One small step for womankind

My mother was a very practical person, good at carpentry, decorating and sewing. When I was growing up, she occasionally made me lovely clothes. When she died, I inherited her old Singer electric sewing machine and sadly not her expertise. I used it for doing very simple stuff until I managed to get some thread stuck in it. I took it along to a specialist mechanic and he showed me what was broken. Between us we came to the conclusion it was beyond economic repair and I bought this beautiful refurbished machine in its place. That was in March - and it has sat in its box ever since. Today I was waiting in for a phone call and decided it was time to unpack it. It has a self-threading feature - very handy when your eyesight's maybe not as sharp as it was.

What a joy it is - you can set the speed really slow so that it stitches one stitch at a time rather than running away with you the instant you step on the pedal. So far I've only repaired a couple of pillowcases, but having discovered how easy it is to use, I'm encouraged to have a go at hemming a pair of walking trousers next.

It was a day of small triumphs. There were a couple of dead shrubs in the garden and I've now lifted those and put them ready to take down the dump tomorrow; I've cut the grass front and back, and changed the bulb in the light in the understairs cupboard. It's a bulkhead light with a protective metal cage held in place with a small screw, so once more I wielded that trusty Phillips-head screwdriver, and once more gained a sense of accomplishment.

Back in 2008 I had an operation to excise a small area of breast tissue affected by Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS). Yesterday I went back to the hospital for the annual mammogram to check there has been no recurrence, and found myself sitting next to one of the nurses from Wingfield Ward (there escorting a patient). It was nice catching up with each other's news, and being able to tell her I'm now back to work.

The House at Cat Poo Corner

Here's a problem that is vexing -
moral question quite perplexing -
when a cat poops in my garden
should I offer it a pardon?

I confess to you, my forgiving readers: recently I did an officially 'not-very-nice' thing. Yes, I've checked my actions out with a trusted friend who assures me it is definitely not the thing to do if I want my neighbours to like me. Who of us wouldn't prefer our neighbours to like us?

Are you burning with curiosity to know what I did? Dare I tell you? But you might not like me! You might not leave nice comments on my blog! What? Oh yes, that's right - you don't leave nice comments anyway. Ok, I guess it's safe then.

Early one morning as I strolled in my garden enjoying the blue skies and golden sunshine and proudly checking out the newly sown flowerbed-in-the-making, I noticed a fresh fecal deposit in said seedbed. As mentioned in a previous blog post , the garden appears to serve as the public cat-litter box. Carefully with a garden trowel, I lifted this undesirable gift and just as carefully deposited it through the open trellis fencing into the neighbour's garden, inwardly justifying my action as one does in such matters by saying that it was not my property, and I was merely returning it to the owner.

Subsequently I advertised on freecycle for chicken wire or the like to lay across the ground in order to deter further unwanted deposits, and the photo shows the mesh panels I received in response to my request. These haven't been quite as successful as I'd hoped, the sure-footed culprits merely selecting the fringes of the area which the panels don't quite cover. Besides the mesh panels I received a couple of, um... 'helpful' suggestions:
1)grow a lemon tree. Apparently this is a sure-fire way of letting cats know your garden is off-limits. No explanation on how this works was offered.
2) scatter the ground with half-full plastic water bottles. No data on how many bottles per square metre was supplied. I suppose if there were sufficient, there would be no room for the cats to walk. How the seedlings would fare as they tried to emerge under the weight of the bottles is also undocumented.

So there you have it, folks. I know the Bible is very clear on the principle of 'turning the other cheek' should the enemy smite you on one cheek. I suppose going the extra mile in this instance would be creating an inviting custom built dirt box as I read about on this blog. (the link will take you to another webpage - scroll down to read how Mad Wicca dealt with her own cat's toileting needs). Will I be doing that in the near future? Answers on a postcard, please - or why not use the comments link below?

Competent Person

When I got home from work today (and it feels good to be able to say that) there was a loud alarm tone sounding once every minute. I have two smoke detectors: one at the top of the stairs, one at the bottom; my initial assumption was that the battery needed replacing on one of these. I found the owner's manual and set about changing the batteries - only to fail at the first hurdle when I discovered the alarm at the bottom of the stairs doesn't have a replaceable battery. It was installed free of charge by the Fire Service last autumn when they were doing house-to-house fire safety visits, and according to the sticker on the bottom, should last until 2017. I took the upstairs alarm down and removed the battery on that, only to realise that the alarm tone was still sounding every minute, and definitely coming from somewhere downstairs.

I went back down again and looked around the kitchen, wondering what other piece of kit might be responsible. The Carbon Monoxide detector, of course! It's installed almost at ceiling height and doesn't catch the eye. I found the owner's manual for that and was a little put-off to read that only a competent person should attempt to change the batteries. Not only that, you need a small Phillips head screwdriver to remove two screws in the backplate in order to access the battery. Hmmmm. It's a very loud tone - I could imagine any incompetent person smashing the device with a heavy hammer if it started beeping every minute in the early hours!

Needless to say I don't happen to have a spare 9 volt battery. However, I did manage to find an appropriately sized Phillips head screwdriver and removed the old one. What a relief.

I put the battery back in the upstairs smoke detector and pressed the reset button, and for a while that started emitting an occasional mournful chirp complaining of a low battery, but after a while it settled down again.

So there you have it. Me a member of the general workforce AND wielding a screwdriver without supervision! Is there no end to this lady's accomplishments?

