Food For Thought

Even when not sitting at the computer, I often find myself thinking of my friends in the Blog World.

Today around noon I went for a walk into town, and “for once” (it does not happen very often) I decided to just buy a hamburger and fries for lunch and eat them on a park bench.

While drinking the diet coke, I found myself inevitably thinking of Rae in Texas.

Then I decided to get some ice cream on top of that. After all, who knows how many sunny summer days we have left? This led my thoughts to Jeannette in California. (The flavours in that cone, Jeannette, are chocolate and vanilla/kiwi!)

Later in the afternoon, at home, I ate a yellow kiwifruit. (I know it looks green in the picture but it is supposed to be yellow!) It made me think of GB, who has been having a rather rainy Hebridean summer, but will get another chance of a sunny one later in New Zealand…

BTT: To Share and Discuss (Books)

http://btt2.wordpress.com/2010/07/08/discussion/

Do you have friends and family to share books with? Discuss them with? Does it matter to you?

(Deb's comment: "Personally, I almost can’t remember the last time I was able to really TALK about a book I’d read with someone else who’d read it, and haven’t really been able to since my best friend and I devoured the same books in high school. Thank God for the internet.")

My answer: Some books, sometimes! My brother like me likes to listen to audio books in English and when he finds something he thinks I might like, he lends it on to me (or makes copies). We don't always share exactly the same favourites but we do both have a certain preference for fantasy, British humour and classical mysteries.

In the past, I sometimes talked about books with my mother, but during the last few years of her life she did not read much. She preferred realistic novels. She and her sister used to talk about books too; now my aunt and I occasionally share some reading tips.

I also have a couple of old friends that I sometimes talk to about books. Or write to, with one of them.

Between the 6th and 7th Harry Potter books, I took part in discussions in a Harry Potter internet forum - The Leaky Lounge - and especially the subforum Academic Analysis: Obscurous Books - which was a new experience to me, and I enjoyed it immensely. The discussions often went way beyond HP and it revived my interest in book discussions generally, and inspired me to read classics I'd never got round to before, and to reread some that I hadn't read since my college days. It made me aware how much I had missed that kind of discussions.

Six months or so after the last HP book... I began to feel that perhaps it was time to move on (not to get stuck in the wizarding world forever)... That's when I entered the blog world. In the beginning I probably focused more on books and book reviews in my blogging - not really knowing what else to write about... (I also started a special HP blog Through My Spectrespecs to collect some of my thoughts from those discussions; I haven't been updating it very frequently though.) Then photography took over, and some other more personal stuff. But I have also found some blogging friends along the way that I enjoy sharing occasional book reviews and opinions with. Like Rae @ Us In Tejas (hi). And a few months back I found these Booking Through Thursday questions, which I have since enjoyed participating in.

Does it matter to me? Yes, it does! Discussions with old and new friends challenge and inspire me to find out more about all kinds of things I might otherwise not have bothered to give a second thought. This goes for both books and all kinds of random blogging topics.

Tulips

Yesterday I got flowers delivered to my door. By that I mean a surprise delivery by a messenger; not brought by someone coming to visit. This is something that happens very rarely in my life, probably not even once in a decade...

It was a lovely boquet of red tulips, from the friend to whom I sent the CDs last week.

Tulips are a reminder of spring, so they inspired me to take down the last of the Advent-Christmas decorations today (the electric candle-lights in the windows). The outdoor lights on the balcony railing however will stay until some snowfree and dry day. Which probably means they will be left in peace for some time yet. We've had more snow falling over the past couple of days.

The Little Things

It turns out I made a promise on New Year's Eve after all (and kept it!), I just didn't really think of it as such, because it was a very little thing...

When my guests arrived on New Year's Eve, I was playing Enya's CD And Winter Came on the stereo, and one of them remarked that she had had a tape cassette with Enya's music that she had used to play so frequently it got worn out, and she missed it. I said I could copy my CD for her.

A week later I did, and another one by the same artist as well; and posted them to her (she does not live in the same town). She is the sister of a friend of mine, and she and I don't really keep in touch, except that we sometimes meet when she is visiting her sister. Yesterday she phoned to thank me for the CDs which had just arrived by mail (she hadn't even listened to them yet). She said it made her day, because she had not really been counting on me to remember. So often people just say they'll do things like that and then forget.

