A SNAPSHOT OF..A DAY IN THE LIFE OF....

Isadora gets a slapped wrist for collecting her shopping bargains during working hours!
but seeing as it was a bank holiday and she started work before the shop opened and didn't finish 'til after it closed how else was she going to get her shopping?

A regular disabled elderly customer arrives in store proclaiming that he has won hundreds of thousands of pounds on a Canadian sweepstake.
I try to warn him about these scams but he was so excited that he had already sent off the £19 admin fee, not a lot of money, true, but.. to an elderly pensioner...

A second elderly disabled motor scooter user runs over a young boy near the cigarette kiosk.
The 5 year old boy was playing around at a very busy time, tripped and fell under the scooter wheels, boy screams, disabled customer panics and can't turn his key and boy's mother trys to pull boy out. Bruises galore but apart from shock no serious harm done...cups of tea all round.

Customer complaints rife as all three ATM machines (bank money dispensers) were out of money. Not a good thing to happen when customers have made a special trip to an out of town store especially.
Reason given for the delay in filling up was that the member of staff who usually deals with these machines was on a late shift so they would remain empty 'til she arrived

Oh well, back to work tonight and another long shift tomorrow. My back complaint has still not completely recovered, methinks a trip to the doctor may be in order soon

Today was somewhat mediocre in so far as the weather, my activities and my mood were concerned.

There was Just the two of us at home, T'old man and me so I cooked a simple but tasty meal of lamb chops, new potatoes, garden peas and lots of mint sauce.
I was hoping that T'old man was going to cook and serve it to me since I worked at the supermarket yesterday and have got a long shift tomorrow on a bank holiday, but no, he was too busy in the garden and didn't want to stop.

As I said the weather was mediocre too. I don't know about your neck of the woods but seeing as today was supposed to be the best day of the week, if I was a weatherman I wouldn't be shouting about it!
It was cloudy, drizzled a bit early on then there was a small burst of sun and a breeze, nevertheless it was sufficiently mild to enable T'old man to replant my poor old sunflower plants which have been languishing in the greenhouse because the weather has been too dire to plant them out before.

"Yeah", I thought when I went out to inspect, "he's staked them to keep them upright in the breeze".

A breeze!! just what's needed to hang out my dancing clothes which were still in need of an airing after last weeks successful concert/dance party, (sweaty armpits and all that).

"What are you doing"? asks T'old man
"I'm airing my dancing costume on the washing line" I reply,
"Do you have to"? came back his response, "the neighbours will think i'm keeping a flaming harem"
"Oh, just tell them that i've been to a fancy dress party" I retorted
His response "Oh right, like they'll believe that, who's heard of a 57 year old belly dancer, It's not very appropriate is it"?

Pah! Old stick in the mud. "get back to your gardening" lol lol

inappropriate? you decide...and no laughing pleeease

Reggae legend Desmond Dekker dies
Dekker's last gig was in Leeds on 11 May.

"Sorry I didn't get to see you, Desmond" even after being informed about your intended performance in Leeds!
On march 31st I briefly reminisced in my 'Snippets blog' about the time I saw Desmond Decker in concert in the late 60's, in those days the group mingled with the fans and my friend and myself hitched a lift home in the back of their van.

Reggae singer Desmond Dekker has died suddenly from a heart attack, aged 64.
Dekker, whose 1969 hit Israelites was the first reggae song to top the UK charts, collapsed at his Surrey home.
Manager Delroy Williams said the Jamaica-born performer had seemed fine when they met a day earlier, adding: "I don't think I will ever get over this."
Reggae DJ Daddy Ernie, of Choice FM in London, said: "Any history book that you pick up on reggae, Desmond Dekker's name will have to be in there."
He added: "People like Desmond Dekker only come along once in a lifetime. This is one of the pioneers that has passed away - his place is definitely cemented in reggae history."

Desmond's last concert appearance.

Rest in Peace Desmond,
I really didn't mean it when I called you "an old has been".

SOME FAMILIES ARE LARGE
(Spread arms out wide)
SOME FAMILIES ARE SMALL
(bring arms together)
BUT I LOVE MY FAMILY
(Cross arms over chest)
BEST OF ALL!

