Category: Every Day Life

January Calls

Ah, January, I see you’ve brought me some ice. Please leave it by the door. I don’t mean to be rude but when you come around, you bring me down. Your clothes are drab, your demeanour cold and your jokes for all things winter, are getting old. I know you have to visit and I don’t exactly give you a warm welcome but it’s the same on your side of the fence. There’s no love lost, is there?

Still, you do make me smile sometimes, with your tales of Christmas Past and your Very Best Wishes for the New Year. You quite respect those who brave another of your fierce tempers and make it through to warmer times. I see that, as you go, you leave me with some hope for longer days and brighter mornings and the promise of the sun on my face. So thank you January, you are kinder than I thought. Ah, I see I have another guest. Can you say hello to February on your way out?

Ah, February, I see you’ve brought me some ice…

Teabag Mystery

I found a teabag (old and dried) in my Busy Lizzies this week. No idea how it got there. The husband doesn’t know anything about it. Bit of a mystery, I thought, and it kept me going for a few days. But I love and hate mysteries with equal measure. So I thought, I’m going to work this one out if it kills me. Unless, I have a poltergeist that likes drinking tea, I have to think of another alternative, a logical solution.

Maybe I had a cup with a herbal teabag in it, from a recent previous beverage, which I filled with water, watered the plant, emptied both water and teabag into soil and voila, end of mystery. I do like solving mysteries. Sorry, poltergeist. Your days are numbered. It was fun while it lasted though.

Libraries Week

Last week was Libraries Week and I was invited to celebrate at Live Poets ‘15 Progressive Poetry Years’ party at Blackpool Central Library on Friday. They were having a Poetry Party with poetry readings, mocktails and cake.

They were also celebrating National Poetry Day with a limerick competition and a prize giving ceremony for the best three limericks.

I entered the competition and didn’t think anymore about it, until I received a phone call from a very nice lady informing me that my poem was in the top three selected winners and would I be available to come to the party? I was already going, so that wasn’t a problem and she said what an added bonus it was. I agreed.

When I got there, the three winners were called up on stage and had to read out their poem. Third prize was called out, a beautiful poem read by Steven, or Stephen, but me and Thelma insisted it be read out again because me and Thelma didn’t hear it. (Well, I’m hard of hearing, not sure about Thelma. I linked arms with Thelma and I think we’ve bonded, through fear) Second prize by Thelma, again, lovely poem. I was mortified by this time. Can’t tell you how embarressed I felt. I have social anxiety, so this was painful. It shouldn’t have been, but it was.

So I discovered that I won first prize in this poetry competition. It was only a local thing but it was a nice surprise, or rather shock.

The theme was Change, which was also the theme of this years National Poetry Day but also, I believe it was about putting a positive slant on change and at the same time following the structure of a limerick. Beforehand,  I did a bit of research and discovered that it doesn’t have to be, ‘There was an old man from wherever…’

So here is my poem

Change

Change can be a good thing

It’s a bit like a song that you sing

The tune never ends

It turns and it bends

And there’s so much joy it can bring

 

I don’t like change and struggle against it at every opportunity and I thought, I have to change. I have to embrace change. I have discovered to my cost, that resisting change is not only traumatic but also destructive. So I decided to be positive, for once. Just being positive, forcing myself to be positive, brings positive changes.  If you act a certain way, you become it.

‘At Live Poets, we encourage writng skills. Just bring biros, PC’s or quills. Monday plans rearrange – And join us for a change- Pioneering – Poetry fulfils!’

The poetry and writing group are having a positive impact in my life, even though I’ve only been going for a few months.  It’s great meeting other creative people. That’s what I love about word press and the blogging world too. It’s very inspiring.

I also think it’s wonderful that Blackpool Library, in connection with Blackpool Council, are supporting, inspiring and encouraging creative people in the community with these events.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transformation

Me yesterday

blonde 1

Me today

444_IMG_20180802_185658brighter tartan pic

It’s the Blackpool Punk Festival.

Rebellion Festival Blackpool 2018

Interesting, exciting and intriguing four day event with a great atmosphere. I hang out but I don’t go to the ‘festival’. It attracts a lot of Europeans, including Dutch and German punks. They are all sweet and lovely and polite. A lot of local punks don’t go to the festival, they just hang out by St. John’s Church or around the Winter Gardens. People want to bond or socialise or relate with like minded people. I had a chance to see P.I.L who are headlining on Sunday but I turned it down. Why would I want to see John Lydon in the flesh? He would only disappoint me. I have no interest in seeing my ‘heroes’, I would feel that it would be a let down in some way. I had a chance to see Theatre Of Hate tonight, but I have C.D’s and videos of them.  Plus I’ve seen Kirk Brandon before. I don’t really get the ‘live’ thing. I just don’t get it. If I could have a decent, lively, intelligent conversation with these people instead, then I’d prefer that. What I’m concerned about though, is the young punks who are so drunk (by 9 p.m) that they can’t walk straight and are dropping their money and hairspray and lighters….and I’m wondering how they are going to get through the night.  And I worry about them. I suppose I’m getting old and mothery.

There was one guy tonight and his mohican was very flaccid. He staggered over to the glass window of a shop (one of those behind me in the picture) He used it as a mirror and put hairspray on and kept dropping it. He was very drunk. He looked over at me once or twice and I wish I’d have just gone over and helped him put his hair up and sent him on his way. I really regret that because he was all alone and seemed a bit vulnerable. I hate it when I wish I’d helped people and didn’t because I dithered or procrastinated or was too slow.

