Booming Banter

Yesterday was stressful  today was a joy.

Sunshine, Zumba and the best of all a good old Church Rummage Sale.

In the UK we call them JUMBLE sales. If you look at the origin of the term it is a Confused Mixture. You have things jumbled up but do you Jumble? No you Rumble in the Jumble.

Thats what we did today and we found some absolutely precious little beauties.

The best of course is Irish! It is a small Belleek China plate that is so fine it is transparent.

Other little treasure that will eventually find their way to the shop are a cute dog pot holder that resembles a certain person not two inches from my feet and a tiny little beer stein that is a reminder of the critters who call our yard their home.

of course we couldn’t leave without a few books or a few angels.

Leave you to work out  who got what!

Blessing # 375 – Sunshine after the Rain!

The sun came out today but a big black cloud was over our house.

Last night as we were happily digesting our dinner, sipping a little beverage and watching some TV the phone rang. We all heaved the inevitable groan immediately suspecting our most frequent callers THE SCAMMERS.

I took the call which was fortunate as Krishna usually yells at people he doesn’t know.

The person on the phone said he was calling on behalf of Chase Bank and the reason he was calling was because there was some suspicious activity with our bank account.

I asked him what he needed and he explained he’d need my card number.

Of course I was reluctant to give him that so I asked if there was an alternative he explained I should call a number that he gave me and ask them to block our accounts and contact our bank as soon as possible.

Still suspicious I asked for his name and he told me he was Homer. Was he joking?

I asked where he was calling from and he said the Philippines. The fact that he gave me his name, albeit a funny one, and that I recognized he had an accent that was indeed from the Philippines added credibility to what he was saying so I thanked him for his advise.

Immediately I contacted one of the  local bank mangers we know well. He replied immediately saying as soon as the office opened in the morning he’d make sure we were safe.

So good to his word he called this morning and said that Homer was for real and had stopped an attempted fraudulent transfer. Now we needed to get to a bank branch quickly and close all our accounts.

Off we went to our usual branch and our manager there stopped what she was doing and gave us her full attention. It took a while but we got everything closed and this is where dear Krishna’s record keeping again came to the fore. We were able to go though all payments of the past months without tearing our hair out.

Lessons for all of us listen carefully even if you suspect the call may just be a scam! Be gracious to everyone. Be vigilant to anything suspicious and change your passwords often!

A long story that you just couldn’t make up!

We are so grateful to Homer and all at Chase who helped us today. So impressed with all they did to protect us. Let us all pray this Odyssey is over.

Blessing # 374 – Checks and Balances

We all know the old adage Home is Where the Heart Is. So where would this be for you?

Is it the place of your birth or the place you live today? Maybe they are one and the same which makes it maybe easier to answer.

Some have had the chance to live in many different places even like us in many parts of the world.

Often the period spent in one of these locations was known to be of limited duration.

Whether it is for this reason or the fact that there are still many ties with family and friends in Ireland to this day I still refer to it as home.

As soon as a trip is booked I’ll call my besties in Belfast and tell them we’re booked to come home.

What is it we are looking for in that magical place? The familiarity of the accent, the ability to blend right in or is it something more primeval? One thing for sure growing up on a small island you come to know the smell of the sea.

No mountain in Switzerland or Great Lake in the USA or any tower in France or wall in China could ever be as dear as the Irish Sea to me.

Blessing #373 – Roots

Stop now if you think this might be about pot. It’s not.

With all the rain we have had in the past weeks we are now in the business of making hay.

The grass is growing so fast we can watch it get higher by the hour. Unfortunately we cannot get it cut or dried because the sun isn’t shining.

The sump pump ran a lot last night to keep our basement dry. Unlike many in the state we are fortunate to be just soggy not flooded. Good times for mushrooms and ducks!

Grass is amazing stuff. Would we or could we exist without it? The foundation of farming the grandparent of grain.

Most amazing of all the source of cellulose that the ruminants transform into energy and ultimately milk and meat.

