The country house garden experience!

My family and I had a very laid back day yesterday - a late breakfast, because the ladies stayed in bed until the streets were well and truly aired, then a very brief trip to the local supermarket, before my wife came up with what proved to be a great idea. We spent most of what was another sunny afternoon playing board games in the garden, all very civilised and almost genteel, hence the title of the post. Because we've all got different interests, particularly in entertainment, it seems that we often end up in separate rooms doing our own thing, so it was a pleasant change to all get together and spend some quality time for once, and the fact that we were able to sit outside as well made it even better. For all the gadgetry we seem to be surrounded with these days, sometimes simple pleasures are the best.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Life's a picnic...

... or sometimes not. The morning post brought a letter from the doctor's - I've been referred back to the cardiologist at our local general hospital, news which I've got distinctly mixed feelings about. I saw the same specialist about 2 years ago, had my medication boosted a bit, and 99% of the time since then I've been able to function pretty much as normal. Until last Friday, of course, when my work-related stresses seemed to overwhelm the pills' ability to keep my hiccuping heart on the straight and narrow. The fact that my G.P. thinks my condition is bad enough to have to go back to the hospital has ratcheted up the stress another notch - I can't help but think, if not the worst, then at least on the pessimistic side, and, on top of that, I hate hospitals - even going into one as a visitor is more than would ordinarily choose to do, if there was any way of avoiding it. Having said that, given the waiting list situation in the NHS, I probably won't get an appointment for months, so I guess it's not an immediate issue.
On the grounds of wanting to do something a bit more congenial, and given the unabated pleasant weather, my family and I went out for a picnic lunch at a place called Polruan, just opposite Fowey where the Fowey River meets the sea. There's a spot called St.Saviour's Hill where you can get great views of the sea and the river estuary simultaneously, so that's where we went. If anyone ever happens to be in that part of the world in the middle of August, the Red Arrows do an annual display as part of the Fowey regatta (it's on August 19 this year) and St.Saviour's is the best place to watch the display - when we were last able to go 3 years ago, the aircraft were actually below us at a couple of points during the show! 


Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

A new story

In a funny sort of way, starting the blog has actually stalled my fiction writing - I was scribbling a fair bit of stuff in a notebook 2 or 3 months ago, but what time I've had to write recently has been focused here. In the last 24 hours, though, I've had an idea for a new story, so, given that I'm off work at the moment, I'm going to try and spend some time developing the initial concept with a view to posting some of it here. I'm not holding my breath in expectation of a masterpiece, but I'll do my best.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Just in case we forget how lucky we are...

... to live where we do, this picture was taken less than a mile from our house (although we haven't quite got such a nice view from here,sadly!).

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Singularity

A smile, a wordless enunciation of the feelings within
That smile, transforming a handsome face to ineffable beauty
At that moment, I cross the event horizon, drawn inexorably to your singularity
No escape from you, no escape from me
Falling to the centre, helter-skeltering inwards
The ever-tightening grip of the spiral
All information is lost at the singularity
All difference, all distance between us is extinguished.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Developments

Well - I've still got a job, but I'm off sick for at least the next 2 weeks after going to see my doctor this morning. Apparently I can't have my heart medication boosted because I'm already on the maximum dose, and I've also got low blood pressure (which I'm sure would come as a huge surprise to anyone who knows me, including me!) so that even the amount of medication I'm taking now could potentially cause dizziness or even fainting fits. I'm still pondering what to do in the slightly longer term - I have perused one or two job websites, but having spent as long as I have in my present industry (31 years & counting), it's quite hard to find anything other than pretty menial jobs that I've got the relevant experience or qualifications for. I did see one particular job ad that piqued my interest, for a freelance writer, but, on reading the detailed description, they were looking for science and social science graduates to research and write academic articles in subjects specific to the graduate concerned. I'm pretty sure I've got the intellectual wherewithal to do that kind of thing, but if your C.V. doesn't contain the primary requirement for the job, it doesn't bode well for your chances of being employed.
On a much happier note, many thanks to ' A Wandering Pom ' for taking the time and trouble to become my first follower and commenter - at the risk of a little egomania, I think most people who write blogs (and certainly myself) enjoy the process of blogging in itself, but the thought that what you write might be interesting enough for others to want to read is a pleasant one. I'll make every effort to maintain and improve the level of interest, and even, hopefully, to make it a bit less relentlessly downbeat!

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B

Difficulties

First difficulty is that I can't blog on my laptop at the moment - I can sign in to Blogger and read mine and other blogs, but when I try and start the ' New Post ' screen, it hangs up on ' waiting for Google Analytics '. It's been like that for 2 days now, so I've had to resort to firing up our elderly and glacially slow desktop to write this.
The second, and far greater difficulty, is around my job - if I've still got one, that is. I went home sick on Friday evening with a recurrence of my heart arrhythmia after suffering nearly 3 hours of trouble making and verbal abuse from the local yobs where I work, with no police attendance despite numerous phone calls and promises that they were en route - from Mars, presumably. In amongst the umpteen phone calls, I had a pretty serious row with our on-call manager over the situation, so when I speak to my own manager tomorrow, I expect to be in some kind of trouble. To be blunt, I really don't care at the moment - I'm in the mood to tell the company to stick the job up their arse, and any threat of anything disciplinary coming my way would be the straw that would break that particular camel's back. The drawback of chucking my job in, however, is how I would then support my family - my wife works full-time, and has a pretty good job, but there's no way we could live on just her wages. I feel really stuck at the moment - it seems that whichever way I turn, there are negative consequences.
Look on the bright side, some might say, and at least there's one positive at the moment - it looks like Spring has finally sprung, and it's sunny and fairly warm today. It looks like I might be facing plenty of enforced leisure time to enjoy it.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B