Pats Album

The pages arent in order but this is the album I did for my friend Pat. She was 70 in March and is one of the most amazing people I know. Over the last couple of years Ive blogged about how she lost her 2 best friends and then last year lost her husband. She, as you would expect, went into a depression and at one point I was scared that she would go out unless I took her.
Instead in the last couple of weeks shes decided she needs to face the world and get on with life so shes been out and chatted to people she couldnt face and Im so proud of her

The Promise

I put this post on a forum but would be interested to see what other people think

Anyone watching this?

Im so confused I cant decide who is good and who is bad. Im finding it hard as I grew up reading Maisie Moscow ' Next year Jerusalem' and also Leon Uris 'Exodus' and now Im so not sure who was in the right. I believed that the Jewish people deserved Israel but never actually thought about the Palestinian people that already lived there.

Certainly the British got in the middle of something that was nothing to do with them as per usual but I also can see why they did. I know I tend to try to be the peace keeper but watching program like this makes me realise that its a no win situation. People interpret things in different ways.

Im loving this program but just dont know where I want it to go which is so rare in TV now.

What do you all think???

Its been an interesting day

Or maybe its just been normal and I havent had a normal day of ups and downs for a long time.

Not long after I had got up the phone went. I answered the phone and was amazed when the reply was ' oh I didnt want you' Luckily I recognised that as my Mum so wasnt quite as offended as I could have been, instead I started laughing and told her I was really hurt and rejection before breakfast did nothing for my self esteem!!!!
Obviously only joking as if Im honest I was amused at how confused Mum sounded. It turned out she'd dialled my area code then automatically continued with my number even though she wanted someone else. When she explained want she actually wanted was someone to give a talk or arrnage an activity for the embroiderers guild tomorrow I definately said nope wrong number!!!!

I then went to weight watchers. Ive been a helper there for years even though I havent lost weight. Each week I go I find myself having more and more 'jobs' to do. My leader says its because Im competent but thats not helpful when I come home and collapse for the rest of the day and most of the next day because I feel so ill and sore.
Anyway I got there today to find that setting up was me and her. She had a moan about another helper who had said she had to work and said she should step down so someone else could help. She then told me the other helper was on holiday. I was rather annoyed to find that my leader knew 2 people were off but hadnt got any extra help in so told her how ill I'd been. Normally I try not to say much about my condition but I was upset and angry and completely shocked her. She had no idea how I was affected and spent the rest of the time changing between asking me to do things and telling me to rest!! When she said go home I did happily and have spent most of the afternoon lying on the settee hoping the pain will ease.

People dont understand that physical activity can affect me so much. I live in a flat so asking me to carry boxes up and down stairs in 5 journeys isnt going to help. After about 3 trips I go dizzy and Im in a lot of pain. Then asking me to open doors for people, find peoples details, file details, write notes and then add up stock levels is taxing my brain to over drive. Some weeks I cant even write in a legible manner.

On the good side I lost 2lb.... 1lb that I put on last week and 1lb for this week. I dont mind losing weight very slowly because I cant really exercise and quite honestly find sticking to any diet hard. If I have a really bad day I get the shakes and need sugar which isnt good. As far as Im concerned ANY loss is good

I went to bed but

as soon as I lay down my mind went into overdrive. Ive been watching Being Human on catch up and find it funny in a sad way.
I went to bed but when I lay down my mind started on the Michael Jackson song Man in the mirror.
It made me think that what we think of ourselves isnt what other people think.
I have friends I admire and love and I would love to be like them and then I discover they arent as happy in themselves as I thought. I have friends who love and admire me, I cant undertand why half the time but knowing they're there means Im happy because I know Im not a complete failiure.

The phrase 'take a look at yourself and make the change' rings so true. Sometimes I spend half my life saying I wish I was this and that but dont put the effort in to being this or that.
In a way I dont know how to be the person I wish I was, I dont have the confidence to be the person I wish I was and thats hard.
Tiny steps for changing the future and not worrying about what people think of me is a good step forward. As they say ' The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step - Lao - Tzu
Tmorrow I may begin that step!!!

Then again I may take a detour and find myself where I am now!

Deep sleeps the winter

Cold wet and grey
Surely all the world is dead
Spring is far away
But wait the world shall waken
it isn not dead for lo
The fair maids of february standing in the snow!!!!

My favourite poem. I love snowdrops and when my niece was born in february both Mum and I hoped she would be our snowdrop fairy. As it is she like daffodils lol
Cant complain too much as any sign of spring makes me so happy.
Mum and Dad took me to Dunham Massey a national trust place near us to see the winter garden. Walking round was exhausting and more than Ive done for ages but seeing glimpses of colour and new life makes life worthwhile
I realised I love seeing plants grow even if Im not a gardener and dont enjoy gardening. In my own little plot of garden I found from my herbs that chives, parsley, purple sage and thyme (i think) have survived the winter but somehow I killed the un-killable mint!!!

A minor moan or maybe just what I wish I could say lol

I went to see my friend Pat today and as I was leaving she mentioned that Ann and Chris would be delivering her shopping at some point. My first thought was omg Id better get out of here but later as I thought about I realised Im not scared of Ann. Ive upset her by suggesting she reported me for benefit fraud. I cant be certain because obviously benefit inspectors cant tell you that kind of thing but adding things up its was either her or Pete reported me 3 months after he died!
I confronted her and was told she didnt believe I was ill in any way and that she thought I was playing the system.
In my mind today I was going through a confrontation of what she might say and what I might say. Mine was along the lines of does she realise this time last year I had what can only be described as a complete breakdown? I was scared to go out, scared to answer the phone because every phone needed my help and I had nothing left to give. I realised that in a way I really blame her because Margaret and Grace as well as Pete and Pat were her friends first but somehow I ended up looking after everyone because she doesnt do illness or sad stuff. To then be reported as fit for work because I coped is to my mind unbeleivable. Then I thought Pat doesnt know how bad I was and I dont want her too. I would hate her to feel any guilt over Margaret because she was trying to cope with Pete.
All in all I realised that if I met Ann and had a confrontation all I could really say to her was that I had a clear conscience and had no regrets about what I did that year. I know I havent lied in any way on any forms or interviews and thats as far as I can say..... well actually my mind said 'at least I can sleep at night' but then last year it took a fair amount of alcohol to make that true.

All in the past now...... cant change the past only how I see it
Its a closure in itself. I realised that someone I thought was a friend was someone I dont actually miss that much so maybe there were always disbelieving vibes?

Few more cards

Here are some of my recent cards. The cat ones are from a cd rom that a good friend sent me. The purple/pink ones are attempts for my nieces birthday. I did the cat one and wasnt happy so did the little girl instead. Then decided I prefer the cat one anyway lol
The shaped card was just a play with my new toys as I got some promarkers and some frames at a craft show last week.
The second one down was for a challenge called 'arrows' now as it was my fault it was called arrows I cant really complain BUT I was totally clueless lol

The story behind that was I went on to the card making forum one day and put a post about how Id been awake half the night trying to come up with arrow designs for this months competition. Only when I looked at the forum there was no post about the competition never mind about an arrow theme. Id dreamt the whole thing!! A couple of days later I got a prize for coming joint second in the last competition and when I opened it it had arrow chip board shapes in.....talk about freaky. Problem is I still cant think of a good design. I tried to cover the chipboard and made a mess of it so my card didnt include it.