Please be strong

A familiar face appears within my mind’s eye…
An unforgettable face, no matter how I try.
A kind face, a peaceful face, but one without a smile,
A sad face, a lonely face, seemingly lonely for a while.
A confused face, an old face, pleasant all the same,
A lost face, a needy face, a face with just one name.
Florence, I say within, and her eyes glow big and bright
Her elfin looks younger than the age she is tonight.
She’s reaching out for something, and getting through to me,
Although what she needs isn’t clear: try harder, please, for me.
She remembers clearly days gone by, then drifts away again
When you’re stronger, I think to her, please come through again.

Turmoil and Calm

A decision is needed
What should I do?
Award a lot, or just a few?
I’ve tried to find the easiest way,
Which isn’t easy at all, I must say…
How can I say one is better than the next?
Each one is different, I’m so perplexed…

So, although I’ve ‘kind of’ awarded three
Singling blogs out just isn’t me.

So, although the award I’ve received is great
The burden with it is a bit of a weight.

Instead of filling cyberspace with more awards
I’ll list some great blogs, for your records…

Kate Shrewsday writes some pretty amazing posts, linking seemingly unlinkable things together with great skill. Have a read, you will not be disappointed!

Lady Pen of Poems ‘n Stuff is the lady who made me a knight. Or a sir. Anyway, she is the creator of wonderful short poems ‘n stuff – including tales of fabulous dragons, gargoyles and witches. A great place to allow your imagination and thoughts to roam free!

Laura provides some unlikely explanations about various topics, such as staying calm when locked in a bathroom, the emergence of vampire bees, and several cat related postings. This paragraph does not do her justice – go check out her blog and see for yourself!

My long time blogging friend Bex has plenty to babble about in her blog-come-diary. She writes in a way that picks you up and sweeps you along, and throws in a few movie reviews along the way too!

The Laughing Housewife is a blog I have recently discovered along my little journey, and I am hooked. Tilly Bud has some funny posts over there!

And then there is Diane Henders, whose weekly posts always give me something to think about. Diane nominated me for the versatile blogger award, who was nominated by someone else. And Kate above was also nominated this week too.

So, there we have the fifteen ‘nominations’ from me. I obviously can’t nominate Diane back, so that means there are five others in the blurb above. Six divided by two is three, two plus three is five, and three multiplied by five is fifteen. I know it makes no sense at all, but hey, the numerology fits so who am I to argue?!?

The serious bit.

• Receiving the award wasn’t a burden, passing it on was.
• The five posts chosen above have not been picked at random, and some thought has gone in to choosing them. Three of the authors have been notified that I have nominated them, when I realised what I was cluttering up cyberspace.
• I recommend visiting the other blogs that are listed in my Blogs I Visit page, and although those blogs have not been mentioned here, they wouldn’t be on that page if I didn’t visit them.
• The Laughing Housewife (as of 29/09/11) is currently not on the Blogs I Visit page, but will be shortly, as will several others, so please return for more links to great blogs!
• This serious bit isn’t as serious as it first sounded, although the recommendations to the blogs is serious.

Joining the Jet Set

I am honoured to have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger award by Diane. Thank you very much indeed.

I’m not particularly well clued up on awards such as this; I was always the last person to be chosen for whatever sporting event I was being forced into doing at school, and that feeling of uselessness has stuck with me ever since. However, this award is far more complimentary than the times when I was chosen second-to-last, rather than last, and I never expected to be nominated for anything with my far out posts. And yes, I accept the award! With more thanks than is actually needed, and… what do you mean I have to pass it on to someone else? Oh. I see!

The award comes with some rules:
i) Thank the person who shared the award with you by linking back to them in your post.
b) List 7 things about yourself.
3) Pass this award to 15 recently discovered blogs and let them know that you included them in your blog post.

