You meet the strangest people…..at bus stops!

lowick bus stop
Originally uploaded by chatirygirl.

Well, yesterday evening was certainly a strange one!

I’d have a manic day at work and then a nightmare delayed train back to Sheffield – so delayed that my lift home and abandoned me. I got to the bus stop just as my bus left, and found myself there with another woman.

After a minute she asked me which bus was going to Woodseats – it was the one we’d just missed, so we got chatting.

She had also had a nightmare train journey, and had ended up having a couple of glasses of wine on the train – I said this was an excellent idea and that I was considering going up to the Showroom for a drink.

To cut short a long story, Shelley and I ended up staying out rather late, drinking rather too much wine, and agreeing to go to a Keswick Jazz Festival together in a couple of weeks!!

She is singing with the Red Stripe band.

I should also just say that when I say ‘the strangest people’ I’m refering to me as well as Shelley!!

Joe sent Colin a joke

walking the dog
Originally uploaded by Merrony’s Moll.

And I think it’s great!

A woman is walking through a graveyard when she sees a man,

‘Morning’, she says

‘No’ he replies, ‘just walking the dog’.

Gun laws & lunacy

Lawyers, Guns and…
Originally uploaded by tread.

30,000 Americans die each year from firearms – the equivalent of more than on every 20 minutes.

Following the shootings in Virginia, and yesterday at NASA headquarters, there is actually talk in the US that MORE people should be carrying guns!

The theory being that the gunman would have been shot long before he’d had a chance to kill over 30 people.

It seems that the White House aren’t interested in looking at gun laws, and even the American media just seem to keep asking the same question, ‘How could this happen?’.

I’ll tell you how it happened – anyone who wants one can purchase a gun and then they are essentially free to use it when and where they wish.

What is most amazing is not that this type of thing continues to occur, but that the population of American continues to be surprised when it does.

Death in a university in the US

The White House allows the ban on handguns to lapse, and then wonders why over 30 people get shot at a university campus in Virginia.

When will the American administration realise that a ‘right to bear arms’ and the ability to buy guns without background checks in some states is killing the children of America.

What has happened today is terrible – but I really do doubt that anything will change in the America to try and stop this type of thing happening again.

The Internet has let me down!

For the first time ever I’ve not been able to find something on the internet!

In the early 1980s my parents took me to the Spanish island of Menorca for a summer holiday, on this trip we met and became friends with two singers (they sang in the large hotel next to Son Bou beach) – Dave and Rick.

I know that Dave (David Fishel) released a number of LPs (vinyl and cassette) and would love to get hold of copies (especially since one of them has a version of ‘Streets of London – which I taught them as I was learning it at school when we went!).

The three titles are – Child of the Sixties (this had a fold out sheet with the words on in the cassette), Food for Thought and Watchin’ from the other side; all were released on the Discobal label.

I can honestly say that this was the first time I’d come across ‘folk’ music and I loved it (and still do) but I’ve nearly worn my copies out and would love new ones – can anyone help?? (I’m prepared to pay a reasonable amount).

I have triskaidelaphilia

It’s Friday 13th – my favourite day of the year!

House property number 13 in Amsterdam
Originally uploaded by temp13rec..

I know that there will be many supersitious people across the world today who don’t want to get out of bed and will blame the slightest thing going wrong on the date – but not me!

Friday 13th has always felt like a luck day for me – I got made redundant on a Friday 13th (might not sound like luck but it was actually the best thing that ever happened to me and it started me on the road to university and being an archaeologist) and I met my ex on a Friday 13th (in hindsight that might be said to have been very unlucky but again, I wouldn’t be where I am now…). I always thought that if I ever got married (unlikely now) it would be on Friday 13th.

When I travel I like to ask for seat 13, which I recently found out isn’t always possible on some airlines; Air France and Lufthansa don’t have seat 13s! In the US many buildings don’t have thirteenth floors and I was recently in a hotel that didn’t have a room 13.

There are some really interesting facts about the number, and for more information I would suggest Nathaniel Lachenmeyer’s book ‘13 The World’s Most Popular Superstition’.

PS. Triskaidelaphilia is the belief that 13 is lucky, Triskaidelaphobia is the belief that 13 is unlucky.

A completely useless item – just what we don’t need

The Kleeneze catalogue arrived, now I don’t usually look but there have been times I have wanted some kind of storage or cleaning item – today I looked.

The whole catalogue is full of random bizarre items that you never knew you needed, and almost certainly don’t; but on this occasion I found a new item which has to be the height of crazy consumerism – Pet Stairs!!

These ‘easy self assembly’ stairs give your ’small/senior pet a helping hand to climb to those hard to reach areas’ – what like the furniture!?!? Have you ever heard of anything so bloody silly?

The Alchemist

The Alchemist
Originally uploaded by The Albanian.

