Monthly Archives: November 2018

A Small but Welcome Improvement (Part 2)

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The title isn’t entirely true. This part is about all the bits of yesterday that weren’t welcome, and weren’t improvements.

When I first woke yesterday I was aware of a cold stiff finger. Fortunately it was mine, otherwise this could have been a very strange post. The little finger of my left hand is now following the ring finger of my right hand into arthritis.

I’m not sure whether it’s good to spread the load between hands or not.

Two hands with inconvenient fingers, or one hand with two inconvenient fingers?

 The third arthritic finger is likely to be the little finger of my right hand (it does get a bit cold and stiff at times) so the situation is likely to deteriorate soon anyway.

I doubled up my dose of turmeric, applied a pain-killing gel and cursed old age. There’s not much else you can do, apart from staying positive and, despite all my efforts, this isn’t really one of my strengths.

I am more Dylan Thomas than Pollyanna.

After the brief ray of sunshine that was my visit to the dentist, I arrived at the shop with two minutes to go. I hate being late, even by arrangement, so this was good.

Then I started entering more soul-destroying stock onto eBay. Every one I do is one more step towards my wages, and one more step towards becoming cold and empty inside…

And having come full circle, in a distinctly literary manner, I will leave you all, facing the cold, bleak, dead, stiffness of my existence.

Yes, that positivity stuff definitely isn’t working.

A Small but Welcome Improvement (Part 1)

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Today went better, despite the lack of breakfast. (I was due to have my crown reattached at 9.30 and I try to avoid eating before dental work). 

Arriving with fifteen minutes to spare I was called through before I’d had time to read more than half a page of my book. The reattachment went well and the dentist then set to with a six-monthly exam, clean, polish and poke. He also gave me a free tube of toothpaste.

That means I don’t need to go again in December and I only need to pay Having said that, it’s gone up to £21.60, which is yet another inflation busting increase.

All that and I still arrived at work just before opening.

Of course, after that I had more coins to do.

Part 2 follows.

Coins, coins, coins…

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Yesterday, we had quite a few people in the shop and I spent a lot of the day in the front of the shop talking rather than working. Today was the opposite and I spent most of the time sitting in the back room typing a seemingly endless list of coins into eBay. 

These aren’t just ordinary coins, these are tedious modern coins mounted on First Day Covers commemorating things like the Queen Mother’s birthday, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and a Royal Visit to the Isle of Man. They are badly made, dull, uninspired and bring out the worst in me.

I’m generally in favour of tradition and  resistant to change. However, after a couple of hours of this I’m prepared to put the entire Royal Family up against a wall and shoot them (normally I only feel like this about Prince Andrew and Fergie and their unpleasant offspring). A couple of hours later I’m also prepared to undermine the entire capitalist system which makes the successful marketing of such trash possible.

Just a short post for now, though the new editor seems to lack the capacity to count my words. I’m off to polish my hammer and sickle and raise a red flag.

Meanwhile I still haven’t worked out the benefits of the new editor, in any, compared to the old one. I may well go back to the old one.

Royal Family 1937

Seems Like Monday Morning

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It’s dark, it’s cold and enthusiasm is low…

There is more than a hint of Monday morning about the place despite it being Wednesday and on TV there is little to brighten the day.

Politicians are talking about Brexit.

The McCann case has been given another £150,000 to pay for detectives. The total cost for police time is now, it seems, £11.75 million. I think it’s now time to redirect resources.

England is doing badly at cricket at the moment, though this isn’t too unusual.

And then we have the 70th birthday of the Prince of Wales. I’m not sure whether I approve of royalty or not. I do, however, know that some of his favourite foods are pheasant crumble and groussaka (moussaka with grouse). 

This is typed using the new WP editor. I never really mastered the old one, so let’s see what sort of a mess I make of it now.

And it’s not even 9.00 am yet…

Haiku Challenge – Day 36 – I could do with a break

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Related image

First, the posting challenge. I have written 47 posts (48 if you include this one) in 37 days. It’s not too bad, though I did miss a day (Day 26). The regular posting habit is slowly coming back but I need to develop a wider range of material again, and I need to take more photographs. This, in turn, means that I need to get out more, which is difficult when I’m working during the hours of daylight.

I did get a few shots last Saturday when leaving the shop but they have little merit. Apart from that I only have pictures of coins and stamps, and they aren’t very interesting. I may have to start a personal photography challenge next.

Second, the Haiku Challenge continues. I’m writing at least ten a day and so am keeping up with the target. However, it’s entered a period where I’m not finding much of a spark to inspire me. I’m happy with the fluency, and happy with the habit that is forming. Unfortunately I have a growing feeling that I need a break.

I have written more than ten a day on a regular basis so I have plenty in hand to take a few days off and relax, but the habit is now so well established that I feel uncomfortable even thinking of breaking it. This is probably a Good Thing, as Sellar and Yeatman would probably agree.

Tonight I may write solely on the subject of kittens to seek inspiration and an inner smile. Then I may have a nap.

Image result for kitten pics

Off out Tonight

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I’m off out tonight, though you may already know that from the title.

We’re having a talk on the Medallic Miscelleny of Nottinghamshire at the Numismatic Society tonight and I’m breaking the habit of a lifetime by attending. I’ve been a member in the past, several times, but so far I’ve resisted the temptation to actually attend.

