I have been quiet for a while, but I am still alive and very much so. Things have been happening. Some good and some not so good.
This was the sky on Tuesday 5th May at 17:44, it makes it hard to believe it is nearly summer.
There was a birthday that I missed attending on Wednesday 6th May, it was a little too far away…. 87 hours without traffic, otherwise it would take 89 hours (according to Google)! Mind you, this was beginning on the A26 and the journey would involve car transport, toll roads, include a ferry and have to cross through multiple countries. In other words a distance of 4,095 miles! Anyway, I had other plans that day.
A photo session with twenty questions!
Not that kind of photo session. I was allowed to keep my clothes on… so long as there were no buttons, zips or bits of metal. The pictures were rather revealing, in a good and not so good way. Livable with!
I made some discoveries. I lost and I gained. Twelve years ago, I discovered I was a full inch taller that I thought I was for all of my adult life. I was 170.5 cms, now I have lost 1cm.
And the gain? I had put on weight. Middle age spread. Is it any wonder that gravity is winning the battle and pulling everything south! 🙁 I was on the scales at 09:45.
I do know for a fact that at that very time, thirty seven years ago I weighed in at all of 130 lbs, by late afternoon, I was so much lighter (114.5 lbs) and had a bundle in my arms. That very bundle was now celebrating her birthday in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. She was working, but we did manage to speak by phone, and I was pleased to hear that her colleagues were taking her out for dinner.
No. I am not trying to hide the amount of weight that i gained in thirty seven years… I am all of 139 lbs today! Note to self: Avoid walking over grating incase I disappear! 😛
The following morning I was up and out early to do my duty and cast my vote. There was one other voter in the poling room and a couple joined us as I was adding my folded piece of paper with an X to the box. I turned to walk out of the room as the school bell rang for the normal start of the school day: 09:00. I walked home through the park, which I had to myself with the only sounds coming from the ducks.
I do have a tip for you that I learned over the past few weeks
My last batch of antibiotics came in a bottle with a childproof lid. I am sure that every child would manage to open it unaided far faster then my aging hands with lack of grip. I am never stuck. living alone, I cannot afford to be stuck!
I used a nut cracker to grip the lid where it is meant to be squeased and turned the bottle with the other hand.
Today I had mail. A small package and the contents were described as ‘Flexible rubber, dimpled and ridged’ and there is a hole for a size guide! Now get your durty minds out of the gutter guys, I am talking about something very useful and simple.
Thanks to Kate I discovered an unusual kind of thimble. I asked her for details, and phoned around to see if I could get it locally. Alas no, I had to order it on line. For my sewing friends out there, I give details below. it feels really comfortable and I look forward to using it tomorrow.
Flexible thimble_1
flexible thimble_2
love the photos. the thimble looks good!
I am looking forward to using the thimble. Over the years, I had grown frustrated with the usual variety and often used the cross section of my scissors to push a needle through thick or tough fabric.
I was wondering and thought that like me, you too were having a writer’s block. I am simply unable to get up the motivation to write blog posts other than the mandatory weekly LBC post. The heat at a max of 40 C and min of 22 C is not helping making me quite listless.
I keep putting on and taking off and have simply stopped monitoring. I must check my height!
I will give an arm and a leg for that park in my neighbourhood.
Right now (07:38) we have 8°C and it should warm up to 12°Cthis evening. Tomorrow the morning will have 4°C, but feel like 2°C warming to 11 or 12°C after lunch. Swapsies??
I regularly have that park to myself, the other part dissected by the main street would be busier with plenty of space for dog walkers and children to run freely.
Sounds like a busy couple of days. Love the color of that thimble.
It was only when I looked back I discovered how busy it was, There was morning out shopping and plenty of sorting and clearing indoors as well. The Toyboy who came to service my house alarm, obliged by setting my microwave back up on the wall brackets.
What a good tip for opening small lids. I have one of those jar opener things that works fine with large lids but is useless for anything small. As the jar opener sits in the drawer next to the nutcrackers, you would have thought that I could have worked out that tip for myself. At least I know what to try when the nuts are too large for the nutcrackers. Possibly.
😆 Anne, I have learned to multitask with all my gadgets.
Glad you are still around! I will be getting some new toys/tools! The thimble and some nutcrackers are now top of my wish list. Thank you for the info. Sorry you couldn’t make the birthday but glad you managed to talk on the phone. Glad the photo only revealed ‘liveable with’ stuff.
Have a good day
Sally
It is hard to kill a bad thing! 😉 All my ‘toys’ are duel purpose, you should see my sewing box!
Elly arrived home into Dublin at the weekend, laundry, household chores and shopping plus a birthday dinner with her hubby took precedence over me and that is how it should be. We talked, she is up to date and I know she will come to see me one of these weekends.
Of all the translations for your thimble “fingerhut” is my very favourite 🙂 Glad to see you back and thank for the jar tip, my hands are hopeless, no strength and always pain in the thumbs.
XO
WWW
WWW, I have always had problems with opening jars. Elly & Jack regularly had to come to my aid when I had a jar stuck in one hand the lid in the other and no way of releasing them. When Jack died, Elly bought me a jar key to open my marmalade, it is still going strong and gets plenty of use.
I would certainly hesitate to travel 4,095 miles for a birthday! I think a Skype session would have to do.
That’s a most ingenious way of removing a (supposedly) childproof lid. I must make sure never to throw out my nutcrackers.
Elly was away as part of her job, but thanks to modern technology we keep in regular touch. She is home once more and we are up to date.
I feel your pain. I have gone from 6′ 5″ to 6′ 4″ in the past few years. I even thought of going on the medieval rack to try and gain that inch back but nobody around here has one. I’m doing OK on the weight, but you have better thimbles than I do.
Al, maybe we should try standing on our heads for an hour every day and see if gravity works in reverse! My thimble came from the US via Germany!
That’s a good tip. I really struggle with those lids.
Love the thimble.
Tilly, I have a carousel of kitchen gadgets on a shelf at eye-level, it is amazing how many of them are now multi purpose!
I have trouble opening things…have gadgets and aids for this…plus muscle power through my neighbour!!
I never learnt to sew with a thimble…found it an encumberance….but yours looks nifty!
Padmini, I was always in trouble at school for not using a thimble. Alas, my one helpful neighbour, is at work most days and not around when I need help to open jars etc.
Well, you weigh less than I do.
Blessings!
Gigi, I always was a light weight
I enjoyed this very much.
I’ve sewed all my life since my mother’s friend (Mother didn’t sew) helped me make a dress when I was about 10. I never used a thimble. From the beginning I always pushed the needle through any hard surface reachable. (Don’t roll your eyes.)
I did that too, BHB. I tried using my finger until I had holes and welts on it, then I used the buttom box tin, the scissors or the school desk to push the needle through.
Love the bottle opener.
It is very handy, Dianne.
right now i am strugglin g with many lids because leftie is encased in heavy duty plaster/paris. although not dominant hand – both R & L have to work tog due to other reasons… rightie not happy until knees pressed into service – as long as human is balanced!
accident when collecting some materials for art project – human was using pruning clippers then she changed tactics and the vine won! thnrowing human on concrete driveway… then we all went in ambulance to local hosp – rest is history
That sounds nasty Cathy, I hope you are healing quickly.