Grandma P's Ramblings Through Life

Tired!
Bit queasy too - maybe effect of both pain and pain killers.
Ah well - I have experience of both and know that these things pass.

Yet again I can claim to have had a good week in the shop - amongst sales were 3 of the things I had taken in last Monday. You might recall the 1950s doll and the traditional shopping basket that I photographed for the blog - they have gone already from my life.

I needed to write up and make price tickets for the stock I took in - the lovely 1950s blankets, one of the heavy Italian glass bowls and so on. It all looks good.
I have taken photographs of Stephen's things in readiness for this week's Pilgrim's Antiques blog.
I took parcels to the post office and enjoyed the walk in the chilly sunshine.
And I have opened cabinets for people and dealt with their inquiries and, best of all, sold things.

As I ate my lunch I browsed a week old newspaper and later showed Bill adverts for holidays in Malta, which was one of the places that Bill thought that maybe we could explore this year some time.

Now yawning lots - and every yawn strains my rib cage. I think I can assume that ribs have been cracked again.
I think I shall go and chat with Dr O once again.
My Aunty Vera had osteoporosis. I would rather not have it - but my constitution as it shows up in blood tests would suggest I would be prone to it. I would like to persuade the doctor to send me for for a bone scan. But he might suggest that I have just been unlucky and that one incident of cracked ribs will have left them vulnerable to further breaks.

Time for an early night.

I woke early; Bill seemed very cosy and content snuggled under the duvet, whilst I was hurting.

It was very cold outside.
All in all that made 3 good reasons why we should not bother with the Dorking boot sale this week.



I am still hurting - the pain increases. Surely not my ribs?
We'll see.



We have spent time today describing for EBay - I did 15 items and Bill listed 14. Bill has 11 lots of old glass slides for sale - mostly being sold singly. We both have bids already.
I had photographed 8 things from the garage shelves - some more of my Festival of Britain collection, a couple of crested china items and 3 bits that I had had for ages and always meant to take to the shop but always rejected them in favour of other things. I want them gone from my life
now, so I started the bidding at 99p - it is one of those that has the bid.


Black, negro, African stuff is quite collected - but maybe not in Dorking!
The light does make this woman look rather fierce!

I followed this up by taking pictures of things bought at Ford yesterday.


I do quite well with old cookery books.
The She Quickie Cookbook doesn't seem very old - but it was the 1960s bible for young housewives. I must look out some recipes before it goes.


This is not old - probably made yesterday!
It is a heavy glass dish bowl made by a small Italian company.

I am surrounded by small packages this evening.
A couple of weeks ago Bill decided to take badges off a pin board that had held a sort of collection many years ago.
He created 27 lots with 3 - 6 badges in each with similar themes.
And today 23 of the lots sold. Each opening bid was just 99p; some sold for that but others sold for more than we expected.
So, things found at boot sales years ago are still bearing fruit and contributing towards our leisure fund.


Today we went to Ford - and it was not actually quite as cold as yesterday.
I haven't yet looked at things I bought - I'll photograph some tomorrow.

Breakfast was sociable - chatting with people we have met the last two Saturdays and conversation drifted off to other tables too. They told us of 2 charity shops in Littlehampton that we didn't know and we also visited one we have passed in the car. We bought a jacket, a nightgown and a cardigan for me and Bill found a cardigan too - an "old man's cardigan" he joked!

Then we went round to feed the swans.
But today they were quite threatening and I felt scared.
I opted to walk down to the water's edge and throw bits of biscuit to the sea gulls instead.



You might be able to see that below me, right by the water is a band of mud. It was low tide.
Why did I walk on it?
I continued to throw bits of biscuit in the air to watch the seagulls catch their titbits.
Then my foot slid down the mud and I landed flat on my back.
It didn't hurt very much, but of course I couldn't get up.
I eased myself up the slope on my bum so that Bill and a helper could hoist me up.
My coat has been washed and my boots and little bag cleaned up.
I feel stiff and achy and have taken ibuprofen.
The pain is a bit like a cracked rib. I assume that pain will ease.
If it doesn't and I feel that the ribs have cracked again I would be concerned about the state of my bones. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself should I?


