Montly Round Up (October 2011)

Hello ... hello ... hello ... hello ... hello. Did you hear that? That was the echo around my hollow-feeling blog. I wonder if I'll ever get back to blogging the way I'd like to? In the meantime, thank you for reading, whoever is reading. Yes, I know this post is late - the last week has been so busy, I just didn't get time to witter on. Sorry 'bout that. How was October in your parts? Like September before it, October has seemed to whoosh past at a rate of knots.

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Being late with my post does allow me to post a picture of our pumpkin this year - No.2 named him Bernard.

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Firstly, I would like to thank Lesley at Tintock Tap for helping to sort out my saggy sidebar issue for me. She suggested that my width might be a little too large (we're talking blog, but actually we could be talking body too :-/).

I had played around with sliding my sliders before with no joy, but it was getting her comment which led me to examine matters rather more closely. I looked at some old blog posts and discovered that my sidebar was fully present and correct where they were concerned. Thus it was a matter of working out what had changed. I finally twigged that it was the images I post directly linked from Flickr which were the problem: They were just too darned big in the girth! Once I went through and reduced the width within the html of each image, it allowed my sidebar to rise, pheonix-like, back to its proper place. Phew, what a relief. Thank you Lesley - I very much appreciate your help - x.

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Secondly, the fat quarters from my last post. Jane, Josie and Angie all expressed an interest in adopting them. No.1 and I assigned the number '1' to Angie, the number '2' to Josie, and number '3' to Jane and then asked No.2 to pick which number would be the winner. He chose number 3, so Jane - the fabric will be on its way to you as soon as I've found out your address. I know you'll be able to use it in your fabulous quilts.

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No.2 has had a fairly successful sporting month. He captained the school cross country team early on in October. Eighteen teams were entered, and his school's boys team came fourth from 18 teams. The girls did even better with their second place (and that was just pipped on the line!) He also captained the school football team in a friendly game against another school team. His lot didn't win, but I know he enjoyed the experience of captaining the side. Something he probably won't do after this academic year, as he heads off to 'big school' next September.

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On the subject of No.2, he had another birthday this month - ELEVEN. How the hell did that happen?

This year, he had a Just Dance party. Do you, Dear Reader, have 'Just Dance' on Wii? It's a fantabulous thing - you get to make a total eejit of yourself whilst you try to copy the dance moves on your TV. Everyone else in the room gets to wee themselves laughing at you whilst you're doing your best to shake it all down. It's a win-win situation!

No.2 invited a small group of friends round to our house for the party. We had made a sort of 'league' beforehand, and that turned out to be a jolly good thing. We had everything printed out on paper, and No.1 and her friend 'S' wrote down the scores as the boys went along, dancing their socks off. The thing with boys is to keep them focused and entertained, and we managed both those things. It was a tad embarrassing that No.2 managed to win the competition (even though some of the dances were ones he'd never done before), but he shared his prizes with everyone, so that was ok.

We stopped for tea, during which they all watched an episode of Miranda (such fun!), and then had a final bonus competition which No.1 and her friend entered too. They all left happy and knackedered, which is a good result all round; and one of No.2's friends had such a great time, that he too wanted a Just Dance party for his birthday - I can totally recommend it!

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I had some shocking news this month, when the Chairman of Camera Club called me one Friday evening. He was calling to tell me that our Club Treasurer had died the day before. Very sad news in any circumstances, but he had been at the Club on the Tuesday evening of that week - feeling fine. Forty Eight hours later he was dead. I feel so sad for his family and close friends - what an awful shock for them all: Mike was a good, kind, warm man, and I'm sure they will miss him horribly.

The news left me very pensive. Sometimes news of an unexpected death gives us a kick up the backside in the matter of Life, doesn't it? After hearing about Mike, I was once again reminded that Life needs to be lived every day. We don't have forever.

Then my friend 'F' called to tell me that her lovely friend 'M' had died. The lovely friend who is the same age as us, and was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer just three months ago. She leaves two teenagers and a heartbroken husband.

This was the also the week in which Steve Jobs, the co-founder, former chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. died. Mr Jobs was, by all accounts, an extremely clever inventor - a visionary and an electronics expert who understood the concept of style as well as all that boffin stuff that inventors 'do'. He had lived with pancreatic cancer for 7 years before his untimely death, and had had many words to say, before he died, on the subject of life and death. Particularly inspiring was the following:-

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Wise words indeed, don't you think? I hope Mike, 'M' and Steve Jobs all rest in peace, and that their friends and families manage to cope with a life without their loved one(s) in it.

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Another death this month upon which I have to comment is that of Sir Jimmy Savile OBE. He died just two days prior to his 85th birthday, after having been in hospital with pneumonia. His nephew was reported to have said that he spoke to Sir Jimmy a few days before his death, at which time he said 'I'm nearing the end of the tunnel'; God bless him. I never particularly warmed to Sir Jimmy during his lifetime, but admired enormously the vast amount he did for, and achieved on behalf of, various charities over the years. He seemed a bit of an odd character, but a proper British Eccentric is not to be sneezed at, is it?

It ages me horribly, but I must confess that a couple of friends and I once wrote to Sir Jimmy's TV programme 'Jim'll Fix It'. We were, of course, mere tiddlers at the time. We wanted to ride a three-seated bike in a race against The Goodies, who often rode such a contraption on their TV programme of that time. We all thought it a great idea, and that it would make marvellous TV. Today, of course, I thank my lucky stars that we never made it to the screens of the nation - can you imagine the embarrassment?!

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I have continued to upload images for my 111 in 2011 project at Flickr this month - although for the last week haven't uploaded anything because Flickr wouldn't let me leave comments on the pictures of others. I shall try again tomorrow. Anyway, I'll leave you with some from the 111 Project this month:-

Household Appliance

Sunrise or Sunset

Vintage

Friend(s)

Hot (Scotch Bonnet Chilies)

I now have just six more shots to upload to complete the project! See you next month ... take care :) xx

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