Taken from "Communication with nursery rhymes"

(Suit your actions to the words)
CAN YOU HOP LIKE A RABBIT?
CAN YOU JUMP LIKE A FROG?
CAN YOU WALK LIKE A DUCK
CAN YOU RUN LIKE A DOG?
CAN YOU FLY LIKE A BIRD?
CAN YOU SWIM LIKE A FISH?
CAN YOU BE STILL AS CAN BE?
AS STILL AS THIS?
(Stand or sit completely still).

Sloooow down

I suppose that by working at the supermarket I get to meet people from all kinds of different backgrounds as all sorts of characters work here for whatever reason.
The days can sometimes be quite tedious on the shop floor (at the quiet times) and any snatch of small talk is fervently pursued by me, the latest being a brief conversation I had with one of our young asian employees, a female in her mid 20's.

I admired the henna design on her hand and I took delight in telling her about the wedding I attended when I had my hand adorned with a Henna pattern.

She told me that she was born in Britain but her parents were from Pakistan and she loved the asian fashion and culture and that her sister had been practising some 'Mehndi designs' on her hand after they had visited an 'asian fashion' exhibition and how she was looking forward to the big show at Olympia which is being held later this year.
We chatted about how these henna patterns have been popularised by western celebrities and pop stars as a fashion accessory and how they trivialise this 5,000 year old tradition somewhat by treating it as a temporary tattoo.
I remarked that I personally didn't like tattoos 'cos although some could be attractive to look at the idea of them being permanent repelled me ( I can just imagine in 20 or 30 years time all these old women hobbling around on their walking sticks with snakes coiled around their midriff and butterflys across their backs . She surprised me by saying that she really wanted a tattoo, just a small one mind, but as she was a married muslim woman she couldn't because her husband had forbidden her to.
"Oh well", I said,"If your husband says you can't have one done, then, I guess you can't have one done"?
"I don't know about that" she said, "He might think he's the boss but I will get round him"
I probed further, "How are you going to do that then"?
She winked and simply said "I have a way "
------

How's this for a nice bit of Nail Art (gleaned from the net)

Man at work

The foyer is being taken over by
"World Cup Merchandise" and I observed that the range of Soccer related merchandise seems to be growing, year on year, with every tournament that comes around.

Along with the usual flags and banners, St.George ballons, T shirts and Red and white sweatshirts there appears to be a new batch of 'Football' lines for this year's World Cup.
Standard beer fridges for keeping your drinks cool have been on sale for a few years now but yesterday I noticed a new style, a small black and white round, football shaped drinks cooler which holds only four bottles and retails at £25. They have been receiving lots of admiring glances from the male shoppers but I have yet to see if they will be prove to be a good seller.
Other products which have been infected with the World Cup logo include, garden chair/loungers, holiday suitcases, Plastic CD cases and fold-up baby buggies( pushchairs).

The latest target for this brazen commercial enterprise seems to be babies, (indoctrination in the highest degree) as the newest lines that I have noticed with the England logo are:-
Babies' dummies/soothers @ 99p
Feeder cups @ £1.99p
Packs of 2 babies' bibs @ £2.99p.
I have to confess that when I saw the bibs I had to laugh as the words displayed across the bib read "DRIBBLING FOR ENGLAND"... Poor little mites

Last but not least I noticed that there was also an England megaphone for sale retailing at ...only £10!
It is highly unlikely that I will be replacing my greeter's microphone with one of these
besides 'T'old man' says that when I really want to be heard, I don't need one of those, he can hear me loud and clear, lol.

Or should that be the beginning?

This week is a big week for my youngest daughter Bella,it being the culmination of her four year university degree. She is in the middle of putting up her work (textile design) for the final year exhibition whereafter the examiners will inspect and grade the work before the public come to view it. Needless to say she is very excited that all her efforts are finally coming together.

Amidst all this frenzy (apparently some of the students on her course have been having mini nervous breakdowns 'cos of the deadlines) she is going for her first "Real job" interview on Wednesday too. It is the first that she has applied for and we are fully aware of the competion but the job is very similar to what she did on her placement year and is over the pennines near Manchester where she wants to base herself eventually so the thoughts of "Wouldn't it be nice" keep creeping in.