Rule One was completed almost immediately, have a look at the very first paragraph if you missed it.
Rule Two seems a little tricky to me, as the blog itself is about me and seven more things about me may be lost, or have already been mentioned, or may be mentioned again in a future post. Still, them’s the rules and I must obey…
Rule Three will take some time. I visit quite a few blogs, some more frequently than others, and others less so than some, but I like visiting them all. To have to pick fifteen seems unfair to me on the others who don’t get picked, and then there are the blogs that I haven’t come across yet, and may do so in the next few days; or the ones I have recently found but not had chance to read and catch up with their corners of the cyberverse. I’m tweaking this rule slightly, and referring any reader to my ‘blogs I visit’ page first of all. Then I will choose fifteen over time. Even the thought of choosing fifteen has brought back the memory of me waiting patiently to be picked last to join the cross country jogging group, and this award means so much more than that. I’ll come back to Rule Three.

In the meantime, I’ll go back to Rule Two. Seven things about me. Hmmm. Do they have to be true? OK. OK!

• I once raised hundreds of pounds on a sponsored diet after losing so much weight in such a short time (ten weeks). My sponsors were expecting me to fail miserably, so were flippant with their pledges.
• I think I’m developing a sort of psychic ability where I can ‘feel’ if something is going to happen. It’s in the early stages, as I don’t actually know what is going to happen yet, but the potential is there. I only need to learn more about this ability first.
• I was once mistaken for Jason Donovan, although I look nothing like him, can’t sing and can’t act. The event was surreal in itself, as I was in a boxing club at the time.
• I have appeared on television on several occasions, always centre screen and always in the background. My main break in television was pulled due to something that the Royal Family did one Thursday, and I don’t think the show was ever broadcast again. Sigh.
• I have suffered from sunstroke twice in my life. Once at a four day outdoor concert (I presume this was sunstroke…) and the other time when I was up that mountain on Tenerife. It was bizarre being up that mountain, as I had the really strange feeling that I was going to fall off. I know… weird…
• I love animals, and when I was younger wanted to own a tiger. Secretly, I still do.
• For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to visit Iceland, and I am saving the occasion for the ‘right time’, whenever that will be…

So. Seven facts. Some mentioned before, and some to be revisited at a later date. That wasn’t as tricky as I thought it was going to be.

I’ll be mentioning my fifteen chosen blogs over the coming days, and the reasons for me choosing said blogs. For now, though, this post is at an end. Thank you, thank you, thank you…

First Tuesday

I woke early this morning. I’d like to say it was natural, and I suppose, in the grand scheme of things, it probably was, because the invention of the alarm clock had to have evolved from somewhere way back when; and anything man-made is really humankind’s attempts at making things easier for others. Although sometimes easier is not necessarily more comfortable.

So, I awoke with a ‘comfortable start’ this morning. Not that I particularly enjoy the sound of my alarm. Ooh, not a pleasant way to wake up, but without it, I’d probably be late for work… in fact, I’d probably still be asleep now, some fifteen hours or so later.

I forced my eyes open, and once I had become accustomed to the darkness and realised that my eyes were in fact open, I checked the time to make sure that I hadn’t dreamt that the alarm had gone off. I mean, I once dreamt that I couldn’t sleep, so anything is possible in my head. Alas, my alarm had sounded. My Tuesday had begun.

I ached out of bed, and looked out of my bedroom window. Above me was the glorious row of stars that make up Orion’s Belt, or so I thought. And just over to the right was Jupiter. According to my on-line research, I couldn’t have been seeing these this morning, but in my mind’s eye, I was. I was too tired to argue with myself, so left it at that. I also found out that today’s New Moon is also another Supermoon, the second this year. With it being new though, we wouldn’t see it… and I didn’t see it this morning either!

The freshness of the morning air caused me to think how things would have been on day one of this wonderful planet of ours. How would the air have smelled on that very first morning? There wouldn’t have been any buildings, as there weren’t any people back then, which caused me to wonder how the plants would have looked, or would the area be simply covered in ice or rock? My thoughts then moved onto the first non-plant life forms, and the various species that evolved from then.

