Storytime

Hmm can't hide it any more. We leave in three days. Am I ready? Nope. Am I excited? You bet. At the moment we have the backpacks.... and nothing in them at all. I think today I will have to put something in them, even the tiniest something so I can feel that it is actually happening. Although putting the pack down and putting stuff in will upset the 'cat' - she knows when we are going somewhere. She then puts on this look halfway between disgruntled and disgusted...and either ignores us totally (our usual treatment) or is all lovey dovey. We have yet to tell her that she and the house will be sat. So we have the packs, and then of course I found my little day pack. She has been on our every travel. I never use a handbag, just load her up and I'm off. Ready with passports, camera, printed reservations for our hire car or hotel for the night, water bottle, panadol, etc etc.  For the past month I've had an 'India pile' at my desk. Internation...

I'm the first to admit I have the worst memory. I have trouble remembering names (which is why a generic 'mate' or 'poss' works well at Tinies or Storytime- until some child states 'I'm not a possum!') and have a hard time remembering childhood events. Actually even remembering happenings not that long ago. I've always had this so can't put it down to old age. And it is tremendously annoying. My father is one of those that can say 'do you remember when such and such happened and you saw this...' I will stare blankly, having no idea to what he is referring to. Mind you he usually says 'you were just walking at the time'..... His memory, dare I say it, is outstanding. So a lot of childhood events I relive via a story that is very surreal. Not that I remember nothing from my childhood. I remember my little brother finding a 'kitten' and cuddling it till it bit him and he was taken to the doctors with a rat bite. ...

What makes a just turned fifty, overweight, library technician decide she can race fron one end of India to the other? Frankly I have no idea but do intend to find out. Yes, The Other Half and myself will be travelling from Cochin in the south east to the mountainous north west of Shillong. Hard to tell exactly where on this map but you get the general idea. It is a large country and we will be heading, hopefully, north east-ish. Going in the right direction is always a good start. This is part of an adventure put on by a group called  The Adventurists  . We are doing the Rickshaw Run. Roughly 4500 kms in 14 days....with no support vehicles, no maps, no mechanics to help when our transport breaks down - in of course the comfort and dignity of...a rickshaw. We have 'pimped' our mode of transport- that is we have created a design---water and bubbles seemed appropriate- and have left the Indian artisans to interpretate it. The finished product will/ may be v...

Hands up if you take a compliment well.  As I thought, not many hands raised. We are not taught to take compliments well. We try to explain why the compliment is not really meant. Sometimes we put this down to modesty, other times we distrust the giver of the compliment. What do they mean? Why are they saying this?  Personal compliments such as 'You look nice today' -in our mind become 'Really think so? Because this is just an old shirt I found in the wardrobe, not ironed and has this mark down on the side here and ...' Work compliments such as 'You did a great job today, they left really impressed' -  becomes 'Not really, I could have searched these databases, or else thought of asking what exactly about the term...' And then there are the ones based on our writing. 'Really loved that story' becomes ' hmm yeah it's an old one and I don't know if it really works, I keep thinking if I changed the time frame and...'...