Whatever the outcome it will be good experience for her in attending interviews in the hope of things to come.
She really doesn't want to work on the supermarket tills for long this summer so;
Any interview tips anyone?

In order to make a positive start to the day, i'm posting these photos of my back garden. The house is situated at the top of a hill so we have great views of the skyline from the back bedroom window as illustrated in the the previous post.
These pics were also taken last week from the upstairs window when the weather was a little kinder.
I haven't got a camera with a panaromic lens so I have posted three shots, centre lawn, right side and left side. There are other parts to the garden, e.g a small patio area, two concealed sheds and a small wilder area tucked at the back of some trees.
Neither myself or my husband are particularly green fingered so it's pot luck as far as pruning etc. goes (T'old man is in charge of most of it), I just set a few seeds in the greenhouse, oops...my sunflower seedlings are still in there
Double click to enlarge

In spite of the weather the perennials have started growing in earnest, the lawn has had two cuts this year and we have set the nasturtiums in the centre.
When they are fully grown the garden seems very ample indeed.

Update:
My back seems a 'little' better due to the increase in my ibroprufen consumption but I am still moving around with trepidation

I have developed a backache from I know not where, it is not incapacitating but I have to be very careful when I turn or bend as I tend to yell if I move too quickly.
It's my dance class's twice yearly get together tomorrow night where we have a live band playing and we eat and dance. I don't know if I will be able to join in with the dances but i'm still going anyway!
There are masses of black clouds in the sky, perhaps this explains the mood.
The gales never did reach this far today but it has been raining on and off all day.

I can't think of anything to blog about just now, perhaps i'll post some photos of our back garden tomorrow.

We all know that 'Smiling' is contageous but this morning I have been spreading that other contageous disease of the mouth, 'Yawning'.

I have not been feeling quite my normal self for the last few days, I have had numerous aches and pains and have been feeling rather tired.
Well, this morning I went to my regular spanish language class and couldn't stop yawning, even after a perfectly good night's sleep.
A member of the group informed me that one of the reasons for yawning is to increase the oxygen level in the blood and before you knew it, two thirds of the class were yawning along with me ("coming out in sympathy") someone else said.
As I am the youngest in the class, this being a U3A class of old age pensioners, it seems like we all need to increase the oxygen levels to the blood!

I'm off now to do a long shift at the supermarket, don't finish 'til 10 pm.
I must remember to pass on the smiles or we could have a shop full of yawners

When Bella gets her car next month, i'll be swopping my trusty shopping trolley For the boot of a nice nearly new black or red Clio or Nissan Micra.

I am often called 'Isadora the trolley lady' by the youngsters at work (affectionately of course) but very soon i'll be retiring the old dear(trolley that is)
You probably won't believe this but a few years ago myself and my two daughters went to Milan for a weekend break and we trawled around all the wonderful designer shops there, we didn't buy anything as everything was far too expensive.
We also ventured into a hypermarket while we were there and I admired the trendy looking shopping trolleys they had for sale so, just to say that we hadn't come home from Milan empty handed Lulu (eldest) bought one for me and carted it all the way home on the plane etc.

When I started using it to bring my shopping home from the supermarket lots of people admired it and enquired where I had bought it, when I said "Milan" they looked at me strangely,
Maybe they thought I was off my Trolly, lol

Today has not been a complete wash out (no thanks to the weather) it's been raining nearly all day and has only just stopped yet I just heard on the news that there is a water shortage down south!
No, in spite of the rain we have managed to have a new 'up and over' garage door fitted to replace the old wooden doors that have been adorning the garage for over 35 years.
All we need now is a neat, nearly new, maybe blue,silver or red Clio to house in there.
Never having been a car driver there's never ever been more than a couple of bicycles housed in the garage but Bella passed her driving test a few months ago and guess what she wants as a graduation present?
Yep, A blue,silver or red Clio.

The other day I spotted a big black crow high up in my neighbour's tree. I thought I would take his photo with my little 'digi' camera as he was settled up there enjoying the view.

This was the result, lol
T
Can you spot him? I can, but only just and I know where to look,he he.

Did you know that I have still not eaten any chocolate since I resolved to resist in the dark ages before Easter!