No picture of me lying in the mud, but you can see how oozy and mucky it is and spattered with swan poo too.

And today has been a great day for Sussex by the sea football teams.
Both Crawley and Brighton were playing teams which on paper are superior. But both our clubs are in a very successful period and both are hoping for promotion.
Both Crawley and Brighton won and have progressed to the last 16 of the FA Cup.
I wonder who they will be drawn against - not with each other I hope.
Crawley really want one of the very top teams to finance their promotion to the main football league.

Bed time now - think we will give the Dorking boot sale one more try in the morning.

Shall we or shan't we?
The wind was cold and despite the promised blue skies the temperature was only 2 degrees.
But yes, we decided to get out and enjoy a walk at Wakehurst Place.

We are very lucky to have a number of National Trust properties close at hand and as members, we should take full advantage of these places.

Today's blog is in 2 parts.


We were greeted by a carpet of cyclamen under the trees.
Snowdrops were up and in bud too.

The bird feeding station at Wakehurst Place.
There was no food out for the birds, but this is the place to see many small birds.
We stayed for quite a while.
The pictures are all taken by Bill

It has felt very cold - though not a minus temperature. The wind cuts like a knife and at times there has been very powdery fine snow falling.
The birds are not as eager to get out and take advantage of the food we provide at the moment; but the squirrel seems to think we are caring for him.
He climbs Solly's tree and then hangs upside down (often hanging on with just one foot) to extricate peanuts from the holder.

We all know that grey squirrels are pests - but let's be honest they are very entertaining pests.

Bill's attempts at pictures through 2 layers of glass were not all successful, so we have none of the acrobatic squirrel.


Here is with a peanut in his hands.


He would have liked a drink, but didn't seem to want to get his feet wet.

The day has been routine.
Posting parcels and a quick shopping trip to Asda for items not sold in Lidl.
I replied to a silly customer who wrote and complained that a wheel of his model plane that he had bought was missing. If he had read the item description he would have known that it was being sold with a wheel missing, and that an extra picture had been added to show where the missing nose wheel would have been.
So his unhappiness is not out fault.

I have done a Pilgrim's Antiques blog today - the first for months. So, if you would like a tour round, then please take a look.
http://pilgrimsantiquesweststreetdorking.blogspot.com/

This evening we were by the side of a track, watches in hand.
This was an indoor meeting of course.
Though outdoor athletics continues all through the winter in the form of cross country running.
There were slightly fewer athletes in the sprints tube than at the meeting two weeks ago.

I will end by reminding my family, who have been enjoying the family postcards emails that my brother has been sharing with us, that tomorrow is Ethel and Obed's wedding anniversary - my grandparents.
You will have seen Obed's loving postcard to Ethel in 1908 - it was 8 years later that they married; and in January 1916 I think Obed wondered if he would survive long enough to see his bride again.

I saw Dr Oliver this morning.
We have had to accept that vitamin D injections are now almost impossible to get and so I have been prescribed tablets.
Now, even the tablets are not generally stocked in the pharmacies and I was told that I would be waiting a week before my supplies come in.
Dr O even wondered if the pharmacy would be able to get any at all!
"But not to worry" he said" I could always go and buy them in Holland and Barratt (or presumably any such supplier) and they don't cost very much.
He wondered why there couldn't be arrangements to take prescriptions to the alternative medicines suppliers.
And anyway, why can't my pharmacy get the tablets from H&B for me?
The important thing is that my vitamin D levels are increased.
This is more important than calcium supplements because vitamin D increases calcium levels......what we really need is a very long sunny summer; then everybody would increase their vitamin D.
We already know about the H & B tablets, because Bill is taking them.
I read out the symptoms of deficiency and he felt he had a fair number of them and wanted the tablets.
Dr O says that most people at this time of year are lacking in vitamin D.

