My Corner of The Internet

Things To Make Me Smile (and a few things that annoy me)

recent posts

about

As I type I’ve hit 50 and can see it start to recede into the distance I’m now on my own, as I’m cat free, but still living my best life. I love to craft, photograph, read & watch TV. This is to be the place that makes me smile.
  • Embracing the Small Wins

    Embracing the Small Wins

    Well it’s almost the end of the month and as the title would suggest, the month of endeavours wasn’t the resounding overall success I was hoping for but to be honest, I’ll take what I managed ’cause it’s something to keep moving forward with.

    The DIET – well that fell face first into the dirt and just stayed there.  Yes I want to be a slightly smaller version of what I am at the moment but I don’t want to be obsessed with weight and calories.  My mother is in her 70s and is still worried about her weight and what she’s eating, I don’t want that for me.  So I was less than half way through the month when I called time of the “diet”.  It really does suck the joy out of life, if all you’re thinking is can I eat XYZ or I’m supposed to be going out to a restaurant what will I be able to eat – no I want to be able to go to the restaurant, pick what I want and enjoy myself,  chances are it will be a healthy option but more importantly it will be the option that I want.  I have enough diet cook books with lovely recipes that if I actually make an effort to cook it will be a low cal meal anyway.  I generally just heat stuff up as opposed to Cooking.

    My first half success was the exercise – I managed to go for a walk a few times and for the past two mornings I’ve been on the exercise bike.  I should point out that it’s only been for 10mins which isn’t a lot to some people but it’s 10mins more than I had been doing or was able to do, so I’m happy with that.  The other thing that I did and I’m absolutely overjoyed about – I went swimming for the first time in about 7 years.  That was big!  I will admit it was only the once but one or two health issues meant I haven’t been back but that’s just temporary – and am going to try and get back again next weekend.  It wasn’t a full length pool but that’s ok – i swam one length and realised how out of shape I really am – but I was just so lovely – it also gave me a chance to lie back and float for a little bit – that is the one time that my mind isn’t full of noise – so that is the icing on the cake for me – and another incentive to keep going back.

    My second half success is the tidying up the apartment – I have been doing it slowly but surely and because it’s not finished, I can’t claim success.  But I’m doing it and that’s the important bit.  Mind you I tidied my bedroom and then two days later, I was to go out, so all the clothes came out of the wardrobe and the place looked like it had been hit by a tornado by the time I ran out the door.  It just goes to show that when it gets done it’s so easily undone – you just have to put one thing down and the cascade starts.  I read a blog post once – can’t remember the blog or what the overall point of the post was, but one thing made an impression on me and it was “Leave No Trace” and I’ve tried to keep that in mind and for a while I was rather successful, so I think it’s time to take that motto out and dust it off.

    So what do I think of my month – while it look like a 1 all draw, I think it was an overall success.  So what’s working will have to be continued and what wasn’t working will be left behind.

    Anyway – This morning is the ultimate demonstration of failure and happiness – instead of going out swimming/walking/cycling, I’m still in bed having coffee and birthday cake for breakfast – and I’m loving it.

    Fediverse reactions

  • A Challenge for June

    I’ve decided to set myself a challenge for the month and it’s only for the month – July can look after itself.  I want to lose a bit of weigh, get a bit more active, and become more aware of my surroundings in the apartment (tidy up)

    Coming into 2026, I decided I needed to lose a little bit of weight – not to change how I look, but simply so I can feel a bit more like myself – I’m not sure if that makes sense but it does in my head.
    Coming into June, I decided I needed to lose a little bit of weight –  in order to get back to the starting point at the beginning of the year when I originally decided I needed to lose a little bit of weight😖.

    I know I can do it – I’ve done it before (that’s not really something to boast about).  However, the thought of counting calories, points, sins etc for the rest of my life just felt like it was draining all the joy, so after a week or two I just say I can do this by myself – eat sensibly is the trick.  And it is a trick and that is why i have gained weight rather than losing it, and it’s a trap I almost fell into again.

    As mentioned I want to try and get back to the 01/01/26 weight – and starting the month fresh off a plane from Paris meant there was a bit extra work to be done.  However pat-on-the-back to me I paid attention to what I was eating for the partial week and I was delighted with myself when I stood on the scales on Thursday morning (it’s a throwback to my diet week being fri-thurs). Friday morning arrived and I figured, I’d done so well in the last few days, that I don’t need to count calories!  Then I remembered it’s a trap!  I do need to count them – but I don’t have to count them for the rest of my life, I only have to do it for this month.  After that I can decide what direction I want to go in.