More than likely I too may have forgotten casual promises like that more often than I've remembered them. But this time I did not forget; and a friend's joy came boomeranging back to me as a reminder of how much it can sometimes mean when one does remember "the little things"...

I probably needed that at much as she did, because I've been feeling so incredibly slow lately about getting other things done - "bigger things", which are less fun to do and also don't usually bring the same kind of immediate response.

The Return of the Gnomes

I mentioned in a previous post this week, about my "issues with Santa", that for a number of years I more or less banished all Santa or tomte/gnome figures from the Christmas decorations in my own home. This was from when I moved away from home at the age of 20 and a number of years onwards. It wasn't really that I got fanatic and threw a whole bunch out - I just didn't invite any to move in with me!

In my birth family, church visits, crib, Bible readings or hymns, were not part of our Christmas traditions (while Santa/gnome figures were). When I became a Christian (at the age of 16), and when I got my own home a few years later, I wanted to shift focus. However, I always spent the actual Christmas with family, and for the first 1½ decade I had to travel to do so. That's one reason why the time of Advent became "my own" Christmas celebrations; while the actual holidays remained sort of a separate and secular family event. This probably contributed to keeping the gnomes away from my flat, too... The place was empty at Christmas with no food in the larder for them and not even a Christmas tree!

Then I moved, and then my parents moved too, and habits changed a bit. I spent more of Christmas in my own home, and sometimes also with single friends. One next-entrance-friend who fills her own home with myriads of gnomes at Christmas found my Santa/gnome-free Christmas a bit odd. One Christmas I got a package from her which contained  a candle-holder surrounded by five little gnomes. A note came with the package: These gnomes claimed to be refugees looking for a home... What could I say? That there was no room for them at the inn?! Of course I had to let them stay...

As you might guess, once you let more than one gnome into your house (and especially of course if they are of opposite sex, as these were - see the first picture above), they multiply...!

As revenge, next time my friend went away for Christmas and left me in charge of her potted plants and Christmas tree, I planted half a dozen extra gnomes around her flat (in places you would not normally put them). Then of course next time I went away and left her in possession of my key... well, surprise surprise... some of them had come back to me...

Now last summer I moved away from her, and we no longer have keys to each others' flats. That might possibly have stopped the gnomes from migrating back and forth between us, but I'm not entirely sure it will stop new specimens from appearing...!

I still don't allow my gnomes to come up to the flat until just a day or two before Christmas though. Until then they have to stay in their box in the cellar. They may then stay until after New Year, when my former next-entrance-neighbour still usually comes to visit...

Friend's 50th Birthday Party

Click on image to enlarge. Copyright: DawnTreader.

Yesterday I had the honour of being a guest at a friend's 50th birthday party. I have not been showing a whole lot of pictures of friends and family on the blog. Myself, I confess I also feel a lot more comfortable behind the camera than in front of! However, I decided to do a collage of some of the photos from yesterday. It will give you an idea, and since the pictures don't get too detailed this way, I don't think anyone would mind.

Middle: Birthday Boy.
Upper right-hand corner: Birthday Boy's Wife (in blue).
Upper left-hand corner: Peruvian friend dressed up in his national costume.
Bottom right-hand corner: That's me to the left (in blue).

Birthday Boy and Wife have been close friends of mine for almost 24 years. When I first got to know them, individually, they were not yet a couple. As newly-weds, a few years later, they were my next-door neighbours for a while, across the landing. They have their own house now since many years, and two teenage boys. We do not see as much of each other as we used to, but we usually get together in a small circle of friends once or twice a year. They're also the kind of people you can always turn to in a crisis... Even if it was a while since you last talked!

Yesterday was a big party, so I also got to meet with several old friends I had not seen for years. Didn't have a chance to really talk to all of them, but it was good to see them, and to catch up a bit with some of them. It was a long time since I attended a party this size. Some 50th birthday parties I've been invited to during the last decade I have not been able to go to, because of my chronic pain problems including difficulties travelling etc. This one was at my friends' own house and not too far away, so I was happy to be able to go. It was an open house kind of thing, so people kept coming and going. I came among the first, who also happened to be people I know fairly well; and I got a lift home with a friend and her daughter before it got too late (long-lasting) for me, so it all worked out well.

