28 years ago I suffered a very serious eye problem
This led to me having a major surgery and managing ti8
keep some of my vision 3 months I could see where to walk about it although no I was seeing double quite a lot.
0 eventually when I saw the consultant again he asked me when I kept falling over. No I said.
That’s very strange the doctor proud very few people with this condition do not fall over all the time.
I wonder why they didn’t tell me that at the beginning unless you salt no one would have tried to walk if they knew they might fall over every time they did.
He was even more surprised when I began to ride my bicycle again. So was I
Treasure your eyes and all your senses because they are how they relate to the world how you see all the the people nature buildings architecture the sky not to mention the television. We don’t always realise how much we have got until we lose some of it and it has been really trying I’m still in but I can manage I’ve got used to it. Like seeing black lions floating up and down which interfere with my reading so I have to move my head to make the the jelly in my eye move about more so I could see between these lines
It’s not quite what we mean when we say to read between the lines.
I think you and beings are a lot more adaptable and creative than we realise and we should help each other. I notice all the blind people shopping in the town struggling to cross the road and so on and I never used to see them before or very rarely
Canines are sometimes referred to as eye teeth because of their alignment under the eyes. Incisors are the front teeth on both your upper and lower jaws. Because their primary purpose is to bite into food, their name came from the Latin word “incidere,” which means cutter.
I believe they are sometimes called fangs in tigers
In January 1963 I was called for an interview you to a Northern university.
It was a Tuesday when I was usually at school. I only had one blouse apart from my school one.Forbeconomic reasons it was sleeveless.
Moreover I had worn it on Sunday so there was no way that I could wash and dry it it by 7 on Tuesday morning. I got dressed in this dirty blouse
And the cardigan my mother had made from old green and black wool that wasn’t her choice it was simply reduced price pure new wool if you could afford not afford a nice colour
Although she was very good at knitting she had put the button band on wrongly perhaps it was a little bit too short so she had to pull it which distorted the garment especially on the front.
I must have worn a skirt but I just don’t remember.
It was up terrible winter not long before Sylvia Plath committed suicide.
When I went into the interview room there were two men who look really old like 50 wearing suits really expensive suits.
And their hands were soft and white
Their fingernails were manicured and very clean
0 grandfather was a coal miner so I never really seen them with white hands soft white hands. Even my mother didn’t have soft white hands
I can only remember them asking me how old was the cathedral.
I have never seej it before that and it was a very cold day .I had not a lingered to look at it.
Furthermore we had not got a car and we did not drive around th e north of England looking at the cathedral or the castles. The interviews proceeded and then ask me
Why did I want to do mathematics, what did I plan to do?
I replied that I would like to do research
They burst out laughing and slapped their thighs. I had read about that in novels but I never seen his happening
I had already done a piece of original research but I had not told anybody.
I didn’t speak but I thought it was very weird so I left the room and went back to the station.
It was even colder. The only good thing about these men was that they gave more than half of the places to young women who were very talented. Even nowadays not many young women were going to an interview you and so they wanted to research mathematics I think that what I meant was I wanted to study something so well that I will begin to ask questions it would not have to be mathematics necessarily it could have been philosophy.
It didn’t cross my mind to say I wanted to be a writer.
I suppose that most of us there were going into teaching and that was what they expecting me to say and I have spent my life cheating (that should be teaching) in various higher educational universities or collegesb and I thought a lot of students from overseas from Brunei to Guyana from Malaysia and Hong Kong and it was a great privilege to do that I just regret the people in touch with the students but I do have the complete set of Brunei coins in a red velvet box which a young woman gave to me after she got a first class degree in economics specialising in econometrics and mathematical economics
Once I taught someone who had been to Eton and I got a place at Oxford but despite his expensive schooling he only got a third class degree and he’s probably in some high level job in the civil service turning a lot more money then I got for teaching him. I didn’t enjoy that teaching because the students always looked very afraid and it was a very competitive atmosphere. I prefer the more relaxed atmosphere in which I thought all these foreign students and British students as well and these people were from the lower social classes yes even ib higher education there is a class system in Britain.
I remember a student who was Egyptian. His father was a diplomat and have been sent to England to go to the boiler school which is probably expensive and he said to me there is a lot of racism now so he told his father not to send his younger brother to England to go to school because he’s obviously been unhappy and I sometimes wonder what happened to him in the Arab.
Spring
He gave new s collection of books about Islam and he gave me a wooden briefcase which could open and you can put some books it and when you fasten that you can put it on your knee and it was it was like the top of a small desk so you can write on some paper that you put on it and he said that was what was used as a lot of the schools because they didn’t have any desks in the classroom.
