Daily Archives: 13/08/2017

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: August 13, 2017

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Schaffhausen 06.08 (155)

If I take a train ride then the camera comes as well and if I am on a train I love to take photos of the graffiti that are sprayed on the walls by the railway lines. This was the Zürich-Schaffhausen rail connection.

Schaffhausen 06.08 (123)

This caught my eye on the road in Schaffhausen. Where was the rest of the fish – who knows. I think it was just a clever design.

Schaffhausen 06.08 (115)

And this building was in the middle of a field. I do not have a clue what it is, some sort of weather station perhaps, but it breaks up the monotony.

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge: August 13, 2017

Daily Prompt: Jiffy, not really

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Dad, me and Ada washing up in Oxlow Lane

London 1991 in the kitchen at my dad’s ladyfriends’s place washing up after dinner. These were the days when jiffies were not done because either you couldn’t afford it or it was not fashion. I already had my dishwasher in my own home, but here I was on holiday with the family visiting dad in London, and dish washers were unwelcome. They used too much electricity.  You did not do the washing up in a jiffy, washing up was a ceremony. As you can see in the photo a younger me almost 30 years ago, was just in it for the photo. I probably asked “can I help”, but it seems my help was not necessary. Dad always helped his women folk with the washing up. He would always be in the kitchen with mum after eating, and so it was with Ada, his lady friend. Dad passed away last year at the age of 100 years and 7 months, and Ada about 8 years before, at the age of 92 years, so washing up manually must have kept them healthy.

Dad once won a dishwasher in a competition. It was a quiz with general knowledge questions, but the questions were no so general and you really needed a library to solve the questions. My best friend from my school days was a librarian with college degree and all the trmmings, so together they managed to crack the nut, with the exception of one question, but they won. The guy that got the second prize also cracked them all with the exception of two. The competition was in the newspaper  where dad worked, Fords car company in Dagenham. The reporter from the newspaper paid him a visit with a photographer and his photo was shown in the newspaper as being the winner. He had a drying up cloth in his hand, and the heading under the photo was something in the style of this being the last time he would have to dry the dishes by hand.

OK these machines were not working class east end London, and so he sold the machine and continued to do dry the dishes by hand whilst mum washed them by hand: no jiffies in our home. Of course my friend got her share of the profits as well. She also now has a real electric dishwasher in the meanwhile.

I remember our Christmas parties at my aunts house, where the whole family was assembled. After the Christmas tea the men would disappear somewhere for a smoke and the women were left in the kitchen (also smoking) but they would do the washing up together. My mum and two aunts would get down to the work. although there were enough people to do it in a jiffy, there was some conversation to catch up on and there again the jiffy disappeared.

Today Mr. Swiss always warns me not to rush. He means it well, but my movabilitiy is not longer what it was and rushing is no longer a physical possibilitiy. I have a dish washer in any case, and a washing machine, and yes times have changed. Shame my legs are no longer moving in a jiffy, but I get there eventually. To be quite honest Mr. Swiss is the expert with the washing machine. He is the operator in the evening and I have almost forgotten how the machine works.

So another WordPress Daily prompt hits the road – in a jiffy.

Daily Prompt: Jiffy, not really

Good Morning

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Orchid
There are events that make you feel good, the good news of the day and I had one yesterday morning when Mr. Swiss returned from his Saturday quest at the supermarket. He arrived home with an orchid. This was not just an orchid in a special offer, but an real genuine natural orchid with all the trimmings. He had even had it nicely packed and I found the packing almost as good as the orchid (not quite of course) so I took a few photos with the cellophane wrapping and the trimmings before it was unpacked. Mr. Swiss said it was for me, what did I do to deserve this. It was not my birthday or name day but you need something special now and again and this was special. Of course I unpacked it eventually.

Orchid A 12.08.2017

I had to take a close up of this orchid wonder and discovered it looked just as good without the cellophane.

Then the sun came out, so what could be better. I was even hobbling around in my appartment without support from my walking cane, so things were looking good, although I decided to stay at home and make the most of it. We do not want to push our luck, but if things continue I might even chance a walk with the camera today. What could be better, no rain and a sky this morning that looks like the sun might arrive and stay.

Clouds

A couple of weeks ago I sat down and my knee made a cracking sound. This has nothing to do with my MS basically, because MS does not make cracking sounds and you do not get an escrutiating pain afterwards. This, of course, happened on Saturday as most accidents do, when the doctors are closed and the alternative is the ER at the hospital. I decided no ER, I had better things to do. My experience of broken bones (and I have broken a few) was that nothing was swollen, my knee just felt as if it was not attached to my leg. I got through the day realising that I was out of action. The next day was not a great improvement, but I could walk, taking care not to put pressure on my left leg. I noticed that I could sleep quite well and had no pain in the night, but I was reminded of this small accident  for a long while. Go to the doctor: not really. She is not a specialist for strange feelings of the knee. She would send me to the hospital, I would have to go into one of their tubal machines for further examinations which takes time and too much inconvenience. I also had an appointment to visit my son at the week-end and nothing was going to get in my way, especially as will become a grandmother some time in September. So what did I do? Nothing, I carried on regardless.

I have now noticed that day be day my knee is feeling better. I had to resist taking walks with my camera, but today I will do it again. I still have a weak knee, but not as weak as it was, and it can only get better. It is not even swollen. So rant over, I am almost back in action.

Week-ends are always good because the building community stay at home and leave us in peace. I can even use the scaffolding for my plants on the patio to give them some air and light.

Flowers on the scaffolding

I have manage another 50 pages of “Game of Thrones” but it is not getting better. Some dead men were found in the forest. They looked dead but their injuries were something completely different. They carried the dead back to “The Wall” and some time during the night they began to walk around, they were zombies. I also had a look at a few YouTube films on the book which confirmed my suspicions that the whole thing is completely overrated.

In the meanwhile Mr. Trump (I just cannot call this freak president) broke up his golfing holiday for a day to make some sort of speech. I hope he remembers to break it up if someone does happen to drop a nuke somewhere.

See you all later, have a nice Sunday.