Versatile Blogger Award

Isn’t it nice to feel appreciated, especially by fellow bloggers; there is something truly wonderful about a community that gets together to share their ups and downs and show love for each other! I don’t know about you but I feel blessed to belong to a group that hands out awards to motivate and inspire its members. For this particular award I have to give a huge thank you to Sadje who is unfailingly kind and has a super blog full of all kinds of interesting stuff. If you don’t know her please pop over and say hello I know that she’d love to see you.

These are the rules:

The Rules

1. If you are nominated, Congratulations you have been awarded the Versatile blogger award!

2. Thank the person who gave you the award and includes a link to their blog.

3. Select 10 -15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly.

4. Nominate those bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award.

5. Tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

OK, 7 things about myself…..hhmmmmm…..right, here goes:

1. I have very little interest in food; I watch what I eat so that I can work out and make sure my clothes don’t get to tight but I do love hot chicken sandwiches, preferably in french bread, with gravy.

2. I like animals far more than people as, on the whole and with some notable exceptions, they are much, much nicer.

3. I often have blonde moments. Yesterday, for example, it took me four attempts to put my pants on the right way round and not inside out.

4. My favourite TV show is Boston Legal as it’s funny, intelligent and combines two great interests of mine – the law and James Spader

5. I am fascinated by what makes people tick so I love reading psychological thrillers

6. I have no sense of direction whatsoever and managed to get lost in a service station in Italy. I entered through one door and managed to exit through an other; I thought that my friends had driven off and left me.

7. I am a huge believer in alternative medicine and the power that the mind has over the body; I would far rather that my acupuncturist stick a hundred needles in me than go to the doctor and take pills.

As for rule 4, I am afraid I am going to ignore it. I think that everyone on here deserves an award be it for their openness, creativity, humour, kindness or friendliness so I hereby nominate all of you. With that in mind, can you please all share something about yourselves as I would really love to know more about you :O)

Lisa x

Sunshine Blogger Award

What a nice surprise for a Sunday morning; the lovely Rory has gifted me the Sunshine Bloggers Award! If you don’t know Rory, do pop over and say hello, he is so much fun and a really great guy – I just know that you’ll get along :O)  So, what’s this all about?

The Sunshine Blogger Award is an award for bloggers who are creative, positive, and inspiring – people who spread “sunshine” to the blogging world!

How nice is that!? We all need a little bit of sunshine in our lives and there is so much to be found in the Blogosphere, we can all bask in its rays :O)

Rory has posed some questions and I will attempt to answer them as truthfully as I can without getting in any trouble:

If you could do something a bit naughty every day and not get caught, what would you do?

Definitely speed, no not the drug, driving at speed. Around here the limit is 50kmph (30 mph) unless you’re on the motorway and even then, in places, it’s only 90kmph (55 mph). There’s a good reason for it – the mountain roads are very winding and downright dangerous in places but I do just long to be able to put my foot down without being flashed by a speed camera (which is there for my security apparently and not to make money for the Government).

What are the unwritten rules to blogging?

1. Don’t make it all about you
2. Be nice to other bloggers
3. Don’t forget rules 1 and 2

What kind of cult would you like to start?

I don’t know about starting one but I would have liked to belong to the one started by Osho, mainly because he said things like this:

“Nobody can say anything about you. Whatsoever people say is about themselves. But you become very shaky, because you are still clinging to a false center. That false center depends on others, so you are always looking to what people are saying about you. And you are always following other people, you are always trying to satisfy them. You are always trying to be respectable, you are always trying to decorate your ego. This is suicidal. Rather than being disturbed by what others say, you should start looking inside yourself…

Whenever you are self-conscious you are simply showing that you are not conscious of the self at all. You don’t know who you are. If you had known, then there would have been no problem— then you are not seeking opinions. Then you are not worried what others say about you— it is irrelevant!

When you are self-conscious you are in trouble. When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.”

Is a HotDog a sandwich, a roll or an overheated K9?

