SUBSCRIPTION ADDICTION and ALL THINGS CYCLICAL

 I thought that it was about time that I wrote another blog. I’ve been musing lately on time…… watching the kids go back to school always puts me in mind of cyclical things……….

My dear friend Ali (I have a few friends called Ali, as I’ve mentioned before- but on this occasion, I’m talking about the one who’s been my friend for the longest time - two weeks older than me, and my friend from our first day at Teacher Training college in September 1974….. good Lord - 49 years ago, almost to the day!)…… anyway….Ali, when visiting me here in London with Sue (of the same vintage - we are the Mad Hatters when a threesome) pointed out to me that I’m a sucker for a subscription. I scoffed at the time, but I’ve been considering it ever since. 

Yes. I do love a subscription! I guess it began in Covid in earnest but I’ve had subscriber tendencies for years. You know when you really like something? You don’t want to run out, and then struggle to find more? Subscriptions change all that. You can rest easy in the knowledge that you’ll never be without that most needed of things……..

So? You Ask? Just what do I subscribe to? 

Milk - I wanted to return to the days of the milkman visiting (at one time we used to get through 6 pints a day. Now I get four pints a week, and throw in eggs for good measure, and cheese and cream at the weekend…and don’t need to rush around looking for my purse to pay Mick the Milk when he knocks on a Saturday morning).

Toilet Rolls - Who Gives a Crap- just love them, especially when they do their specials - all wrapped in funkily designed paper wrapping.

Marmite - cannot be without at any time - so it comes in big tubs every two months.

Peanut Butter - also comes in big tubs in both crunchy and smooth - have to cancel the order regularly now since Ned no longer lives with us!

Turmeric tablets - every couple of months they arrive so I can take a supplement daily -great  for joint pains which plague me since immunotherapy - or maybe age - affected my big joints. 

Dog food - we’ve found a food which the fussy spaniel will just about manage to consume - seems to suit her - so we stick with it.

Flea treatment and worming tablets  - reminders from the vet to give as I am just useless with understanding the concept of the passage of time!

Laundry Detergent and Dishwasher Tablets - SMOL…… love them, also added Fabric Conditioner, stain remover, and washing up liquid to the last order as well!

Oddbox - fruit and veg delivered once a fortnight. Sometimes sending me things that I have to google to find out what to do with (Jerusalem artichokes) but nice to know that there’s lovely fresh stuff arriving which isn’t wanted by the big supermarkets due to it being “too wonky, too small, too big, too many or any other ‘too’ you can think of. 

Cleaning Products - Purdy and Fig - beautifully scented small bottles of concentrated natural cleaner which are then added to a spray bottle. This was an attempt to get me to clean the house with more diligent regularity, but sadly, I realise when the next subscription arrives, that I have failed in this task. Doing a whole heap of decorating over the last two years probably hasn’t helped this cause!

There are probably other subscriptions that I’ve signed up to that escape me right now - I haven’t included things like: 

National Trust Membership

Senior Railcard

Senior Coachcard

National Art Pass (thanks Ned and Lou)

Netflix, Amazon  Prime, ITVX, TV Licence (all utterly essential) which leads me to Broadband supply which I have had a bit of a nightmare with! 

But the thrust of my point here is that TIME PASSES…….tempus fugit ……  When a new subscription arrives, it’s normally received by myself with utter horror at the passage of time! 

I look back over the time that has elapsed since writing my last blog post  - almost 9 months! We were in winter then - the very depths of winter - shortest day and all that. Now, we’ve almost arrived at the Autumn equinox! ……and we’re halfway back to the winter one again! And we’ve had a spring and summer in between! Where did it go? 

When I was a child, and wondering why a dull day seemed to drag on so long, my Nanna and Pop used to say to me “these are the best days of your life!” I just couldn’t understand why they told me that - when pressed, they’d mutter stuff about the lack of responsibility, and childhood being so free and easy and ‘not having a care in the world”. I didn’t agree with them then, and I still don’t. Yes - I did have a wonderful childhood, but I wasn’t able to make decisions for myself, or follow my dreams in the way I imagined ….. 

Now - at the age of 67, I can look back with awe and wonder at the passing of time, and cogitate and ponder at the vagaries of life in general. My mantra these days is “DON’T WASTE IT” 

Time really is precious. It’s important that we fulfil our dreams, but it’s also important that we live life well and make a difference to others, as well as to ourselves. I always want to be able to stop and smell the roses, see beauty in nature, enjoy listening to birdsong (great app discovered this year which identifies different bird song, Merlin….look it up, it’s amazing)

I’m not intending for this writing to turn into a sermon - so I shall stop there with the happy clappy shit. 

I just wanted to talk abut the cycles we have in life - birth and death, night and day, the passage of the moon around the earth, the passage of the earth around the sun, how time is calibrated:  seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia (don’t know what comes after that)

When you get to this age, these things become important and precious. I’ve had a few moments when friends and family have mentioned planning for the future - events etc, and internally, I’ve wondered if I might not be there for those. My middler, Rupert,  reckons that this is nonsense and that I’ll still be as daft as a bat and doing crazy things well into my nineties. Well - I think that’s unlikely, given the cancer diagnosis which hit me like a brick five years ago, but if that’s what’s written in the stars for me, then I’ll take it - with joy!

Suffice to say, that since my last blog post, life has been kind….I have celebrated my first wedding anniversary (hohoho), my puppy has (thankfully) grown into a much calmer and mature beast at the ripe old age of two, my grandson had his 8th birthday, I sang at the Royal Festival Hall, I spent a week in Looe helping Ali (the very same) put on a production with her drama group, my nephew Jake married Christina and we were lucky to plan a little holiday in Dartmoor around that event, I had an opera singer lodging with us for a month (another story), my youngest son (and baby) Ned,

was married (couldn’t be happier to welcome Lou into the Quiney Gang), we had another fabulous week away in Prussia Cove with cousin Si and Judy, my oldest son, Josh, fractured his ankle badly which necessitated me moving backwards and forwards to Somerset to help him survive, my granddaughter Stella (named after my mother) had her second birthday….. and amidst all this - I have now decorated my living room - which I had procrastinated about for too long, and am now trying to do all the other painting jobs and bits and pieces which require attention - because we might…..MIGHT…. sell the house and move westwards. It’s a very big might - we’ve lived here for over 30 years, but I always thought there was one more house in the offing for me. And every day, I continue with the routine regular activities which calibrate my days: making bread, walking the dog, laundry, gardening (rare) and cleaning the house (even rarer) and shopping for essentials (that aren’t on a subscription list) 😀

We shall see. Thank you to the Stars above who may know my destiny - I have refrained from mentioning the cancer saga - had no treatment at all in this blog lapse, but have had to have investigations, and will continue to be monitored.

Love to all 

M