Reflections

Well - if this blog is to be an honest account of my first year in retirement then I have to own up to the bad days - today is one of those.  I woke up early at 6:15am (I had gone to bed early so had had my 8 hours sleep) but feeling decidedly yuk!  Back pain and feeling sorry for myself.  After mooching around I settled on the sofa with a hot water bottle consoling myself with the thought that even if I had felt like this I would normally have gone to work.  If I chose to my whole day could be spent on the sofa!

Needless to say it wasn't - by 10:30 I had ensconced myself - with the obligatory hot water bottle of course - in the kitchen on a  stool,  I then moved onto a small set of drawers - I think that I will just about manage to have enough paint to give them two coats  As you can see these drawers have been neglected for some time and have been water marked / scorched in the conservatory so I am hopefully giving them a new lease of life.












The radio was on and I was shocked to hear about the teacher being stabbed in Bradford.  I appreciate that this is a breaking story, and that we don't know the full facts, but I have always believed that the relationships between teachers and students are ones of trust and mutual respect.  No one can ever justify the use of violence in this way but I really hope that schools do not become fortresses.  Everyone, including staff, have to be safe in school but surely there is some education to be done here.  For some time I have been concerned about computer games and the way in which they distance children from reality.  I honestly think, in some cases, that children believe that death is not the final answer - after all many games give you multiple lives to use.  We all have a part to play in ensuring that children only play age appropriate games.  I truly hope that the member of staff recovers and that the person responsible pays the price of their actions.  I also hope that the powers that be clamp down on the ability of 14 year olds to access knives without fitting every school with airport scanners.

Then the radio played "When will I see you again" by the Three Degrees - and transported me back to 1974.  I was 13 and had moved from Kent to Lancashire but was committed to going back to Kent for a camp holiday.  During the 14 days I was absent my friends wrote me a diary about their antics and the boy that I had fancied ( 5 years later I saw him - there was no attraction there!).  This song was popular then and took me back to those 14 pages of girly delights - I really wished I had kept them!  The notes were full of comments like - 11:15 - we saw the back of his head as he walked to the next lesson - Big Brother had nothing on us!!


So after some more tile scrubbing I had a light lunch and then settled in front of the tv for some me time until it was time to go to slimming world.  Frustratingly my scales had said no change but theirs said that I had lost half a pound - so I will take that thank you!