Sausage inna bun :O) I’m not sure if it qualifies as a roll or a sandwich – it’s a bit like the debate: ‘Is a jaffa cake a cookie or a cake?’, there are arguments for both sides

What is the most creative, inventive and imaginative insult you can come up with?

None of these are actually mine but I find them to be very satisfying on the rare occasions that I feel the need to insult someone:

“May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits”

“It’s like having a battle of wits with an unarmed man”

And, when I’m really miffed:

“Fuck you and the horse you rode in on”

Right that’s it for my answers, now to come up with some questions:

1. What’s the daftest thing that you’ve ever said?
2. If you knew that you couldn’t fail, what would you try?
3. What’s the worst thing that ever happened to you on a date?
4. Who would you spend your last hour on earth with and why?
5. What’s the funniest scene you’ve ever seen in a movie/series (and please share a video as we all like a good laugh)

I’m going to gift this award to the following bloggers but anyone is more than welcome to answer the questions either in the comments or with their own post:

Darren is one of the first bloggers I followed and still one of my favourites

Billy is the ultimate ‘cup half full’ guy and always has a sunny attitude

Brian has an amazing sense of the ridiculous and his posts always make me chuckle

Have fun guys, I really look forward to reading your answers ;O)

Lisa x

 

 

Fandango’s Provocative Question

“Do you believe that anyone can really experience anything objectively? Why or why not?” This is the question posed by the ever provocative Fandango and it’s a doozy isn’t it? Never one to back away from cerebral challenges I’ve decided to have a go at answering it; obviously my answer will be entirely subjective ;O)

In order to be able to experience something objectively there has to be a separation of emotion and opinion from the event taking place. As human beings we are naturally emotional and naturally opinionated but only insomuch as something affects us directly. Those things that we have no feeling about one way or another can be viewed quite objectively and therefore experienced in that way.

For instance, eating a ham sandwich (an odd example but bear with me). For me, a ham sandwich is nothing more than fuel for my body; I have no feelings about ham one way or the other, it doesn’t excite my taste buds nor displease them, it’s food. Therefore, it incites no emotion in me, I have no opinion about it so, for me, the act of eating a ham sandwich is entirely objective.

I will grant you that’s a pretty small example but I do believe that there will be times when we will experience something far more significant objectively because it is in our interests to do so. Human beings are designed to be sensitive to their surroundings and to others; we can feel the touch of an ant on our skin, we can be driven to anger by the smallest slight, we can be moved to tears by music and laughter by a kitten playing. We juggle our emotions on a daily basis, we develop coping mechanisms, strategies, we manufacture and manipulate and, often, it’s all done so that we are not overwhelmed. However, what happens when we are unexpectedly and violently overwhelmed?

Many victims of severe trauma experience depersonalisation whereby they have ‘out of body’ experiences; they know that something is happening/or has happened but their minds can’t cope with the enormity of the situation. Therefore, they turn off all emotion and view the event as if it was not happening to them so that they are not overwhelmed by their emotion. This, although not a conscious action, would be experiencing something objectively.

Similarly I think that we can experience situations objectively when our primal instincts take over, for instance, if we see a child falling from a building it is our instinct to catch them; we will not think or even feel in the moment it happens, that will come afterwards. Some people will put themselves in huge personal danger, rescuing someone from a burning building for example, which they wouldn’t do if they weren’t acting instinctively. The experience would, I imagine, feel quite unreal at the time and, again, it would only be afterwards that emotions and rational thought would replace objectivity.

All that said, I would hate to live my life eating nothing but ham sandwiches so, although I do believe we can experience things objectively, I am rather glad that, for the most part we don’t. Our emotions, our likes and dislikes, the feelings we attach to things and other people are what makes us who we are. Whilst we may sometimes crave to feel nothing when pain and despair takes over, our experiences are what help us learn and grow and, if we viewed them through dispassionate eyes, life would be very dull indeed.

Lisa x

 

It’s Not Like in the Movies…

Have you ever thought about why we get so much pleasure from watching movies? Or reading books come to that? It’s a question that comes up so often at the start of relationships isn’t it? What’s your favourite movie or your favourite book? Why do they hold such significance for us?