Birthday Boy had said he did not want presents, but would be happy if people wanted to give some money to a foundation for which he works, helping people with drug/alcohol problems. Besides such a contribution, I made him a birthday card with a collage of autumn photos that I had taken the same morning. (Follow link to see it in my Picture Book.) Inside the card, I included another collage of pictures from the years we've known each other. I also took 38 photos during the evening which I will copy onto a CD for him (after some editing - I've spent this morning fixing red eyes!!!). He took some photos himself too (you can see he's holding his camera in the picture above!), but being the focus of the party yourself, it is not easy to concentrate on being the photographer as well... (I know from experience...)

No one else seemed to have brought a camera.
Strange people!
-LOL-

The Honest Scrap Award, with and without Stipulations

It has happened again: I've been honoured with an Award!

I think it is the third, and I never quite know what to do with them.

The first one I accepted gratefully, but could not fulfill the attached rules, because I was still fluttering about almost by myself out in the vast cyberspace, not having anyone to pass it on to. I made another promise instead, which I have kept. You can read about that here. I said I would continue to explore the blogworld and hopefully make some new friends. I did, and I have!!!

Since then, I've seen other awards floating about, and I have also gathered that some people just love awards, while others have quickly grown heartily tired of the vast set of rules they usually come with.

The next award that came my way I also appreciated because of the giver and the motivation, but I decided not to send it on, because again, I found I got stuck on the to-do-list that came with it. And in connection with that, I also sort of made a promise, that if I ever gave away an award, it would be without to-do-list.

Then, the other day, when I looked in at Rae's Us in Tejas blog, I found myself on her list of recipients of the Honest Scrap Award. The way she describes it, I understand this to be pretty much the blogworld's equivalent to the Nobel Prize, and that of course makes me extremely proud to be nominated for it - and especially by Rae, who is a truly worthy recipient of that award herself. I'd have sent it right back to her if she hadn't already just received it.

However. This award too came with a whole bunch of Stipulations. (Rae's excellent wordchoice, but I added the capital S to make it look even more impressive.) Rather time-consuming ones, too. This requires some thinking! Especially since it is the Honest Scrap Award, and I have recently been having very serious conversations with blogfriends about honesty and promises. Not connected to blog awards, but still!

My decision: I will gratefully accept the award from Rae, because I feel very honoured to have her as a faithful follower of my blog; and because she used the word Stipulations instead of Rules! I will also more or less follow the Stipulations for my own part. I.e. visit the blogs of the other people she chose to give this award to; choose seven new recipients of my own; and share ten things about myself. But: When I send it on, I will make the Stipulations entirely volontary for those friends. They have so totally already earned it, without having to work extra for it. I think that is the best compromise I can arrive at.

Most of you know some of the others already so the checking-each-other-out part might not be too overwhelming. Come back another day if it doesn't suit you right now. The list will still be here. What you choose to do with the award itself after looking at it, that I leave up to you!!!  Here it is:

Ahem... Silence please... My announcement:
I hereby present the Honest Scrap Award to the following people:

To Rose-Anne at Welcome to My World (who likes awards), because it was she who got me blogging in the first place. In Rose-Anne's world, you'll find some honest scrap-booking.

To Scriptor Senex for his Words, Words, Words and Phrases blog, containing scraps of interesting information about obscure words and phrases in the English language. (This blog however is only one in a long list of enjoyable blogs by same author.)

To GB at Eagleton Notes, because his very honest blogposts and comments marked by British humour always make me smile and sometimes laugh. If you don't find him at home there, try his New Zealand blog, because he is about to travel again soon.

To Dan at Wood and Pixels Narratives for his striking pictures, thoughtful reflections and steadfast faithfulness in encouraging and keeping up an honest dialogue with other bloggers (me included).

To Simply Heather, especially for hosting  the Soaring through the world in pictures blog, "where people become friends, as they share their findings with each other". Heather is the honest wonderwoman in the background who takes care of all those little details that make it all the easier for the rest of us. (Layout and such.)

To Raven at Raven's Nest for keeping up her weekly Saturday Wordzzle Challenge in spite of all the chaos going on in her house lately. She keeps her participants constantly torn between despair and inspiration in our efforts to make sense of those impossible word combinations. She is also a very honest blogger.

