Sunday 21st January 2018 - Poetry and Prose

Long time no write.

I've been plagued by general "under-the-weather-ness" since before Christmas. I've now discovered that I have probably been brewing a low grade infection since maybe October. I have regular blood tests to make sure that the various pills and potions I take aren't causing any problems... one of the things they check is my white blood cell count which has been slowly creeping up implying an infection. So I have been taking the antibiotics for a week now, and  I cancelled everything that could easily be cancelled on Thursday and Friday.

That means I have been spending quite a lot of time sitting around in bed, reading, or browsing on the internet, or dozing. The next couple of days are lighter than usual, so, hopefully, by the time I've finished the second box of antibiotics, whatever bugs had taken up residence will have been dealt with.

Meanwhile, I have discovered the poetry of U A Fanthorpe and Rainer Marie Rilke's 'Letters to a Young Poet'. And I'm trying to read 'A Far Cry From Kensington' by Muriel Spark but I can't continue past the first page until I have absorbed all its wonders.

I knew about U A Fanthorpe, in the sense that I had tripped across several of her popular poems and been very amused. Try the one about the damsel being rescued from the dragon which is about the picture at the top of this post. the picture.

But this poem, one, about the list of psychiatric patients for the next day's clinic is very poignant;

The List

Flawlessly typed, and spaced
At the proper intervals,
Serene and lordly, they pace
Along tomorrow’s list
Like giftbearers on a frieze.

In tranquil order, arrayed
With the basic human equipment -
A name, a time, a number -
They advance on the future.

Not more harmonious who pace
Holding a hawk, a fish, a jar
(The customary offerings),
Along the valley of the kings.

Tomorrow these names will turn nasty,
Senile, pregnant, late,
Handicapped, handcuffed, unhandy,
Muddled, moribund, mute,

Be stained by living. But here,
Orderly, equal, right,
On the edge of tomorrow, they pause
Like giftbearers on a frieze

With the proper offering,
A time, a number, a name.
I am the artist, the typist;
I did my best for them.

(from Side Effects, 1978)

And why can't I get past the first page of 'A Far Cry From Kensington'?

' ... I formed the habit of insomnia. Insomnia is not bad in itself. You can lie awake at night and think; the quality of insomnia depends entirely on what you decide to think of.  Can you decide to think?-Yes, you can. You can put your mind to anything most of the time....'

that needs some pondering before moving on. I still don't know anything about this person, except that she is talking about the past, and about now in the book.

Later on...  (I have managed to read a couple more pages!)

'.... if there's nothing wrong with you except fat, it is easy to get thin.Youbeat and drink the same as always , only half. If you are handed a plate of food, leave half; if you have to help yourself, take half...'

if only it were that easy. Oh, wait; she has advice on will power as well! Please excuse me from writing as I Need to Read!

Friday 5th January 2018 - 12th Night

We'll be finishing off clearing the Christmas Decorations this weekend.
Once the house is back back to normal it will feel like the real start to the year.

No, wait, the year 'began' yesterday, on the 4th, when term started.

No, hang on, isn't 1st January the date? Or was it the 1st Sunday in Advent, at the beginning of December? That's when the church year begins.

Or the start of the school year, last September?

Or way back in April, at the start of a new tax year? Tax Year!!!!! Aaargh!!!!

I have been wrestling with Phase 1 of doing my tax return; the Gathering Together of All The Paperwork. The deadline of 31st January is ominously close.

psychologytoday.com

The stuff I earn through PAYE is easy to deal with - round up the P60s and there you are. It's the self-employed teaching that drives me loopy.

I would have got on a lot better if it wasn't for the fact that I organise the figures in school years, eg for the last school year I divide them into Autumn Term 2016, Spring Term 2017, and Summer Term 2017. But the tax year cuts across everything, so for my 2016-17 tax return I have to select the figures for Summer 2016, Autumn 2016 and Spring 2017. I knew I had all the numbers, but in two notebooks (one for each school year) and in various folders on the computer. It was just all a bit brain-bending.

Anyway, three hours later and my papers are in neat piles and the necessary figures are all noted in the current notebook, ready for Phase 2; Do The Tax Return, once I have regained my strength.

Meanwhile... I'll take a break... cup of tea, biscuit, unexpected piano pupil (must remember to add that to this term's records....

Sunday December 31st - Promises, promises...

This year's resolutions might not have gone as well as in previous years -

I do have an entry for every page in my journal, although there were a couple of sticky patches when I found my self trying to write up a whole week in one go. That's what I call a memory test.

I did eat chocolate every week. At least, I didn't keep a record, but I can't imagine a week without chocolate, so it must have happened.

It's the "two bags of stuff to the charity shop every month" resolution that I'm not sure of. A plastic tub sat in the hall collection stuff for months, before I finally managed to get round to dumping donating it all to a randomcharity shop. So I might have managed it, but probably not.