Early Start

Now I'm back to work I'm keen to create a healthy routine. This morning I was out on the mountain bike over the common for half an hour before 7 am - how's that for keen! It was a gorgeous morning. I didn't tackle any gradients too strenuous, partly because the fitness level needs to improve to accomplish them and partly because - to be totally honest - I haven't quite got the hang of the gears yet. Even on the gentle inclines I was climbing, I had to stop pedalling halfway, get off and push the bike up the rest. My previous bike had only 3-speed Sturmey-Archer gearing and I didn't do any off-roading as far as I can recall, so it's all new to me. Exhilarating, though!

Befriending Workshop

I'm a member of a group called Mental Health Links (an inter-denominational group consisting of representatives from the local Christian churches). Links are the steering committee for the Spiritual Journeying group. We were invited to attend a 'Befriending Workshop' in Battersea today, (organised by the Association for Pastoral Care in Mental Health) to talk about the Spiritual Journeying group as a successful befriending model. I was the only Link available and was very happy to put a few words together and go along.

The workshop was due to begin at 10 am with coffee. I hooked up the SatNav and left home around 8 am. There were no holdups and I arrived at 9 am. I'd thought about parking in Battersea park, but happily there was room to park (free) in the street almost outside the venue.

It was a gorgeous morning: blue sky and golden sunshine highlighting the delicate shades of spring green. I went for a walk in the park, marvelling as always at the tranquility and beauty of our parks right in the heart of such a bustling capital city. I noticed what I thought was a group of heron statues and strolled closer, to discover they weren't statues at all! Then I found a bench in the sunshine and sat meditating for a while. It put me in a very mellow mood for the workshop.

All Saints Church doesn't look much like a church from the outside and inside there were some decidely eclectic decor choices - a gothic chandelier dangling low in the open space, quite fitting with the elaborately carved wooden framed settee and matching chair stood to one side of the doorway, yet contrasting with the huge modern art canvases; a large modern glass-fronted display cabinet all along one wall brimful of souvenirs and emblems of other cultures and nationalities, including a set of russian dolls, buddha statuettes, hindu gods - not to mention a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita nestling comfortably beside a Bible. All in all, it made a very powerful statement.

Richard, the facilitator for the day, began by inviting us to break into small groups and come up with definitions for 'friendship' and 'befriending' before we heard about a successful befriending scheme which has been operating in Merton and surrounding areas for over 10 years. Then we heard from the Battersea Befriending Network, and just before lunch it was my turn to speak about Spiritual Journeying group. Afterwards I fielded a few questions.

I was made to feel welcome and comfortable chatting with people over lunch, being invited to submit an article for the APCMH newsletter, and felt very pleased with how the day had gone as I drove home. By now traffic had built up and it took me as long to travel the first couple of miles from Battersea to Chelsea as it did to travel the remaining 30 odd miles home.

Loss of a friend

I heard today that a friend has died unexpectedly. He was a lovely man, wise in some ways, foolish in others - aren't we all? He was someone I have turned to for a sympathetic ear, for help with a task I'd undertaken, for being able to offer the kind words I wanted to receive. He leaves behind a young daughter and a sense of my world having lost someone special.

The First Day, The Last Song

Started work today - it felt great! The people are muy simpático (ok, that's exhausted my Spanish vocabulary). I think I'm going to enjoy the work. Then this evening I went to see Miley Cyrus in The Last Song and enjoyed that, too. Once again my friend and I took advantage of the bargain Monday at Woking cinema which tends to be surprisingly under-utilised - there were just 9 people in the theatre for the film.

Busy Day

Dave (son) asked me to give him a hand sorting out some paperwork and other stuff. Between us we got the paperwork thinned out to the point it would all fit in his expanding file. It took a while! Then we started on the stash of assorted items for which he has no further use (including this meccano kit), listing them on ebay or cheapcycle. After that he came and put up a glass shelf for me in the lounge.

Cross cat

If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?

A couple of days ago I woke with a start, aware there had been a strange noise downstairs. I lay quietly listening for a moment or two and concluded it must have been an early postal delivery. When I went downstairs there was no post, but I noticed a clump of ginger cat hair under the table in the dining area and vaguely wondered where it had come from.

Later on as I was watering the house plants I discovered a piece of silver gaffer tape lying near the patio doors. The previous occupants had taped up the cat flat in the patio windows with silver gaffer tape - I checked, and sure enough the cat flat was no longer firmly sealed. Piecing the evidence together, I began to wonder if the noise I had heard was a cat going out of the cat flap. There's a large ginger tom in the neighbourhood which is highly unpopular with all the other cat owners. They say that ever since he was involved in a road traffic accident, he became vicious to an extreme. I surmised the clump of ginger hair could have been his.

Sure enough, today as I was coming downstairs I heard the sound of the cat flap closing, and was in time to see the ginger tom walking away down the garden. It's bad enough that the garden serves as a public convenience for the neighbourhood cats - there are at least 7 regular visitors. I don't want them finding their way indoors, too. Today I made sure the flap was sealed shut again. This evening I was sitting watching TV when I noticed the ginger cat, nose pressed against the cat flap, glowering at me, his tail twitching with rage! Boy, did he look disgruntled!

PS Later in the evening I heard a cat scrabbling at the cat flap - I drew back the curtain and a black and white cat miaoued at me, asking to be let in. Seems the ginger tom wasn't the only intruder whilst the cat flap was unsealed.