Monday, November 18, 2024
Okay, here’s a really deep, deep question of the day for a Monday: Do you tip at coffee shops? The reason I ask? Me and mine were at the mall yesterday and, for the first time in maybe over a year, the OH wanted a sugary Starbucks confection called: coffee. Me? Not so much. So we went. We …Well, I knew it … my secret vegetable identity is … drumroll please!
Kind of cold out there this morning and all the trees, bar one, are now officially bare for winter’s arrival.
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
I got the most wonderful surprise just now in the mail box. Not just one snail mail post but TWO! I am beside myself, like a little kid who just got to open two Christmas presents early for good behaviour (unheard of, not the early part, the good behaviour part). First up I want to say a BIG thank …Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Minor first world problems abound here at Chez Alex this morning. As the master drain that services both our laundry and kitchen sink has started backing up. So that, ever time someone in a floor above us uses their dishwasher, sink, or washing machine, water and soap suds is coming up through our …This was taken yesterday, of course, this morning it’s raining …
Sunday, November 10, 2024
I’ve see a few people sharing their pet peeves recently, so that to add a few of my own: It drives me nuts when someone tells you not to break up a relationship over politics. Honey, let me tell you, if you're compromising your values to suck up to a jerk who votes right-wing conservative, …Friday, November 8, 2024
Following in Gabz footsteps and, like him, having never heard of, What’s In My NOW, I had to go check it out and, of course, write up my own, What’s In MY NOW post. Each week one interesting person shares the tangible and invisible things that are influencing the NOW — 3 physical, 2 …Thursday, November 7, 2024
Waiting at the bus stop this morning to come home from my grocery run and … a guy waltzes up and stands in front of me. Glancing at his backpack I spot a tiny button but can’t quite make out what it says except … I can see it has a Nazi Swastika in the centre. Feeling a little …Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Today, as the news finally sinks in courtesy of every news channel, online outlet, and newspaper on the entire planet, we are all fully aware of just Who has won the US Presidential election: He whose name shall never be uttered out loud! And those of us who are sane enough, rational enough, …Thursday, October 31, 2024
Back in my day, and I’m taking way back when before halloween was a big thing in the UK like it is in the US. Way before people really dressed up or went trick or treating like they do now. I remember our family living in Scotland (who had a different set of traditions) carving out not …Thursday, October 17, 2024
It’s a beautiful sunny day out there, today. I was going to go out for a walk this afternoon, camera in tow, to take photos of trees but. I stepped out onto the balcony to check how cold it was because Siri said 4 degrees and … I couldn’t get back inside quick enough. With the …Monday, October 14, 2024
It’s Monday. It’s raining. And it’s Thanksgiving Day here, in Canada. So yes, of course it’s raining. I could almost believe I was still back in the UK, the amount of times it rains here every bank holiday. The rain, however, is outside so thankfully, I don’t have to …Saturday, October 12, 2024
One of my all-time favourite sweeties as a child were Bassetts Jelly Babies. And I mean the original flour dusted version, not the more recent chewier Maynards imitations. As anyone who is a regular reader to this blog might know by now is, most of my favourite things have came to me by way of my …Friday, October 4, 2024
Like Veronique mentioned in her newsletter recently, I’ve had an internal monolog running in my head since I was probably 3-4 years old. I know I spent a lot of those first aware years—between 3 and 5—firing questions at my father almost non-stop. Asking him why this, or why that. Questions he …Thursday, October 3, 2024
Way back when, and I’m talking the mid-60s in Singapore, when my sister, who was ten years older than me, worked part time for an Army liaison officer. She was part of a team who organised rock bands tours, and, as a result, I got to meet with some of the biggest bands of the era. This included, at …Wednesday, October 2, 2024
I’ve done it again. Started one too many projects. All the while telling myself I won’t start another just as I’m getting caught up in the latest, which means, older ones slide or worse, get waylaid. Forgotten. All these partial projects sitting like so much drift wood blown up on …Sunday, September 29, 2024
It’s that time of year again. Like the slow change of winter into spring when I feel restless to get out, and start exploring the world with long walks in my local park. Autumn does the opposite to me. I feel a different kind of restlessness. One in which I feel almost a sense of panic knowing …Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Can someone please explain to me what happened to lightbulbs. When did we go from having cheap incandescent bulbs that fuelled our winter-nights with light to read by, to mercury-filled, evil planet-polluting $6 spotlights which, while they are supposed to last several times longer, don’t? I …Thursday, September 5, 2024
I was reading Robert Birming’s post, Letting Go, this morning and had a rush of childhood memories and a little pang, and a sense of loss at all things I had to let go of, as a child in a military family. Any kid who’s grown up in the same situation, whatever the military: army, navy, …Wednesday, September 4, 2024
I have no relationship with my phone. Unlike successive generations brought up glued to social media and their phones, doom scrolling to find a connection, any connection, I came out of a different era. One that smiles at people in the street, chats casually with the person on the next table in the …Monday, September 2, 2024
I have a very, and I mean, very long history with Chinese food. From the age of 3-4 years when my father was posted to Hong Kong for deployment, I was eating noodle and rice dishes with the best of them. My parents ate out a lot with a gaggle of kids in tow. I think it was because they got better …Saturday, August 24, 2024
Having talked about what my dad did for a living for most of his adult life—and yes, while it’s true he once kicked a bomb, the truth is he worked as a Master Armourer in the military. My mother, on the other hand, was the homemaker. Partly because having six kids meant my mother was never …Thursday, August 22, 2024
Taking my cue from Lou Plummer’s post today, I Am Not Proud, and talking about what I take pride in. And it isn’t necessarily my appearance in the way some do. I am happy to wear comfortable clothes, have never done fashion (sorry folks, I just have the wrong body shape) and am not …Monday, August 19, 2024
It’s the fourth day in a row that the rain is steadily falling from a slate grey sky, and I’m tripping down memory lane remembering how my parents, my mother in particular, use to keep us—us being six kids—occupied during rainy days at home. Not that all six kids were together all that …Monday, August 12, 2024
While waiting at the bus stop this morning: Oh, I love the blue of that car. Why is the bus always late when I'm early? Nice to see that woman picking up after her dog. Oh, will you look at that bee ... Are storm clouds angry and puffy summer clouds happy? How many carrots do I need for dinner …Thursday, August 8, 2024
As a child growing up I use to tell friends, “… my dad kicks bombs for a living.” when asked the inevitable stupid question, ‘what does your dad do for a living.’ One because I was never sure at first what it was my dad did actually do and had overheard him talking to …Sunday, August 4, 2024
In answer to Jedda’s post today, The Plan To Not Have A Plan, I wrote: I find plans never go to plan, it's best to have an outline written in pencil, maybe on a napkin that can be toss in the recycle if necessary when it all goes to hell in a hand basket ... Because invariably, I always end up …