Lost in Hampden Park

So....several times on the way to the co-op in Hampden Park I looked down a side road and could see a building with an odd looking roof and wondered what it was.

Curiosity got the better of me this day on the way home from my trip out to grocery shop and I turned down the left turning to see what this building was about. Turned out it was the building that houses (for anyone interested)

Gateway Christian Church

Getting back to my story.

I reached the building (and realising there was nothing there to write home about) was feeling a bit clever so instead of walking back the way I came I decided to walk round to the side of the building. In my head I was thinking that if I did that and carried on walking for long enough I would eventually end up in my street or somewhere nearby.

Wasn't going to happen...lol Instead I found myself on a long road that I didn't recognise which consisted of lots of turn offs to cul de sacs which had no obvious escape routes. As I walked I got more and more scared. I was totally lost in a place I had ended up in for the first time.

Questions at the time were;

Where the heck am I?

How come I don't recognise anything that looks like home?

Why didn't I bring my bottle of water?

Who will perform CPR within 4 minutes if I have another cardiac arrest when there isn't a soul around?

I sent a text to my man telling him I was lost and he texted back with

"OK"

I was getting hotter and hotter and really panicking by then...then I had a brainwave as a bus overtook me. I reasoned that the bus route would take me to familiar surroundings so decided to follow the bus route, noting how close to home I was getting by the destination notices on each bus stop.

I could totally identify with Brian Tracy's Sahara Desert experience.

Brian Tracy Reference here

After several bus stops and a sit down under cover, I looked about and could see the flats near our home in the distance. Finally, I came off the long road I was on and took a right turn into the road that leads to our road. I arrived home very hot and tired but in one piece.

My man has related his side of the story to me and his family and it turns out that his one word message was sent in panic mode. He said that he was thinking of getting his mobility scooter out so he could come and find me. I am ashamed to say I laughed at his gesture. I had a picture in my mind of him travelling in circles and not catching up with me because the battery went flat then a crane having to bring the scooter home with him still sat on it.

I haven't got lost in Hampden Park since....but I still have time to get lost some place else.

In Reflective mode

This one of my favourite drawings. My sister drew this from a photograph of me from the 60's. I don't recall this pose but the photo was taken in Southsea before my family moved back to Gosport when I was 6 so I must have been very small when this was taken.

I have the original drawing here at home where it is still waiting to be framed and properly shown off.

In the post this week

The jammy case was for me...lol

This also arrived this week...I can see a pattern forming

Today in the post was a note from Royal Mail telling me they wanted me to pay them £3 because someone sent me something and didn't pay the right postage. I have no idea who this is as I have checked my eBay, Amazon and Play accounts and all of my orders have arrived.

Progress report

I have made several grocery shopping trips on foot since I last posted but don't feel I want to walk as far as Morrisons yet.

I will write up the story of how I got lost in Hampden park when I blog again as it really could do with it's own post.

Yesterday I went totally over the top and actually tackled dusting and hoovering the living room as well as stripping the bed and doing a ton of washing. Needless to say, I felt like a wrung out deck cloth today so will put off shopping again till Sunday or Monday.

Watch this space!

Music For The Faint Hearted

This playlist has been suggested for anyone who has heart problems to play during physio sessions...lol

Taking it Easy

Finally cottoned on that I really could do better at the 'taking it easy' thing.

It's been more than two months since my sudden cardiac arrest...will be 10 weeks in a couple of days.

I am now able to walk using a walker (actually a granny shopper but it does the same thing) to the local Co-op and back. On the odd occasion I wibbly wobble my way to the postbox using one of those walking sticks with the tripod thing going on.

Still feeling feeble...totally randomly and have to suddenly excuse myself from conversations to have a lie down.

The most frustrating part of this whole thing is the memory issues that are not at all consistent. Oh...and people telling me how much better I look when inside I am feeling like shite.

Fancy burgers tonight for dinner...just mustering up the energy. I love cooking as it is something I can still do if it is simple cooking, but the task takes up so much of my energy I rarely feel well enough afterwards to eat...so I am snacking whenever...and sleeping when my body tells me to......

Thought that shopping at the Co-op would be helpful today only I have got spoilt by having internet shopping as an option. When I got back from shopping locally I still ended up buying a ton of groceries from a larger supermarket and will probably need to get out and shop again later this week.

Clothes shopping today...bought trouser bottoms from Amazon and leggings from Bon Marche without having to catch a bus into town..lol

Life in the fast lane...who needs it?

Summer Is On The Way

The signs of summer in England have finally arrived....thunderstorms and when the sun actually shows for a while, the sound of electric lawn mowers followed closely by the smell of freshly mown grass. 

Beltane Morris Dancers

Learn To Morris Dance

My next walking out goal is to get out for some grocery shopping. I have been doing all my grocery shopping on-line for more than a year so it's a bit of a challenge for me, but doable.

Well...I never knew this :)

It seems the suffix 'ize' isn't an Americanism so I will be using it more often now.

"Oxford spelling can be recognized by its use of the suffix ‑ize instead of -ise: organization, privatize and recognizable instead of organisation, privatise andrecognisable. The spelling affects about 200 verbs, and is favoured on etymological grounds, in that -ize corresponds more closely to the Greek root, -izo, of most -ize verbs.^[3] The suffix -ize has been in use in the UK since the 15th century,^[7] and is the spelling variation used in American English. The belief that -ize is an exclusively American variant is incorrect.^[7] The OED lists the -ise form of words separately, as "a frequent spelling of -IZE...":

This practice probably began first in French; in modern French the suffix has become -iser, alike in words from Greek, as baptiser, évangéliser, organiser, and those formed after them from Latin, as civiliser, cicatriser, humaniser.
Hence, some have used the spelling -ise in English, as in French, for all these words, and some prefer -ise in words formed in French or English from Latin elements, retaining -ize for those formed from Greek elements.
But the suffix itself, whatever the element to which it is added, is in its origin the Greek -ιζειν, Latin -izāre; and, as the pronunciation is also with z, there is no reason why in English the special French spelling should be followed, in opposition to that which is at once etymological and phonetic. In this Dictionary the termination is uniformly written -ize. (In the Greek -ιζ-, the i was short, so originally in Latin, but the double consonant z (= dz, ts) made the syllable long; when the z became a simple consonant, /-idz/ became īz, whence English /-aɪz/.)

The use of -ize instead of -ise does not affect the spelling of words that are not traced to the Greek -izo suffix. One group of such words is those that end in -yse, such as analyse, paralyse and catalyse, which come from the Greek verb λύω, lyo. Others include arise, chastise, disguise, prise (in the sense of open), andtelevise"

Homesick Blues

I left Gosport (my home town) in January 2014 to re-locate to Eastbourne to be with Billy, the love of my life. Here he is....caught out doing the hoovering.

Although I love my new life, I get homesick once in a while for the seaside at Stokes Bay and the liveliness that was Gosport town centre where I had lived since October 2000.

I am hoping to get to Gosport some time but when that will be depends on the progress I make. I actually managed to walk to the postbox this week which was a round trip of about 200 yards which is the furthest I have walked in at least a year.

My next goal is to walk to the local Co-op for some apple slices, a loaf of their farmhouse bread, some crusty rolls for lunch and a tub of their luxury ice-cream.