I have a nightly mug of cocoa/drinking chocolate every night before retiring but I don't class this as a diet sin.

I weakened in my diet quest last night though as I attended a nephew's 18th birthday party and devoured a large slice of moist fruit birthday cake complete with marzipan and royal icing topping.
Mmmm...delicious.

I am not very knowledgeable really because until recently I thought Mother's day was celebrated on the same day all over the world.
As we all know, here in Britain we celebrate Mother's day on Mothering Sunday, the fourth sunday of lent. Although it is called "Mother's day" it has no connection with the American festival of that name. In fact it's mainly Ireland and Britain who celebrate Mother's day at this time.
Traditionally, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and family whereas today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and home made cards to their mothers.

The memorial that is now known as Mother's Day was first formally introduced in America in the late 1800's by Julia Ward Howe, writer of the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. She was responsible for organising a Mass in Boston every year as a day dedicated to peace.
More specifically, Mother's Day can be contributed to Anna Jarvis who organised the first formal program as a tribute to her deceased Mother, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis who died on May 9, 1908. On the third anniversary of her mother's death, Miss Jarvis and the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton and Philadelphia held a service with a general observance to honour all mothers.
Around 46 countries, including America, Italy, Australia,New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Turkey and Belgium celebrate Mother's Day, mostly on the second Sunday of May.
Traditionally many people used to follow the custom on Mother's Day of wearing a carnation. A coloured carnation used to mean that a person's mother is living while a white carnation honours a person's mother who is dead (i'm not sure if this is still the case in many countries as I am not aware of anyone observing this in England.)

So as Mother's day in many countries is being celebrated today, I think I will celebrate it too (if the Queen can have two birthdays then I can have two mother's days
I've had my cuppa brought to me in bed already, we'll see how the rest of the day pans out

Saturday may 6th, it was a glorious sunny day unlike Sunday when it rained and rained and felt quite chilly (the pubs did good trade though )

Mister Fox:
These drummers really woke up the picturesque village and boy could they make a rythmic noise.

There were approximately 16 Morris dance teams out on the streets over the weekend. I'm not sure which this team is as there were a few teams who black their faces. Either Flagcrackers of Craven, Poacher or Powder Kegs

On reading my programme, the troupe is probably The Powder kegs as they are described as having black faces, top hats and red and yellow tatters jackets.

Who's a lucky girl then? Two folk festivals in two weeks, today I will be travelling to Holmfirth (Of last of the summer wine fame) to the folk festival there. They said it wouldn't happen when the town hall organisers of this successful little festival decided not to hold one this year but local businesses with the help of Holme Valley Business association and almost every pub in the town decided to do it themselves!!
Tonight in 'The Picture Drome' i'll be seeing The 'Doonan Family Band' perform so I know I am going to be in for a real treat as I have seen the band a couple of times before in the days when the father,Irish champion tin whistle player John Doonan was at the Helm. sadly John passed away in 2002 but the rest of the band are keeping up the tradition .
I know Mick's wife Maureen from meeting at various events over the years and it is always nice to meet and say Hello.
By co-incidence last Sunday I was at a concert in Wath-on-Dearne where 'Rosie Doonan and Ben Murray' performed. Rosie and Ben are the off-spring of two of the members of The family band and I remember Rosie as a child at the festivals when my sister and myself used to take our kids along.
It is lovely to see how they have developed , they sing songs with mature harmonies and subtle timings, they are doing well so far and I believe they're destined for greater success.

So that's me then, after not visiting a folk festival for years i've got two on consecutive weeks. How many more are there to come in the region this summer? Well, there's Beverley, Cleckheaton, Otley and Whitby then there are all those over the county border, Fleetwood.......
Mmmm, i'm going to have to find a way to skip those saturday afternoon shifts!!

About two years ago, I was introduced to a new colleague who had just taken up employment at the supermarket, she is a dinky little thing (aged about 30) with big brown eyes and long brown hair, she greeted me warmly with a wide warm smile, her name is Maria and she hails from Ecuador.

