Communication

Whilst cooking tea I have been thinking about communication in the modern world as you do. I find now and I am ashamed to admit it that I cannot walk out the house without my mobile phone. If I do go out without it I immediately get in a cold sweat what if the car breaks down and I am marooned miles from anywhere, how would I contact anyone. The first thing I do when I return to the house is run to the phone just in case there has been a life changing emergency that I have been contacted about and because I did not have the phone on me my life will not be changed, or will be changed whichever way you look at it.

Whenever the children leave the house I screech like a fishwife have you got your phone, I dont feel comfortable unless I have immediate contact with them. I feel I must be some sort of a control freak, am I the only one.

The other side of the mobile phone issue is that people can contact you in the most bizarre situations. I had a phone call about publicising the church garden fete in my local magazine whilst I was busy admiring Michaelangelos ceiling in the Sistine chapel. Its quite amazing that there was a signal in there as I struggle to get a signal in half the rooms in our house. My other half also had a similar experience when he was admiring gorillas at very close quarters in Rwanda and the football league secretary telephoned and asked if he was happy with a home fixture against Barnard Castle. Brings you back to life with a bump.

Anyway I am sure that this state of affairs is probably not healthy, however I know that I am now mercilessly locked into the present age and will probably now never be able to leave the house without my mobile, along with my handbag, my lipstick, my comb and assorted scraps of paper purporting to be a shopping list.

One advantage though is I managed to use the phone to sneak a very illegal photo of my favourite bit of the ceiling, just before I was tapped on the shoulder by a large security guard. Woops!!

What women do

Sunday morning, sun shining, walk on the hills with the dog on a slightly frosty misty autumn day. Thats what women do isn't it. Not in my house, in the absence of my better half I have to manage my sons Under 13 football team on its first away match of the season. Of course there will be lots of football supporting dads waiting to take control to explain to me the off side rule, no no they are taking the opportunity to read the Sundays papers in peace. What has actually happened is girl power. I have a crack team of mums and a couple of older brother as stand in coaches and we are away.

One would assume that its simply you just put the 11 players on the pitch and they have to try and get the ball in the net and avoid the opposition doing the same at their end of the pitch. That is definately the aim however the reason that football is the nationally most supported game in our country is due to the fact that a little word comes into play, tactics!!. Defence tactics, supporting tactics, forward tactics, substitute tactics, the list in endless. My tactic was to shout out loudly on the sidelines as many words that constituted a supposed tactic as possible, pass it wide!!, watch the last man!!, dont let it bounce!!, keep it tight!!. Do you know what it worked. We won!! The result was 6 to 2.

Its a strange thing as this was something I was only doing so much under sufferance just to keep my husband and son happy. It was something that I would never have done for myself in a million years, however it was good. I felt a thrill and tension. I felt relief at the end and a camaraderie. I realised then that its good to do something for other people, to try something different and test the boundaries abit. You never know you might enjoy it. Roll on 2 weeks time were taking on the top of the league. Cannot wait

Abroad thoughts from home

The way of the world nowadays seems to be to return from a holiday in the sun spent sitting outside an idyllic stone built ‘rustica’ dreaming of a life changing move. Could it really be so hard to buy that elusive pile of rubble and change it into the mystical dream property where all lifes pressures melt away and days were spent whiling away the hours quoffing local wine while the children played in dapple sunlight. Does the sun always shine and do all members of the extended family never issue a cross word. I feel maybe not but I belong to the growing band of people that has a tiny nugget somewhere in the brain that would love it be so

I am in the dubiously lucky position of living in what would be classed as a desirable part of Englands green and pleasant land, North Yorkshire. Pleasantly rural but not isolated, striking distance of sea and hills. Less than an hour from city life if required and tourist centres. Sounds like a travel brochure In fact hoardes of tourists from USA and Europe do tend to converge in the area that I live. One would wonder why then this need to up sticks and get a better life. Is it only the weather, or distinct lack of what could be called good weather. Maybe I should set my mind into the thought that I am on holiday when at home, I mean surely the fact that I can speak the language and try and concentrate on the good parts of the weather, glasses of red wine or Baileys around roaring log fires would help. I think that we probably do winter spring and autumn rather well but fall down on summer. Our psyche is tuned into dreary cold weather, scutting clouds, damp drizzle, and frosty mornings. For some reason we expect more in summer, balmy long evenings, feeling heat through to your bones and we feel cheated when this doesn’t happen. What we must remember is that we live on a northernly island and celebrate this and not expect what isn’t really possible. We do get good weather but not extended period of it and this is normal.

To get that fix of heat that the human body craves we need to travel to different climes for a few short weeks and that’s probably enough for the average person. After that we should rejoice in the diverse and wonderful weather that is always a talking point on our islands.

Getting started

Woopee I think I have finally managed to create a blog page. Lots of searching and googling but I may be actually published so to speak. This will be my diary to myself and a means of putting my inner thoughts to paper or ether. Next big step is photos, no doubt that will take a little longer but one never can tell.