Category: FESTIVALS

“Unruly” by David Mitchell (audiobook)
BOOKS · FESTIVALS · FUN · Literature · Science · WORK

“Unruly” by David Mitchell (audiobook)

Debra Smith1 Comment
U-tube video of David Mitchell talking to himself about the book “UNRULY”

As well as reading my Kindle book described on my WordPress ‘memory jar’ site (link provided below), I have also been listening to this audiobook which has the sub-title “A history of England’s Kings and Queens” – an unusual choice for me. As I am neither a lover of history nor particularly interested in Kings and Queens, you might ask why I made this choice. Simple – it’s the comedian David Mitchell, who is funny and this book was no exception! If only history had been taught in this compressed and amusing fashion with modern side notes and comments, I might have found it a bit more interesting. It also has the advantage that it is coming to a close just after Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and into the lead up to the Tudors and Stuarts.

Michael the Giant: An African in Greenland

Fortunately, my history education at school ended before the exams (O and A levels) at the Victorian era and I was never very good at it. I say fortunately because both the O’ level and A’ level syllabuses got STUCK in the Tudor and Stuart’s era that I found least interesting. So as soon as I could make a choice (at O’ level) I dropped history and instead focused on languages (French & German), maths and the sciences. Although, I was not too keen on English literature, the modern poetry aspects were interesting and although not enjoying the Shakespeare etc. at school I did get to read lots of French, German and Russian authors at home. OK, I liked to be contrary and do the stuff that others didn’t enjoy and I had lots of other interests like sports & amateur dramatics that I continued well into adulthood.

I was surprised by how many of the early names I recognised in my audiobook and just wish that my school memories of history lessons could have been a little more similar and fun to David Mitchell’s rendition! Aah well, maybe it also has something to do with the fact that I am older now and therefore have a wider experience and perspective by which to judge all the supposed “FACTS” that were rammed down our throats at school.

Where can you reduce clutter in your life?
Bloganuary · CHALLENGES · FAMILY · FESTIVALS · HEALTH · HOLIDAYS · HOUSE · Multiple Sclerosis · Nature

Where can you reduce clutter in your life?

Debra Smith1 Comment

Let’s start with the “physical” clutter and by that I mean all the medical aids that have been provided and/or bought yet no longer required.

I am fortunate enough to live in a house with large rooms, but that has the disadvantage that the medical professionals with whom I interact and to have (with the best of intentions) provided me with lots of pieces of equipment. Some I use almost every day, but others just sit in a corner with no way to return them easily, as they have no identifiable labels giving details of who it was that provided them.

There are also the eBay purchases that I just can’t get rid of no matter how hard I try – Freecycle, eBay etc.

  • The motorised wheelchair that is just too small for me and came as an added extra with the electric stair climber that is still in use for my parents house in France where there are both stairs to get into the house and internal stairs.
  • The manual standing frame that I bought of eBay to try and practice standing, but is hard to operate/quite uncomfortable and since the purchase of my standing wheelchair just before Christmas is simply no longer required.
  • The lightweight wheelchair that I bought years ago and sits in our shed. At the time it was great, but it doesn’t fold easily and again is simply not required any more.

I could go on, but I think that is quite enough for the physical objects!

To expand the concept there is also the “mental” clutter that is part and parcel of my condition. The sudden depression and uncontrollable crying and feeling useless – but I don’t want to dwell on that as it is self-perpetuating!

Considering my limitations I shouldn’t really complain about my life, because I have been very lucky and still enjoy an awful lot of opportunities that I have. Going to festivals, visiting relatives both in England and France and (although I haven’t done it for a long time) having the opportunity to get out and visit the local Arboretum.

So, let’s just put on a happy face and smile, smile, smile.

Bloganuary · CHALLENGES · FESTIVALS · HEALTH · WEATHER

5. Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

Debra SmithLeave a comment

I think about both, but my happiest memories are definitely from the past. For me (personally) the future is scary – challenging certainly and likely to deteriorate if I don’t make the effort to improve things. This is odd because I am much more a science/technology nerd than I ever was a history buff.

Why? The past is a happy place, the future is just sad. The most positive spin I can come up with is that “things can only get better”, although most would not think them too bad for me. It depends upon how you look at good & bad and definitely in the last few months there have been several things that I should be grateful for.

Sea and sky with fluffy white clouds
Photo by Splash of Rain on Pexels.com
FAMILY · FESTIVALS · FUN · HOLIDAYS · HOUSE

OCTOBER – The Cheltenham Literature Festival

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The more observant amongst you will realise that September has ‘disappeared’ despite my last (rather mundane) post – Also, that I am late with this post as it is nearly the end of November (whoops, just turned December) … and now we are approaching the end of 2019! So much for my ‘best intentions’ of keeping a regular blog on-line. I can manage to keep a multiple page spreadsheet daily, but the idea of having anything interesting to write about each day just escapes me.

Well first, looking back on it I can’t really remember much interesting happening in September – yes, we did visit my parents in France and it was pleasant, but I can’t really remember much else about it. The weather must have been  quite sunny, because I have lots of photos from Kevin of outdoor plants and butterflies, insects etc. – I think my summary of September will be just a few of the photos.

