Really Determined Not To Worry.

 

Claude Cahun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Cahun

It’s been another dull rainy day, I watched football this afternoon, saw Arsenal lose their advantage over Blackburn and get beaten by 4 goals to their 3.

Shame they couldn’t play as a team a win, hopefully they will go away and practise being a team not a loose group of individuals.

No point being part of a team and not working as a team, when a team works well things get done, I have experienced good teamwork on a couple of IT Helpdesks I have worked on.

I hope the Arsenal football team soon learn how to cooperate, start to work together, enjoy their teamwork and begin to win their games.

When I was working I loved being part of a team, guess I do miss that very much, miss going to work.

These days I am part of a team with Richie, he does all the work while I cooperate as much as I can, which I am happy to do.

I hope that I will be able to do that for as long as possible, recently it’s been scary feeling my arms getting weaker and my right hand is often tightly, painfully clenched.

These days I can’t move the mouse anymore, I can hold it, after getting my fingers unprised and after I have held onto the side of the table, then I can transfer my hand onto the mouse.

I manage by using the keypad mouse to steer with my left hand and click with my right hand, its clumsy but it works, no point in worrying about the future, it will happen whatever happens, so I am determined not to worry, instead I want to enjoy.

Feeling Better Every Day I Sit.

Dorothea Tanning


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Tanning



Enjoyed sitting for four and a half hours yesterday, for the first day of the English premiership football season, Blackpool back for the first time since 1971 beat Wigan 4-0.

A brilliant start for them and all their wonderful fans who were up at Wigan’s ground three hours before the game started.

That is keen of the next weekend they will be playing against Arsenal, while I always want them to win this time I would love Blackpool to draw with Arsenal.

What a boost that would be for their first time in the Premiership in years, very much enjoyed the football games.

Found out yesterday that Marlon Hare wood who has just signed for Blackpool has a Barbados background, his dad is from the Islands.

Two of my other favourite footballers are Bobby Zamora at Fulham and Kenwin Jones at Stoke both are from Trinidad, funny to discover this fact.

Every time I said that they in they seemed like boys from home and they were, there are quite a few Trinidadian players playing for English clubs.

Hope that all this experience will stand them in good steed and they do well at the next World Cup.

It was incredibly exciting that they were at the World Cup in 2006; I was quite hoarse after the couple of games and practically inconsolable when they lost against England of all teams.

Since then there are alot more Trini players in England and other European countries and who knows what could happen at the next World Cap Tournament.

Very optimistic about the chances of the Trinidad and Tobago team and of mine that I will be sitting alot more.

Here is my favourite Trinidad curry, you can substitute Tempe or Tufu or fish or vegetables for the chicken.

Trini Chicken Curry:

Make your spice mixture garam masala, use some for the marinade keep half for cooking and always keep some for adding near end of cooking.

Garam masala;
Make your garam masala, your dry spice mix

Grind up:
1 teaspoon paprika powder
1 teaspoon ground up black pepper
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
2 cardamom seed
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
Half a teaspoon black mustard seeds
A piece of cinnamon bark if possible
A touch of mace better than nutmeg
2 cloves
Any leftover spice put in a jar and use next time.

Garlic 4 cloves
Ginger root chopped
Lime juice
2 small onions chopped
Scotch bonnet chopped, remove seeds, and put gloves on for this task.

Marinade chicken with
Garlic
Ginger (chopped)
Lime juice
And some of the garam masala mix
Thyme
Grind black pepper
And
Marinade overnight or for a few hours.

Heat oil when hot add sugar and cook until brown
Turn heat off briefly to stop burnng black
Turn heat back on and add chicken
And hot pepper
When well browned add a cup of water
Cook for ten minutes
Remove chicken
Then add chopped potatoes and tomatoes
And cook well until potato cubes or slices are soft and tomatoes also
Then when sauce is thicker add chicken cook for a few minutes and add
1 teaspoon of garam masala
And
Fresh chopped coriander
Pinch of salt if needed
And serve with dhal, rice, fried plantain and roti

And enjoy






.

Spring Flowers.

The flowers yesterday really brightened up the room; they are doing the same today.

Darling Richie made my day getting the mini daffodils.

They are a flower that I am very fond of, love seeing daffs in March; they are for me the personification of spring.

He put the spring flowers and the lavender by the window in the front room so they could catch the morning sun.

That was successful, even though there was not much sun when Richie opened the curtains at this morning.

There was a glimmer which was the first signs of the daffodils in the trough starting to bloom.

Think the daffodils should be flowering by Wednesday next week which will be charming for Easter weekend.

That reminds me of Easter two years ago, when I wanted an Easter egg, but kept saying to Richie ‘ach don’t worry about Easter egg as a bar is much better value’.

What I did not realise was that I kept telling Richie this and he quickly came to the conclusion that I desperately wanted an Easter egg.