In principle I support the society, but in fact I’m not a very sociable person and have never been before. I can never raise the enthusiasm for leaving home on a winter night. There have been two meetings already this year and I have missed them both – one because we were away and one because it was the society auction, and I don’t buy coins.

Next month it’s the White Rajahs of Sarawak, which isn’t quite so gripping. January is short talks by members and February is a talk by someone from the Framework Knitters’ Museum. They could be interesting and it’s time I opened my mind to new experiences so watch this space.

March is Coins of the USA by the Boss, so I’ll remember who pays my wages and will be sitting there on the front row looking interesting (and employable).

Apart from that, the electrician came and found that the electrical fault had corrected itself, we had one customer, several people rang up and I had cheese and pickle sandwiches for lunch. The pickle wasn’t very good.

Senior moment of the day – I took my loose cap out and left it by the side of my chair as I ate breakfast (a large bowl of bran flakes, for those of you who are interested). I was half a mile away before I realised…

What Annoyed Me Today?

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There have been four things that annoyed me today, but the new mellow me has ignored two of them and laughed at another.

There’s very little I can do about them so why bother worrying?

The only one that still annoys me is the man I saw whilst shopping this afternoon. A shopping bag had dropped off a display and instead of moving it or replacing it on the display he simply trod on it and walked on.

It’s not a good way to behave, particularly as he had a small child with him. When you wonder where the bad citizens of tomorrow come from, with no manners, no respect and no idea of helping others, I suggest that this might be a clue.

Only a short post for today. Julia has had a day off – she’s made stew and dumplings with apple crumble to follow and I want to give that my full attention now.

 

 

 

 

 

A Haibun about Editors

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Editors

In my mind’s eye I see them sitting in their turrets, pale creatures with staring eyes, their unkempt hair laced with cobwebs.

Muttering, they read my submissions and slash at them with their editing quills, using ink mixed from the blood of kittens and the bitter tears of disappointed authors.

The rejection stings, but it does no lasting harm. Ten minutes later the urge to write a witty but insulting riposte has gone and the feeling of worthless failure has faded. In my mind’s eye I now see someone much more respectable and less likely to be cruel to kittens.

We need editors and as I mellow I begin to feel grateful for their efforts in running magazines. 

I start work on another submission, but I can’t quite shake the feeling that if I was to send a gift-wrapped unicorn it would turn into a donkey under the scrutiny of editors.

 

editor’s email

opened with hope

read with dismay

 

I don’t generally publish my own poetry and I will, later, write about my thoughts on self-publication, but I thought I’d give it a shot this time as this one is unlikely to be accepted. I like haibun – they are like writing a normal blog post and adding three short lines of poetry. You can add more, but I didn’t want to spoil you.

(Sorry about the double spacing in the haiku – I don’t seem to be able to get rid of it. Come to think of it, it’s actually a senryu not a haiku. Ah well…)

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse…

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I unlocked, turned off the alarm and went through to the back room to switch on the lights and computers…

Nothing.

A lot of the sockets were dead and a look at the fuseboard showed one of the two power circuits had tripped. We couldn’t reset it but we did manage to arrange a couple of extension leads to run the phones, a computer and the credit card machine.

It’s likely that the heavy rain has been getting in again. The electrician is coming on Monday and we will find out then.

Apart from that, my watch broke. Just as I found the power was out one of the spring-loaded bars in my watch strap broke and the watch fell off.

It never rains but it pours…

That may not be an appropriate expression if it turns out to be an electrical fault caused by water. I have had experience of that before and ended up with a surprise and a sooty burn mark on my hand.

In the evening I went to collect my tablets, using the prescription I picked up yesterday. I noticed, when reading the prescription, that I have the normal slew of threatening messages about reviews and appointments and, this time, a demand that I book an appointment for epilepsy screening.

This is why I don’t normally bother reading notes and letters from the doctor – I’m now worried what they know that I don’t.

 

 

I get organised, and get punished for it

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Tonight, in an organised fashion, I called at the surgery on my way home. It seemed to be a popular time as several other people arrived at the same time. One beat me to the desk and queued behind the woman who was already there.

One didn’t quite beat me to the desk but I held the door and let her go ahead. Before you start criticising me for chavinism reflect on this – I didn’t hold the door because she was a weak and feeble woman: I held the door because my parents brought me up to have good manners.

So, there I was, fourth in the queue. The first woman was one of those people who take a long time over everything, can’t take no for an answer and have no awareness of how many people are queueing behind them thinking of violence.

The second person was unremarkable and finished her enquiry in a couple of minutes.

The third person, the woman I’d held the door for, spent the entire wait hacking and coughing without bothering to cover her mouth. I presume her parents had never told her that coughs and sneezes spread diseases. Fortunately, because I’d let her go first, she was doing it over the people in front. Virtue, as they say, is its own reward.

Eventually I arrived at the front of the line. I picked up my prescription with no problem. The blood test form, however, was another thing altogether. It turned out that there were two of them. One is for blood. This good as the arrangement is that I am having extra samples taken next time I visit phlebotomy.

The other is not for blood. Somehow my agreement to two blood tests on the same day has mutated into a blood test with accompanying urine test. As I can’t see phlebotomy being ecstatic at being presented with a urine sample I suppose I’ll have to go back to the surgery, meaning that doubling up the blood test is saving no time or effort.

I mentioned this to the receptionist, who instantly became blank-faced and started up the Nuremberg Defence. I swear they have a special training school for doctors’ receptionists.

I’m thinking of what I can put in my urine sample to give them a hilarious surprise…