Last night the sound of rain on the skylight windows returned. Just think, some people pay for recordings of such sounds, under the guise of white noise, to help them get to sleep. Some people, such as my own daughter, train their small children to need such sounds to fall asleep to. Her two smallest offspring have grown accustomed to listening to recordings of white noise at bedtime. Mind you, her older daughter, now 19, tells me she puts her headphones in and falls asleep listening to a selected songlist. How does she not get herself tangled up in her headphones? As small children, my daughter and her older brother never needed such aids to sleep. A story, a kiss goodnight and lights out - that worked. My son’s little daughter likes to have a nightlight, for reassurance. Phil wears an eye mask and puts wax ear plugs in. As for me I like it dark and preferably quiet but I always find a sleep mask annoying (perhaps I’ve just not found a comfortable one yet) and as for ear plugs … no, thank you! The sound of rain on the skylights, however, is quite soothing, if there has to be noise!
This morning is damp and drizzly and, despite the weathermen’s protestations that it would be warmer, still feels pretty cold to me. Facebook’s photo memories remind me that we often have snow and a cold spell at this time of year. It always seems to coincide with the arrival of lambs in the local fields. It can’t be much fun huddling under a tree with the temperatures we’re having at present.
And I thank our lucky stars that we can afford to heat the house properly, even with the horrific price rises. I keep seeing reports of pensioners in difficulty at present. As much by good fortune as through good management, we seem to have reached a stage where we are getting along okay. Looking back, I remember we managed to pay off our mortgage by the time we were in our fifties. I doubt that our children will be able to do the same. I have said it before, and I say again, we were born at the right time!
Offspring number one is coming to visit briefly next week, with his small daughter in tow. His wife has sort of established herself as a restorer of old furniture, a converter of wooden pallets into things of beauty - upcycling, I believe they call it. This along with working freelance for publishing companies! Sometime soon she is booked to exhibit her wares at a craft fair and needs some uninterrupted time to get on with sanding and shaping and painting stuff. So while their small girl is on holiday from school she is having a few days to herself to get as much work done as possible, without said small girl requiring attention as she will be visiting the northern branch of he family.
The small girl’s smaller cousins will be on holiday from school and nursery too, and so we can arrange some joint entertainment. Meanwhile I am trying to coordinate her older cousins’ days off work so that they can also drop in and say hello.
Tomorrow I am heading to Manchester for lunch with my Italian conversation class. Our classes take place by Zoom, which works quite well but is not really a substitute for face to face talking. So at Christmas we met for lunch one day and have decided to do the same now.
At present we are not planning to go much further than Manchester. This is just as well judging by the reports of chaos at Manchester airport. As well as long queues at security leading to people missing flights, there are problems with baggage reclaim too. Some people, having waited hours for their luggage to appear have just abandoned their suitcases.
What happens to such luggage? Does it go into lost property? Will the airport staff look at the luggage labels and flight stickers and eventually contact the owners? Can so many people afford to simply abandon a suitcase full of clothes? I suppose it’s one way of decluttering! It would prevent having to go through your wardrobe every so often to see what you will definitely never wear again and can safely send to a charity collection, something I did yesterday.
It all reinforces my determination to travel hand luggage only again when we finally resume our travels. We shall see!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment