3TC

Three Things Challenge #MM300

With thanks to Di

Jinx Jet Journey

Hannah was used to it by now. Larry was married to his work and would jet off to some far flung place at the drop of a hat. She had moved to where he lived when they married. A foreign country for her, but she soon adapted and got to know people, and found plenty to do. Most of all she loved her garden and that took up a lot of her time. She also loved photography and that too kept her occupied. So in a way she wasn’t worried by his itchy feet. She was always glad to see him home however when he returned from his travels. They would spend some quality time together. Indeed, his absences improved the time that they did spend together.

Everything went well for a few years, but then things began going wrong. Larry would miss his plane or his connection or something. Sometimes flights would be cancelled. He would arrive home frustrated and tired. Hannah took a back place at these times. It happened so many times that she began to think that there was a jinx on them. She had no idea why when things had worked so well in the beginning. Their marriage began to suffer. Hannah became very unhappy, and she dreaded him going off on one of his jaunts. She tried talking to him, attempting to get him to slow down. However, he seemed unable to break his obsession with travelling. Doing business he said it was. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have plenty of money. He was, in fact, quite rich. Hannah wanted for nothing. They could have dined in expensive restaurants every day of the week if they had wanted to. Hannah loved baking and cooking though, and Larry loved to eat what she had created. As her unhappiness grew, however, her creativity waned too.

One thing that Hannah did love doing was looking through all the travel brochures. She never went anywhere at all, whilst Larry flew all over the world. With some measure of resentment she began wishing that she too could travel to far flung places. Why couldn’t she see the world too? One day she found in a brochure what was dubbed “the Journey of a Lifetime.” It included all sorts of places, the best one being, to her mind, a journey down the Nile. She imagined going there, and after a lot of thought she decided to present her idea to Larry. So, one day, they were sitting together after their meal, and she began telling him how much she too wanted to see some places in the world. She explained to him about the journey that she had found, and then showed to him the brochure. He looked, and he listened to her. He had to agree that it ight indeed be nice to do something together and for him to slow down a bit. He wsn’t getting any younger, and he did see that it had all been a bit unfair to Hannah. So, the next day saw them booking the holiday of a lifetime.

Hannah could hardly wait, but Larry had just one more trip to do before their holiday. She kissed him goodbye, and then began looking at clothes for the holiday. She was full of excitement. Until the day of hhis return flight. She followed his progress on the internet, and then, to her absolute horror, his plane disappeared. Later, she was horror struck to find out that his plane had crashed. There were no survivors.

FOWC Honour

FOWC With Fandango — Honor

With thanks to Fandango

Brenda was not thought too much of at her Secondary school. She wasn’t like the others. She came from a poor family and no one ever rated her that much. She didn’t have many friends n school, and she never wore the accepted uniform. She was constanty being told off by the teachers for not wearing the regulatory clothes. However, unbeknown to anyone in the school, she was brilliant on the piano. Largely self taught, she had a natural aptitude for the instrument.

Each day at morning assembly, one of the pupils would play the piano in accompaniment for the hymn. Only pupils who had got to Grade 5 in the piano examinations were allowed to play. Brenda was desperate to play at the assembly and she approached the prefect who arranged it all. He he himself had got to a high grade and he tended to look down on those beneath him. Brenda pleaded with him to allow her to accompany the school one morning. At first he refused her, saying that she did not have the required exam. However, she wouldn’t let up on it. In time, she managed to persuade him that she really could play. He relented and a date was arranged for her to accompany the school.

It came to the morning when she was to play and everyone gasped as they saw her walking towrds the piano. She was dressed in clothes that didn’t fit her properly and that were not regulatory. As she sat down at the piano everyone waited. She played the Intoduction, and more gasps were heard. She ws brilliant. The hymn was played amazingly, and at the end, Brenda walked proudly to her seat. It had been a great honour for her to play the piano. It changed everyone’s perceptions of her.

In time, she was accepted by the other pupils, and she gained many prizes at school Speech Day. That one episode had changed her life for ever.

SOCS SATURDAY AND JUST JO JAN Don’t get me started

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2026 Daily Prompt for Jan. 10th

With thanks to Linda for giving this prompt
My husband is the one in our house who tends to go on and on and on. He often ays, “Don’t get me started.” Once he gets roused about something he won’t leve it alone. He is like a dog with a bone and tends to get angry too. He will start ringing people whom he feels are responsible for something and reading them the riot act. This can be the council, doctors, and others too. He gets especially worked up about the dustbins or trash cans. The bin men refuse to put them back where they should go, eaning that he can’t deal with them as a diabled person. He has been known to go to our Member of Parliament about things that he can’t get a result with himself. I tend to be the quiet one, but sometimes I can go on about things. At the moment, my doctor has ordered blood tests and he did it way before Christmas and he has requested them from phlebotomy three times and still they have not come to tke my blood and it is vital that they do, and quickly too. So at the moment I am going on and ong about that because I a worrying. So yes, don’t get me started on that. Also I do go on about things that our government is doing and the cahges in society from being community minded to being self interested and individualistic. I tend to go on a lot about not being able to get the help that we need as disabled people but I have realised there is no point in going on about it. But I could sy “Don’t get me started” on that one. In general though, I push things down and they get me depressed whilst my husband rants and actually does things. He won’t leave them alone until he gets a result. I think it is better to be like him, because that doesn’t lead to depression quite so much but it does lead to exhaustion.