Is it purely escapism? In movies or books we can lose ourselves in another life, one that we’d prefer or one we’re glad we don’t have. Maybe it’s a way to better define our own realities? We see characters develop and watch the paths that they follow; does that give us a way to better forge our own paths – learning from their successes or mistakes?

Do we learn more about life from reality or from films and literature and are we ruined by what we see or read? Great love stories can leave us feeling inadequate because our own relationships don’t live up to the passionate maelstroms depicted but can also uplift and inspire us to seek out such a love. Do we feel defeated because we are not the handsome hero or the beautiful heroine or are we encouraged to improve ourselves physically? War films are rarely made without depicting heroism on one side and depravity on the other; does this give us a distorted view of a terrible tragedy or does it promote patriotism?

Do we like movies and books that make us laugh, that take us back to our childhoods in some way? To a time when we believed in magic and other worlds hidden behind a wardrobe door? Does a glimpse into the World of fantasy take us away from the mundane in our own lives? Are we looking for confirmation that good will always really triumph over evil? Do we look to our super-heroes to carry us away to a place where there will always be someone standing by to give us protection when we need it most?

I had all these questions running though my mind this morning so I decided to look up which books and films we love the most according to sales; the list might surprise you:

1. Avatar (Fantasy)
2. Titanic (Love Story)
3. Starwars: The Force Awakens (Fantasy)
4. Avengers: Infinity War (Fantasy/Super Heroes)
5. Jurassic Park (Fantasy)
6. Furious 7 (Action/Adventure)
7. The Avengers (Fantasy/Super heroes)
8. Avengers Age of Ultron (Fantasy/Super Heroes)
9. Black Panther (Fantasy/Super Heroes)
10. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II (Fantasy)

8 of the top 10 grossing films of all time are stories that take us completely away from reality and into another world. Is that what we are looking for?

The same can be said of books. There is not much from real life in the top selling books of all time (in the western world); Don Quixote tops the list, followed by a Tale of Two Cities but then we have Lord of the Rings. The Little Prince, Harry Potter , the Hobbit and the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The fantasy stories somehow cross the line between adulthood and childhood, meaning that they can be read and appreciated by both so what’s they key? Why are they so popular to so many people?

I honestly don’t know the answer, what do you think? Why do you read what you read and watch what you watch? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

Lisa x

 

Getting to Know You Challenge

The lovely Sadje who resides over here has tagged me in a challenge which involves answering some probing questions. I presume that my answers have to be honest so this could be a tricky one but I’m not going to back down from a good old fashioned challenge so here goes:

1. Name a moment in your life when you felt you were most courageous.   

I was going to say carrying on living without my husband or moving to the South of France but I never actually felt courageous during those times. I didn’t take my own life when I desperately wanted to because I couldn’t bear to hurt those who love me and I moved to France because I knew I wouldn’t really live again unless I made a big change but I didn’t feel courageous in either case. OK, I’ve had a cup of tea and given it some thought and I think I felt courageous when I walked across burning coals during a Tony Robbins seminar.

2. If you had to choose only one breakfast cereal for the rest of your life, which one would it be?      

I have porridge with almond puree for breakfast every morning so I guess I’d stick with that. Oddly I don’t really like porridge but I work out a lot so I eat it; just as well I don’t have a massive interest in food!

3. When have you felt the most scared? 

The day I found out that my husband’s cancer was terminal

4. If you could sing like any musical artist, who would you choose?

Lara Fabian, her voice is absolutely magnificent. For those of you who don’t know her, here’s a video for you:

 

5. Do you collect anything? 

Do shoes count?

6. If you could live inside a tv show or movie, what would it be? 

Boston Legal without a doubt (yes I still have a crush on Alan Shore)

7. Have you ever had a reoccurring dream? If so, what was it?  

A dream? No. A nightmare? Yes, two in fact. In one I was standing on top of a tiny platform hundreds of feet in the air and in the other I was being strangled. If any of you know how to interpret dreams…..actually no forget it, I don’t want to know.

