Author: boomingbanter

This morning was a panic. The gremlins were out in force.

Aaron has an exam at school and for who knows what reason our alarm went off a good twenty minutes later than normal.

After a rapid run around he was packed off only five minutes late.

Time to relax with a coffee and the TODAY program before getting ready for Zumba.

They kept promoting a slot with Jenna Bush and Jay Leno so I thought I’ll get my shower and be back to watch the slot just before heading out.

There are only two essential makeup items for me a lick of mascara and a good dose of blusher.

The mascara to make me look awake and the blush, essential for my psychological wellbeing, to balance out and detract from the redness of my nose!

In haste to see the TV slot I put on the mascara and dabbed on two generous red dots of blush telling myself I’d rub it in at a red light on the way to the gym.

Opening the garage door I see Adam the guy who cuts our grass and of course go over to speak to him. He gives me a strange look! Only at the traffic light, when I took a peak in the mirror did the penny drop why! The war paint was very obvious!

Reminded me of Bridget Jones and Noddy a childhood hero who hadn’t crossed my mind in years! Love characters who make you feel you’re not alone in this world! Wonder what Adam thought!

Blessing # 319 – Good Giggle

 

 

With sunny skies and a snazzy sander waiting to workout it was time to start a little project.

First up getting the sand paper at the local hardware store. This is a family store called Zettlers and its a joy to go there. It’s big enough to have all you need but not so big you get lost in it. Love it!

You are greeted on arrival with the question How Can We Help? Assisted to find exactly what you need you can be in and out in five minutes.

A sweet little shelf has been lying in the garage waiting to be loved since this time last year. It has seen better days and was picked up at a Church sale for $2.

It was crying out for a buff and a lick of paint and is destined for a life in retail. It will be a piece on which treasure will sit for sale once I get my little store front.

As paint goes it was hit and miss with left overs lying around from home decor projects. Maybe not ideal but shabby cheek doesn’t mind imperfection.

After sanding the little love already looked better and that’s where I should have stopped perhaps. Give it a varnish, show off the wood and call it a day.

Of course the painting continued and one mistake after another led to something indescribable. Lesson learned stop while the going is good.

As Carol would say “better not give up the day job just yet”

Blessing # 318 – Fun in the Sun

Over the past few days friends have posted some reminders of card and cartoon characters that we rarely see today

The first up was Old Maid! Don’t think anyone would dare launch that game today.

Next came Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men and their trusty helper Little Weed. Can you imagine how that might be interpreted in our current cannabinol culture!

This got me thinking of the character I loved most. Scooby Doo was up there but he was pipped at the post by Barney Rubble.

In 1974 my Dad decided we needed a new car. We’d never had a brand new one and this was always his dream. So he sneaked off to a dealership one day and bought a little Fiat. Thinking he would give my Mum a nice surprise he bought one in her favorite color GREEN!

Our house was coming down with green! Wallpaper, carpet, bedding you name it it was green. Not to mention the fact that unless you protested gravely you would be dressed in green too. It was like living in Sherwood Forest.

Now unfortunately for poor Dad the green of his choice was not a green that Mother endorsed. She disliked the car from day one.

It kept breaking down as it had a faulty distributor cap and would conk out unexpectedly on a regular basis. My Mum said we were like the Flintstones and could peddle faster than this car.

This gave rise to her referring to my Dad as Barney! The name stuck and come to think of it Barney and my Dad did bear a little resemblance.

Blessing # 317 – Terms of Endearment

When Aaron got his new contact lenses in early January we were given one of those mail in rebate coupons by the optician.

Such things raise my blood pressure to a dangerously high level because they are never simple.

First you must wait for the lenses to be delivered in order to prove purchase with the invoice number and then there is a whole rigmarole of applying on line and personalized codes and so on.

Well hats off to the provider this all went smoothly and by the end of January we had a confirmation email to say that Aaron would be given the rebate. This was followed a few days later by an online Visa card to be redeemed.

That thing has been hanging around in our email inbox ever since. Knowing that it must be activated by the end of the month or it will expire I finally got round to doing it this morning.

Well of course that’s when things disintegrated into deep frustration. Everything looked so simple. Just click on the BIG BLUE half a page box to access your card. Once you’ve done that and your in just one ore two more things to do the first being to enter your DIGITAL  TOKEN.

Easy I think and enter the ten digit personalized code for the rebate. Oops the site says this is not a digital token. Please enter your fourteen digit digital token.

What what what is this? Where where where do I find it? Pull out all the bills and invoices and email and search. No sign of a digital code! Panic!

By this time I’m red in the face and  yelling at poor Krishna that there is so much paper lying around our house that you never can find something when you need it. I’m also vowing that next time Aaron is doing this and NOT ME!

So when all else fails call the help desk and listen to music! Well maybe because it was early or maybe because the provider is well staffed I get through in under ten minutes.

The friendly young lady on the line asks for email, names and so on. She asks if I has lost the email they  sent. I say no I have it. Oh she says the digital token number is in the grey box at the bottom of the email.

Simple when you know where to look but would you have found it? Once found it is easy as pie but why put this at the end of the mail rather than the start and why in small text in blue? Maybe people who wear contact lenses can find it old speckies like me well that’s another thing!

Blessing # 316 – Knowing for Next Time

We never know when we wake up what the day will bring.

On this Easter Day the anticipation was one of celebration and fun. That was nipped in the bud by the news from Sri Lanka.

Hundreds dead for doing what? Going to Church or having a vacation. Just a few weeks since the shootings at the mosque in New Zealand we once again face a feeling of great helplessness.

This feeling is so familiar to those of us who grew up in Northern Ireland. How many times did we ask ourselves when will this end?