Plants:

Butterflies:

AT LAST … THE CHELTENHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL:

And so we started on Friday, 04 October … fairly gently at first with just 3 events covering “Out of the Woods” (how nature can affect mood/mental health) to “Dark Side of the Mind” and ending with a discussion about “Stories of Statelessness” … so gradually easing ourselves into it, because we knew the following day was going to be all out politics – so either really depressing or possibly enlightening! Our day started early (for us) – midday, with the edifying prospect of a discussion entitled “Populism: The Death of Democracy”, which was surprisingly not too ‘heavy’ and much more interesting than at first feared. We then had a more entertaining discussion with James O’Brien and his views and experience of the bizarre twist of events in the previous 12 months. Then we headed to “The Election Generals”, which elicited (as expected) quite a divisive but interesting discussion. Finally, just to ensure that we should try and consider recent events in light of the past, our last event was called “Don’t Look Back in Anger”. I have to admit that having been somewhat concerned by the ‘serious’ nature of our second day, it really wasn’t that bad at all and provided plenty of issues to think about. Because of my fairly pessimistic view of how Saturday was going to turn out, we had deliberately picked a much lighter program for the Sunday, which started with “Who’s Next for the White House” – very enlightening if not a little scary! Then we continued with a discussion called “Life Off-Grid” – lovely idea, but not very practical for me with medical condition + wheelchair. Our day ended with a very pleasant discussion about Tove Jansson (most famous for her Moomin series) with her niece Sophia Jansson about Tove’s life, loves and island refuge.

Now I am honestly having to look back at my on-line calendar for October to remind myself about the various events that we attended, so apart from those that have ‘stuck in my mind’, I think it only fair that I merely relate the number and titles of the events that we attended. On Monday, 07 October, we started off all ‘arty’ with an event entitled “Ways of looking at contemporary art” (I can’t really remember much except that some items I could appreciate the artistic merit and some I just didn’t ‘get’ at all!) Our next event was entitled “Life on the NHS Frontline”, where the panelists were an ex-nurse and an ex-junior doctor both of whom held their own extremely well and really didn’t need any chairperson / facilitator. Now our final event that day was GREAT! It had been placed in far too small a venue, which was packed and everyone enjoyed it – it makes such a difference, when the main speaker is professional and practised – both of which characteristics were true of Dom Joly. The talk was entitled “The Hezbollah Hiking Club”, which obviously was the title of his latest book (now one of the items on my Christmas list from Kevin’s parents). The talk was interesting, funny and the host kept everything moving along smoothly. As I’ve said it was GREAT!

Looking at my on-line calendar, the next day (Tuesday, 08 October) was a really mixed bag and although I remember that everything was really interesting, that’s about it. Our day started with an event entitled “We Need to Talk about Putin”, the next event was entitled “In the shadow of Vesuvius: A Life Of Pliny“, which was fascinating at the time but I can’t really remember any of the important details. And we finished off with an event entitled “Science(ish): Hollywood Wants To Kill You“, which I think (from memory) was understandably weird. On Wednesday (09 October) we only had two events neither of which I can remember in detail, but I am sure that they were both entertaining. Anyway, the titles of the events were “The Knife’s Edge” and “The Art Of Trees“. Thursday, 10 October started with the delivery of our new two seater sofa and matching two chairs in the morning, before we immediately set off for the Literature festival and again the first two items I will just list the titles, because I cannot really remember much detail – “1919–2019: The Irish Century“, “Lucian Freud“. We finished the evening with a highly entertaining discussion with Louis Theroux, which we learnt had SOLD OUT within about the first 3 – 5 minutes of going on sale. As members of the Cheltenham Festivals get a few days head start when booking, this probably meant that the entire audience were members of the Festivals! On Friday, 11 October we saw the following events, which were all good but again I cannot really remember the discussions and so the titles will have to do – “The Best And Worst British Prime Minister?“, “NATO At 70” and “Melanie Reid: The World I Fell Out Of“.

Now as I hope that you can appreciate, we were starting to ‘run out of steam’ and although we had booked for 3 events on the Saturday (12 October) we bowed out of all but the first event– “The Times Debate: Is the Party Over?” with ex-Conservative MP Rory Stewart (now standing as an Independent in the contest for the Mayor of London) and Labour MP Jess Phillips, which ended up as the only event we attended as Kevin was beginning to come down with a cold. The discussion was very civilised and particularly enlightening regarding the resources required to run as an Independent and the restrictions on taking such action and leaving an established political party where you don’t necessarily agree with the leadership, but require the backup of the party structure because of financial responsibilities and the fact that that you feel a better chance of reforming the party from within rather than from the outside. In retrospect, I found this position comforting when facing the reality of “Tactical Voting” in the GE that was announced in November.

So yes, the Cheltenham Literature Festival was a mixture of fun, weird stuff and lots of Politics! As this post has taken so long to compose, I think that I will leave the turmoil of the end of 2019 until my next post – which I will try to do before the New Year!