8. What’s your Zodiac sign?  

Taurus the bull which is pretty much the most boring sign in the Zodiac; apparently we are: dependable, generous, down to earth, patient, independent, stubborn, self-indulgent, lazy, possessive and frugal (which doesn’t make a lot of sense if I am also supposed to be generous). I don’t have a lot of faith in astrology but I am actually all of these things except patient and frugal so perhaps there’s something in it after all.

Right, I’ve thought long and hard about who will be the one person I’d like to tag and therefore know more about and I’ve narrowed it to about 25 so I am going to throw it open to anyone who wants to take part ;O)

Lisa

x

I Have a Question For You..

Yes all of you, if you don’t mind and you’ve got a minute or two spare. You see, I’ve been thinking a lot over the last few days about this World we live in and what a mess its in and from that my thoughts turned to the people in charge (I use this terms loosely) i.e. the politicians. On one side of the pond we have Theresa May, scrabbling to hold on to tail of the tiger that is Brexit and, on the other, we have Donald Trump  who seems to be shooting himself in the foot by refusing to let go of the idea that a $5.6 billion wall will solve all the country’s problems.

My question to you is:

If you were in charge of the US or the UK what would you do differently to Mrs May or Mr Trump?

The thing is, we are all ready to criticise their efforts but could we do a better job in their position? Everyone views politics according to their own agenda; if you’re poor you’ll want higher taxes for the rich, if you’re rich you’ll want lower taxes and there are arguments for both, that’s the real problem. All development in societies requires change and human beings really don’t like change, especially if change is imposed upon them by people they didn’t vote for.

We have two nations that are currently divided down the middle: leavers and remainers in the UK and the left and the right in the US. In each case one group is determined to loathe the other and, worse still, to prove them wrong whatever the cost may be and there will be a cost because one side will have to lose. The really sad thing is that there no longer seems to be anyone in the middle; sitting on the fence, however uncomfortable that may be, doesn’t seem to be an option.

We are emotionally bludgeoned by the media, social and otherwise, to take a position and fight for it regardless of whether the final outcome will have any direct impact on us or not. Things which were once of the slightest political importance are now portrayed as major disasters that will cause the fall of a nation. We no longer view our politicians as leaders who will make sensible decisions for their people but rather as either Gods or Demons. We put them high on a pedestal, demand perfection from them and then dance on their political graves when they prove that they are merely human. Either that or we refuse to listen to their ideas because they are on the ‘wrong’ side; what, in your opinion, can we do to change such rigid perceptions?

To answer my own question: I would not lie to the people who’d put their faith in me.

Theresa May is telling people that she will fight to get out of Brexit but it’s fairly obvious that her heart really isn’t in it. Wouldn’t it be better just to say ‘OK guys we’ve made a complete pig’s ear of all this so we’re going to give it another year or so to try and put things right rather than creating a huge mess that’s going to take forever to properly sort out’. Of course, she won’t say that because the whole nation would be up in arms……but wait, isn’t that what’s happening now?

As for Donald Trump, his ‘spin’ (a political word for lying) is legendary but I wonder if his popularity would be greater if he just came out and said ‘Yes you’re right, the Mexicans never agreed to pay for the wall so you will have to foot the bill whether you like it or not because I’m President’. He’s arrogant enough to do just that but without admitting that he lied and if he can lie about that, what else will he lie about?

The way I see it, 50% of Theresa May should be grafted onto Donald Trump and vice versa. May is an apologist who will try to appease the masses while simultaneously dragging everyone into a politically correct World where hurting someone’s feelings can be deemed a ‘hate crime’ thereby stifling free speech and causing unnecessary, frustrated anger. Trump will do whatever it takes to create an America that is, in his view, great, not caring that he is often viewed as a racist, misogynistic, bigoted bully and someone to whom political correctness is just something that happens to other people.

People are not stupid, they can cope with being told the truth. What they cannot cope with is fear and change and, thanks to mass hysteria on the likes of Twitter and ‘left’ and ‘right’ news networks that is what people are having to deal with constantly.