Peace for Northern Ireland came after thirty years of terror. The beginning of the end was a Saturday afternoon bombing in the country town of Omagh. This savagery took many innocent souls    among them a young mother carrying unborn twins.

President Clinton brought together the British and Irish governments and they united to make a change for good. His belief that peace was possible was crucial.

Yet even in the Province today  terrorist resurgence is at work. It was frightening to see that CNNs chief international correspondent Nic Robertson covered the Sri Lanka news from Londonderry.  He was there because of the murder of journalist Lyra McKee killed in the line of duty as she reported on «New IRA » riots.

Condemnation of each major incident from world leaders is insufficient. No doubt they feel helpless too but someone must take up the gauntlet and fight evil.

It is exactly one hundred years since the British massacre of thousands of Indian people at Amritsar. This was the tipping point for the transformation of the Indian nation. Mahatma Gandhi led this change. He believed he could do it and with a band of like believers he did.

We need such leadership today and people willing to band together to right the wrongs that provoke such hatred and actions.

Blessing # 315 – Beginning of the End

Each day brings new surprises in the story of what survived the fire at Notre Dame. The windows, the cross, the crown all seem like miracles but the most amazing is that the bees made it through.

Close to 200000 bees have been living in three hives on the cathedral roof for the past few years. Their mission is to promote biodiversity in the great city of Paris.

This news brought many tongue in cheek comments on social media. The one that made me chuckle most read « expected BUZZFEED to cover this »

We all know the saying where there is life there is hope. What better sign of the promise ahead than these little critters who do such good for nature.

Pollinators and producers they bring both beauty and sweetness to our lives.

They survived because their little bodies are used to smoke and can resist it quite well. To calm down when a stress like smoke is around they just stay home and eat honey.

It will give them renewed strength to keep up their good work on building diversity of all kinds. Such wisdom you lovelies!

Blessing # 314 – Sweet Surprises

Growing up in Belfast during the sixties meant lots of treats at Easter.

We didn’t have the Easter Bunny tradition of today or Easter egg hunts. On occasions we’d color and roll a few boiled eggs down a hill but no one ever ate them. The real fun came well before the day itself.

Kids would be given huge chocolate eggs in boxes. Often these were surrounded by chocolates in a display and were stuffed with more of the same!

These were given by grandparents, aunties, uncles and family friends as well as Mum and Dad. You might well accumulate a dozen of these giant eggs if you were lucky.

It was absolutely forbidden to eat them before Easter Day. They were displayed in all their glory in the parlour, a room that was used only when the vicar came!

Every Mum and Dad in the land must have known that when they were out of earshot the kids were in the parlour.

As an only child my trip to this special room was shared with my best friend Carol. She would be on the look out for roving adults. As she is also an only child the favor was reciprocated at her home.

With haste and stealth the egg box would be opened and the egg carefully removed. The foil cover would be peeled from the back and the egg cracked. The internal contents were quickly removed and shoved into pockets before the egg was rebuilt to look as before.

A race outside into the street and a happy munching session would then take place.

The remaining shells and the display chocolates would of course have to stick around till Easter when they’d be scoffed in a marathon eating session.

Can’t imagine how a child who didn’t take advanced training felt when they tucked into their stock. They’d have had the worst tummy pain. Something I always avoided

Blessing # 313 – Building Stamina

 

Yesterday my little business cards arrived and I am thrilled with them. They are shinier than I expected and very professional looking. Great work VISTAPRINT

Had to test them as tags for my future sales and run them past my besties who thought they look good too. Now all that’s needed is the little store front to start selling.

These past days have been an eye opener on the amount of things for sale on the internet. There are so many people in the business of uncovering treasures.

Looking to see if I’d found another a bit of homework was done on eBay and Etsy. There must be tens of thousands of little Japanese vases out there for sale. Not a single one like mine though. Love my little beauty.

Think this is a close cousin.

This morning another step in the DIY “learning to be an entrepreneur” course I’m giving myself led to the set up of a Twitter account.

For sure I’ll be an embarrassment to many but gotta keep on learning.

Blessing # 312 – Old Dog New Trick

Cleaning the little candlestick over the weekend did some good. It raised guilt that drove serious reflections on the need to clean the house.

Bingo a breakthrough! What if cleaning was treated like a workout. Could I get into the rhythm and learn to love it like Zumba?

Rather than going ballistic for the whole day the key will be to take it one hour at a time to music.

First things first though a new mop. Ours was dead so we got one of those new fangled things.

How fun this turned out to be. It was like playing with a giant water pistol. You fill it with cleaner and then you swivel around just squirting away. Wonder did the designers plan it this way.

Doesn’t help with dusting though. Yesterday fluff thick as a young duvet was removed from the shelf of our coffee table. Anyone got a playful way to make this chore a charm?

Blessing # 311 – A New Toy

Sunday saw the return of one of the most beloved sports stars the world has ever known.

Many had said it would never happen but Tiger Woods proved them wrong and won the masters in Atlanta.

Like Notre Dame de Paris, Tiger has been through the fire. His return to the top is one of the great come backs of all time.

What did it take for him to make this return? Patience no doubt, immense effort and endurance but without belief in himself it could never have happened.

Commentators who talked to his fellow golfers said what they saw on the course was a different Tiger. One more relaxed and friendly. One who seemed to be enjoying the game rather than functioning like a machine.

This morning we saw the images of Notre Dame. The gothic stones had done their duty and held up. The most amazing thing though was that through all that heat those magnificent windows were all still intact.

With hundreds of millions already donated for restoration who knows what the architect will come up with.

Maybe a glass roof. How that would light up the stained glass. Just imagine how beautiful that might be and like Tiger maybe even better than before.

Blessing #310 – Survival and Revival