"Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!"

[Saturday 6th October 2018] 


 This song has been haunting me ever since I first heard it a few weeks ago. It feels right that yesterday is encapsulated in this song. Acceptance and recognition that it is time for change. 

 [The title of this post is from part IV of 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Tales From The Crypt - Remembrance Sunday (13th November 2022)

Image
I'm still suffering with lower back pain, though just to be awkward it's now on the left hand side rather than the right.  The answer is movement and (prescription/over the counter) drugs. I'm planning to  get in touch with friends and family for chats, doing the usual boring chores, hopefully going for a brief walk and reading at least some of the papers. Just before midday I managed to have a chat with my big sister (she will forever be thus-named), which was good.  It's strange that as family shrinks, you get closer to those that remain.  Over the past decade or so, I've been closer to both my sisters than ever before. We grew up almost as distant planets from one another and from our parents, to some extent, though we do have shared memories, good and bad. The sun appears to be coming out and so is my washing. After lunch I called a close family friend who is godmother to son #2 and we had a long chat about life and agreed to meet up soon. It's been a while ...
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Thursday 29th February 2024

Image
I could write a lot today, but I am not planning to.  Why am I bothering to write at all, you may ask?  Purely because of the date.  The twenty-ninth of February only comes every four years (yes, I know there are exceptions to that rule - I have written code to deal with that in the past), when it's a leap year.  I feel, for no apparent reason, I should mark this day with some words. It's starting to look a lot like E's decline has plateaued and we (the Sue Ryder nurse, maybe GP) may well decide to change the way medication is delivered.  We'll not stop giving her medication to reduce the likelihood of seizures, nor will we stop the pain-relief medication because I think everyone that knows agrees there is no turning back from that. Respite.  That's what I need, though as yet it's not easy to arrange. Maybe that will become a possibility next week. Within the family, we've been having lots of discussions about the end and how we want it to be, and where we ...
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Friday 8th May 2020

Image
Friday. Bank Holiday. Also the 75th anniversary of VE day.  Started the day with a run at around 7:30am before it got too hot! Back from run and warm down, time to shower and get up to face the day. Arranged a call with friend who moved to Berlin for 10am, then set about breakfast and getting some washing on. Yeah, I know, how do I keep up this fever-pitch level of excitement? Unbridled hedonistic excess are my middle names, that's how. Chatted with mate in Berlin, where they are also commemorating VE day, though styled as ' ...the end of the Second World War and the liberation from National Socialism 75 years ago. ' Good to get a perspective from elsewhere in Europe. We've decided to get a takeaway from our local Italian restaurant tonight to make the most of the day, and that's now ordered with a collection slot at 7:40pm. Only one catch - I'll have be good about opening a bottle of wine until after we get back - reckon I can just about manage it, though ...
Read more

Love, Poetry and Revolution - Thursday 14th November 2024

Image
For about a week, maybe more, I've had a cold.  It's one of those colds that refuses to go quickly. I have shared it widely, unintentionally, though of course, I may not be the source of all the colds, there are so many about. I'm not here to write about my cold, though. It's a lead-in to something more pernicious. Accompanying the cold, especially as it slowly fades, I've had a bad headache. Initially, I thought it was cold-related, but I've come to believe it's a physical manifestation of stress - a topic that opens a crate of cans of worms. The stress I'm experiencing is probably the result of several things I'm anxious about. I had considered listing the things I thought were at the root of it, and then deciding whether they belong in the category of things I can control or cannot control. Instead, I've decided to dig deeper and write about it in the hope that writing it down helps control it and maybe it helps more widely.  I've always b...
Read more

Lockdown Diary - Saturday 2nd January 2021

Image
The third day of 2021 ushers in a return to all the mundane things that quotidian life has to offer. Given the insane covid numbers that are now being recorded - apparently worse than the peak back in March/April - we're going to get shopping done and out of the way before it gets busy.  Son #2 and I get it done without any fuss and even a trip to the pharmacy to pick up my meds is achieved without encountering any other customer.  That's the best sort of shopping at the moment. Saturday morning unfolds as any other Saturday for the past nine or ten months, with only conversations with the carers and postie bringing any real colour. After a late-ish lunch I have got most of the tedious tasks complete and so I find time to read the papers. Son #2 is with me, revising for a Microsoft Azure exam on Monday.  Apart from the odd question about security principals and landing zones, I read uninterrupted. I suggested we go for a walk, which at least he agreed to (not sure if...
Read more