This new portrait of King Charles has prompted many discussions (and arguments) on Facebook. I find that fascinating. I talk about the interpretation of colour in dreams, in my book Working the Night Shift and what I say in there is just as true in real life as it is in dreams.

It's interesting how the colour red suggests different things to different people. Is red angry, passionate, energetic? Or is it violent as in blood that's been shed? Or it may be the possibility of new life as in menstruation. There are so many interpretations and all are dependent on our own projections and our view of the world. What about you? How do you feel about the colour of this portrait?

 To Exercise or not to Exercise? That is the Question.

After enduring two months of gym twice a week, yoga twice a week and Pilates twice a week, I’m just about done with it all. To be honest, it was torture. Forcing my body into all those unnatural positions has taken its toll. Downward dog has knackered my wrists, sit ups from lying position has knackered my back, my knees are groaning under the weight of the cat and the gym has reduced my inner thighs to quivering wrecks.

The only upside of my short membership was a visit to the steam room once a week. It gave me a chance to ease my aching limbs and do mindful, silent meditation as if I was back in the womb. What a treat that was! Sadly though, there was usually a pack of men partaking of the pleasure of the steam. What is it about men in a steam room? It's like being at a buffalo watering hole with all the grunting and snorting, puffing and panting. Why do men do that? 

So, anyway, I’m thinking of ditching the gym and the classes and going back to my regular, brisk walks over the Saddleworth hills. I was a lot fitter, and a lot happier, when I was doing that. Working up a sweat with a roomful of other sweaty, panting people is probably not for me.

 

Knowing; I Wish We Did.

The past twelve hours have brought it home to me how the human race is fast approaching the bottomless pit, if not already there. Are we all asleep? Blindfolded? Or do we secretly want it all to end? I watched the movie ‘Knowing’ last night. That’s the one starring Nicolas Cage. A prophecy about the end of the world comes true because of a solar flare blowing away all the ozone that protects us from the searing heat of the sun. Not sure if it was that, but I had a very bad night’s sleep.

This morning, I switched on the TV BBC News channel 231 only to be met with more of the same. It’s Holocaust Memorial Day. Mention was made of all the other countries that have been subjected to the same genocidal horrors over the years, with one man aggressively bemoaning the current rise in anti-semetism in the UK.  Why didn’t the interviewer ask him the reason for that. Sadly, she didn’t and absolutely no mention was made of Gaza.

That news item was followed by the scandalous spread of AI-generated sexually explicit photos of Taylor Swift. It’s so easy to produce and upload such damaging images, that it’s only going to get worse because there is no way to control or stop it.

Next came an eight-year-old girl, with her mother, asking for more regulation on skincare products for children. What!!!!!!!! Her daughter and all her friends have skincare parties where they experiment with all the wonderful beauty products they buy – and her mother goes shopping for them with her!!! Many of which are anti-aging products! What madness is that? They’re blaming the ‘influencers’ on TikTok. From what I can see, most ‘influencers’ (what a ridiculous term!) are attention–seekers, so wrapped up in their own egos that they don’t care what they’re promoting, providing people look at them.

That was followed by news of the seizure of 4.5million illegal disposable vapes – up from 4,000 in 2021. Why people feel the need to suck on a tube, I have no idea. Maybe they are substitutes for babies’ dummies? I guess that would make sense as so few of us are self-responsible and able to find comfort within ourselves. If those skills were taught in schools, there would be no need of ‘influencers’.

Finally came a report from Bejing where unmanned AI police cars with video cameras (and face recognition capability, obviously) are patrolling the city streets looking for trouble makers. Another small step and they’ll be armed, indiscriminately tasering suspicious looking pedestrians.

Honestly, if this is how human beings are living and evolving, we do not deserve to survive. Roll on Armageddon.

Forerunner to the Smart Meter

While browsing through an old writing jotter the other day, I came across this little ditty written in 2012 about a device British Gas gave me. It sat on my kitchen counter for three years and was clearly a fore runner to the present day smart meters. It did the job very well and I want to know why the government felt it necessary to burden the consumer with the cost of something far more expensive.

There's a little face that looks at me everyday

Monitoring the cost of work and play.

It frowns at the kettle and hates the TV

I wish so much it would just let me be.