So, what would you do? What do you think should happen to bring the people of these two nations back together and stop the divide which is such an enormous threat to them both? Please let me know, I’d love to hear from you.

Lisa x

Fandango’s Provocative Question

There are some questions that are rarely asked because the emotions that they stir up can be almost unbearable and because they cannot help but completely divide opinion. That said, these are often the questions that should be asked because they provoke discussion and, however unpalatable these discussions may be they are necessary if the human race is to continue to move forward. For that reason, I’ve decided to try and answer the incredibly provocative question posed by the fearless Fandango.

Do you believe that terminally ill people should be allowed or encouraged to end their lives via physician-assisted suicide? If so, under any circumstances or should there be restrictions? If not, why not?

My first response to this is to ask another question: If your family pet was dying, visibly suffering and the vet had told you there was nothing they could do what would your reaction be? You knew that, if you did not take action, your beloved cat or dog would face the rest of its life in pain and anguish…what would you do? For most of us, although it may break our hearts we would ask the vet to put the animal to sleep, to end its suffering. How is it then that we do not afford the same kindness to our fellow humans?

Almost 5 years ago, I watched my husband die from esophageal cancer which was complicated by secondary cancer in his liver. I watched him suffer when the doctors put cameras down his throat, he was sedated but told me that the process was agony. I was with him on the day that they decided to operate on his esophagus, a major and frightening procedure. They opened him up and then found the secondary cancer so they woke him up from the anesthetic and, while he was still groggy, told him that the operation would not go ahead and that there was nothing more they could do for him. That was his death sentence, it was delivered with little compassion and it broke my husband’s heart because he knew that he would be leaving this World and everyone in it that he loved. Worse than this, he knew that he would die in considerable pain.

I fought to find him a place in a hospice because I couldn’t bear the treatment that he received in hospital. I don’t want to go into detail because I don’t want to relive the memories but no-one deserves the mental and emotional cruelty that he suffered in the name of ‘treatment’.

Cancer is the most awful disease. It is cruel. It robs people of their dignity, it strips the flesh from their bones and leaves them as shadows of their former selves, in pain, connected to machines, drips, tubes all designed to keep them in their suffering for as long as possible. For what? For who?

A few months before his death I was asked to sign a ‘do not resuscitate order’ and, although I couldn’t bear the thought of saying goodbye to the only man I’d ever loved, I didn’t hesitate because watching someone you love slowly taken apart by this terrible disease is far worse than letting them go. What is it they say about if you really love someone you’ll let them go….?

One of the things that I will always feel guilty about is not spending 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with my love before he died. In films or on the TV it’s always like that isn’t it? The relative sleeping in a chair beside their loved one’s bed, holding their hand, not leaving, eating or even changing their clothes but real life isn’t like that or at least it wasn’t for me. I couldn’t or wouldn’t accept that my husband was going to die. Of course, I knew on an intellectual level but I wouldn’t believe it because the thought was too awful to bear. So I visited every single day, for hours at a time, but I also carried on with my life because, in my head, that which I knew to be inevitable could never happen.

This went on for several months, my husband suffered, I suffered, his family and mine suffered, it was prolonged, torturous and unnecessary. If my love had been given the option to end his life with a morphine overdose I believe he would have taken it just to put an end to, what had become, a miserable existence; it could really be called a life any longer. If he had made that choice I like to think that I would have supported him in his decision because it was his to make.

When I spoke to one of the hospice nurses after my love had left this World she said that his death had been ‘difficult’, basically, he had suffered. The really awful part of this was that I was not there with him, he was alone with a nurse, a very caring woman but not someone who loved him; don’t we all deserve to be with someone we love when we die?

If medically assisted suicide was allowed I could have been there, he could have been surrounded by the people that he loved at a time and place of his choosing and not at 2am, in a hospice with a kind nurse the only person there to hold his hand. I know that people will say that the processed could be abused, the lawmakers fear that assisted suicide could become murder or that people who would otherwise go on to recover, especially from mental illness, will take their own life but it is their own life isn’t it? The human race is happy enough to kill, many places still have the death penalty, we start wars over territory or religion, we maim and murder for pleasure or profit and yet we balk at the idea of allowing someone to take their own life. Why?