    There’s 2nd branch is to get active – it’s the 6th of June and I have fallen down on that particular challenge.  I’m not a naturally active person.  Some people are but I don’t fall in to that category.  I think I’m going to have to be a bit more intentional about it.  The main thing I want to do is actually to get more stretches in – yes for me that counts as activity.  I need it for my joints – I’m getting to that age and I need to start maintaining my movement ability and even increase it before it starts to diminish.  I’ve other plans for this but I don’t want to say anything yet – I will come back and celebrate my effort of admit my defeat.

    The last part of the challenge is the apartment.  It’s tidy and it’s grand – but sometimes I look around and I can’t believe the amount of clutter.  Take my hall for instance – I live alone – did I really need to have 10 coats and jackets hanging up in the hall??? No!  and just in case you were wondering – yes I do need the 10 coats.  So this week, I vacuum packed the heavy bulky ones, I cleared the top of the radiator cover that had been a resting place for hats and gloves.  Now the hall looks bright and airy – well not as enclosed as it had been.  I think the main idea is to try and clear surfaces – find the right home for everything – unless it’s an ornament, then it can stay on the shelf – but plugs and chargers – they have a home – put them away rather than having them out on the sofa – I know convenience is the reason why they are out and left out – but do I really use them (all things not just chargers) that often that I can’t just put them away???  Of course the next question is, if it doesn’t have a home, why?  do you really want to keep it?  the find it a home or put it in the bin.

    I know that all three of these things are something that should be done all the time anyway – but being consistent is my down fall – I am, what can only be described as, hit-and-miss.  So I’m using this month to be consistent – if it takes then yay and if it doesn’t that’s ok too ’cause I’ll still have achieved something from my endeavours this month (The hall alone is a big win!)
    Wish me luck

  • That They Might Face The Rising Sun

    I’m finally getting around to watching some of the stuff I recorded over Christmas, and in yesterday’s case it wasn’t the one just gone. I finally watched “That They Might Face The Rising Sun” (in case you hadn’t guessed). I’m slightly undecided about it but I think I shall come down on the favourable side. It’s not your typical film and if you’re hoping for defined plot and movement carrying the story along, then this is not for you. On the other hand if you’re a fan of silence, slow pace and spartan conversation then this is absolutely for you. On the other hand if it’s not, I’d still say give it a shot – you don’t have to watch it a second time. Although you will probably spend all of it asking yourself when will this start to get going – the answer is – it won’t. It’s a bit like life, it trundles on making its own way forward. I just hope that the characters had more conversation off screen ‘cause if they didn’t then they must live monastically silent lives.

    As with any story set in Ireland, where would you be without a wedding and a funeral. Watching the wedding scenes, you’d almost want to get up and dance with them – although they are more the weddings pre-my youth – it’s still somewhat familiar to me. Along with the funeral, that ritual has hardly changed – although the undertaker takes on the laying out these day – I was almost saying the rosary with them – belief aside, it’s ritual and rote.

    I have a feeling that the film is set somewhere in the 70s – I don’t think it is beyond 1980 (of course I am probably wrong) and in which case it’s showing an Ireland I was born into. It’s definitely not the same country now and that isn’t a bad thing – but it was nice to see what it was up there on the telly. As it’s a slow quiet film that’s the lives it shows.

    So despite wondering when the story was going to start, I’ve taken to the film. Will I watch it again – possibly not intentionally – but if it’s on I won’t be in a hurry to change channels.

  • Do Something

    Over the last few days I’ve been catching glimpses of myself in the mirror and to say unappealing and disappointing is putting it mildly.  Is this the moment that the change happens  – no, not that change – the mindset change.  

    I saw a reel on Insta and it was Joanne Donnelly and she mentioned something about doing a 28 day walking challenge – so I think that is what I’m going to do.  Now anybody in their right mind would start straight away and by postponing it they are only doomed to failure etc.  But my mind doesn’t work like that – my mind has immediately hit upon the fact that tomorrow is February 1st and that is 28days long.  So that is the plan – I have to leave the apartment and go for a walk every day for the month.  if I’m lucky it’ll continue to happen – or my natural laziness will reassert itself and I’ll revert to my natural state of a hermit couch potato.  In the mean time I’m going to have to start on the calorie counting.  I just want to reduce the wobble a bit.  