Colin and I finally remember to attend something we’d got tickets for (unlike the last two times I’ve bought tickets and we’ve forgotten to go – don’t ask, I’m still annoyed about it now).

A Cornish theatre company have been touring with a stage production of Paolo Coelho’s novel ‘The Alchemist’, and I’d bought tickets when they first went on sale as I’d really enjoyed the book (Colin hasn’t read it yet).

I won’t give much detail of the story as I think that you should read the book; but basically it’s the tale of a young shepherd boy who embarks on a journey to find ‘his’ treasure and the people he meets along the way, including an alchemist.

It’s true to say that simple can often be best and this certainly fits the saying. A simple yet powerful story simply presented by six actors who are all on stage for the whole show. The set was moved by the actors and consisted mainly of four blocks and some large pieces of material – nothing more was needed.

I loved the programme, it came in a small plastic bag also containing sand (much of the story is the shepherd struggle to make his way from Spain to Egypt across the desert) and two pebbles – one black (?????) and one white (?????).

Even Colin enjoyed the evening and it was lovely to spend some time with him, especially since we had had the opportunity to walk into town and have a chat as well.

Where I’ve been – returning to my blog

It’s been commented on that I haven’t blogged for sometime, and bizarrely I’ve been feeling guilty about it! Not because people don’t know what I’ve been upto, but because there have been a number of events that I wanted to record for myself.

Part of the reason I’ve not been writing is that I’ve been away so much (work, pleasure and not so much pleasure), but I’ve also either not been near a pc (and I’m actually typing this on my Blackberry!) or I’ve not had internet access.

I’ll try to catch up over the next week or so – you’ll have to look down the page as I’ll drop them in on the dates that I would have posted them.

However, there are a few things I should say first. I want to make clear that anything I write here is written for me – that doesn’t mean that you can’t read it, just that if you don’t like what you read that’s your problem not mine.

In the past one of you complained about me airing private matters in public, well my answer to that is that anything I write here is only what I would tell a friend face to face, and anyone that’s reading this who isn’t a friend – well they probably don’t care a jot anyway!

Remember – this isn’t to be taken seriously, it’s just a place for me to record my rambling thoughts – if people read them they do so at their own risk!!

Easter weekend

So, I’ll never be going back to North Home Road. Colin and I had the final push to clear everything out – hopefully the contracts will exchange soon.

Easter weekend is supposed to be a time to relax but it’s been anything but!

I’d ended up getting really stressed about the amount there was to do – to the point of making myself ill. My brother screaming down the phone at me hadn’t helped, and the fact that he started demanding I pay him money for the furniture that I wanted (despite him not wanting it, and it going to landfill if I didn’t take it!) really stressed me.

In the end for my own sanity I offered him £150 for a charity – which he accepted. Let’s just say that I’m feeling very hurt and let down. Especially since he’d said he wanted nothing and that he couldn’t cope with visiting the house (which although I understand, meant I had to do everything) – and then he DID visit the house after all.

Colin hired a van and I drove down in the car and we’ve spent the whole weekend clearing, sorting, moving and cleaning.

The first run of the day was to pick Dad up and take a few bits of furniture to his lockup followed by a well earned breakfast at Greasy Joe’s. Then another load to the Sue Ryder chairty shop, a whole van full, then two trips to the tip (Colin managed to breakup the single bed so the estate wouldn’t have to pay to dispose of it).

Mum had left various garden pots and ornaments to friends and these needed moving – it’s a wonder Colin didn’t do himself an injury carrying some of them.

At 8pm on Saturday we took a van full up to Sheffield, unloaded and turned straight round and headed south again (arriving at 3am) – yes we are mad.

Sunday morning we took some bits over to Dad’s and took a break.

Nose
Originally uploaded by Merrony’s Moll.

Dad wanted me to photograph his racing car but the biggest struggle was getting the bloody thing out of the garage.

It took us about 45 minutes to get it onto the drive, and whilst Dad had a snooze I took about 100 photos. It took over an hour, and a lot of lateral thinking to get the damn thing back again. I think I got some good shots but it was abit too sunny!

Back at Mum’s we loaded up both the car and the van, vacuumed upstairs and swept out the garage and the patio – then the big job of the weekend.

We had decided that we couldn’t take the two double beds and one of the mattresses (nowhere to store them), and the sofa and chairs were completely knackered, so Mike had arranged for the council to pick them up.

I have no idea how we moved the sofa! It weighed a tonne. Anyway, this collection of furniture was left at the end of the drive to be collected.

Colin and I on armchairs
Originally uploaded by Merrony’s Moll.

How do I feel now it’s all done? Exhausted, sad and more than anything, homeless. Richard had never lived at North Home Road, I had spent a reallly fun 18 months sharing the house with Mum before I moved to Sheffield, and of course practically lived there for the last few months of her life.

Colin’s house is fine, but it’s his and Dad’s is great to visit but it’s not home. So, on to the next adventure – house hunting!