As a Ph.D student I worked in the department of Agriculture and got very attached to the cows and sheep. Mucking then out was not so stinky as the hen house.

They were affectionate and sweet and got to know who’d give them a handful of grass or concentrate. Truly lovable.

Such huge and magnificent beasts it’s amazing that they can get by on grass alone all thanks to those four stomachs they have and the little bugs that live in them.

No one who has experience of ruminants can ever doubt the amazing gift of grass. That green ability to take suns light and convert it to energy. Miraculous!

Blessing #372 – Ruminations

Aaron started work a year ago at a hotel about ten miles from our home.

He has worked the breakfast shift, been the pool cleaner, done housekeeping and even swept the parking lot during winter snows. Apart from one day when we had a level three snow emergency and he couldn’t leave the house he has never missed a day or been late.

His regular job on Saturday and Sunday is doing the laundry. These are usually busy days and sometimes he has to work overtime. He never complains.

Since school stopped he is now working a full forty hour week. Yesterday he was  excited because he is being trained on the front desk.

He was working night shift starting at eight in the evening and home at four thirty this morning. When he came home I heard the garage door open. He let Dibley out and when I sneaked in to check how it had gone. He was talking to Dibley telling him to be quiet and he’d see him later.

In just one year thanks to this job he has grown in many ways. Not just the basic skills of cooking, cleaning, making beds but also the growth in self confidence that he can make a living and work hard.

It makes us very happy for him and to see him grown into the lovely young man that he is.

Blessing # 371 – Life Lessons

 

There is so much talk in the USA at the minute about low carb diets that we decided we’d give it a go as one of our family experiments.

We are not even for one moment attempting to go Keto and eliminate all carbs as we like our milk and yogurt too much for that.

For the past two weeks though we haven’t had any breakfast cereal, rice or pasta which is like a revolution in our house. Bread has been restricted to just a few occasions and we’ve had potatoes once.

It really is quite a challenge. We have been making morning smoothies, eating lots of salad which is good, fruit is limited largely to tomatoes, oranges and strawberries and we have gone nuts when it comes to snacking. Not a single potato chip, nachos or French Fry has passed our lips.

Desserts are a big challenge. We’ve had strawberries and cream so often we are unlikely to accept any invitation to a Royal garden party in the near future! Sugar free puddings are OK but we did crack a few times and eat ice-cream.

Meat of course is easy especially for a carnivore like Aaron. It’s the old ovoid option though that has become the new staple

We are boiling, frying, scrambling, omeletting even egg drop souping them! They are really quite versatile and with a good dollop of butter or blue cheese dressing quite tasty too.

So what do we miss most? Probably the pasta for Aaron, the rice for Krishna and the spud for me.

We are not counting calories and Krishna and I have stayed stable on weight but Aaron has dropped some. No yolks though we still plan to scramble to beat him through a combination of  diet and eggercise!

Blessing # 370 – Cracking Up!

 

Well that worked out well to have D on Dads Day!

Its lovely to see all the posts of friends and family on this special occasion when we celebrate Fathers.

Some are young and having their first experience of this moment others are old hands at being Dads but will be thinking no doubt where did that time go since that kid was just a baby?

Aaron and his Dad do quite a bit together. Talk politics, shop, cook and take in the world.

Never though have they gone hunting. That is until today.

When Aaron came back from work he found a snake in the garage so off the two went to find the beast.

 

Alas it is still on the loose but has contributed to one of the more memorable Fathers Day “outings”

I’ve just finished reading Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee. It is the sequel of To Kill A Mockingbird Bird. A surprising book it gives some more insights into one of the most iconic Fathers in literature Atticus Finch and the relationship he has with his daughter.

 

Aaron and I went to visit Monroeville where Harper Lee lived and wrote these books. This visit made the book even more impactful as it was so easy to picture the scene of each event.

The book uncovers differences in opinions between father and daughter and ends in a huge argument. It is most likely that each of us goes through a similar passage at some point in our lives.

