Walking

One of my resolution for my 'new life' is to take exercise a bit more seriously. I have always quite enjoyed walking and when I had my lovely dog, Lucy we both enjoyed it very much. The times in my life when I loved walking and walked for miles were when I had a dog to go with me and when I had a pram to push. Now when I say pram, I don't mean these aerodynamic, lightweight buggy things which require a degree in engineering and origami to unfold them; I mean a proper sturdy pram with a hood and apron and four decent sized wheels, one that would provide a bit of support to the person pushing as well as the baby inside.

However, one can't keep having babies ad infinitum just for the sake of having a pram to push, so eventually I had to graduate to dogs. Paddy (Younger Son's dog really but guess who used to be on walkies duty?) had a mind of his own and after the cuddly puppy stage when he would walk a few yards and then sit in front of me begging to be carried, would generally end up taking me for a walk rather than the other way round. Commands like 'heel', 'slow down' and 'come back you little so and so' meant nothing to him and the idea of passing the time of day with other dogs in a civilised fashion was anathema. No, Paddy was more the canine equivalent of a thug where other dogs were concerned.

In recent years, Lucy became my companion and she too, did not take kindly to sharing the road with other dogs, although she was much more civilised about it than Paddy had been. In addition, Lucy was hard of hearing, a fact which she used to her advantage when she preferred to wander off where the fancy took her. For an old lady with arthritis, she could move surprisingly quickly too. She could spot a cat at 60 paces and chase it at 60 miles an hour.

It's taken me nearly two years since Lucy died to become interested in having another dog and I'm still waiting to hear whether Jake will come to live with us, but if he does, walks will become much more interesting again.

Pension

Final details of my pension arrived on the doormat today. If I'm careful, I should be able to get by without having to do any more supply teaching. Yay!!! So my collection of 'big books' can be donated, all the reams of planning, resources, guidance etc (how many forests have been decimated for all that?) can be recycled and I can reclaim some space on my bookshelves. Felt pens, coloured pencils etc can all be disposed of - no, wait a minute - I can put those to good use - ideal for art therapy.
And the whistle? Alternative uses for that do not immediately spring to mind. Any suggestions?

Monday!

Monday morning - dull, cloudy and...just for a change...raining! I foresee future generations of homo sapiens growing flippers and gills.
However, I am off to do some voluntary counselling for five hours today and, in spite of the weather, I am going to walk. It's all part of the new 'look after me' plan. Now that I am not devoting all those hours to teaching-related activities, I have time to exercise more, so I am planning to walk more, get the bike out when the weather gets better and start swimming again. (No, not on the bike, YP!) The last time I did that on anything like a regular basis was when my children were growing up.
At the back of my mind is the knowledge that teachers are often not candidates for a long retirement. I have known of too many fellow teachers who have retired, only to peg it some months or even weeks later.
Anyway, just in case I might have wondered, even momentarily, about the wisdom of retiring from teaching, a text message from my Teaching Assistant at last term's school, would have reassured me. "OFSTED coming Thursday."
The great escape starts here!

The family line continues

Welcome to Giles' new baby, a son to continue Keith's family line.

Getting away from it all

One reason for my silence over the past few weeks is that Keith and I decided to 'get away from it all' and take ourselves off to France for 10 days over Christmas and New Year. So we booked a little 'gite' in Normandy and off we went. We left on Sunday 23rd, when I was well into a bad cold and feeling rather like death warmed up. Keith, however was fine - until Christmas Eve, when he picked up my germs, ran with them and turned them into man-flu.

Still, we managed to get out and about for most of the holiday, although photos are not very numerous as we were confronted by thick fog every single day for at least part of the day. Sometimes it was in our area and we were able to drive out of it into glorious sunshine, other days we drove into it but probably our best days were our visits to Mont St Michel and a lovely little beach on Brittany's south coast.

Would we do it again? Probably not but it was a change and a chance to chill out for a while and that can't be bad.

Stroke awareness

This came to my inbox today from TK so I decided to put it here. Everyone reading this will know of someone whose quality of life has been severely curtailed as a result of a stroke, so please take the time to read through this information. Who knows, some day it may enable you to help a stroke victim by getting them the medical attention they need in time.

My good friend sent this and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree.
If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks. Seriously.. Please read:
STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .....she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die.... they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this...
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke... totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough. RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the "3" steps, STR . Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke . Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:
S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today)
R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS. If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 999/911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other , that is also an indication of a stroke.

New start

Is it really a month since I last posted? After my last post end of term/Christmas/New Year kicked in and life became even more hectic. But more of that in future posts. Today I am off to do 5 hours of counselling (voluntary). It's raining and blowing a gale here but, hey, I don't have to worry about wet playtimes any more... not till I need to go back to supply teaching for some money, anyway.