    I think I should address the opening statement a little bit – the unappealing – I don’t find it appealing – I’m not worried about anybody else – nobody else is going to see it – it’s just for me – the combination of disappointing is – that’s not the way I look, that’s not how I’m supposed to be.  Now in fairness I’m not a million miles away from it and it just takes a bit of effort to get back there.  That’s where the problem lies – effort – the constant fight of don’t wanna do it, don’t wanna look like this – so there’s the choice.  The small starting step is the walk everyday in february, with the calorie counting.  Whether anything else gets added into the mix a little later is something that can be addressed when the time comes – but I have to say, walking has always served me well – once i actually do it.  In fairness the walking is for fitness – it’s not going to tone me – but also it will do me good to get out – blow away the cobwebs.  Although if I remember correctly I used to walk at lunchtime during covid simply to keep myself out of the kitchen so in that respect it helps with the calorie counting.

    So the question is – how long will it be, before I don’t go for the walk???

  • AI & IT

    I don’t have the soul of a programmer and I don’t have the patience to be one either.  I want to say last week but I think it was the week before, we had a hack-athon / prompt-athon where we had to come up with ways of automation that would help us in our day to day work using AI and the likes.

    (and yes it is the slippery slope of turkeys voting for christmas but that’s another rant altogether.)

    Anyway – our team decided an email notification for records older than 90 days would be very handy – work is always moving forward that we tend to forget to look back especially after 90 days – or we could just organise ourselves better – but this email nudge would actually be handy.  Now I like to play with computers – figure things out.  I should point out that does not mean I’m good with computers – please see my opening sentence.  However when I get a new computer, phone, tablet, gadget – I like to press buttons, find out where everything is and mould it into what I feel comfortable with and makes sense to me.  So after our 2 hours were up in the hackathon we were to go away and actually do our “whatever your team decided on”.  Now this was really just showing me the shiny.  I could happily (with swearing) spend hours trying to figure it out.  The downside to this is that there is also the normal day to day work that needs to be done along with playing with the puzzle.

    So yesterday (yes it was a Saturday) I decided that I was going to make it work – mainly because on Friday, I couldn’t even get the damnable programmes to see the excel file – talk about falling at the first hurdle.  – Anyway – I decided that armed with copilot and power automate I was going to make this work.  I liked that I didn’t have other calls on my time when I was breaking my brains, I could swear if I wanted (and I did) and the frustration went unwitnessed.

    I had to start the conversation with Copilot a few times because it was just getting too bogged down and the more questions I asked the more lost I became in “where was I?” The first time Copilot mentioned that it had completely missed out a step was annoying – particularly when it tells me Great Question (like, Stop Patronising Me Please!).  I restarted the prompt and it omitted it a second time so when i did the restart for a third time I had to tell it to include the step if it was going to be needed for a later part of the instructions!  I mean by the end of the day I really was just annoyed with it.

    Ultimately the computer won the battle but I did have a small victory.  I managed to get the computer to finally see the excel spreadsheet – yay!  and I managed to work thought all of the flows to get the thingy to send me an email.  However the email just contains gibberish and not the actual information that I want it to tell me.  In the end I opened the wine so that we could both be spouting gibberish.  I think ultimately the use of AI and all that it brings really should be left to the IT magicians, and let it help them with their wizardry.  Like I said I managed to get it to work(ish) but I didn’t understand the code that I had to enter and I think that’s ultimately why I don’t know why it failed.  At least a programmer would have an idea at what point it fell over and looking at it can see what went wrong – but I’m just taking screen shots and asking “is this correct?” of an AI programme that didn’t tell me all of the things I had to do.  So chances are when it’s say yes that’s correct – there’s a possibility that it’s not.

    My task for today is to ignore the niggle in the back of my head that is asking why it didn’t work properly and I must not go back and try to figure it out – leave it ’til tomorrow when i can reach out to the real experts and get them to sort it.

  • Location, Location, Location

    Have you ever discovered something rather trivial that has given you more a thrill than it should?

    Well this little map has done just that!

    Slow Horses is on the horizon so I’ve been rewatching the old series.  Being nosy – I wondered – is that really a place in london so thanks to google maps street view – I discovered that yes it is!  There the Italian restaurant Vecchio Parioli and just beyond is the walkway – number 123 – where Slough House is supposed to be based.

    Anyway – as I looked at the map a bit more, I glimpsed a familiar name – Florian Court!  The setting used as home to the estimable Hercule Poirot – Whitehaven Mansions!

