Daily Prompt: Standstill

Posted in Challenges by angloswiss

For a moment today, time stands still — but you can tweak one thing while it’s stopped. What do you do?

Photographers, artists, poets: show us STILLNESS.

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Today of all days, time stands still so I can tweak it a bit. Yes please, definitely, if only.

I was planning this morning whilst the remainder of my golden oldie sleep was hanging around, how to organise this wonderful day.

First of all I had a bathroom to clean. Not just the bath, but the whole inchilada. You know tiles, mirrors, doors, sinks and eventually the floor. No problem, just a matter of organisation and being fit. I am not so fit, but with my modern cleaning methods, I somehow conquer the work overload. I am not a cleaning freak, but have noticed that if you do something regularly, then you do not have to do it so intensively. After an hour it was done, in time for a fifteen minute recuperation in a horizontal position on the bed.

I then prepared lunch and after lunch had a golden oldie break, setting the alarm for a one hour sleep. I had to go to Tai Chi this afternoon. I took it all in the course of my day to day work routine.

Today is my father’s birthday, not just a birthday, today he is 98 years olds so part of my planned day was to call him with congratulations. He is at home in London and I am in Switzerland, so unfortunately I could not just call and give him a present and a happy birthday hug. We do it all by Skype telephone. I called him and after waiting a minute until he picked up the telephone, we did our congratulations. He can no longer move as fast as he used to. Sometimes I wish he would use his hearing aid when talking on the phone, but he says it does not work so well on the phone. The result is that I have a shouting match at my end and repeat everything at least three times until he hears me. He is as sharp as a pin, so there is no problem with the understanding. Up to now time could continue without a tweak.

The catastrophe occurred when I arrived home before I called my dad. No, not today, please not, but it was. Now I was ready for the time standing still to let me fit it all in. Today is our bi-annual rubbish collection day. Not the normal rubbish, but everything you have wanted to throw out for some time. The big stuff, bulky stuff, like furniture, carpets and garden rubbish and I had plans to make room and do it. How was I to clear it all out in the space of an hour, planning to call dad and of course fitting in a daily prompt somewhere? This would have been the opportunity, the saving tweak for my day. Stop the time and let me fit in an hour to shift it all outside. The photo shows our clearing out day about two years ago. It is not all my rubbish, some of it belongs to the neighbours, but a good part is was mine.

If I could have tweaked an extra hour, I would have done it. However, with my gift of multi-tasking, logistic planning and knowing what to grab, I grabbed, piled it on the trolley and wiping the sweat from my brow in between, managed to shift it all outside. There were two used cat litter trays, no longer needed, three plastic water cans from the garden, and innumerable earthenware flower pots that I have not used for at least five years and will never need again. I now have an empty shelf in my garden cupboard and in my washing room – oh joy.

After three or four journeys with the trolley to and fro it was done: If only today had twenty-five hours. We still have a carpet, a nice Afghan one, that we no longer need, but we decided to keep it; you never know. We can always throw it out in spring when we have the next collection. Generally on this day most of the rubbish disappears before the rubbish men arrive. You see some foreign immigrants driving around in trucks and taking what they can use – who cares? Gone is gone. Sometimes one of the wives will sit on a discarded sofa, chair, or cupboard until her husband arrives with the van to take it away: to make sure that no-one else takes it. There have even been fights over various articles.

As I could not tweak in real life, only in WordPress life, I had to fit this extra hour of work in somewhere between a Tai Chi Lesson and a call to my dad, but I did it. It is now approaching tea time. I am sitting on the patio typing this epic work of hit suspicious blog. I will now quickly do a spelling check, a save under and a cross posting to my Facebook and Blogger site and I have proven that it is possible to fit an extra hour into a day. And now I will have a relaxing golden oldie thirty minutes – hope I do not fall asleep and miss anything.

Daily Prompt: Standstill

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19 thoughts on “Daily Prompt: Standstill”

snoogiefisk

24/09/2013 at 18:08

My husband loves it when our city does this. He is one of the people running around trying to find furniture to salvage that is made of solid wood. He’s a nut for antiques and the unusual. Much of my furniture is built from old doors and things he has found. I will have to do a post about that someday. We used to collect antiques but I have sold most of them preferring to keep the his handmade creations.

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- angloswiss
  
  24/09/2013 at 20:14
  
  I don’t think he would find any antiques in Switzerland. That is the stuff that the people keep.
  
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Margaret Springett

24/09/2013 at 18:50

Happy birthday to your father. I like your blogs especially about your cats. I am allergic to fur ( my husband was pleased he didn’t have to buy me a mink in the days when they were OK) so I can enjoy hearing about your cats without suffering.

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- angloswiss
  
  24/09/2013 at 20:16
  
  My Selkirk Rex cat, Fluffy, sheds fur most of the time. I think I could make a coat myself from the fur laying around.
  
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Pat(ricia)

24/09/2013 at 19:15

One person’s trash is another’s treasure!

As you’ve said … gone is gone. And it feels good to clear space in one’s life to open things up.
Glad that you managed to fit it all in … including the birthday call to your father – 98! Wow … this is a cause for celebration.
Cheers 🙂

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- angloswiss
  
  24/09/2013 at 20:17
  
  I try to live as if I would move once a month, but it still piles up somewhere. I did a double check today, but Mr. Swiss found that the stuff we are keeping might come in handy one day. 🙂
  
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  - Pat(ricia)
    
    25/09/2013 at 00:12
    
    Lol …. sometimes I think our *stuff/junk* sits in a dark corner and somehow multiplies because there always seems to be more than we thought or remembered!
    
    Well at least you made the effort … so it’s good. 🙂
    
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Olga Brajnović

24/09/2013 at 23:02

What a day! You are a really busy woman! Happy birthday to your father. What a treasure you have.

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empressnasigoreng

25/09/2013 at 01:52

We have to book in for those rubbish collections where I live. So thanks for the prompt! 🙂

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weliveinaflat

25/09/2013 at 07:48

That all sounds very energetic and admirable really 😀

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