I’d better not get started on here or we’ll be here all day so I’ll leave it there.

COME SOON MY LOVE

Hushed now

In the dark night

I await my sweet Love

The moon’s soft rays outline the trees

I hold

My breath

Do I hear his gentle footsteps

Here I have waited long

Soon, soon my Love

Come soon

MIST HIDES THE GLORY

Mist hides the glory
That soon will break through the veil
A crack of light dawns

WOTD Standard

Standard

Thankyou Alice for this word

Everything today, it seems, has to meet a uniform standard. It affects many areas of society. It means in effect that if you are not to a particular standard or if you don’t fit into a particular box with a defined standard, you are rejected or cast aside. This has certainly happened to my husband and myself. However, it works also with for instance, fruit and vegetable products in our supermarkets. All fruit and veg has to be of a certain shape and size. Therefore those that are not of that certain shape and size are thrown away.

Have you ever looked at a bowl of apples and seen perfect ones and also some that have a bit of a bruise on them? If so, which one would you take?

I think most people would take the ones that are perfect. Thus the others are discarded.

It can work the same with people. Those who are a bit different and maybe are a bit scarred or wounded can get cast aside.. however, it is those very people who may be the ones who can have the most empathy with those who suffer.

Do we look for perfection, or are we prepared to accept something below perfection?

I guess in some ways we need to keep to a certain standard. I remember when I was at secondary school, we all had to wear the school uniform and dress to a certain standard. Sometimes this standard was not met. In that case, a letter would be sent to the parents of the pupil who did not meet the required standard.

One of our cleaners has a son with very wide feet. He is required to wear black shoes for school. Because of the width of his feet they can’t find shoes that are comfortable for him, so he goes to school in a leather trainer type shoe that has lots of room in it. The school called the cleaner in and told her that the child must wear the standard black lace up shoes. She refused to compromise her son’s feet and I don’t know the end of the story, but this is another example of having to meet a required standard.

I often wonder abut the standard of my typing on here. I often get the wrong letters or miss letters off, or something like that, because being blind I don’t see if I have made a mistake. So I guess I don’t meet a standard but in the end, I am not going to worry about it.

FIBBING FRIDAY

Fibbing Friday 9th January: my response

With thanks to Di

1. What is the difference between a bow and a curtsey?

FOWC Synopsis

FOWC With Fandango — Synopsis

With thanks to Fandango

Bernard and Diane had been married for years. They were used to each other. Diane liked to go her own way, engaging in her own hobbies and having her own contacts in the town where they lived, and beyond. Bernard was quite contented to go to the chess club every Wednesday night, and play golf at the weekends. In fact their marriage worked out pretty well. Over recent weeks, however, Bernard noticed that Diane was spending long periods of time in the dining room poring over some papers that she seemed to be writing on. One day, out of curiosity, he went into the dining room while she was out and took a look at the papers. He got the shock of his life. There, on the papers, was a synopsis of how she was going to murder him. He sat down on a dining chair, as white as a sheet. Why on earth did she want to murder him?

After sitting for a while, he went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. He wasn’t sure what to do. Whould he face her with hit? Should he pack his bags and go?

It was not long before Diane returned and he decided to face her with it.

“So, you’re planning to murder me.”

“Oh oh,” stuttered Diane. “It’s just a story I’m working on. I’ve been going to a writing group and I was writing a murder mystery.”

Bernard went quiet.

“Oh my God,” he said. “You had me there. Then he handed her a cup of coffee.

“Here you are darling,” he said, surreptitiously pushing the bottle of poison behind some tins on the work surface.

SNOW

Snow covers the earth
A stillness beyond knowledge
Majestic and pure

WINTER WINDS

Winter winds blowing
A howling inside my soul
Soon comes the morning

EMPTY

I am empty now
But therein is my fullness
My cup of deep joy

JUST JO JAN Stumble

Daily Prompt – JusJoJan the 8th, 2026

Thankyou Lou for this word

As I am blind it is easy for me to stumble. I haven’t always been blind, and it is not so long since I went blind. Making my way around even in my house can be fraught and often I feel afraid that I will fall. I have often stumbled and just managed to save myself. I don’t have any sight at all, whereas some blind people can just see dark shapes and bit of light. I find it scary but am learning to live with it.

Of course there are many reasons why people can stumble. The older you get, the more likely to stumble you are, I think. Certainly as you get older it is not a good idea to have loose rugs anywhere in your house. Many falls are caused by rugs.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I have had the pleasure of stumbling upon something that I never expected. I remember once going on what looked like just an ordinary short walk in the English Lake District, and it seemed like there would be nothing really interesting on it. However, I was surprised to stumble on a most beutiful garden that was open to the public. It was there that I first saw blue poppies, which have become my most favourite flowers. Also there were some beautiful scented roses of a kind of magenta colur. They were ones that I had never seen before and I think they were called Rosarie de L’hay. When I returned home after my holiday I immediately purchased this rose for my garden. The rose would come out and bloom just for one day only but it always seemed that the bush was full of roses all summer.

At the tip of this particular path the land suddenly opened out and you could see right down to Windermere. The view was out of this world. Again I never expected to stumble on that.