 



Still, they are good, workable resolutions, so I will stick with them for another year. saves me cudgelling my brain to come up with something different. 

I'll retrieve the tub from the shed, where all the extraneous clobber has ended up over Christmas/NewYear, and make a start on filling tomorrow. Or the next day. Sometime soon.

 

Sunday December 31st - Diaries

You may have been wondering why I haven't posted for a week? Or maybe you haven't noticed!

The clue is in the name of the blog; "A letter from home". Well, they've been staying here from Christmas Eve until New Year's Day, so there wasn't much point in writing "letters" to them...

My new diary arrived today - Sunday! Just in time for tomorrow. I waited to order it in case anyone had given me a diary for Christmas - a risky undertaking, because I am very specific, except in the matter of colour.  And here it is;

This year's colour is............................................red!

It will seem weird, starting all over again in an empty book. I think this will be the fifth year....

Well, Happy New Year, everyone, and best wishes for 2018

#Pause for Advent 4

Recap of previous weeks; I'm reading Luke's Gospel "backwards" through Advent. In week 1, I started at the Resurrection of Christ. In week 2, I gathered my strength and tackled the Passion of Christ, which is dealt with mercifully concisely in the King James Version of the gospel. This week was all about the Ministry of Christ, from being Baptised by John the Baptist as far as just before the Passover Meal. That is from Chapter 2 to Chapter 19. Jesus certainly had a busy busy busy three years. I found a map showing the places he visited here

If you want to get a sense of scale, the Sea of Galillee is about 13 miles long.

Towards the end of Chapter 19, Jesus is talking about the Second Coming;

"Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise" (from "The Message" by Eugene H. Peterson)

It struck me that is exactly how Christmas Day sometimes arrives all of a sudden, with all the sense of awe and expectation lost amid the chaos and scheduling of getting ready.

So, here is this week's #Pause - I will be reading the first few Chapters tonight, concerning the Birth of Christ. I may well go back to the old King James, for the familiar, traditional words...

and then I might listen again to O Magnum Mysterium composed by Morten Lauridsen

O magnum mysterium, et admirabile sacramentum, ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, lacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum lesum Christum.
Allelluia!

O great mystery, and wonderful sacrament, that animals should see the new-born Lord, lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Allelliua!


and then I might imagine myself to be this child... as related by Stephen Cottrell in his book From "Do Nothing; Christmas is Coming: An Advent Calendar with a Difference"

December 24

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nativity_scene_@_Eglise_Notre-Dame_de_Lorette_@_Paris_(31523272300).jpg

"One of my best Christmas memories is from the church in Chichester where I was the parish priest. Because the building was so small, and because every other available inch of space was needed for chairs, we used to put the crib underneath the altar. One Christmas morning, about halfway through the service, a little girl, Miriam, toddled up to the front of the church. She can only have been about two or three at the time. For several minutes she stood before the crib, gazing intently at the figures. Then, very carefully, so as not to wake the baby, she stepped inside and sat down. And as people looked at the crib that Christmas, as well as the shepherds and the angels and the ox and the ass, and Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, they saw Miriam. She sat there for the rest of the service, content to have become part of the story. She was the best Christmas sermon I have ever experienced. I think this is also the best example I can muster of the how to get ready for Christmas this year." 

The other bloggers contributing to #Pause for Advent can be found at Tracing Rainbows. Many  thanks to Angela for hosting the #Pauses.

Saturday 23rd December - Christmas Eve's Eve

I'm having to do two posts today just so that I can use the phrase "Christmas Eve's Eve".

An oddly quiet day in some ways - I haven't left the house, apart from swapping the bright white lights on the outside tree to replace them with coloured ones, so that I could use the white ones inside. It isn't easy to take a picture of the tree at this time of night. Here is it without flash

and with flash

You either get the lights or the tree in my photographs. You'll have to merge them in your mind.
I've put the bright white lights inside a pickle jar to make a table decoration

I hoovered the whole house, bit by bit. Himself is on light duties, pending a minor op, so the hoovering was down to me. I find it is one of the quickest way for me to get completely out of breath, so I took my time, doing a room, pausing for a cup of tea, doing another room, another cup of tea...

And we managed between us to get the cards up. We usually string them up at ceiling level, but lots of things are different this year. At the beginning of the week getting ready for Christmas seemed an impossible feat, but now - everything has been checked off the list apart from four emails, washing the kitchen floor and delivering a couple of presents. And there's still one more day before Christmas!

I've finished the little bit of Christmas sewing I wanted to get done - last year it was frantic Advent Calendar Completing in time for 1st December. This year it is a little surprise for Christmas Day. I've also made a sort of "cat's duvet" from various scraps of fabric left over from other projects, which has helped the "Upstairs Cat" spend more time downstairs this Winter. 

It's nearly bedtime for us. As soon as James May has finished trying to follow the instructions for making some stilts, from a vintage "Ladybird" book, we're off.



Oh, and the Jamie Oliver Crazy Fish Pie was worth making.