Oh, well, there’s always tomorrow.

The Way Things Are

Murphy’s Law says, ‘If it can go wrong, it will go wrong’. As Thomas Hardy highlights in some of his work, Sod’s Law, in comparison, is all about the little ironies of fate, that torment us throughout our lives.

You’ve likely heard of them before and have been a victim one time or another. For example, you’re expecting a delivery man but when he eventually calls, after hours of waiting in, you will either be a) in the bathroom b) popped out for five minutes or c) a combination of both.

Your toast is always landing butter side down. But, would you still eat it, even if it’s landed the dry side down? Whichever way you look at it, it’s been on the floor. I suppose it depends on where it lands. Also, the butter could be weighing it down. Are you slathering it on? Are you putting it on with a trowel?  Heavy butter could be the culprit in this circumstance.

That’s why cats land on their feet. They’re unbuttered. Butter their backs, theorectically and I’m sure we’d see an entirely different story. Although, don’t try this at home folks. I’m not advocatng putting butter on your local ginger tom, just to see if he lands butter side down.

After an hour of waiting at the bus stop, of desert wasteland and rolling tumbleweeds – three buses will all come along at once. Mummy bus, daddy bus and little baby bus. If you have a car, on a day when you have all the time in the world, the lights will seem to be permanenetly on green but when you desperately need to get somewhere, it’s red all the way. And if you wash your car on Friday, it will rain on Saturday. And after the rain, seagulls or pigeons, or some other wild bird, will find your car the most attractive perching post in the whole world. And it does rain more at the weekend. It’s been proven. It’s just the way things are.

Do Not Touch

Valuable things have labels

In expected places

Somebody picks up an item

Carelessly

Let’s it slip through their fingers

Nobody hears it smash

Or sees them kick the mess

Under the counter.

Fragile things

And delicate things

Have labels

All over the world

‘Do Not Touch’

But somebody always does.

A Brighter, Better Springtime

Let’s celebrate this season

It’s springtime at last

So far, we’ve had heat waves

And cold winter blasts

A spiritual awakening

A time for hope

A moment for faith

An era for growth

While we may not have sun

That’s warm enough to burn

The cycle of life

Has finally returned

There’s a bitter side to spring

Many people get depressed

Overwhelmed by expectations

To be their very best

Spring is when many

Mental battles are fought

And not just at Christmas

As is commonly thought

For some, spring is often

When morale takes a dive

It is also when people

Take their own lives

Outside is now thriving

But inside not so

The heart may be frozen

And cold just like snow

When I was summer

I resisted spring

But now I’m in Autumn

It’s a wonderful thing

I hope that they see

Through the dark and the grey

A light shining through

To a brighter day

I pray that all

Of the shadows are chased

For those who can’t smile

When the sun strokes their face.

-Sue Young

Vanished Into Thin Air

Sue Young's avatarThings In My Head

My 18 year old daughter got a job

as a magicians assistant

But one day came home

Sobbing

The magician had ‘too many hands’

“He’s like an octopus,” she said

and More Besides, but

She Wouldn’t Tell

And I delved into The Magic Circle

Learned some tricks

And armed with a rusty saw

Went to see the magician

And made him Vanish Into Thin Air

-Sue Young

I wrote this just lately but it is based on a real experience that happened twenty years ago. I was 26 and a colleague of mine was 18. We were both on a drama course and were given the opportunity to apply for a job as a magician’s assistant. I was going to apply but at the last moment had misgivings, can’t imagine why and I didn’t apply. The 18 year old girl applied and got the job very quickly and easily…

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Vanished Into Thin Air

My 18 year old daughter got a job

as a magicians assistant

But one day came home

Sobbing

The magician had ‘too many hands’

“He’s like an octopus,” she said

and More Besides, but

She Wouldn’t Tell

And I delved into The Magic Circle

Learned some tricks

And armed with a rusty saw

Went to see the magician

And made him Vanish Into Thin Air

-Sue Young

I wrote this just lately but it is based on a real experience that happened twenty years ago. I was 26 and a colleague of mine was 18. We were both on a drama course and were given the opportunity to apply for a job as a magician’s assistant. I was going to apply but at the last moment had misgivings, can’t imagine why and I didn’t apply. The 18 year old girl applied and got the job very quickly and easily. Perhaps a little too quickly and easily. I was really pleased for her but at the audition, he asked her to take her top and bra off. It was that kind of magicians assistant. She didn’t do as he asked and she didn’t take up the job as a result. I was both surprised and relieved that she hadn’t done as he asked because she was so niave and had injured instincts and let men paw her left, right and centre normally. (I’ve been there myself, so I know) So glad that she took a stand on that one. I’m pretty sure it was touch and go.  Just remember feeling protective and upset as a result.  And it’s only now as a wiser woman, with a wisdom and a confidence and an anger, that I didn’t have at the time, that I feel I would actually take some revenge. Or at least entertain the thought. Maybe not revenge but some action. And I’m sorry that I was too young or too selfish at the time to do that. She may not have been my daughter, but she could have been and as an older, wiser woman looking back, those feelings rise up now.

And that’s where it comes from.