I love to stumble on unexpected things, but I don’t like the possiblity of stumbling in my home. So I take great care not to do it.

ESTHER CHILTERNS WORD PROMPT Snow

Writing Prompts

It is always exciting to see the first flakes of snow fallin in the winter. Our dog goes outside and she is black, but comes back in white.

The snow looks so amazing and so beautiful when it first falls, and most people can appreciate its etheral beauty, but if you look at a huge expanse of it without sunglasses on, it can damage your eyes. Strange to think that something so beautiful can do that. It makes me think of how most things have their dark side, however beautiful they may seem at first. I think of rivers. They can be so beautiful, but if you fall into them they can drown you because of the falst flowing currents just beneath the surface.

Once snow has fallen, it doesn’t take it very long to become brown and slushy. I remember one year when several feet of snow fell ner to the village where I lived, it looked like a completely differnt land as you went along the roads. The farmers had cleared some of the snow with their implements, and it looked like lots of white statues on the side of the road. It looked almost loke a moonscape. Out of this world. However in time it did melt and all of its beauty had gone.

Children love the snow and I remember making snowmen. However, having said all of that, I hope we don’t get snow here any time soon.

FOWC Traverse

FOWC With Fandango — Traverse

Thanks Fandango for this prompt

It was almost dark and very cold. The wind was howling just like when the world had changed for ever. The little group of people trudged slowly along the highway. They had already traversed the mountains and valleys but now that they were on the highway, they didn’t know if they might meet anyone else in this godforsaken world. They had never really known what had happened, but it had felt like a kind of an explosionn. For two weeks now they had had to live by whatever they could find that wasn’t dead. Sometimes they would find a rabbit or two, and sometimes a chicken. They had even resorted to eating a mouse. Somehow or other they still had to eat. Wwater was hard to find but they did manage to find some most days. As they walked they evventually came to a large house. It looked deserted but they pushed open the door and inside found more survivors. The survivors were hostile and began attacking them. They were like wild animals. The group retreated and began walking again. How much longer could they survive?

CAN YOU TELL A STORY IN

Can You Tell A Story In…

With thanks to Esther for this prompt.
Brenda sat in the clinic watching the receptionist eating noodles. An octagenarian, she remembered when she was young, wearing dungarees that were a bargain, with a swan emboidered by her onto the pockets. Those had been good days. Now, her days were numbered. She sighed.her future was bleak. Still, she had had a good life, and she knew she should be grateful. She shivered.

LOOKING FOR GOLD

Looking for pure gold
I see the heavens and smile
See a golden glow

TOGETHER WE WALK

Together we alk
Across fields of emptiness
To a better place

DAILY WRITING PROMPT

HOME

What would I do differently?

I am not sure what I would do differently. I have had a very varied and full life. Despite being badly abused by my mother I didn’t let it affect me. As a thirteen year old her abuse was at its worst, but at that point I also decided that I was not going to go down the same path as her. I would take a different path. A softer, more loving one. For me, love was of the essence. She had not loved me but I had learned love in other places and I knew that love can never be quenched and that it is at the heart of everything good and wholesome. I most certainly didn’t want to be filled with anger and hatred like she was.

As my life went on, many people told me to cut off from her. For my own sake. At times I did. However, in the end I still loved her and I didn’t find that difficult to do because I was aware of some great love beyond me that sustained me. I could looke at her and see the pain in her eyes and feel her pain. I waanted only to comfort her.

My attitude took me a long way. I did things in my life that I owuld never have imagined doing. As I go towards the end of my life I feel nothing but gratitude for all the things that I have enjoyed in my life and I am also grateful that I learned determination early on. I think it was determination and an iron will that got me through a lot of things. I ahve suffered a lot. But in the end that suffering made me the person that I am today. I hope it made me more empathetic with others and more loving towards others. I do feel that I can feel the pain of others, and I tend to forgive easily. I don’t hold resentments.

I know that I am nowhere near perfect, but I am at peace with myself and how my life has gone. It hasn’t been easy at all. But I am still here and still caring about other people. I could have been so different. But I was not.

HERE I LIE

Here
I lie
This cold night
I take your hand
I hold it gently
Do you know I am here
I listen to your breathing
Remembering so many years
I kiss your eyelids Sleep my darling
And when the morning comes I will be here

FOWC Empathetic

FOWC With Fandango — Empathetic

Thankyou Fandnago for this word prompt

Ron was never the most empathetic of people. However, he always expected piles of it when he did anything to himself or if he needed it for any other reason. Shirley was fed up with it. Then one day, thick snow was on the ground, and Ron slipped in it, landing on his back. Shirley stifled a laugh, knowing that if it had been herself in the snow, she would have been giggling. However Ron’s pride was deply hurt. He realised that Shirley was stifling giggles and he became very angry. He fired off at her. Shirley didn’t quite know what to do, but decided that it was best to ignore his outburst. Although she did tell him that now he knew what it was like to receive no empathy.

Ron got up and dusted himself down, and both went on their way in silence.

FINALLY BOILER FIXED BUT BLOOD DRAW STILL NOT DONE

It is good to report that our central heating boiler has now been finally fixed. Phew.