Usually in the morning it smiles like a lark

It makes me feel happy when it makes no remark.

Round about lunchtime the mouth starts to droop

So dinner tonight will be a bowl of cold soup.

Sometimes it throbs and its face turns red

That's when I know I must go to bed.

 I refuse to have a smart meter installed in my house. For one thing, the electricity meter needs moving. Currently it is below ground level, in a damp, dark pantry. I did try to bargain with my supplier, saying I would have a smart meter if they put it somewhere else. "Yes," they said, "we can do that. It'll only cost you £200." I didn't reply so they kept ringing me up, hassling me, threatening me. "Everyone must have a smart meter. Don't you understand, this will help you save on your energy bills." No it won't! It just means I'll be stressed every time I switch on the kettle.

Does the Covid virus target mitochondria?

 

Well - here we are. Over four weeks post-covid diagnosis and still debilitated because of post-viral fatigue. I know people who have ME and I know what they’ve suffered because of the lack of acknowledgement from the medical profession. And now I’m experiencing the same. “Make sure you get plenty of sleep, eat a good diet, do gentle exercise, change your mindset - it could all be in your mind after all.” No, it really isn’t. I have never experienced anything like this before. My body feels leaden. It takes enormous effort to get out of bed and great effort even to shift the position of a leg while sitting down. It’s an effort of will and intention. Even my mind is exhausted. I feel drunk most of the time - dizzy and disoriented. Yet I am sleeping for England and have put on half a stone because my appetite has been undiminished throughout the illness. It’s all very odd. I noticed a couple of days ago that I have started to acquire a little energy around 3pm in the afternoon. Capitalising on this, I have been doing short two to four mile walks while chanting ‘onward and upward’. Usually tough twelve milers are more to my liking. However, it has felt glorious and hopefully signals that things will improve - eventually. In the meantime, I’ve been raking through my rusty knowledge of Biomedical Science to think about what the hell can be going on. My buck is resting with mitochondria. There’s plenty of circulating oxygen for them in my bloodstream so I suspect the little blighters have been annihilated by the covid virus, or may be have lost their reproductive capacity. Unless, of course, the virus has affected membrane permeability and the O₂ is not getting into the cell to feed the little critters. Whatever has happened to them, they need to sort themselves out and up their game. If I was thirty years younger I would apply for research funding. As it is, the only funding on offer to me now is for funeral costs.

 Beware Covid

On the 23^rd December 2021 I tested positive for covid after feeling unwell for three days. Everyone had been saying ‘Oh it’s just like a bad cold. Nothing to worry about.’ Then there were the conspiratorial theorists on Facebook saying it was all a con - politicians wanting to take away our freedom and our livelihoods. World domination of the masses. And Boris is in on it - he must be in cahoots with Russia and China. Oh and let’s not forget Trump. These people obviously have not contracted one of the more powerful variants of this virus, and presumably don’t know anyone who has. Yes, I have an underlying condition - only 67% lung function because of copd. Yet my oxygen levels have remained between 96 and 99% because I am basically more healthy than someone half my age. Want to know what’s most debilitating about this virus? It’s how it leaves you. I’m on Day 16 and I can do nothing. Even making a cup of tea is a major challenge. Not because I can’t breathe but because I have zero energy. They’re calling it ‘Long Covid’ but it looks very much like Myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome. Imagine a world where half the population is suffering with this long-term condition. So, to those of you who are still spouting off that it’s just a bad cold - please STOP! 

You are putting yourself and others at risk.

A Lesson from the Universe.

 

A friend on Facebook posted this today. I ‘loved’ it of course - it is one of those wise truisms that we should all remember and actively put into practice.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day so in the afternoon I went out for a walk up onto the moors, which I’m fortunate to have right on my doorstep. As I was returning home down a very steep hillside, I remembered an ex-boyfriend who had struggled to come down this way and had slipped. The relationship ended when he started treating me very badly. As I made my way down I was thinking bad thoughts about him, referring to him as The Fat Controller, and puzzled as to why I had ever found him attractive. Suddenly I felt something on my left arm. It was a huge bumble bee! I screamed and brushed it off but for a few seconds it seemed intent on landing again. As I was flailing my arms and running down the hill to escape it, I remembered this Facebook post.

Oh dear! Another test failed :(