Headed for another singles convention this
weekend. It is the result of my hitting it off so warmly and immediately with a
new friend I met at the Cardiff convention that I attended a couple months back.
We have both been waiting patiently for an opportunity to get together and
broaden our friendship. Carole lives in Poole, very close to where this
weekend’s activities will take place in Weymouth, on the southern coast of
England, about 165 miles away. For me, not driving and without a car, that is a
ways! Carole kindly invited me to come and stay with her any time I was able –
in fact, she said, come and live down here with me. Haven’t been there yet, but
I’m going soon – like tomorrow!
My original plan had been to leave today but due
to a little bit of a mix-up my travel had to be postponed. But that’s okay
because I’ve had this extra day to get things sorted.
[Some other REALLY good reasons I was relieved to
have an extra day: in anticipation of this singles event – where you hope always
to be able to ‘put your best foot forward’ – suddenly, yesterday I began unexpectedly
‘out of the blue’ to experience quite a painful back. (What’s going on? I’m
falling apart – first foot {a bad case of plantar faciitis – heel pain} and now
back. Help!) And, as if that weren’t enough, also yesterday I began to develop
one of those nasty cold sores at the corner of my mouth. I’m going to be quite
the sight at the singles convention – hobbling in on my one good foot, slumped
over with my hand resting gingerly on my back, like the quintessential vision
you have of an old person, and then with an unseemly, mouth disease. My, oh,
my, yes – I am going to make quite the impression! {I was telling Myfanwy about
my back pain and she said, ‘oh, gosh, tell me it’s not catching!’ Meaning, she
hoped teasingly that I hadn’t gotten the bad back by catching it from her.} * * * Of further interest – having
investigated side effects online, I’ve come to conclude that the weird, pretty abrupt,
pretty bad back pain I experienced was the result of the prescription allergy
medication (fexofenadine hydrochloride - generic of allegra) I had taken
Wednesday morning. I first began to notice the back stuff by late afternoon/night,
and then saw, thankfully, a major easing off within 24-36 hours. I will try it
one more time to see if I’m imagining things or not – I mean this particular
side effect is listed as one of those rather obscure ones. {You know how you
always make the assumption that that is just not going to be YOU!} If it is
true, then I can tell you from experience, its ‘bite’ was much worse than its ‘bark’!]
Sorted: to get things squared away, organized,
figured out, settled – as in, I am, you are, he, she or it is getting sorted.
We do a lot of ‘sorting’ around here – it is another of our national pastimes!
I have found it to be a very appropriate term for a plethora of situations.
I’ll probably be using it a lot to describe what I’m up to – especially on days
when there’s not a whole lot going on to tell about. A day of sorting can mean
anything from reading, writing, catching up on correspondence, to organize your
room, your scrim, cleaning, laundry, etc. Stuff like that.
Today, for example, I washed my hair in
preparation for my upcoming trip, then even got my shelves in the kitchen sorted
– a sorely needed task. I’d just been stuffing purchases in there as I’ve
gotten them. So great, now I can actually see all the way back to the rear of
the cupboard to identify what’s in there. I even got myself a little flashlight
so I can get a good look deep inside. Lighting around here isn’t very good, in
my experience, and rooms can get pretty dim once the day begins to get dark, or
even overcast.
This convention in Weymouth lasts for a couple
days and a couple nights. We will be staying at a hotel owned by a lady who is
a member of the church. I have spoken with her several times – the first time
to get registered. I’m looking forward to meeting Lorraine – she sounds really
nice. In one conversation she mentioned that she could probably hook me up with
someone coming down from the north with whom I could carpool. In the meantime
Carole had told me about a really reasonably priced coach (large travel bus)
that would deliver me directly to her in Poole. It leaves from the center of
Birmingham every morning and evening. When I hadn’t heard from Lorraine (she
had told me she was really swamped this week, as she was short on help in running
the hotel), I began looking more seriously into the Megabus idea, but by that
time the Thursday morning seats were all sold out – thus the 24-hour wait. Still
okay, because I was able to accomplish a lot and under my unencumbered
circumstances can stay on in Poole into next week if it seems like the right
thing to do and works for Carole.
The trip tomorrow is going to take about four and
a half hours to get me down to Poole. Leah has agreed to pick me up in the
morning as soon as she drops her kids off at school around 9am, and deliver me
to the bus pick-up point on Colmore Circus Queensway – an actual street on my
Destination Birmingham game board. I’m excited – it’s going to be fun.
I just heard some popping noises outside my window
and went to investigate – fireworks. Wasn’t sure why today. In a couple days,
on November 5th, is a really big celebration here in England – Guy Fawkes
Day. (More about that when the time comes.) Guy Fawkes Day may be as big in
England as the Fourth of July is in America – and yet we’ve never heard of it.
That’s kind of crazy. Looked up why there might be fireworks going and you’ll
never guess what – the Killas. You know, as in Brandon Flowers. I had heard
they were coming and appears it was last night and tonight:
Oct 31- Front man Brandon Flowers strode onto stage against the back drop of the band’s own spooky Halloween video Zombie Hands. He asked the audience “trick or treat?”, before launching into Bones from the album Sam’s Town. In the first half of the set the Las Vegas based indie rock band kept things simple and stripped back. They were all dressed in black, apart from drummer Ronnie Vannucci who donned a skelton outfit, and they proved they did not need a fancy stage show to impress their fans. The set was filled with material from their new album Battle Born, and they performed amongst others The Way It Was, and the latest single, Miss Atomic Bomb Here With Me.
In addition to the full version of Flesh and Bone, Flowers took
to the piano to perform an impressive acoustic version of the song. In the
middle of the set, the stripped back look disappeared and the hits were
accompanied by a stunning light shows. During Miss Atomic bomb the band were
bathed in red light, whilst Human was accompanied by a dramatic laser
display. The audience clearly appreciated hearing the new songs, but it was the
old favourites that really got them going.
The band ended the show with two of their most popular hits, Mr
Brightside and When You Were Young which saw the stage strewn with confetti.
The final song in the encore, Battle Born also featured a dramatic
firework display. The Killers crammed in an impressive number hits from all
four studio albums into their set, and those who have tickets to see them at
the LG Arena tonight will not be
disappointed. Oh, so THAT’S what the firework display was all about. (Shots: far
away and it’s dark. Sorry about that – it’s mostly for you to imagine what’s
up,outside my window.)
Man, talk about being sorted – today I am REALLY sorted, because this is today’s post and I have just posted it!
Photo_
1- example of getting sorted . . . that was easy! (Aldi's ad)
2- me tomorrow
[Okay, probably time for bed when you’re half
asleep sitting at your desk, and glance up suddenly and become startled by your
own shadow on the wall staring back at you. I even let out a little scream.
Man, now that’s bad! True story.]