I still have that and I have slept with this on my knee writing a poem on a piece of paper and wishing that I kept in touch with this young man who will now be much older and I hope that they Arab Spring and all the wars have not destroyed his family life
Ok s in a class of 25 students and I recommended to the students to read Alice in Wonderland so that they could read Alice through the looking glass and learnt quite a lot of interesting and mathematical ideas.
Who was the only person who who read the books?
He was. I think I was so busy teaching and and carrying out my personal responsibilities I didn’t have enough time just think about how I would like to have in touch with some of the people who passed through
At least I taught them very very well. And they did very well overall.
I did do some research but it was not easy for a woman to do that in those days
I think it’s very important to be creative and that was one reason why I didn’t do English 0 for my degreebecause I didn’t believe I should be criticising Shakespeare when I never written anything original myself and now that I have written things myself I realise all the more what a great writer Shakespeare was and especially that he was very great poet.
Where I got my university Grant I was able to buy tu blouses with sleeves and I never wore as a dirty one again
I didn’t look very clean. That might have been in my favour because they may have thought someone so poor deserved a chance.
because they were both socialists.
Perhaps it wasn’t so bad thatvI didn’t own more clothing
Against sadness:no-one here can weep Nor lounge about in111 melancholy deep. Was Van Gogh senseless to permit his muse. For his masterpieces ,was the price too steep? We see the yellow chair but not his views Nor his mind where technique made such leaps. Nor was his journey broadcast on the news. Against sadness.
Happiness or joy is hard to find When we rest, the News preys on our minds Yet some are cold towards the slaughtered priest His nose a beak of bone in old face lined Now Muslims go to Mass and join Christ’s feast Against sadness.
What rages in the mind make men kill thus? In Syrian wars the innocents fare worse. But these are our near neighbours so we weep And wonder how to end the frightening curse The sins we once committed hold us deep We hold our hands out wanting to be nursed Against sadness
Why should we want to wear a certain kind of clothing just because some famous person wears it?
Perhaps you don’t have any ideas of your own about what you’d like to wear. But these people may not have chosen the clothes themselves. They may be being paid to wear them by some firm or designer. They may not even like them
So stop looking at other people Do you not know what you like?
You may like to think about a few relevant possibilities.
For myself I like to wear colours that appeal to me I like blue. I used to like very bright colours and I still do up to a point. Does colour matter to you you?
Then wear muted colours such as grey especially if you are going out. Initial muted colour
Do you like to be inconspicuous in the street?
If it does not you could dress ini black or another neutral colour. Some people do this anyway because it makes life simpler. Other people wear just two or three colours like beige black and light cream.
Restricting the colours to two or three means that you will never have a problem matching clothes together
Similarly do you like prints and patterns or plain colours? It’s much easier if you leave out prints. You can get a scarf which has several colours in if you feel that would be fun to wear.
You need some shoes. You will probably already have got these but they should not clash with your clothing colours
Di you u fancy wearing bright red shoes and you know that’s what you want regardless of what other people wear ? Choose what you want
If you are are living on a small income you may not be able to wear exactly what you want but you can get near it.
If you have got clothes and you hate them, sell them on eBay or give them for charity
Save the money I’m sure you’ll find something you like later.
You don’t have to dress in avway that is dictated to you.
It’s better to enjoy your own choices f you have no interest in clothes just buy things in one colour and forget about it
Or go to charity shops and see if you can find something more interesting add to your very simple and plain outfits
We should try to enjoy as much of life as we can whether it is having good friends finding a job that we like or simply having fun bwith our clothing.
Let us try to be more positive about the winter which will inevitably come unless the world ends first.
It will be an opportunity to wear that big woollen sweater that you bought in a sale and it is always been too hot for you to wear. Now that you can’t afford to switch your boiler on this will be the ideal garment do your hands and feet get cold though?
But do wear a bib because theyvbig wool ijumpers do stick out They can’t wait for you to spill tomato soup anto them.
Did you go to visit a rich friend who can afford to have the central heating on and you’re still wearing your big jumper.
Be careful because being too hot can make you faint.
If you bought a lovely down coat in the sales this is your chance to wear it indoors.
I’ve it so lighto you could always put it over yourself in bed if you feel cold.
I think an electric blanket is very useful whether or not you have heating.