What is reassuring is the role the childless Uncle Jack plays as peace maker. He explains that at some point all children see that their Father is human. This invariably involves some difference of opinion and some friction. The key according to Uncle Jack is to listen and not to run away!

Keep hunting if not for snakes for justice!

Blessing #369 – Growing Together

 

Downton Abbey the movie is set to come out this September and it would seem the King and Queen will make an appearance. Counting the days!

Who would ever have dreamed back in Downton times or even a few decades ago that our future Queen would be a woman born into a regular middle class family.

The Duchess of Cambridge certainly looks regal when she is all dressed up for state occasions but she is even more beautiful when she has on her jeans and sports boots.

Always smiling she now seems to be focusing her work on a few major issues including mental health and the importance of getting children outside to play.

Some recent coverage on the iconic British children’s program Blue Peter shows her talking directly to youngsters. She speaks to them in such and endearing way it’s almost as though she is talking to her own kids.

Many years ago when I was a kid watching this program Princess Anne went on safari with Valerie one of the presenters. For the time this was a real eye opener and we were glued to the TV to see their travels.

Seeing HRH with the children this week fishing for tadpoles and talking about “Froggies” really was  touching. The kindness and gentleness she shows is so genuine.

She behaves like a lovely Mom not just for her own future king but to everyone in the country.

Blessing # 368 – Fairytale Princess

So soon we are back to B but only for today. What better subject for a summers day than the tale of the Belgium monks who are going to start brewing beer again after 220 years.

Its strong stuff that Belgium beer I remember drinking two bottles of it as a student working in Holland and the next thing I knew it was the next day!

A beer on a hot evening is hard to beat though.

When we lived in Connecticut our house was in a forest so it didn’t matter too much what the lawn looked like. I’d cut it on Friday afternoon when we got home from work while Krishna would do the heavy yard work. I absolutely loved to get completely covered in dirt and then stop and drink a Bud. By the time I’d finished a few more may have slipped down the gullet.

Beer may not be everyone’s poison but almost everyone has one brew they love. It might be their morning coffee or maybe a cup of tea.

Whatever the connotation the word BREW brings joy universally and puts a smile on almost every face.

Why don’t we brew wine? It’s just as sparkly!

Blessing # 367 – Liquid to Love

Thanks for the comments and suggestions on next steps for Banter.

The one I’m adopting came from our friend and pastor Dave. He had the idea of the alphabet and linking a blessing to a different letter each day.

Well who would have believed what popped up on Facebook this morning! A photo posted three years ago of some fancy footwork in the sky.

Obvious then what the subject should be Air Travel!

The first memory I have of anyone taking a flight was when I was nine. My Mums brother Hugh who lived in England died and she wanted to go to his funeral. Such was the cost she had to borrow money from another brother Robert to make the trip.

Next time we talked of flying was when a school trip to Switzerland was planned. I was fourteen and the trip cost my Mum and Dad about a months wages but they sent me. We flew to London on British Airways and then to Zürich on Swissair and it was beyond super exciting.

That was just the beginning of many more journeys including a very memorable one that my parents took with me. I was doing my Ph.D at the time and got an award to go to a conference in Amsterdam. My Mum and Dad decided to come too.

We took a puddle hopper from Belfast to Amsterdam. It was the first time in his life that my Dad put foot on a plane and he had that seat belt on so tight he could hardly breathe.

Times have changed so much since the launch of good old Budget airlines like EasyJet and Southwest. Travel is so much more affordable and accessible to many more people. You no longer need to be one of the super rich to think of taking a trip by air. We joke about these airlines sometimes and they even joke about themselves but they do such a great service and have great safety records.

No doubt we each have our favorite airline. Mine happens to combine National Carrier and budget very well. It is good old Aer Lingus.

Their staff are great. Always extra well groomed Stewards in crisp clean uniforms looking as though they really love to serve you.

Whether  it’s Champagne from Waterford crystal up front with Irish salmon or a glass of white in row 40 with whatever meal is left on the trolley I feel right at home when the shamrock is on the tail!

Blessing # 366 – Opening Skies