Conversation

Visiting hospital with my mother. We go to the first consultation room and I wait outside. They call me in and say "All is well but she has to make an appointment in another department for the follow up. It's on the other end of the hospital but easy enough. You ok with that?"

"Yup, I reply. We'll take our time."

We set off at a slow stroll.

Mother asks....

"Do you know where we are going."
"Yep."
"Have you been there before?"
"Er..no."
"How do you know where we are going then?"
"I am following the signs. It's easy."
"We're going very slowly. Are you lost?"
"No. I didn't want to rush you. Would you like to walk a bit faster?"
"Not really."
"Well then."
"It's taking a long time."
"She said it would."
"I think we are lost."
"We're not"
"How do you know?"
"Because we are still following the signs."
"I'm going to ask someone."
"You don't need to."
"Your trouble is you will never open your mouth."
"We are still following the signs."
Loudly to man pushing stretcher trolley. 
"Excuse me love! We are lost. Can you tell me where this is?"

Puts letter under man's nose. Over face of patient he is pushing. Slightly startled man confirms we are still going in right direction.

"This can't be right."
"It is."
"I don't think that man knew - not really."
"Not far now."
"I haven't seen a sign for ages."
"We just passed one."
We turn right into reception of department. My mum greets receptionist.

"Sorry we are late. Think my daughter got us lost."

I am quite tired.

Happy Mothers' Day Mum

The Grand Budapest Hotel

• Beautifully shot
• The living definition of the word "whimsy"
• Some frames are just lovely
• Really funny
• A bit weird.
• Can't recommend it highly enough

Psalm 34

Psalm 34. King James Version.

Take your time. It's worth it.

Poetry, prophecy, comfort, promises, truth. BOOM!


I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.
Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate.
The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Is it just me do you think?

Grazia

Sometimes I just like to point things out to you with very little comment. Just give you the facts and you can make of then what you will.

Last week Chanel showed it's Autumn Winter Collection. Models walked around a catwalk in astronomically priced clothes strutted their stuff very prettily around a pretend supermarket. Then the journalists and various slebs who had been invited to see the clothes got to go around the shops and pick things off the shelves. There was a bit of a feeding frenzy apparently because the shelves were full of Chanel branded goods such as
Chanel Spaghetti and Chanel Water. The fruit was stamped with the Chanel logo and the baskets were covered with Chanel's signature chain mail. All very well and good and certainly very pretty as the famous people and the extra thin ladies, and the extra thin, extra rich ladies queued up to say how wonderful it all was.



Trussell Trust, the biggest provider of foodbanks in the country, tell us this.

BIGGEST EVER INCREASE IN UK

FOODBANK USE:

170% RISE IN NUMBERS TURNING TO

FOODBANKS IN LAST 12 MONTHS

Numbers given emergency food 100,000 higher than anticipated

UK Foodbank charity The Trussell Trust says this must be a wakeup call to the nation

I am aware that you can get a bit oversentive about things. Chances are that the people at Chanel never meant to suggest that they were having a good laugh at people who, at the the moment, are horrified by a trip to the supermarket because they, quite simply, do not have enough money to buy the food that they need. However, we are in the middle of a food crisis here. Too many people do not have enough to eat and, in Paris, a lot of very rich people seem to lack a bit of sensitivity I think. Do you know what it made me think of? Marie Antoinette, playing at being a peasant on her toy farm - Hameau de la Reine while in Paris, the cost of a loaf of bread was soaring above most people's means. It is a mess I think. Just a mess.

To York... and don't spare the horses.

You may or may not know (or care) that I live in the South West of England. We were, as you again may or may not know, hit by some extreme storms this winter. Consequently, the train line through to the South West (and yes, that is singular as in the ONLY train route through to two entire counties) was practically washed away. There are, as we speak. top people working on repairing said line but it isn't done yet. There was some talk of building a second line because of the vulnerability of the (I'll say it again) ONLY railway line but once people in parliament realised that they could still fly to their holiday homes in Cornwall via Newquay airport, all the urgency seemed to go out of everything. Call me cynical if you want to. I prefer to think of it as realistic.

Consequently, FOW1s route back home from York for Easter was fraught with danger and expense. Well expense anyway because for some reason, all the advance cheap train tickets have disappeared so that a £60 journey suddenly became a £140 journey (the extra excitement of getting off the train and transferring to a coach where the line is hanging over the sea by a thread is apparently thrown in for free). So, in an idle moment HOH and I, realising that we were both off work that weekend, offered to go and get FOW1 in the car. It should be easily done in one day. How hard could it be? These things I have learned...

• When you say it quickly six hours there and six hours back doesn't sound much does it? It is.
• The motorways are always full of coneage and 50 mile speed limits even when THERE IS NO SIGN OF ANYONE DOING ANYTHING.
• Just "calling in" at Ikea never only adds "about an hour" to the journey. Actually not complaining - love Ikea. If I was eight, I would be having frequent fantasies about living in Ikea. It that just me? Just thinking about secretly living there when everyone goes home? Cooking in the kitchen bit and sleeping in the bed bit - that kind of thing. No one else ever have that dream about department stores? Really? *Feels a bit odd and wishes she'd never mentioned anything*
• Liza Tarbuck on Radio 2 is a comedy genius and I would like to be her best friend. This is not said in any kind of stalking way.
• It is not easy to get HOH and FOW1 back into the car on the services car park when drunken football fans are weeing up lamposts on service station car parks right next to where I am standing. Husband and son were being gallant on my behalf but TBH I hadn't noticed that these boys had got their bits out. (HOH has just vetoed my obvous next joke on grounds of good taste and Christian chasteness)

So all in all, an eventful day. Driving to York is something we will never do again  - at least until April when we are going for a short weekend away. Anyway,  I am pooped and am off for a glass of wine, and possibly a bit of Whimsey and Harriet.