The love story:

She met her husband about seven years ago when she was working in a hotel in her native Imbabuja, an area of natural beauty with it's lakes, forests and mountains. He was a 17 year old student on an two week educational trip with college to study the fauna and flora of the country.
The romance was like a fairy tale, she spoke no english and he had very limited spanish but their eyes met on the hotel corridor and that was it, he was smitten. The romance blossomed amidst furtive glances and tender touches then when it was time for him to go back to England, he couldn't or wouldn't leave her.
He stayed there in Ecuador for three months until out of "necessity" he had to to return to his native Yorkshire to earn some money and vowed to return. This he did and three months later he returned to Ecuador where he lived with Maria's family for a year during which time they married and she conceived a child.
Maria would have dearly liked to stay in the bosom of her family but a plan was hatched and alas it wasn't to be. Her husband was still not even 20 years old and he needed to go to university back in England to get a computing degree to secure their future, so they would come to England and live with his parents for a while, at least 'til their child was born. She was naturally more than a little apprehensive for no matter how much she loved her husband she was acutely aware of his youth, she was six years older and although she was gradually picking up a little english she still had lots of hurdles to pass through.

The reality:

That was over five years ago, their daughter is now at school, her husband has gainful employment thanks to the completion of his studies and she works part time at the Kiosk in the supermarket. Her English has come on in leaps and bounds and she is quite fluent now, she lets me practise my basic spanish with her, we meet with hugs and continental kisses and she always wears a cheery ecuadorian smile. she gets on well with the customers and has made friends at work. In her spare time she makes ethnic Ecuadorian jewellery, she holds "jewellery parties" in her home where we eat, dance and buy her wares. She said to me one time "Isadora, are you sure you're english"?, you are more like us, we latin Americans dance all the time in the streets or in our homes not like the miserable english who will only go on the dance floor after many alcoholic drinks are inside them".

The dream fades:

Well, here we are back in supermarket land.
The mystery shopper is an employee who goes around the supermarket incognito and assesses colleagues randomly then delivers their ratings to the General store manager. last week Maria was unbeknowingly targeted and afterwards the manageress (she who declared everyone should wear bunny ears) took Maria into the office to "counsel" her.
"Maria" said the manageress"You have scored low on the mystery shopper's results"
"Oh really" she replied, "I don't know why this is"
Manageress carries on "The mystery shopper says that you do not come over very friendly and that you have a miserable face"
"Me" Maria exclaimed "but last week I had terrible pain caused by my wisdom teeth, you know I did I had to visit the dentist and it was painful to smile too much"
The manageress retorted " nothing of the sort I have noticed myself that you always look miserable, don't let it happen again or you will be disciplined"
The following day the the mystery shopper's results and comments were huddled out to all the other colleagues naturally Maria was quite upset by this, she came running over to me seeking reassurance and we laughed at the 'miserable english' but it very nearly knocked her confidence as a foreigner working and living here trying to do her best.

I'm pleased to say that Maria will be smiling shed loads in two weeks time as she is taking her daughter to visit her nana in Ecuador and won't be coming back for a month, I asked if they could fit me in their suitcase,
"not this time" she said "but maybe one day"

3rd (and last) of series

After sweating it out in India and enjoying the pleasant warmth of Florence, Olive and popeye decided a trip to colder climes would be in order, so here they are at their destination.

I forgot where they went though, any suggestions?

I only speak from personal experience so after critisizing one section of today's youth,I would like to redress the balance by stating that I think that some of the young kids who work at the store are great.
Most of the younger employees are students(daughter included) who are working to get through uni without ammassing more debt than they already have. I find that they are usually polite and hardworking. Management love them too as the students are so strapped for cash that they will do loads of long unsociable hours that other employees decline.
I tend to have a good rapport with these kids(maybe 'cos I have a daughter their age), they tell me all about their loves and hates and one girl who left to backpack around Australia emailed every week with a progress report.
Anyway, good news, as one of my favourite students who graduated 'in Law' last year has finally got a job in her chosen career. She was getting quite despondant as she has had many interviews and lots of rejections and could see herself chained to the tills for many more months. It is sad when kids have worked so hard for their degree and can't get a job!
My daughter finishes her degree course this summer so I guess we will have to go through a similar scenario.
Not to worry though as the saying goes:
All things come to those who wait.