The grief that I have suffered and still suffer following the death of my beloved husband would be no different had he died as he did or through medically assisted suicide. The pain would not be lessened but the guilt would have been because I could have been there with him.

We put animals to sleep, when they are suffering, in the name of kindness and compassion, it’s through noble intent. We condemn those who hurt animals or treat them badly because animals like cats and dogs can’t really fight back against the mighty human AND YET we allow our fellow humans to go through far worse in the name of ethics. Why?

To finally answer Fandango’s question: I absolutely believe that people should have the right to end their suffering through assisted suicide if they are terminally ill.

Lisa

x

 

Mystery Blogger Award

Well slap my ass and call me Judy! I have been nominated for another award and this time it comes from the lovely Sadje, a prolific blogger and all round nice gal, do pop over and see her when you have a minute, I know she’ll make you welcome. If you haven’t come across this award before, here’s what you need to know:

“The Mystery Blogger Award is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging, and they do it with so much love and passion.” – Okoto Enigma

There seem to be two sets of rules in play now so I just picked one at random:

Thank whoever gifted you and include a link to their blog✔️

Mention the creator of the award and provide a link as well✔️

Tell your readers 3 things about yourself✔️

Answer the questions from the person who gifted you the Award.✔️

Choose 3 – 5 bloggers that you wish to gift the Award to. X (I can’t tick this one as I’d choose to give it to everyone)

So, onto the important bit: Sadje’s questions, oh no wait hang on a minute, I’ve missed out the three things about me…hhhmmm…….OK, here you go:

1. I have seen ghosts, more than once
2. I thought that McCaulay Caulkin, in Home Alone, was the most irritating kid to ever arrive on the planet
3. I’d really like to be able to wear girly, flowery dresses but I’m much better suited to jeans and t-shirts

Now, I can answer Sadje’s questions….

If you could choose one super power, what would it be and why? ( Funny, If it’s not already apparent)

I’d like a super power that would enable me to track lost socks; the little bastards know I hate them and are forever making a bid for freedom

What stimulates your brain to produce its best, a beverage, a muse or anything else?

A shower normally, I have no idea why but some of my best writing has been formulated whilst trying not to get shampoo in my eyes

If you are alone in the house and a door slams upstairs with sound of running feet, what are you going to do?

I live in an apartment so I don’t have an upstairs but, if I did, I would imagine that I would be incredibly brave and scream like a 5 year old girl.

Seeing your image in the mirror, what is the predominant thought?

Meh!

What sort of movie you have to go and see, even if the ticket is $100? And there will no Netflix or DVD release!

The film version of Boston Legal (I still have a crush on Alan Shore)

There you have it, thanks again Sadje for the nomination and now I guess I’ll have to think of some questions; back in a sec…..

Right, here we go:

You have been invited to a formal dinner party but you only have a choice of two outfits: a wetsuit or a fairy outfit (tutu, pink, you get the picture), which would you choose?

You can spend the day with any film/tv character – who would it be? (yes, I’m still thinking about Alan Shore)

You have won a free holiday to a resort of your choosing, anywhere in the World – where would you go?

You are give the opportunity to erase 1 memory, what would it be?

Given the choice between being locked in a 20 x 20 room alone for 24 hours or with 19 others, what would you pick?

Now this should be the part where I nominate other people but I am not going to; if  you want to answer these questions I would love to read your answers and, as I said, as far as I’m concerned, you all deserve an award :O)

Lisa x

Rory’s Oh No Way, Oh So Way

I don’t know why but I couldn’t resist responding to Rory’s questions, maybe it’s because they’re so bizarre or maybe I just feel like sharing, who knows? Anyhoo, the man of many questions put it out there so here goes:

Oh No Way, Oh So Way – Injured myself whilst trying to impress someone.