I would find it hard to go back to the freezing bedrooms of my childhood but children sleep well and I miss those days the ending is jumping into bed shutting my eyes and going to sleep straight away l
Sleep problems might start when you move away from home if you have not managed to internalise your mother. According to psychoanalysts children get their security from the mother or father but if all goes well l.day will take in this figure and we’ll be able to to.feel.the secure enough without the presence of that person.
Sometimes children of about 18 0 months in age will develop a fondness for a soft toy or a piece of blanket and this is called as transitional object by the psychoanalyst DW winnicott and it is a good thing because they transfer their feelings from the mother into this object which they can carry about with them and eventually most people stop using these soft toys all the time although many people do have one on their bed.
It’s welcome reminder of the mother or father and it’s soft and furry it’s comforting this is it was sleeping against the mother’s breast having just had a good feed.
When I was going to university my mother walked to the station with me and she said to me I don’t think your landlady will boil a handkerchief for you so you have to use tissues.
I had never seen a tissue then.
I bought a box the next day and unsure of how many to use I restricted myself to one a day because I couldn’t spend a lot Of course if you had a cold you would need more than one I think.
During the covid-19 epidemic it was really important to use tissues and to dispose of them safely so as not to spread infection.
However they are quite expensive and we had a shortage in the iUnited Kingdom as well ;so what else could you do do?
Well you could buy some handkerchiefs instead and we used to boil ours in a pan on the coal fire in the evening.
I expect you could wash them in the washing machine on a very hot wash when you’re doing towels and sheets.
But I would not recommend this when you have a cold flu or any other infection.
At one time women had to used towels when they were menstruating that is pieces of towelling which were fastened to their knickers with safety pins.
This was not very comfortable and even if you’re short of money it seems to be too extreme because also it’s not very safe and the blood can easily leak onto your clothing.
There are things like menstrual cups made of plastic that you can use which I imagine would save money in the long run but that’s up to any individual woman.
What a surprise after all these years dl to bevwondering whether one can afford to use tissues to blow one’s nose or wipe ones lips etc
It is also better for the planet if we are careful with using paper or cardboard so that we do not ruin in the world by lack of thought and it will save a little money for anyone.
You go out for coffee or a meal and if you have paper napkin provided then if you don’t use it you could take that home and cut it in half and useb each half as a substitute for a paper hanky
If you save 50p a day letting £180 in the year.
0r it is £3.50 a week which will still pay for a large cappuccino.
Please don’t stop using toilet paper. Unless you are a homeless person and in that case you may be able to use a public comlnvenience where there should be toilet paper.
If you want to spend less money on your clothing I have a few tips to help you.
It is quite acceptable to wear jeans most of the time.
But if you’re on a budget decide when you will want to wear them and save the expensive sort if you have any for when you are going out socially when you can wear them with a lovely top ang you’ve probably already got a top in your wardrobe that would be save money Do not buy a new top wear a plain t-shirt and maybe a little scarf or a big scarf if you’ve already got one in your wardrobe
Depending on your budget you can buy them atnquite low prices or or you can spend an astonishing amount of money on them
For gardening and housework you do not need to wear clothes with holes in them.
You can get a pair of jeans in m
Marks and Spencer’s for less than £20 if you’ve got a washing machine these are the only ones you need.
If you can afford it buy a second pair. It depends on your shape whether you can wear certain brands. Look in TK maxx if you would like designer jeans for a low price.
If you can find your size it’s quite gratifying
If you don’t like jeans for wearing outside the house you can get some black trousers but make sure they washable
I know someone who wears jeans all the time except when she’s going to a formal dinner and dance when she will wear a dress. I have never been to a dinner dance it’s not my kind of thing so I don’t have any formal wear
If you can sew this will be a huge saving and you can make a vogue dress or whatever you fancy.
Otherwise a black skirt maybe velvet can be worn with different tops. If you don’t wear skirts wear black trousers.
If you pick very carefully you can have one black skirt and one pair of trousers and the number of tops and you can wear them night and day.
But it’s better to keep your gardening clothes separate from the rest of in case there is a snail or slug stuck on the side
In the winter you need a warm sweater of whatever you can afford as you can get cashmere
in a sale or wool in a chain store.
For people who don’t drive it’s necessary to have a warm coat and I found a long one is necessary if you have to wait
at the bus stop whenever you going anywhere
Also such a coat will cover up all the ancient things you might be wearing and make you look smart as long as you don’t take it off
I knew someone once who managed with a needlecord skirt and trousers and a pair of jeans. 3/4 tops And a trench coat.
She did not even own a night dress but she did have a dressing gown in case someone knocks on the door early in the morning 0.