One of the symptoms is tiredness and lack of oomph!
I certainly have that.
Today we have pottered.
Bill has been preparing some interesting large glass slides to sell on EBay.
I added 6 more items to the things for sale and sold 4 more things.
I also caught up with our accounts for our buying and selling.
I hadn't done December and so I did 2 months worth today.
The accounts are for my interest, but could be of benefit if a taxman should ever ask to know about them.
The accounts show that we make profit - doing quite nicely during this financial year. Certainly we have enough for holidays.
But what the accounts do not show is how the car, the phone, the computer and other things are a necessary part of any profit making.
To me me buying and selling is a hobby and the car, phone, computer are just part of our normal life.
But an accountant could sort that out for me if need be.

I have also sorted out some photos for the first shop blog of the year.
I am pleased with the little tour around the shop and will get it published tomorrow.

Tuesday.
Got up late. That was good.
We did some shopping in Lidl - such bargains, but we always spend more than we intend. Well, if something is on special offer, then might as well buy three, although we didn't need any this week at all.
Home to play boggle against the world and my brother.
Frustrating!
I didn't seem to be doing as well as I would like - and then the very game after brother had to leave to return to a Wiltshire classroom, I was on the top of the leader board.
I couldn't show off then - so I take this opportunity now!
This afternoon we spent some time doing something I nver thought I would do.
We have sent for some net curtains for the entrance hall/Bill's office window.
I know we had a French cotton curtain there (with a picture of a garden and a cat) - and of course we still have it.
It is in need of some attention.
But somehow French cotton doesn't seem like "nets" as beloved by so many.
One day, when we splash out and enjoy another day trip to France we'll have to see if we can find something else like it.
For the time being there will be butterflies at the window.
I have spent some time de-cluttering. No, not the bedroom cupboards.
I have been through all my facebook apps and things....hark at me, referring to my apps!
Many things I have looked at are not needed - and probably were never worth looking at.
The crayfish salad (cheap from M&S) was superb. There is some left over for my lunch tomorrow.
Now I will put the kettle on and watch the programme about a tribe - not from the deepest Amazon, but from amongst us all in the UK.
The gypsy culture is fascinating and their codes of honour amongst themselves are solid and loving.
I don't know where all the money comes from - but the clothes they wear for special occasions can look so over the top as to be ridiculous and cost a fortune.

My French poodle has been much admired by a couple of other dealers - Monika wanted it, of course!
He is sitting by a 1950's black and white dinner plate which has Parisienne life on it - including a poodle on a lead, walking the boulevards.
But he has not been sold today.
In fact, woe is me, I sold nothing of mine today.
But once again the week has been pretty good.

Nobody, except Monika, sold very much today.
There were quite a lot of people through the door and the atmosphere was good.
I took some pictures which will be the basis of a re-start of a Pilgrims Antiques blog.

This afternoon I enjoyed a walk to the post office; then, as last week I popped into Marks to see what was being reduced in price.
Thus tomorrow we will have luscious looking salads with crayfish and watercress etc which will be enjoyed with a jacket potato.
I had eaten my rice at lunchtime, but still felt peckish - probably because it felt cold.
I called in at Julian Graves and bought some bags of rice crackers and tasty rice and seaweed crackers - for pennies. One big bag was 30p - end of line stock it said.

This week we really did appreciate that it was not night time dark as we drove home. We could make out the branches of the winter trees across the fields.

The north wind doth blow - but there are signs of spring. How lovely to see a flowering snowdrop on Roger's website yesterday.

Sunday morning lie in!
Now that doesn't happen very often.
We decided yesterday evening that we would give car boot sales a miss today. It is so cold - the plus temperature doesn't feel very accurate, because the wind feels so sharp.
We were down to breakfast by just after 10 o'clock.
I then managed to write up all yesterday's purchases and much of it is ready to take to the shop tomorrow.

We had a small early lunch, before leaving to take up our duties at the sportshall athletics league, held in Horsham.
On this occasion there were enough timekeepers - but at the next meeting Bill and I could be operating on our own; though I am sure we could ask one or two others to join us.
The atmosphere at these meetings is great - lots of noise!