    I will absolutely put my hand up and say this absolutely thrilled me!  No idea why – but I just thought that it was great that these two locations were virtually back to back. Also Yes I know “absolutely” is getting used too much but like WOW!

  • Tidy Your Room!

    I know!  When we were younger that was the last thing we wanted to hear from our parents.  Well I’m saying it to you now – tidy your bedroom.

    Last night was one of those little moments where I realised I couldn’t have somebody come in here ’cause the place is just cluttered with clothes that need to be put away.

    What ’caused that little moment you might ask?  A Spider!  I don’t like spiders.  I have a vague agreement with them – do what you want just don’t be seen.  This agreement is for all rooms with one exception – the bedroom – just stay out please.  Last night there was a spider on the wall above the bed and I was tempted to call the neighbour to rescue me or spider but couldn’t ’cause the room was a mess and also they’ve moved so there wasn’t anybody to call on.  However had the room been tidied, there was more of a possibility that another neighbour would be called on instead.

    So please tidy your bedroom – you just don’t know what emergency is around the corner (spiders do count) and you don’t want be embarrassed – and the reward is that you have a tidy room!

  • Starting the Summer

    It’s the May Bank Holiday Weekend – although I will admit that I woke this morning wondering if it really was a bank holiday or should I be getting up to go to work, but I think that’s a normal reaction.  Anyway – May, Summer – I had a productive day on Saturday – I had my car’s NCT at 9am – What was I thinking of??  9am!  on a Saturday!  A few years ago, I got caught in traffic and ever since then I’ve arrived early – so I was done and dusted at the time the appointment was due – how cool was that!  Anyway – I didn’t pass but didn’t exactly fail it either – a light wasn’t working so I’d to get it fixed and I could go back for a visual inspection.  I went to Ikea and spent like it was going out of fashion on knick knacks – I only went for cake and a charger cable but why stop there??  Anyway – went to the garage to see when they could fit me in to get the light sorted – as luck would have it they took a quick look and it seems nothing needed to be done – it was simply that something had popped out of place and once it was put back, all was well – so straight back to the NCT centre, had the visual, got my certificate.  I’m really pleased as the car is 21 yrs old and she’s still going grand!

    I came home had cake and decided that the weather had been fine long enough to cut the grass or in my case, dandelion patch – and that’s what I did – it makes such a difference it really does – and I took it as my cue to move the garden bench – in the colder months it’s kept on the path by the wall of the house, but during the summer I move it so that it’s back is to the shed and it’s sheltered by the honeysuckle.  Yesterday (Sunday) there were noises in the garden – I was terrified it was a rodent having some sort of shouting match but it was a load of starlings feeding on whatever was coming through on the garden – it was fascinating to see.  Also when I say starlings – that’s me having a guess…

    I actually spent all of yesterday (Sunday) indoors because I’d finally gotten time to read and this was a book I couldn’t put down, so that was me ignoring the outside world for a few hours.  I am actually really happy about that – it’s not that it doesn’t happen that often but I’m a bad reader and it takes me an age to get through books but this was one of the few where I simply had to keep reading until it was finished – the disappointment in it, was that it finished and as it was alluded to the book – that there is always an aftermath and we don’t get to see it.  Anyway – the book was The Wilding by Ian McDonald – it’s categorised as horror but I’m not a horror reader so I’m not sure how deep into the genre it is – I can’t say it was fantasy although it did contain the fantastical – it had the catastrophe and the survival flight or fight – funnily it reminds me of John Wyndham.  Sorry that’s just my thoughts running away with me – but now that the book is finished I’ll have to bring it back to the library.

    Keeping me company while I read was the neighbours cat – she came in and curled up on the desk chair and was most reluctant to leave when I eventually evicted her at 8pm.  She’s also the reason I thought rodent in the garden rather than birds – I’ve seen her on occasion passing by with a mouth full of mouse!

    This morning I had notions about this post – there was even thoughts of a photo but that didn’t happen ’cause I tend to eat the food and rarely remember to photograph it even if I had intended to do so.  So starting the summer – breakfast outside on the bench listening to the birds and as I was a bit late it also involved a child having great fun playing in their garden somewhere down the road.  The sunshine and the not warm but not cold morning – a lovely air that refreshes but doesn’t invigorate too much.  It’s the one thing that I love – to sit out on the bench having breakfast listening for the sounds and the silence.  If the weather holds over the next while, it will be a mix of the mornings and evenings after work, listening to all of the voices enjoying the outside – looking around and seeing how the flowers are growing and changing (flowers = raspberries, black currants, agapanthus, lavender, holly and of course dandelions).  There is something so peaceful about just sitting out when the weather allows.  So now that the bench is in Summer position it’s time to start getting outside.