I can’t say that I have but I did injure someone else whilst trying to impress them. When I was about 19 I was asked out by a male model (who turned out to be insufferably full of himself) and our first date was, oddly, on a squash court. I’d played a few times before but really wanted to impress him so I gave it my all. He, unfortunately, made the mistake of getting too close behind me and…….well, basically, I knocked him out with my squash racket. He was only out for a couple of seconds but he did not take it well as you can imagine; I don’t think I helped my case by laughing my socks off – opps! Strangely we did go out again but, as I said, his only topic of conversation was himself and I was thoroughly bored after a few hours so I dumped him, no doubt adding insult to injury.

Pretended to be a raccoon and eaten from the trash can.

Possibly when drunk but I have no memory of it…….

Taken part in a fashion show.

If watching one counts then yes

Made money by performing on the street.

Not on the street but I was in a group when I was 18 and we performed (not very well I hasten to add) in a pub; does that count?

Accidentally broken something in someone’s house, but not told them.

Yes. It was a sleeping bag. I was staying with a friend after a late night out and my bed for the night was of the camping variety i.e. canvas strung between two poles and balanced, precariously, on narrow legs which, I am sure, were not designed to bear the weight of anything heavier than a hamster. By some miracle I had managed to get myself into the sleeping bag, arrange myself on the narrow camp bed and sleep (or possibly fall into an alcohol induced coma). However, my drunken fumblings with the zip the night before had ensured that vast swathes of material were trapped between the little teeth. Several minutes of writhing did nothing other than collapse the camp bed and deposit me, face down, on a heap on the floor. I eventually freed myself but the sleeping bag was, sadly, to all intents and purposes, murdered.

Walked for more than six hours.

Yes, often. I like shopping, what can I say?

Stolen from a shop.

Yes. A handful of sweets when I was a kid. It wasn’t worth it; I still feel anxious any time I see a policeman!

Ridden a horse.

Yes. I started riding when I was 5 and I love it, especially jumping and galloping along a beach. Unfortunately, this passion has been the cause of a number of injuries, mostly caused by the horse stopping in front of a jump and me….well, not stopping.

Jumped out of a perfectly stable aircraft.

Nope, I’m too much of a wuss.

Cut my own hair.

Yes and it never ended well. I have also coloured my own hair just about every shade of the rainbow and ginger (after a rather unfortunate experience with some henna)

Performed my own dentistry.

As a kid yes, once a tooth started wobbling that was it, it was going to come out come hell or high water.

Fallen in love at first glance.

Yes. With my husband and I never fell out of love with him

Had a paranormal experience.

Yes. On 3 separate occasions I have seen people who were not actually there – ghosts for want of a better word. The last time was the most disturbing. My husband and I were looking to buy a house in France and we’d gone to see and old farm house with about 100 acres. As soon as I saw the house I had a bad feeling about it and said that I would wait outside whilst my husband and the agent looked around. It was a sunny day but I found myself feeling chilled and distinctly uneasy.

As I looked at the outside of the house, I noticed a movement inside and then a woman of about 30 came running out of the front door and into the garden. She was obviously terrified and kept looking behind her as though she were being chased. She was dressed in a long dress which had a white apron over the top and her was was long but roughly pinned up on the top of her head. In the time that it took me to notice all that she was gone. I had a profound sense that something awful had happened to her and I started to cry. My husband didn’t call me crazy or question what I told him, he just gave me a huge hug; one of the many reasons I loved him….

Anyway that’s it. These were fun questions, I am sure Rory won’t mind if you have a go at answering them yourself ;O)

Lisa x

Life

I know you’re there, I can feel you nudging at me

Like a playful puppy or a rabid wolf, in turns

Roller coaster ride, infinite slowness

Sharp, breathless descent into

Dark tunnels, rapid turns

Onto? What next?

The unanswerable query

Not knowing the unknowable

Bungee jump adrenaline spiked fall

Or drifting on the current of a gentle stream

Fighting, searching for the ultimate question to ask.

Lisa

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