However, the blood tests for my new condition have still not been done. No one understands it. They were orderd by my doctor on 20th
December. Still no phlebotomist has been to take my blood. Having rung my doctors today, as they were requested urgently, they do not know why phlebotomy has not sent anyone to me. We are awaiting a call from the surgery to let us know what they can find out about it. Phlebotomy operates independently of anyone else within our National Health Trust. They seem to be a law unto themselves.

So we are. Left in the position where I have dangerously low iron levels in my body and although am religiously taking high dose iron tablets we still don’t know if they are being absorbed. It is a very worrying time. I just wish something would happen instead of being in this limbo.

DREAMING

Dreaming
Slowly slowly
I begin to wake up
Outside the wood pigeons calling
I rub
My eyes
Nature contiues on its way
And I too must follow
Slowly slowly
I wake

NATURE

Nature

Opens Her arms

Unconditionally

Unaware of definitions

Just IS

HOPE SAYS……There were two men in my kitchen

Woof woof woof

There were two men in my kitchen this morning. They went out of the door onto the drive and I followed them and Dad was mad with me. He tried to get me to go back in but I wouldn’t. It was dead cold. And those two men were carrying a pipe. I don’t mean a pipe that you smoke but one off the wall coming out of the boiler. It had frozen. I’m not surprised. I was frozen too. Anyway I don’t like men that I don’t know i my kitchen. Then I kept on running in to Charlie to tell him about it and Dad couldn’t catch me and he got mad. I’m too fast for him. I was nice and warm all night laying on the carpet in the dining room. Charlie was nice and warm too but then when the heating went off it was real cold.

Those men are coming back tomorrow Dad says and they’re going to mess around carrying pipes again. Dad says I’ve got to be good tomorrow

Magda came today and she did some ironing. She had a thing called a steam iron and she was ironing sheets and she got real hot. She got all steam all over herself. Then I took her for a walk. It was still cold but it was good fun pulling at her. Dad tells me that I am getting naughtier and naughtier. I’m growing old disgracfully you see.

I don’t think I’ll get any of Mum’s dinner tonight because she’s having bacon and dogs can’t have bacon. It isn’t good for them.

It was good when Magda was ironing the sheets because I went underneath them under the ironing board. I got all tangled u- in it.

It’s not going to be cold tonight so I’ll be alright and Charlie will be too. I’ve seen a lot of him lately because a lot has been going on and we’ve had a lot to discuss. You have to watch these humans because you never know what they’ll do next. Charlie says that he is stil watching the chimney to make sure that no one comes down it. I think that danger is past now tough. Anyway why would they come down the chimney when Dad lets them in through the front door?

I’d better go and do a bit of sniffing round while Dad is up with Mum. He’ll be doing dinner soon and I’ll be able to get in his way. I’m looking forwrds to that. Bye for now

Woof woof woof

FOWC Hopeful

FOWC With Fandango — Hopeful

With thanks to Fandango

Hopeful
She walked through life
In the light and the dark
Sometimes stumbling often falling
Rising

Struggling
She sought the light
Knowing she would find it
One day her hopes would bear their fruit

One day
A rowan tree
Shining with red berries
Invited her to sit and think
Days shone

She found
Beside a grave
Words that gave her such joy
The name of her great godmother
Home called

She lies
Now in the earth
Beside the rowan tree
Her hopes at last fulfilled in peace
Wind sighs

OUR CENTRAL HEATING BOILER OR FURNCE FINALLY FROZE OVER

We have been worrying about our boiler freezing over the past three or four days and until now managed to stem it. Loads of lagging was put onto the outside pipe and we survived until this morning. Overnight we had extremely low temperatures and all seemed well at first. The low temperatures are set to end at around noon today. So we nearly made it but suddenly it froze and we had no heating and no hot water. Fortunately we managed to find a boiler man who came round immediately and he undid part of the outside piping and left the water just running out onto the drive. The boiler then worked as a big lump of ice fell out. He is coming back tomorrow morning to finally put some proper piping in outside. The man who installed the boiler didn’t use big enough piping and clipped pipes together instead of glueing them. So by tomorrow lunch time all should be finally well and fixed. It has been a nightmare.

COME

Paths stretch
In front of me,
Now I have reached a plain,
Wide open space, a new path calls
“Come now,
The scenes
Here are different, and now, once more,
I will lead you, follow
The voice that calls,
Come child.”

CANDLE

The flame dies,
The candle goes out,
Everything has its season,
Things and people come and go,
Without any reason,
We search in vain for something that lasts,
We feel our grief and loss,
As the darkness enfolds us
We open our hearts
And find one true lasting light,
Taking us into the future

DUH, I’M BEHIND AGAIN

What with trying to find electricians, gas fitters and boiler men, and a whole host of other things, I’ve not been responding to comments very well, though I have been reading them.

I just wish this weather would go away, and then at least it will give us chance to get our boiler fixed.

We have had to buy two new fan heaters that are thermostatically controlled, and two oil filled fadiators that also are controlled, and we had to think not only of ourselves but also of Hope and Charlie the budgie. He will have his very own oil filled radiator lol. Hope will have her very own fan heater.

So sorry not to have answered everyone though I have done some. I’m all over the place right now.