Shaking or trembling, which comes from the limbic brain (the part of the brain that holds emotions), sends a signal that the danger has passed and that the fight-or-flight system can turn off. They are literally finishing the nervous system response to release the traumatic experience from the body.23 Oct 2019
Well, I don’t write a letter very often, but after finding a replica of my old pen on E bay I decided to do a Round Robin. First of all, none of my children have got into Oxford or Cambridge nor have my grandchildren.They are all on the dim side but that is how I like them.I think IQ is very over rated and as mine is 65 when tested you realise I am a mere imbecile and so my ten children take after me. They all got degrees from places I’d never heard of like Chester, Bolton, Ormskirk, and Hendon.However, as I once lost a job offer from a well known university because I wore an engagement ring I kind of thought being a low flyer might be better. My brother is very nice.He is changed very much since we were adolescents when he was too put it mildly a pain.He has now told me I am in the top 1% of intelligence in the world.Imagine 99% of the world’s population has an IQ of 64 or less.Don’t expect an imbecile to explain that I can believe it about our delightful politicians, Theresa Paybum and Horace Yawnsome and their ilk. My children have done well.One is a violinist in Berlin.As I never go there I cannot be sure if she is lying but she does speak good German or for all I know it might be Yiddish as my great aunt was familiar with that old tongue.Perhaps my daughter is really playing the Jewish harp in a liberal Synagogue.And believe me, it would have to be very liberal to let that flame haired temptress near any man. married or single Is it her fault she is so attractive?After all, she is my daughter and blew dry every hair daily as a teen My eldest son had to miss an exam before he was accepted at Ormskirk Dental School.You see with 21 GCSE’s grade A star they wanted him to go to Cambridge but he knew his own limits He hates formality .He preferred being near the great Nature Reserves of the estuary of the Mersey and Nature and its exploration has kept him busy. Why he even spends whole days in the Mersey Tunnel.He said he wants to found the Universiy of New Brighton but he is still in the tunnel.I said I’d buy him a motorbike but he prefers walking everywhere and camping on the verges of the road maybe giving relief to a few virgins en passant Being a virgin nowadays is very hard socially.But as a Spanish waiter once said to me ” One virgin is very hard to find” Maybe two are easier…I’m an embecile. so I can’t say My second daughter is married and lives in Poole. She often walks around the Isle of Purbeck with the triplets in her back pack.How her husband stands her I cannot get.She is lazy and unable to cook even frozen chips.However, the babies are still on the breast and there is a McDonald’s nearby.Her Ph.D was on “Cats in Modern Physics”.She had a wonderful tutor at Wigan University.Why, he married her! Then he got a job in Bournemouth. which is by the sea!She always was lucky.Apart from givinh birth to three boys all at once,if you see what I mean. How she snagged him I do not know as she has little hair and wears thick glasses but her thesis was the first of its kind.Now everyone is doing animals in abstract mathematics.Or going to Art School to paint like an animal!With your paws! Well, it’s time for me to warm my frozen pizza on the coal fire so I’ll leave the rest for next time.Don’t take an IQ test.I used to think I was quite bright before. Au revoir Katy Krispberger {Siren]
If you are retired and able to walk about you could visit your public library more than once a week and you can read the newspapers the Guardian and the Times. You can also read the Guardian free online the Guardian is £2.50 per day and at the weekend this is £3.50 a day I think that comes to £19.50 a week which is £80 per 4 weeks
0r £1040;a year is my mental arithmetic is correct
That is quite a lot of money so if you are are fearing ⁵ a problem as a food prices increase and the cost of heating your house or flat rises dramatically have a look at your subscriptions or or the bills from your newsagent
Cancelling your newspaper could help you you to pay for your gas and electricity although I know that those people in that position I’ve probably already stop buying newspapers
You can also read magazines in the library although if everyone starts doing this
There might be a queue in the library.
while you are in the library you will get warm because public buildings are usually quite hot and also you can make use of the toilet thus saving on your own water bill If
If your water bill is very high consider letting your children pass water in the garden.
t
T{here is a problem though they need to know that you can’t urinate in public unless you are absolutely desperate. Since public toilets have been closed if there’s a problem for some people to even go out. Perhaps we ought to urinate in public places to show the government what it’s like living in this society.
and also we must remember if we stay out a long time in the town that will will be tempted to have coffee every day and and coffee is no longer cheap.
But it is pleasant to have coffee out so we will have to decide how many times a week we can have it. Inviting a friend to join us once a week could make it into a social occasion rather than j having a meal out so it would be saving money in a way because affording food out is going to be very hard for many families and individuals in the coming winter.