  • Strange Saturday Achievements

    Ok, so you know how we’re all just one click away from going down a rabbit hole? Well I’ve just been on google maps looking at the grave of Richard Burton and obviously that lead to the grave of Dylan Thomas. They are so simple, and with that simplicity was beauty and peacefulness. My rabbit hole began with the trailer for the upcoming film Mr Burton – very moving!

  • I’ve been out of the apartment

    I’ve gone from an almost hermit like existence to being less of a hermit.  I can’t really say social butterfly because that would really give the wrong impression.  On the other hand compared to normal it could be used…

    Anyway – this year I decided to go to things and do things.  The last few weeks have been busy – busy for me that is (I don’t know why i always feel the need to put in qualifier🤷‍♀️). One event a week is busy for me.  It started when I went to see Jenny Eclair on a Friday night – I did agree with her sentiment that an 8pm start really was late but that’s ’cause we ain’t the spring chickens we like to think we are.  On the whole she really was funny – now on occasion one or two of her references didn’t exactly hit the mark (possibly just for me) – referencing a shop in the UK, yes I recognise the name and have a vague notion of the point you’re making but as we’re not in the uk it didn’t have quite the impact it should have – that kind of thing.  To be honest, that didn’t really matter because it was a great night.  This was slightly overshadowed by looking at the phone afterwards to read of a shouting match in the White House between Trump&Co and President Zelenskyy – like WTAF?!?!

    The following week on a Thursday, I went to see James Blunt in concert – this time it was indoors and my word there is such a big sound difference and on this occasion I wasn’t dancing in the rain – so that alone was a big thumbs up.   While we were waiting for the concert to start there was a video on the screens to advertise merchandise – completely brilliant – There was King Charles – unnoticed, Trump – booed, Musk – less booed, Putin – tittering, Starmer – unnoticed, a random woman in the house of commons – confusion for me (I now think it might have been Kemi Badenoch but I’m not 100% confident…) then Zelenskyy – massive cheering.  So whoever came up with this really hit the nail on the head – especially after last weeks fiasco/”art of the deal”

    Jump another week and it’s a Friday – myself and my Mam went to see Michael Harding.  It was brilliant!  Mams generation in the audience thought it was hilarious as well – I just thought it was funny in places.  On the other hand I could listen to that man read a shopping list and I’d think it was brilliant.  I have to admit that I haven’t read his books but I do read his pieces in the newspapaer  The lesson of the talk was that you don’t have to understand people – you don’t have to work them out, know what makes the tick – you just have to love them.  Accept them as they are and love them.

    This week, I flew solo.  I went to a matinee in the theatre – it always astounds me how they remember the words.  It’s an absolute pure feat!  It’s magic!  Anyway – yesterday’s excursion was to see Shakespeare!  King Lear to be precise.  Now it seems that most people I know of varying generations have all done it for their Leaving Cert. – myself included, when I repeated mine.  When you think of the play you did in school, the general feeling (or possibly personal feeling) is that it’s dry – it was lines and quotes remembered for an exam, the story line was only a thin surface.  The novel you study is all about the story – dialogue, descriptions, narration – it’s all wrapped up to convey the story.  The play however is pure dialogue and to read it on a page for an exam – this can be very barren.  Yesterday however, to see it played out – to see facial expressions, to hear intonation and delivery – this made it – this changed it – this was outstanding.  I think that whatever the play that’s being studied for exams – go and see it being performed – whether it’s via the big screen, the little screen, on youtube or live on stage  – see it performed – see what becomes of a script – because essentially that’s what it is – it’s a script for a visual production.   And yesterday’s production delivered on the visuals too!  Gloucesters ordeal took place on stage with the makeup (?) for each infliction being put into place – I don’t go to the theatre much – so this is possibly something many of you were acquainted with, for me it was better than any CGI in the cinema – it was real – it was credible.  The cast was a cast full of luminaries – 4 of whom I recognised immediately and the rest I’ll be watching out for.

    I have 2 weeks of nothing ahead of me – I’m looking forward to them!  However after that it gets busy again with another concert and a trip or two.  I’m going to need a long lie down after all of this is done!