Hope says…..Another box came into the kitchen all on its own

Woof woof woof

Another box came into the kitchen all on its own this morning. Then Magda came in as well. Then she started to unpack it. It tried to help but she kept telling me she didn’t need my help. There was lots and lots of packing on it. I tried to get it. It was a radiator and I didn’t understand it. We’ve got lots of radiators in our house but Dad told me that the boiler might stop working because of the freezing temperatures. Magda took the radiator into the lving room where Charlie is and they switched it on to see how hot it got. It got REAL hot. And Charlie got real hot too. He said it was nearly hotter than Australia. Anyway a man came this morning as well to look at the pipe outside that comes from the boiler. I didn’t understand it all but there was a lot of cuffufle. Anyway he’s coming back one day to alter the pipe so that the boiler doesn’t freeze.

This house gets worse and worse. Lots and lots goes on in it.

Dad is doing salmon for Mum’s dinner so I ight get some of that.

Charlie is all excited because of the new radiator. He’s been flying dead fast this morning and I think he’s the fastest budgie in the west. Or is it east? I don’t know my west from my east.

I took Magda for a welk and I didn’t have to sit down once. I was dead good and she said she was ging to take me to the vets instead of Sally. I don’t know why Sally isn’t coming any more but I like Magda and she can take me to the vets and I’ll be dead good for her. I’ve never been in Magda’s car so I don’t know what it’s like. I think it’s a big one. She’ll have to lift me into it because I can’t jump any more.

Anywas I’d better go now. I might find some jobs to do.

Woof woof woof

Oh I forgot to say that Magda took a toothbrush home with her today. I don’t know why she needs a toothbrush. She looked really funny carrying a toothbrush out of the door with her

RDP MONDAY Tumultuous

RDP Monday: TUMULTUOUS

Her life had always been tumultuous. Even as a child it had been that way. She never knew where she was going to be living from one day to the next or so it seemed. She longed for a settled life. To be in the same place for a while so that she could at least make friends. She knew that her life was different to that of other children. She often wondered why but she got no real explanations for it. Her mother always blamed her father, saying he could never stick a job. She didn’t know what to beleive. One time her father left altogether. He was gone for a long time and she felt afraid. She wanted him to cme back and would cry for him to come back. Her mother told her he had had to go away for work. However, one day her mother told her that they were travelling to a completely new town a long way away to meet with her father. They went to stay overnight in an hotel and the next morning whilst they were at breakfast her father arrived. When he got to their table he emptied out of his pocket lots of little note books with covers in a totoiseshell pattern in different colours for each note book. He also place lots of coloured pencils on the table. She was overjoyed.

In time, her father came back to live with them. But the tumult continued. If it was not one thing it was another.

Milly got used ot it in a way. However as an adult she longed for safety and security she longed for peace. A settled life. She married Joe and despite her wishes he moved around a lot and she still didn’t achieve her peaceful life.

One dy she went to a seaside town all on her own. The waves were crashing over onto the promenade. She leaned up against a wall near to the sea front. As the waves came crashing over she felt their tumult. It matched the tumult in her heart. She was tempted. Should she jump into them and then their shared tumult would mingle. Could she do it? It took her a long time, but eventually she walked away and away from temptation.

FOWC Fresh

FOWC With Fandango — Fresh

It was rather fresh that day, especially at Dungeon Ghyll. In fact it often was fresh at Dungeon Ghyll. Sue and Pete were not put off though. They hoped to make it to the top of the Langdale Pikes. The route was rough and rocky and the wind didn’t help. They had dreamed often of making it to the top of the Langdale Pikes. After all, they had made it to the top of Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England, even though it had taken them four hours and another four hours back. Suddenly they reached a really difficult bit. Sue felt nervous. She froze. She wasn’t able to go either forwards or backwards. Pete kept trying to encourage her but she simply couldn’t move. She was paralysed by fear. Pete thought they were never going to get out of this. What could he do to help Sue?

Sue struggled and struggled with her fear and then suddenly managed to ove a foot. The wind was howing and he cheeks were stinging. But the process of moving was beginning.

Amazingly they made it to the top of the Landale Pikes, but it was an experience that they never forgot. Just one of the experiences of climbing mountains.

HOPE WAS BORN

In the lilac haze
She came bringing new life hope
Was born that Spring day

SOON WILL COME BEAUTY

Soon will come beauty
From the ashes of my life
I will live again

WE HAD FIREWORKS IN OUR BEDROOM LAST NIGHT

Well it’s been quite a day. Last night in the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom and I switched the bedroom light on and oh boy. There was a lot of crackling coming from the light switch and the actual light was flashing like Blackpool illuminations. It flashed on and off over and over again real quick.

I was terrified so we stopped turning the light on. Today we were really worried about it because even though we were not switching it on we thought it ight cause a fire. So my husband tried to ring emergency electricians and in the end after trying loads who said they were emergency electricians but weren’t as they naver answered their phones, we did get one who came pronto. He came a long way too and he fixed it in just over ten minutes. We got charged one hundred and twenty five pounds for that, but at least we have light again and we know we are safe. So that has been our day apart from trying to get an emergency central heating boiler man. So I haven’t been on my blog until now.