My thoughts then turned to the weather. It has turned very warm again here in the UK, on this day we call Tuesday in this year we call 2011. I wondered if the very first morning of Earth was actually a Tuesday morning all those millions of years ago. I wondered if it was raining that morning. I wondered if there was thunder and lightning.

I then found myself looking to that row of stars that I called Orion’s belt, and that very bright object that I called Jupiter, and wondered if they looked brighter, or nearer to us, on that very first Tuesday morning of Earth’s existence. I then found myself wondering if there would have been more stars to be seen back then, ones which now have reached the end of one part of their journey through existence, but back then would have been very much alive. Maybe going supernova to add a little more light to that thundery Tuesday morning of Day One.

I then wondered what I was doing, hanging out of my window at six of the clock on a Tuesday morning when I should have been getting myself ready for work. I looked into my mirror as I returned to my room, and smiled.

I may not have been here on that very first morning to enjoy that experience, but I am here today, and that is a close enough coincidence for me given the scale of the universe.

I also smiled at my reflection in the mirror, as I noticed my hair. I wondered how long it would take me to get it looking anywhere near decent. In that one split second, my thoughts of time and space disappeared, and were replaced by my more modern thoughts of seemingly great importance.

Yes. I woke up early this morning. It was a new day. Some things were different. Some things were still the same. My thoughts were, well, my thoughts… different as usual.

Flacement: Familiar Faces–Odd Places

I’m always finding myself in some situation where I think that I recognise somebody’s face, and then realise that I don’t.

Sometimes, I actually do recognise the face, but don’t think that it is the person I am thinking it could be, because they are in a place where I don’t expect them to be.

Sometimes, I’m right, and know that I don’t know the person.

Sometimes, I’m right, and know that I know the person.

Sometimes, I’m wrong, and know that I don’t know the person.

And, yes, sometimes, I’m wrong, and know that I know the person, but don’t think it is them as they are in Sainsbury’s when usually I see them in the Co-op. (Other shops are available).

Once, my dentist’s receptionist recognised me in Sainsbury’s. “Hello Mr Aquatom” she announced merrily as she walked by (although she used my real name, but for privacy purposes my alter ego’s name will have to suffice here). I didn’t recognise her, and spent the next hour or so trying (and failing) to work out where I knew her from, and how she knew my name. It was actually during the night, when I woke up for some reason, when I remembered she was the receptionist.

Another time, I met a work colleague at the hospital. Instantly, I knew it was my work colleague… but a few months earlier, I didn’t know who she was at work, even though we worked together on the same team. Eventually, I remembered who she was, and vowed never to forget her again. Which probably helped when I met her at the hospital.

The other day, I was walking down a street when I saw a young lad walking towards me. His face was very familiar, and I was sure I knew him. He started to smile, so I started to smile back. He then shouted to someone behind me, and I realised that I didn’t know him at all. I walked passed him with a huge smile on my face, pretending that I had thought of something funny. I don’t think he realised what I had done…

Several years ago, I went to a motor bike racing circuit, to watch a few races, funnily enough. I went with a few friends, and we were walking around the stalls where they were selling all the manly tools and leathers and bike parts and things. The guy who was serving on this particular stall looked at me as though he recognised me – and I recognised him as well. He actually said that he knew me, but didn’t know where from. I said the same to him, but neither of us had been to each other’s home town, and the racing circuit is something I don’t do very often. Unfortunately, we never did find out how we knew each other; although we probably didn’t in this lifetime. That was a strange feeling, that one!

I’m now starting to recognise some of the doctors and nurses at the hospital, when I see them at the hospital. If I saw them in Sainsbury’s, I’d probably know that I knew them, but not know where from.

So, the reason for this post.

Another new word for my dictionary:

• Flacement
  The recognition of a familiar face in unfamiliar surroundings.
  The knowledge that you know that you don’t know the person that you think that you know, but you still think that you might know them from somewhere, but don’t.

Stand back, citizens!

Every now and then, you are called upon to do some kind of super-heroics that leave you wondering what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. Or maybe, that’s just me.

