most people will know someone close to them who will have been made redundant or lost their house or something so I hope they have their parachutes ready for the drop!!

BAD night for AV. I voted yes but increasingly as time went on, I wasn't bothered .. it was an incredibly poor alternative that had been put forward at the wrong time, poorly campaigned for and distracted from the local elections ... And all research shows it would have had little effect anyway.