WHEN TWO HEARTS ARE ONE

When two hearts are one
Therein we will find true peace

The incense of love

DAZED

Dazed and paralysed
Punch drunk she fell to the ground
Then was told to walk

Barefoot she got up
To receive another blow
Down she went again

This time she was broke
No one could walk in her shoes
She hadn’t any

No one saw her die
She made not even a sound
No one noticed her

DO YOU WANT MY LIGHT

Do you want my light
Then you have to travel light
Cast off perceptions

OUR DAY TRYING TO SAVE OUR HEATING

Today we have been most of the day trying to solve our central heating problem in case the boiler fails with these low temperatures.

We have put loads of lagging on the pipe outside that may well freeze. So far  it is holding up in temps of minus 2 degrees celsius.

We have got loads of fan heaters together and someone brought us in an oil filled radiator that plugs into the electric

The fans will go into the kitchen for Hope and one in the living for Charlie the budgie as budgies cannot stand temps below ten degrees celsius. So the critters will be okay.

We are going to get much lower temps up until Wednesday. It is scary. We don’t expect our boiler to be okay but we are trying to prepare for it. We will have no hot water either and hubby cannot boil a kettle so washing up pots wull be awful.

It is all the fault of our government not permitting the old style boilers any more in the interests of the environment.

Will keep you updated.

SOCS SATURDAY Slow/Fast

The Friday Reminder for #SoCS & #JusJoJan 2026 Daily Prompt for Jan. 3rd

With thanks to Linda G. Hill

I always used to be fast. Al my movements were fast, and I was very lively. Now, I am slow. Too slow to catch cold as they say. No way can my body move fast, and I often think back to those days when I ws fast.

However, if I think about walking in the hills and things like that, it is best to be slow rather than fast because that way you see more and take more in. There is nothing better than just slowing down and gazing at a beautiful view. It does the heart and sould good. These days everyone is rushing around all of the time. Everyone seems busy and no one has time for anyone. I often wonder what all the rush is about. Why do people need to be so busy anyway? It seems to make life more meaningful for some.

The one thing that I do not like is going fast in a car. One time my then boyfriend and I were hitchiking and we got picked up by a driver in a posh Ford Capri. He raced allong the motorway at almost one hundred miles an hour. I think me might have been trying to impress but we were scared to death. I had never got from up north to Birmingham so fast.

I wouldn’t like to go on one of those big roller coasters either because when they are going down they go so fast. I think I would be screaming a bit loud.

I used to be able to do all the scales on my piano real fast too but then when I was taking the piano exam I couldn’t do it because I was being watched. I failed the exam.

I think there are some things that are best done fast and some that are best done slow.

Since I have got older time seems to go too fast. Each year seems to go faster than the last one. It is scary. I never thought I was old until someone called me elderly. It shocked me to the core. The years had gone so fast.

This has been a real ramble. If I have been typing too fast, there might be a lot of mistakes in what I have typed. But for some reason I can’t stop my fingers going fast on the keys because I used to do touch typing. That is something that you don’t lose over time.

I think I had better shut up now because my brain is going faster than my fingers.

HOPE SAYS…..strange things keep happening at this house

Woof woof woof

Strange things keep happening at this house. I can’t keep up with it. It must be something to do with that New Year thing.

Yesterday Magda came and she had a man with her. I didn’t know him and he went out of the back door and started doing things on the wall of the house. He was ages and ages and Dad was there too, telling him what to do. I thought they needed help so I went to supervise them. It was really cold but I had to do my job. Magda was washing my rugs and the kitchen floor and lots of other things as well. It smelled funny when she’d finished. Then Dad told me that the man was Magda’s husband. I went up to him and tried to. Lick him but I culdn’t get to him properly.

Then today another man came. He was carrying a radiator thing. I don’t know why Dad wants radiators cos we’ve got them all over the house. The man stayed for a while and he and Dad went into Charlie’s room. I’l have to go and see Charlie later and ask him what they were saying. Dad told me that the central heating boiler might break down because it is going to be such cold temperatures and this kind of boiler breaks down in this weather. So this man brought us a radiator that plugs into the electric. I think it’s got oil in it.

Dad says he thinks I need oiling because my legs are stiff. I think a new vet is coming to see me soon and he will give me another prick. I don’t like pricks but if they keep Mr. Arthur away it’s okay. I don’t like Mr. Arthur. He gets people and dogs too. He’s a real nasty man.

I don’t like it outside at the moment. It’s really cold and windy. Dad says we might get some snow as well. I tried to explain to Charlie what snow is but he didn’t understand. He says he likes sunshine because he’s from Australia. I don’t know where Australia is and me and Magda only get as far as the park down the road. I think Australis is a long long way away. I don’t think Charlie culd fly that far. He’s only little.

Magda washed my new boots yesterday. I haven’t worn them for a few days. I don’t know if I’ll wear them again. They make my legs tired. I stil take Magda for a walk when she comes. I like Magda. She tells me she loves me.

It’s not cold in here at the moment but Dad says it will be if the central heating boiler packs up on us. I think he’s going to give me my own personal electic fan to keep the kitchen warm. I have to keep my back legs warm cos of what that Mr. Arthur did.

I think I’d better go now cos I want to try and sneak in to see Charlie. I want to know what that man with the radiator said to him.

Bye for now

Woof woof woof

FOWC Feed

FOWC With Fandango — Feed

With thanks to Fandango

Edward was very polished at what he did. No one would have guessed from his outward appearance that he was capable of the things that he was capable of. They trusted him. Well most people do trust a vicar. He appeared kindly and was always ready to help anybody. But he was in a position where he could privately do anything to anybody without their even realising it.