If I had said it just the once, Richie may have believed, but after he heard me say this more than 5 times, he thought it was abit of a giveaway.

So he got one, a Green and Black’s egg which was very pretty and looked good and tasted even better.

What I especially like is the fact the chocolate is fair-trade which means workers and not slaves.

Before I take a bite into a chocolate bar, I do stop to think about who grew the cacao that made my chocolate bar.



If it is not Fair Trade chocolate then it is possibly one of the more than 15,000 child slaves who work on cacao farms in West Africa.

Does that chocolate still taste good? No it won’t, certainly not for me, so I will not buy it.

Lucky for me there is a whole food shop 5 minutes away from our apartment so I can enjoy a couple of cubes of chocolate daily.

Looking forward to watching the football later on the TV, it is getting very exciting now as the end of the football season approaches rapidly.

Hope that my team, Arsenal do very well, but will have to wait and see.

In the meantime I am enjoying today.

Post Christmas Football.

Can't believe it is already the day after Boxing Day, now it is the countdown to the end of the year.

It will be loud here on Thursday, hope Spike and Marleen will cope as well as they did last year with the fireworks.

They are lying happily in their beds, playing with their toys and hoping we will give them some more of the delicious dog biscuits Richie baked for them last night.

We are having a nice relaxed day today, had a late lunch of fried egg, chips, slices of marinated crispy Tempe and fried bread and pickled onions and brown sauce.

Brilliant food, the haute cuisine of the English cafes, always used to like going to a greasy spoon in England.

Used to like ordering bacon, sausage, egg, mushrooms, beans and a fried slice (bread) and of course lots of hot sweet milky tea.

Occasionally a fruit crumble and custard as dessert.

We still have fry ups, now with slices of crisply fried Tempe and vegetarian sausages instead of bacon and meat sausages, sometimes we have fried slices of halumi (Cypriot cheese).

Football is on today, the post Christmas games; we have been watching the Arsenal v Aston Villa game.

In half time we watched an old episode of Dr. Who, even though we had both seen this one before it was still rather scary, I was glad Richie turned back to the game.

Still 0-0 and could end as 0-0 too as both teams are really battling with each other , as I typed that Fabregas scored a great goal for Arsenal.

What a game and getting better all the time now Arsenal are ahead, going to post this and watch the game.

Have a good day.

Summer Saturday in August.

Being patient has never been my thing so finding me so handicapped so quickly and unable to do anything for myself is endlessly horrible.

Despite how horrible it is I have to do my very best to live with it and make the best of my life now.

And I believe that I do that

Being in bed for a year (on 21 August) has meant being very patient, so very patient, like I never thought I could be.

All the time that I am aware that I am having to and am being super patient I am also aware that my impatience is bubbling inside me like a volcano.

Somehow both things happen at the same time, my impatience rages but I remain calm, do not know how or why it happens but it does.

Every now and then if there is any pressure built up I have a good cry and of course I still have a shout out when I need to let off steam.

It is very strange to feel so patient when I am anything but; it is difficult to do anything else, have no other options.

Hate being so trapped, in this immobile body which I can not move, like yesterday really needed to move around and sort out a few things.

Not much really, just need to sort out post and some admin but I can’t get the folders and look through paperwork as my hands can’t turn pages or pick up pieces of paper or shuffle through paper.

This is very frustrating as it means that I can’t do even this on my own, it always got me agitated, as I hate paperwork and burocracy.

One thing I noticed right away is that as a handicapped person you get lots of burocratic mail it is like a whole industry on its own.

It is practically a full time admin job dealing with all the letters from local burocrats and now because I need a lot of help to do this it gets me quite upset.

It makes me so aware of being stuck here in bed with only my torso, still feeling and still being able to pull myself up using the grip suspended over my bed.

With that I can pull my shoulders off the mattress, I am doing my best to get my stomach muscles to cooperate so I can attempt to strengthen my back muscles which I will need to sit up properly again.

A year in bed has been bloody difficult at times, luckily for me Richie has made it good, he has looked after me so wonderfully well.

Friends visit and phone and Skype and email and blog contact and conversation has really helped me to cope with it.

I am hoping that things can and will improve; it is noticeable that I have built up my arm muscles by doing 30 minutes arm exercises every morning.

My arms had got shockingly thin and the muscles were pretty slack this time last year from 5 months of using the electric wheelchair.

Quite shocked me last August when I noticed, with the help of my physical therapist I put together a set of around 15 different sets of arm exercises and do three sets of each which takes 30 minutes.

Really pleased that my arms look and feel and operate as arms again, really quite proud of that, it feels good to have a success.

