A DAY IN THE LIFE ...

I was pondering the other day ... you know how you do ... about my daughters treasuring these journals after I'm gone (I can dream) and thought about doing a snapshot of a day in my (not very interesting) life. I'd seen a comic strip used somewhere recently and thought - why not? A picture speaks a thousand words after all, but it actually proved harder than I thought!

The above shows my morning, which seemed straightforward enough, but it didn't feel right to just do a chronological progress as shown below although in the end that's more or less how it turned out. Please note that the cuddly one indicates just that - anything else would be deemed by blogger to be "inappropriate" content!

My other half asked me why I'd labelled this "postcards from an urban life" and I suppose its because after 23 years of living in the country, urban life is very different, so something of that escaped into whatever I was trying to say here! I know what I mean ...

Some of this day (which was a Sunday if you haven't already guessed) reflects the general pattern of most - which is quite a lot of time at the computer (sitting down is what I do best), soup for lunch, a bath in the early evening, tracksuit on and feet up in front of the TV. I seem to be brightest in the morning, fading a bit during the afternoon, and not at all with it in the evenings, so I tend to organise my life to take account of this!

The parts with the cat are slightly wishful thinking - she's a gorgeous princess, a totally black cat whiskers pads and all - but a bit aloof, so if she deigns to bless you with her attention its practically a historic moment! No way would Bibi have given me this much attention in a week let alone a day .... Likewise I don't get ice-cream every day, but wouldn't mind if I did!
You've probably also guessed that this was done with Promarkers again. I left the background white because I've seen a couple of journal pages with plain white pages behind the entries, and realised I shouldn't be so afraid of white space.

INVISIBLE

Those of you still of an age to claim youth had better look away now - because you don't want to hear this! It is one of the less well known aspects of female ageing that you become increasingly invisible ... and you do notice that people don't seem to see you as a person any more, just another older person. I hate that, so I did a journal page about it.

Once again I began with a blank page on which I stamped, drew and wrote ... the figure is a Stampotique stamp, and you either love them or hate them! All the colour on this page is done with Promarkers.

I know I must have been guilty of this myself at a earlier stage in my life - lumping old/older people together as an amorphous mass, but life taught me to see people, all people, as individuals who matter, both to themselves and to others. It's incredibly painful for me to be treated as a person of no account - although whether that says more about my vanity than society I can't say! All I know is that it hurts sometimes ....
I keep thinking of that poem by Dylan Thomas where it says "do not go gentle into that good night; rage rage against the dying of the light". So I am ... not going gently or quietly, not drifting towards pensionerhood without a struggle. I'm a person not a statistic!

There's been a lot in the media lately about people living on Benefits (government assistance) basically suggesting that all such are lazy, feckless cheats and scroungers, who should be made to get off their backsides and work! I'm one of them, a person with a chronic illness rather than someone who can't be bothered to work. Most of us are.

So there you are, a bit of a rant really, but it gets it off my chest dunnit? It only struck me as odd afterwards that although the page has a negative topic, its actually quite bright and lively. I think that must be because I was also trying to celebrate everything that is real and alive in me and my life? I may be down, but am most certainly not out! Ignore me? Don't you DARE!!

I FORGOT TO SAY

.... that I would be away for a while! Have legged it to Florida abandoning a distinctly cold and autumnal England. Am now too hot and very sticky - there's no pleasing some people ... but I'm doing my best to enjoy myself. After all the ice cream is very good (chocolate and peanut butter!!), the shopping isn't half bad (Michael's, Jo-Anns, all those yummy dollar stores). See you on about 24th September, or whenever I emerge from the jet-lag!