Chrissy came into his life at a low point in her life. She was easy prey. Edward was privately gleeful that she had come into his life. She seemed so lost and alone and he began immediately to wear down her defences and feed her with things that would make her want to do as he wanted. She was pliable.

One day he said to her,

“I wonder if it is possible to exchange one reality for another.” He quoted German philosophy at her, but she didn’t understand. How was German philosophy different to any other philosophy?

Gradually and insiduously he managed to change her into what he wanted her to be. His puppet.

A thought then entered his brain. Could he possibly commit murder? Did he have it in him to do that? He wanted to. He really wanted to. He was about to retire, and he wanted to do just one spectacular thing before he retired. Murder was the perfect thing. Of course, it would be secret. No one would know about it. It would be his private personal triumph.

When Chrissy next went to see him, he invited her to go in his car with him to meet his son who lived in a different town. Chrissy suddenly felt afraid. He said that they would stop en route and she could find some new clothes for herself. Chrissy wondered what on earth he meant. Why did she need new clothes?

Suddenly she made a dash for the front door of the vicarage. Edward pursued her but she was too quick for him.

It was only as the days and weeks passed that she realised just what he had been doing to her. She had had a lucky escape. Edward

meanwhile was on the lookout, wondering if he could find another possible victim. Sometime later, a woman’s body was found in some woods off the motorway.

MY SOUL DRINKS

My soul drinks of the chalice of Nature
Eats at the table of the Universe
Drinks of the fountain springing from the hard rock
The fountain of life
The living water
In the dry places
The places of suffering
I go to those places in my mind
Thirsty I drink
And I am refreshed
With the fountain
I dance
And sing a song of love
For even in the desert
Love cannot be quenched

JUS JO JAN Magnifier

https://teleportingweena.wordpress.com/author/ghostmmnc/

A magnifier would be no use to me now, as I can’t see anything at all in the physical sense. However, when I was in the process of going blind I did use one. I too used to make the letters much bigger on my iPad and indeed they did make it so that some information was lost. Eventually even doing that, I could see nothing. At first this produced panic in me. How on earth was I going to cope with writing? How would I use my iPad now?

Determination made me seek new ways of doing things but I needed first to find out just what was available to me that would help. Nowdays, I can srite to my heart’s content though I might make a few mistakes.

As a newly blind person who is also bedfast, I find myself seeing things very differently to how I used to see them. Things that didn’t matter before matter now, and in my mind’s eye I see things in a different light. I have made dark seem beautiful and often talk about the rays of darkness. I see beauty in things that I would not have found beautiful before. I do magnify things that maybe had no effect upon me before. It is a beautiful world here in the dark.

Oh I do long to see physically again often, but here in my darkness I embrace a totally new world. No one else can see what I can see unless they themselves are blind. I never thought that I would actually see anything positive in being blind, but here I am saying just that.

I have a vivid imagination and I magnify the things in my imagination that give me pleasure, like a little daisy. I see it as one of the most beautiful flowers in the world.

There is so much beautify in the world that we don’t see with our eyes. We see it only with our hearts.

This is where this word took me. I enjoyed writing about it.

Thankyou Barbara for such a good word.

FOWC Event

FOWC With Fandango — Event

With thanks to Fandango

Sonia and Pete had just moved into a new flat. For the first time since they had married, they had a spare room, which they planned to turn into a dining room. The problem was, however, that they didn’t have a dining table. As they didn’t have much money, Sonia decided to go to the local auction to buy a dining table.

Full of anticipation, she made her way to the auction one day, and once there, she began to look round to see what was going to be auctioned off that day. She became quite taken with all the little knick knacks and decided that she would bid for some of them. She was particularly taken with three stuffed birds. There was also an old piano that she quite fancied. She had always longed for a piano, and wondered how much it would go for.

The auction began, and she had to wait quite a lolng time but nowhere was there to be seen a dining table.

In the event she ended up bidding for the three birds and the piano. Upon returning home she showed the three birds to Pete and he scratched his head.

“I thought you went for a dining table,” he said.

“Oh I did. But there wasn’t one, but there was a piano and it’s coming tomorrow.”

THE DAILY MOAN Come on in

Well not quite daily but never mind. I just feel like a moan today about central heating boilers.

I live in the U.K. and the government has ruled that we are no longer permitted to replace our old gas central heating boilers with the same again. Despite the fact that they worked perfectly and warmed up houses well, we now have to have one of those stupid condenser boilers. This is to save energy.

Ok so what is one of those? Don’t ask me to tell you how it works because I don’t know, but what I do know is that when it gets really cold and goes belolw freezing for a time, it breaks down and doesn’t work. How so? The pipe that leads from the boiler into the outside world freezes up and then the boiler stops working. It is something to do with having to take the condensate from the boiler into the outside drain. The water in the pipe simply freezes. The only thing that will get the damned boiler working again is to unfreeze the water in the pipe and that takes time and effort. For us, it is impossible, for you can’t reach it from a wheelchair and my husband therefore cannot do it.

We are in for a very cold snap. Well below freezing. We have had our boiler stop working twice before in the two years that we have had it.

