Perfectly Vocal

Losing

A good friend told me a story....A man went to the races and bet £1 on a horse at 20-1 odds.  The horse won, he won £20 and bet it again on a 200-1.  Again the horse won.  He placed all his winnings on a final bet and lost.  He went home and his wife asked how he had got on.  "Oh, I only lost £1" he replied.  But did he?  Was he £1 worse off than when he started or £4001?  When we invest in something and it goes wrong, are we no worse off than when we started or do we also lose all that we invested and all the gains we made? 

I'm trying to figure it out.

And then the snow came...

We've had the first snow flurry of the year, and whilst not a heavy fall, the freezing temperatures led to chaos on our car park!  Last night I tried to leave work and slid backwards endlessly, between losing all control of the back end of my car, and the automatic traction control flashing like fury.  I was just about to abandon all hope when a very kind colleague offered to help by reversing my car back down into the car park and "taking a run at it".  It worked.  I hate driving in snow, he appeared to love it, revving the engine for all it was worth and shouting encouraging noises from the window.  It must be a "bloke thing".

On another note, the snow offered me the opportunity to try out my new camera phone - I'm quite pleased with the results.

Flood

We recently visited Spain and arrived two days after a catastrophic flood where 3 rivers had burst their banks causing devastation in the town.  The beach was strewn with the contents of the supermarket, cars had been swept into the sea and tragically, 4 people were killed. The clean up operation was in full swing when we arrived.  I have never seen the town in this light before.

Dancing Queens

In an attempt to cheer ourselves up, D and I had a night out in town last Saturday night and I think we're just about recovered one week later.  It's not always immediately clear where to go once you're over 40 without ending up in a club full of 17 year olds, but the problem was solved for us by daughter #2's boyfriend who got passes for us at the club where he works.  "You'll be OK in here tonight, I can already see a 40 year old woman" he told us at 9.30pm.  We arrived there after a meal around 11pm and the place was in full swing.  We tried to dance but found ourselves bumping into a couple of blokes in matching stripey shirts every ten minutes.  They looked hopeful, we looked horrified - I mean matching shirts??  The smaller one of the two had obviously been to the "Riverdance School of Disco" judging by his high kicks at the beginning of every chorus of "another one bites the dust".  The taller one, well, he had obviously pogo-ed too much in his youth as he maintained a rod straight back whilst jumping rhythmically.  Daughter #2 and her friend were hysterical with laughter as we studiously avoided them.  The it happened....every single one of my daughter's friends arrived and we were surrounded by a large crowd of 20-somethings.  Their dancing ranged from the sublime to the extreme and I think we covered the whole range of styles from swaying to moshing via digging along to "Working My Way Back to You, Babe".  By 2.00am we were shattered.  A quiet night in tonight to make up for it, I think!

Saturday Lunch

                      

I'm sure my dog thinks he's a person - here he is waiting for lunch to be served.

And in the meantime....

In the past 4 or 5 weeks:

• My cousin came from Australia and visited for a month
• Daughter #3 has gone back to Australia with my cousin for 3 months
• Daughter #2 has moved out into her own flat
• Elliot mended my PC
• I went to Spain for 8 days (in the wake of a serious flood)
• I got another promotion
• I started my Christmas shopping

I think that just about covers it!

Shauna

I first met Shauna 32 years ago on my first day at Secondary School.  She led a charmed life.  I wanted to be her.  Her clothes were right, her hair was right, she was phenomenally clever.  As we got older, she had the most handsome, caring boyfriend, Whilst the rest of us were constantly messed around by adolescents, her boyfriend was older and doted on her.  We laughed together endlessly.  One summer we sunbathed with tennis raquets over our legs to see if we could achieve the "Grilly-Lily" look.  We bought a Stretch Armstrong doll and gave it back and forth to each other every Christmas and birthday - I don't know why, but it amused us.  We went to University - I went to Newcastle, Shauna went to Edinburgh.  We visited each other, but on leaving University we drifted apart.  Shauna became a doctor and married a vet.  I became a speech therapist, married and divorced.  She had 3 sons, I had 3 daughters.  Our contact was sporadic, but it didn't matter.  I had my demons, Shauna had her's.  I lived with and fought mine, she did the same but lost the fight.  Shauna killed herself at the age of 44.  She never thought she was good enough.  I thought she was so good I wanted to be her.  I miss her.