What is vital for one person may not matter to another. I know I read the Guardian online and save money like that.
how would you to save money ?
there’s not a lot that’s essential especially in clothimg once we have acquired a winter coat and a raincoat, a decent pair of shoes a pair of trousers and jeans and a skirt maybe a few tops. I like clothes but I tried to buy expensive clothes in a sale so I don’t need any though no I might buy scarf.
I like knittimg but the wool is really expensive. I decided I couldn’t do it much.
.
it’s not easy for everyone to afford and that is why why many people buy from very cheap shops and then if it wears out they get a new one. That is not very good for the Earth.
I lived for 7 years on a student grant does it seem ok then because my family was poor so I know that you can live on much less money but at that time it was the electric meter with the pound coin that stole my money
Waking up in the morning was cruel in the winter but on the other hand there was a church nearby with a wonderful jumble sale and so I acquired a few good things that way.
it will be quite hard for other people to go back to go back to such a lifestyle it will help us to empathise with the poor
I wore the same woollen skirt in the winter all those years.
If you believe the poor are lazy look government statistics in the library or on your computer.
not everyone can become a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher. And if some people rise other people must fall unless it economy is it’s expandinanyone can be the Prime Minister.,,.. why do we have such bad ones
and many of the members of Parliament have a very little wisdom or true intelligence and understanding what it is like to be poor.
I am very angry the government decided to only give child benefit for 2 children because it will increase the number of abortions take place.
whatever the reasonThat is legal but is it a good thing if the parents have a good relationship and want to have three children even though they are shortnof money is it right to force into abortion?
Even a wanted abortion is no fun.
And sex is fun and free if you have a partner.
Some peopl have sex with lots of other people like it is said President John f Kennedy did
Especially better than watching Neighbours on the television every night
And if the child is born it is a child that will suffer from the poverty of the family as a whole. Just cause we all want to pay less income tax even if it means that some women will have abortions when they didn’t really want to. This might affect their mental health and there’s already a very long waiting list for therapy or to see a psychiatrist. It seems this government will stop at nothing to lower income tax
Sadly there is no incentive for the the rich to find out what it is like living on a very low income. That should be done in school. And maybe there was stop moaning about paying tax
Why is it only being talked about now when the middle class fair they won’t be able to use central heating when for many years the poorer have struggled.
it seems to imply t he e poor don’t matter!
And that is how they feel.
I think a lot of the people in the government are very egocentric.
It is not a human right she have a foreign holiday every year
It is not a human right to have central heating
Although for older people and babies it might be wise to have it
If you can afford it and generally speaking life is pleasanter if you can keep your house warm but when you look at the living conditions of people all over the world many people are suffering from heat or cold.
People are still starving in a lot of countries
Poverty is relative and children here growing up up.in poverty suffer when they can’t have iPads or or computers and they cannot have new school uniforms or go on field trips.
So I would not dare to say to the poorl that they are better off than they would be iqin India.
When my sister was doing a level biology she didn’t even tell Mym about the field trips
But when she went to university she was on a grant s so she was able to go on the field trips and And she got a good degree.
The sky is stark ,the air is cool and still The black cat’s run,the birds unflowed all day I sit alone and with some totty pray Ye cast o’ foolish thoughts, you raped my will.
We’ve all enraged the bureaucratic mills Oh frigid purse, I never ought to pay! The sky ‘s a’spark,the air is warm and shrill The saturnine demoted found their way
With this feathered pounce, my sample quill, I cite the cheque and date it for next May. Oh,tit for tat, the tiger’s bed ‘s astray. And now all’re nettled by a harlot’s will The sky ‘s a shark, the air is sharper still.
Teacher’s mental health suffers due to overwork the newspapers say.
Does that imply that if you are mentally healthy you can work vast numbers if hours a week and stay up half the night doing preparation you can stay up the whole night and then teach all day and then you will really mental healthty won’t you
In other words people are not mentally ill if they can’t cope with a huge workload. Perhaps they are over conscientious and should simply not prepare lessons And not help children who are suffering from the effects of the lockdowns moreover they could spend less time preparing for parent teacher meetings and I know this would have a very bad effect on the children. This phrase mental health is being overused.I
It is the environment that is sick not the people working there
Would you say garment workers in Asia are mentally ill they are exhausted Angeanxious and worried with the terrible conditions that they have to work in for very low pay?
Mental health is not a condition that enable us to be overworked and made use of
How my heart sings 