Today my husband is going to try to get our cleaner, Magda, to wrap some extra lagging round it to try to stop it freezing. We have no idea if it will do the trick or not but we are hoping so. I don’t fancy being in a freezing cold house for a few days. It is dangerous to us as we are both extremely vulnerable and it makes us both ill.

The government is full of these so called brilliant ideas and we all have to go with it as it is law now.

So that is my moan for today. What is yours?

WOTD Exercise

Exercise

I used to exercise a lot. I prided myself on swimming thirty six lengths of the swimming pool every day. I cycled sometimes twenty miles a day. I was addicted to the gym. In fact, where we lived in Derbyshire, England, they built a brand new state of the art gym which I could sit in the back bedroom of our house and see right into. I loved going there myself, and as I looked in, I could see people doing their thing in there.

Who would have thought that with such a regime, I would end up like I have? I certainly did not expect it at all. I beleived that I was doing myself good. I never overdid it, but each day involved exercise of some kind. Sometimes it would just be walking my dogs in the hills.

I often look back on those days now and feel so sad. I would love just to be able to get downstairs and out of the front door and down the ramp into the drive and then into the car. Not that I would be able to see anything but it would be lovely just to feel the fresh air again and hear the things that are going on outside from closer quarters. None of that is going ot happene now. I spend some of my time watching videos on You Tube of people walking the Coast to Coast walk or doing some other walk. I had always planned to do the Coast to Coast walk myself. It takes about ten days to do it. It was not t be. Nowadays it takes me all my time to walk to the bathroom. I am getting fat now lol. It isn’t good for me to be so inactive. It is strange though because I do things in my mind. Sadly, that doesn’t keep me slim. Not that anyone sees me anyway, but I would like to feel that my body was healthy again.

Yes, I would love to be able to exercise again.

Thankyou Alice for this word

CONQUERED BY LOVE

Sacred
This darkest night
Is the nightingale’s song
In the dark night of our exile
We wept
And mourned
We could not sing in this strange land
Remembering the past
Sang broken songs
To you

You touched
Our hearts with love
Mended our broken songs
We became a heavenly choir
Angels
Took us
To heaven whilst still on this earth
We learned to sing again
Our hearts conquered
By love

WILL TIME END

I look and see the Church clock stopped
And wonder if my time will end
How many years from my life are lopped
I look and see the Church clock stopped
How many aeons has it dropped
How many lives have had to bend
I look and see the Church clock stopped
And wonder if my time will end

HOW DID YOUR NEW YEAR’S EVE GO?

Well, how did yours go? Did you do something special? Did you go out of stay in? Did you just go to bed and ignore it all?

For us, it started early. Fireworks were going off all afternoon and it drove our dog Hope, mad. It isn’t that she’s frightened of them. She loves them and barks like mad and drives us mad too. Lol. As it gradually built up to a crescendo so did the dog. And then when it actually ws midnight it was as if the whole world had gone mad. The noise was deafening. It sent on for a little while and then settled down and all was quiet again. What a contrast.

I was desperate to be able to ring somone and wish them a Happy New Yer, and to be part of it. I have lovely memories of past New Years. We always used to go out and had a great time. Nowadays sadly we are completely housebound and have no one to ring at all and no one to ring us. We do miss that.

I put the radio on just before midnight as we have no television. Although we can get the television on the internet. I thought that the radio might make something of it but all that we got was the cmining of Big Ben at midnight and then a man wishing us a Happy New Year from the BBC. It only took a few minutes and it was over and then the News came on. We did put the television on on the internet after that to see what was happening in LOndon. My husband could see the firework display but of course I couldn’t. I heard the music and it wasn’t exactly to my taste but I think they were trying to make it inclusive of everybody whoever they were. They wanted ot make London appear as a welcoming place for everybody.

After the fireworks I fell into silent thought. What had changed? Nothing really. I was ready for sleep but couldn’t sleep. Then this morning I felt like death warmed up lol.

I think that the person who most enjoyed New Year in our house was the dog. Hope. She was in her element. I am wondering of we are going to get more fireworks today as it usuall goes on for quite a while.

Personally I am glad it’s all over and we can get back to normal, whatever normal is.

How did your New Year’s Eve go?

WORD New Year

Thankyou Alice for this word.

I have to admit that last night I wondered just what this New Year thing was all about. For me, it doesn’t seem to say too much because how does one moment or even second in time change anything? I agree that we can make New Year resolutions and many people do that. I am sure they hope to keep these resolutions, but for most people it doesn’t really last. Still, at least the desire was there. However, in general terms, how does that one minute or second change anything? Mostly our circumstances don’t change, and everything is exactly the same the next day as it was before. After all the hullabaloo things are just the same. We might hope for them to be different, but they aren’t.

We do wish people a very Happy New Year, and yet although we mean it, can anything change just like that?

I am probably being a sour puss lol. I don’t mean to be, but these thoughts just came to me last night when all the hullabaloo was on. The fireworks going on all over the place, deafening us. And everything else that went with them. It felt somehow false. I think that people just like to have a good time and a party and who can blame them? Life can be pretty monotonous and even difficult and times like this are probably needed. For us here in the U.K. these are dark days. Winter days. It is a welcome breaak from all the darkness and dreariness.

I do know that there are people who just go to bed and ignore it all. For them it means nothing. Just another day.

I am lead to ask the question,

“How new is a New Year?”