Travelling On

beanielou

I really don't understand the red hat thing.

Karmacat

Beanie, its just a social club for women, really, but it started with a very adventurous poem written in 1961, by a 29 year old woman named Jenny Joseph:

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

beanielou

Ah thank you Karmkat for that.
I knew the gist of the poem, the bit that had always stuck in my head was about wearing purple.

badmemory

How come I have never read that before?  The other version is to grow old disgracefully.  I do my best to shock the under 40s.  You know what I mean - so they splutter their coffee.  Mostly they look shocked for a minute & then join me in laughing.  Don't try it with the under 20s though they just don't get it

apple_muncher

Have you sorted the plugholes yet? Don't want any slosh-back (is that even a word??) when you shower...

Karmacat

The poem is great, isn't it!  And yep, growing old disgracefully.  There are darker ways of putting it, but this will do nicely 🌈apple_muncher said:

Have you sorted the plugholes yet? Don't want any slosh-back (is that even a word??) when you shower...

Hmmm.  Follow up 👀  I've done a little, tiny weeny bit downstairs (bath, bathroom sink, kitchen sink).  But they all need concentrated goes with bicarb and vinegar.  At the moment, I've done one phone call & trying to do another (sister, and old partner) and I'm dehydrating veg and cooking beans in the slow cooker.

Will hunt the bicarb, got the vinegar, and I'll put them down at least the kitchen sink while I'm out getting my covid booster ... 

Cheery_Daff

Sounds like a good, multi tasking plan!

Karmacat

Cheery_Daff said:

Sounds like a good, multi tasking plan!

Absolutely!  And you know what, Cheery, it suits me - I don't like the sound of it, but I get a lot done when I multitask.  Actual achievements since I got up this morning:
- 10 minute boil for soaked beans, now in slow cooker with lentils rinsed this morning.
- dehydrator on, 1.8kg of mixed Asda veg that I defrosted yesterday.
- spoke with sister - she's desperate to get away *somewhere*, even one county over will do, in a couple of weeks time, I'm up for that.
- left message for old partner - I've no idea why I thought he'd be available when he said he'd be available, he never was before!
- logged on to French bank and set up a virement, can't operate it for a few days, its yet another security measure, but I'm getting closer  
- put the hot water on so I can have a shower when I get back from covid booster.
- done 10 minutes cleaning sink and bath, plus the centre of the bathroom floor 😁

I have to leave the house at about 1.10, and I *may* leave a little bit earlier to recycle some of my many, many frozen veg bags stacked up waiting to go 😁

Karmacat

Covid booster done really quickly, I didn't have time to do the plastic bag recycling, but that will come.  Bit sore, and slept badly because I couldn't sleep on the booster site, so not really feeling in "multitasking" mode today 🥱 that emoji is a yawn.

Still, got to do something, so:
- check in with sister by phone.  Check in with email people who replied to me with another email - really not up for a convo today.
- Wise.com ID with my driving licence - I'm carrying it round in my phone case in case I suddenly work up the energy 😁
- French tax.  I wrote out how to do it a couple of years ago, so I'll just find that and away we go.  I hope.
- a choice of change lightbulb/ vacuuming/ clean plugholes (they're better, but still not good enough)/ clean more shopping.  
- rellie who died in Scotland a few months ago, the livestream of his funeral was recorded and is available for another 12 days - just on behalf of his poor widow, I feel I should watch that.

Karmacat

- check in with sister by phone.  Check in with email people who replied to me with another email - really not up for a convo today.
Checked in with sister, not done the emails yet.

- Wise.com ID with my driving licence - I'm carrying it round in my phone case in case I suddenly work up the energy 😁
Need to leave this another day, to let the French bank rumble onwards.
- French tax.  I wrote out how to do it a couple of years ago, so I'll just find that and away we go.  
Done!  Easy Peasy  
- a choice of change lightbulb/ vacuuming/ clean plugholes (they're better, but still not good enough)/ clean more shopping.  
Done the kitchen plughole - I'm loving bicarb 🚀 I was encouraging things along with one of those thin wire plunger things, and I nearly broke the pipe 👀 just got to find the next bottle of vinegar, and away we go.
- rellie who died in Scotland a few months ago, the livestream of his funeral was recorded and is available for another 12 days - just on behalf of his poor widow, I feel I should watch that.

Slightly better than I feared, but much worse than I hoped 🤣 I *have* got the dishwasher *and* the washing machine to do their things, however.  That's something.  


ETA - coo, the bicarb plus vinegar is astonishing I think it would help if I used them a little more often 🙃 but cleanliness is definitely building up slightly.