Twice this week, I have had to jump to the rescue of ordinary people going about their ordinary business. Or, extra-ordinary people involved in out-of-place situations.

The first event was during one of my hospital visits this week. The ward was quiet, with the exception of hushed laughter, and the occasional ping of a monitoring machine. Nurses chattering in their observation booths, and checking on patients, taking blood samples, dishing out medication and answering the most random of questions thrown at them.

The relative calm of the ward was shattered when a stack of chairs suddenly collapsed as an unsuspecting nurse was walking by, carrying a cup of steaming hot coffee. The chairs clattered to the floor, causing patients, visitors and nurses to look over to see what the commotion was about.

I leapt up out of my seat, to try to help to pick up the chairs and restore the order of the day. I only managed to move one chair, as unseen by me, another nurse had stacked the chairs again; it was her fault that the stack had collapsed in the first place, as she had somehow managed to cause them to become unbalanced.

I returned to my seat with the slogan “Every Little Helps” going through my mind. My moving of the chair made it easier for the nurse to stack them all again, so it wasn’t exactly a pointless exercise on my part. I tell myself, anyway…

The second incident was more serious.

I walked into the Co-op to be faced with a crowd of customers and staff standing around in a circle, away from the counter. Something was amiss, but I had to obtain my shopping first and foremost before I found out what.

I arrived at the checkout, goods in hand, and one of the shop assistants asked me if I was any good with spiders. By the counter, actually in the exact centre of the checkout to be exact, was an arachnid the size of which probably hasn’t been seen since pre-historic times. It was obvious why all of these people were standing away from the counter; and the spider scuttled away from, and back to, its comfortable corner, with each of its muscular legs twitching nervously.

I was asked if I could get the spider out of the shop. The assistant said that she wasn’t afraid of spiders, but there were some customers who were.

I had to pay for my shopping fist of all (another assistant had ran behind the counter to serve me, and popped everything into a carrier bag for when my task was done.)

I crouched down in front of the intimidating beast before me. I could see its eyes looking back at me. I think it could sense that I had no intention of hurting it, as it didn’t scurry away. I tapped its back legs to encourage it to walk onto my other hand, which, at first, it didn’t want to do. Eventually, it did, and I had to carry it out of the shop rotating my hands to allow the spider to walk ever forwards on its own journey to freedom.

In my hands, the spider’s size and demeanour had seemingly reduced, and I remember thinking to myself that it actually looked cute as it tickled my hands with each of its long legs. I was also quietly asking that the spider didn’t bite me.

I released the spider outside the shop, and went back in to collect my shopping. The assistant who had asked me to remove the spider said that I would forever be their hero. I must admit that I enjoyed hearing those words, but I didn’t do it for the fame or the glory… I did it because I was asked to, and the spider needed saving.

OK, in the grand scheme of things, helping someone with a fallen chair or freeing a creature that was probably more terrified than the people standing away from it, aren’t exactly the kind of super hero activities that tend to get reported on on a regular basis, but I’m glad that I did what I did anyway. I do like to help people every now and then. Helping people helps me to feel good, and I like to feel good.

I had to do both of these in my secret identity. Super heroes don’t go hospital visiting or shopping, do they? Besides, I didn’t have time to change.

Hello again!

First of all, apologies for leaving everything so suddenly earlier this week. I (well, my family and I) had a major family medical emergency on Monday evening, and had to spend the week basically waiting for news / information / updates to filter through.

Things are more settled now than they were, and I am trying to get things back to normal. I’m returning to work this coming Monday, but before then, I wanted to get back to this place too!

I’m sorry that I didn’t have a better post to finish on, rather than the ‘intentionally blank’ one, but I think I have more comments on that post than on any other so far to date! I will be responding to them very soon.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back to writing something each and every day. Even though I have days when I have nothing to write about, I enjoy the challenge of writing, and I feel very good with myself when I have managed to add a post for the day. There may be days now where I can’t post, but I’m hoping that these days will be very rare and infrequent indeed.  

So, here’s to moving forward again… and here’s to writing!