Yesterday after I had posted I visited other blogs I follow and one was Mort’s@Caring and Sharing, went there to find out how he is doing after his recent visit to the hospital.

http://mortonlake-caring-and-sharing.blogspot.com/


I read Mort’s account of his hospital visit and I also read that Mort was urging people to visit Janes’s blog@ A Journey of Another Kind…..Jane’s Journey -The Final Leg

http://a-journey-of-another-kind.blogspot.com/2009/08/janes-journey-final-leg.html


Please visit Jane’s blog; she needs support right now as she assimilates the result of her bone scan.

Also visited Judi’s blog@Life as a Hospice Patient

http://judi-lifeasahospicepatient.blogspot.com/


Judi is having her Memorial party this Monday, hope she has a good time and enjoys seeing her friends and colleagues.

I shall be there in my thoughts.

I also visited Diane’s blog@A Stellar Life.


http://dj-astellarlife.blogspot.com/2009/08/losing-touch-while-ms-moves-on.html


Read about Diane coming to terms with loss of feeling in her fingers, it is something so weird when that happens.

Diane is right things that you know were and are soft now feel like sand paper, touching and being touched is no longer as pleasurable as it was.

Sometimes Richie touches me and I mostly feel nothing or it feels like being touched by sandpaper.

Then I visited Rain’s blog@A Walk in the Woods

http://ocean-sunsets.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-i-hate-quebec-people.html


Here I read about the mental handicap called racism.

Incredibly Rain was refused medical attention because she is not a born French speaker.

Still can’t quite believe that people can be so inhuman towards each other.

Went to visit Steve and BR@The Wheel of Fortuna

http://spinfortunaswheel.blogspot.com/2009/08/welcome-hope-margaret.html


And read about a new baby called Hope Margaret a beautiful little baby with two very happy uncles Steve and BR.

A nice story and a nice photo on Stephany’s blog@soulful sepulcher


http://bipolarsoupkitchen-stephany.blogspot.com/2009/08/summer-plum-pie.html


Of a gorgeous Summer Plum Pie yummy really wished we were neighbours as nothing could have been nicer at that moment, than popping round for a chat and a piece of pie.

Richie has promised to look out for plums while he is on the market just now.

Seems we will be watching the first football game this evening at 6 pm how very exciting, hope that a quick shower can be fitted in before hand.

Then we can enjoy the evening together which is a pleasant prospect.

Despite the forecast of a rainy weekend so far no rain has happened, but it was only a mere 25 degrees at midday instead of the 30 degrees it has been at for the last few muggy and humid weeks.

Think it is getting hotter again, will get Richie to adjust my position in the bed as I seem to be sliding over to the right and down in the bed as I am typing.

Have a good Saturday, I intend to enjoy mine.

Here is a webcam just up the road from where we used to live by the Prinsengracht in the centre of Amsterdam.

http://www.eyelogue.com/donniecam.html


And a slide show of pictures of Amsterdam

http://www.bigbusy.net/

Its Easter Monday nice weather the sun is shining and the clouds are thinning and blue sky is visible.

There was no rude awakening from an outside source today no this time it was Spike, the black and white Jack Russell.

He started scratching at the door like crazy and would not stop when Richie called out stop to him.

Turned out he was absolutely desperate to go outside and have a pee, Richie threw on his clothes as soon as he realised what it was all about.

While they went round the block I did my arm exercises and was almost done when they returned.

Always leave the ones where I pull my torso up until last, just before those I do three lots of shoulder rolls and stretches as well as hand exercises.

After abit of THC and some fun and games with the dogs Richie massaged my legs then baclofen tablets more THC and my chocolate drink and it is time for the laptop.

Enjoy reading the papers after I have checked my mail and had a quick look at my blogs.

It really is so good to be able to communicate so freely with others in places I will never go to and people I will never physically meet.

There is camaraderie about the blog sphere that is lovely, it reminds me of going to watch football.

I started to watch Arsenal when I lived close to their ground Highbury when we lived in Hackney, North London 13 years ago.

I went to Highbury with another Gooner (an Arsenal supporter) and an old colleague from the Head Post Office in Reading.

Met a big mixed group of people who he went to games with and found to my surprise that I was accepted into this group without any hesitation whatsoever

The group was full of people who in the rest of their lives had no common link apart from their love of one football club, in this case Arsenal.

It is wonderful this instant acceptance really good and very inspiring,

I was quite amazed when I went to my first game with Dave how quickly and warmly I was accepted into the group.

By my second game it was our Herrad when they spoke of me.

The group was made up out of a variety of people with most having one thing in common and that was Arsenal Football club.

Loved the easy group acceptance and how quickly one was accepted into the group, by my second game I felt I had been attending the games for years.

This is the same feeling that I get from the blog world.

Have become fond of so many of the people I have met, really am enjoying the contact tremendously.

It feels good and the support and encouragement is great.

Hope all you lovely bloggers are having a good weekend and enjoying the Easter weekend sunshine.