Sound Studio

Sound Studio

In the up and down of my seventies, I had a special experience at Ignite at Somerset Film in Bridgwater Somerset.

I was lucky enough to be given a free run of the sound studio to record my children's stories to put as audio books on Amazon.

I try in my stories to give children hope.  Hope for the future and hope that they will succeed and be heard.

The stories are:

Miss Flimp's Destiny
Miss Patch
Miss Posey's Garden
Miss Flimp and the Celebration of Light ( This last book is free on Smashwords.)

They reflect my integrity from being a Quaker for thirty years.

I thank Somerset Film very much for this opportunity and hope that in the future I can do more work with them.

Sad Times for Britain? plea to young people.

Sad Times For Britain?

It is very sobering after all the dross of referendum campaigns that we now are faced with the reality of building our country and our economy in a very different way.  Hard times are on the way I fear.   I believe in democracy and will accept the majority view.

If there are any younger people reading this blog please, I would like to let you know that both myself and my husband are members of the Green Party and part of our commitment comes from wanting a better world for our children and grandchildren.

We were part of the 40% of older people that voted to remain, Please,please do not have a knock on effect of ageism  which is difficult for us as it is.  My husband delivered 500 leaflets on behalf of the remain campaign.

To young people out there, please don't let this referendum be divisive in society. Believe me, there are a lot of responsible older people really on your side.

Solidarity and Sorrow for Jo Cox - A personal tribute.

Tribute to Jo Cox

I have walked the talk.

In the past, I have campaigned

Your sacrifice is not in vain.

True socialism is not about

Party politics and being cut down

It is about protecting

The isolated, the poor and

People like your aggressor

Mentally troubled and insane.

I am a Quaker and believe

What you stood for.

We all have equal worth

When the world wakes up to equal rights

We will have peace on earth.

God Bless your family,

God Bless your part,

Your life’s work will remain in my heart.

Zoe Ainsworth-Grigg

Spondylosis and The Write Day

Spondylosis

I have been suffering for the last two weeks with this.  It has affected my balance and I feel that I am falling over quite often staggering about as though I am drunk.  I looked it up on the internet on google and found that a lot of GP's do not recognise that spondylosis can cause vertigo.  So no help there what a surprise.

I am getting accustomed now to helping myself through alternative treatments. I have a very good chiropractor called Mark Cop who practises in Bridgwater somerset and through his help the tight muscles in my neck relaxed and I had relief from the symptoms.

Has anyone reading my blog had similar experiences and that have they done to alleviate things?

I also put a wheat pack mildly heated on the affected area as advised by Mark.

Hopefully, I will be back in action.

I had a .very awful experience also with a person who organises The Write Day.  It was advertised on Creative Somerset.  She charged me double what I should have paid and an extra £20 for food for my husband.  I am afraid her advertising wasn't clear enough and through that I didn't realise that X2 meant two nights for one person and I thought it meant one night for two people.  I lost out by £65.  I am a little peeved. 

As I get older I find that I am taken for a ride over money matters more and more. I have to remember to check and double check.

Having just bought my specs for £225 I want to be sure I get my money back from Simply Health.

There are no easy answers, even when my husband and I put our heads together, things seem much more complicated these days.

Sixties Shift as per British Sewing Bee

Sixties Shift

I really enjoy the BBC2 Sewing Bee programme and last night they had to make a shift from a sixties pattern on a sixties sewing machine.  well my sewing machine in the sixties was my Grandmother's old Singer and didn't do zig zag stitch but I made a shift . The sixties were not sw

inging for me except that I married young and had three children in quick succession.

Here is the dress. That's me holding Tim's hand as Nigel rides a horse top left.  /the dress was of cream linen, I was still quite old fashioned then and had few contemporary friends but I made most of my own clothes and also my daughter's clothes. the biggest treat was when I bought something from a shop for her. this is Liz aged three at her party.

I remember when I bought a sewing machine for myself when I was about twenty-five because it did zig zag.  It cost £40 and I got it on HP.  I thought it was very extravagant. I recently had some inheritance and have just bought a and it cost over£400.

I do love to stitch and I do love fashion.  I like Prima patterns and hopefully I have a free weekend this weekend and will make a jump suite that are back in fashion. I hope to customise it, watch this space.

Meanwhile I have added more of my instructions for my craft on Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BackYardBooksandArt

Specs

 Spectacles


If I had three wishes, I think one of them would be to not wear specs.  I hate them on my face all the time and the inconvenience of them. Despite real advancement in styles, they still make me look older than I am.

This week sees me going for an optician examination at Boots.  I did go to Specsavers and I can't say that they have done me proud.  Despite being cheaper they are not a lot cheaper when all is said and done. the optician there last time got my prescription wrong saying that I needed less magnification than the time before.  the glasses that I was recommended as the second pair which I paid as prescription sunglasses were too wide for my face and fall off even before perspiration in the sunshine. so both pairs were defective in some way and found me struggling to read food packets.

This time, I went to Boots Opticians and there weren't the crowds of people queuing up which is commonplace in Specsavers.  I was given time and consideration.  However the glasses that I chose despite being a cheaper pair , and with the lenses, came to £300.  I got 25% off being a Boots card holder and I contribute to Simply Health so that makes the one pair of glasses come to about £125.

That means that one pair of glasses at Boots costs the same as two pairs of glasses at Specsavers but then they are far better quality and I had much better service.

Isn't the performance of buying specs a minefield. I have tried other ways around this problem and can't get on with anything wlse.

So I have made a decision and am not going to take my Boots prescription to Specsavers and I going for the expensive option.  they say you get what you pay for, let's see. Ha Ha.

Sweet Sixteen - Neil Sedaka

Seventy and Superb

Highlight of the week is to go to Wyvale Garden Centre and have coffee and a sausage roll with our vouchers.

We by cat food, a plant for a present, netting for the strawberrie sna trellis for the raspberries. Plus they were selling off CD's of 50's music so I bought one for the car.

Opening the windows wide aping the young we put on the music of Neil Sedaka and play it lud.

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen comes on and memories flood back of a young girl sitting on a wooden bench in Great Wyrley net petticoats starched with sugar scratching at my legs, waiting for a boy to ask me to dance. Rock and Roll, the crazy dance craze and Elvis Presley girating so that parents are shocked.

Was it really 54 years ago, anybody's lifetime.  I am so lucky to have lived so long with such good times. There were bad times but Hey lets celebrate positivity.