To the Dragons at Dragon's Lair who mysteriously also always keep watch over the Wordzzles and give astonishing insights into the world of Dragons. Did you know for example that Dragons can write poetry in imitation of classic poets? Dragons are also very honest in their opinions about humans. I'm not quite sure how they stand on accepting awards from us, unless the awards are edible. Maybe I'll find out.

To Dr John at Dr John's Fortress (who I know does not like awards with Stipulations attached), for his surprising combination of very honest sermons vs. enjoyable crazyness in his fiction.

Now the reader who has been paying attention will shout: HEY! That's eight, not seven! Well, since I'm not sure whether dragons really want to be counted as people, I found it best to be on the safe side!

Now, here are my ten facts about myself. Actually you will find more than the stipulated number here too. I thought I had better try and make up somehow for all my other Stipulation-breaking.
At the age of 5, I liked to draw pictures. Also periodically later in life.
At the age of 10, I liked to read Enid Blyton. I have enjoyed almost any book with a secret passage in it ever since.
At the age of 15, I was madly in love with Simon and Garfunkel. Still am. I also thought I was one day going to be a librarian. That plan changed.
At the age of 20, I moved away from home to another town to study, joined a gospel choir, made some wonderful friends (quite a few of them I still count as friends 34 years later) and generally led a very intense life with a lot of fun. (Looking back, I don't understand when I found the time to actually study.)
At the age of 25, I was working as secretary for the executive manager of firm of consultants within the paper industry branch; and some of my spare time was devoted to a Christian book-café.
At the age of 30, I had completed another three years of university studies (English and German), moved to the town where I still live, tried to earn a living as a substitute teacher, lived in a sort of Christian community (15 or more separate families/households but with a lot of common acitivities and interaction) and again made some wonderful friends who I still count as friends 24 years later (although we no longer live so close).
At the age of 35, I had given up my teaching career (chiefly because it got too stressful when I could not find a full time job in one place) and was working as medical secretary at an occupational therapy unit.
At the age of 40, I was still in the same job (with proper medical secretary qualification added) but in a different church (and also 4 years of part time academic theology studies added). I celebrated my birthday "big" (well, sort of) with family and friends from both the past and the present.
At the age of 45, I had an unfortunate kind of accident at work in which I pulled a muscle or two rather more seriously than it seemed at first, and ended up with chronic neck-shoulder-arm pain problems. That turned most of my life as I knew it before pretty much upside-down, and not in a good way.
At the age of 50, I had been in early retirement for a while already. I was not really in the mood to celebrate my 50th birthday at all. But then I was invited to spend it with a group of friends from 30 years back, in the town where I lived back then; and still having them as friends did feel worth celebrating!
Since last summer, I have moved to a new flat, both my parents' health deteriorated seriously last autumn, and my mother died at the end of May this year. In the midst of all, in January, I entered the Blogworld. And somehow gradually found all the above Honest Scrap Award-worthy people, "and then some".

Friends - this blogpost took me three days to write.
I did feel inspired to write it, or I wouldn't have made the effort.
But I honestly don't think awards should come with Stipulations.
Only pick those up if you feel really inspired to.

Myself, I'm going to put this award in my sidebar. I worked hard for it. I still haven't checked out all of Rae's friends (now wasn't that an honest confession to end with!), but I'll get round to that.

Quotation of the Week (42/09) - Friends

"Always be kind to your friends, because without them you would be a stranger."
-Source unknown-

In my previous flat, I had a big noticeboard in my hall, full of photographs of friends and family, postcards and newspaper cuttings. I found no good place for it when I moved to my present home (last summer). Looking through the photos, it also struck me that many of them represented the past rather than the present. (Years fly by... Little toddlers grow up to be teenagers and young adults. And then for some reason the parents stop sending me family pictures at Christmas!) So I made some different arrangements where I live now. I put the old photographs in an album, and put some newer ones up in a different way. Anyway... Among the old yellowed newspaper cuttings was one with the quotation above. (In Swedish, so the above is a translation.) It's still in my mind even though it's not on my wall.

The Invisible Are Visible Again!

Welcome back, Followers - I'm glad to be able to SEE you all again today!

I'm a little concerned, though, that yesterday's post may have been misunderstood by some who perhaps were not having the same problem that I had...

So I'd like to clarify that my complaints yesterday were all about a pure technicality: the Followers widget boxes kept showing up empty for a couple of days, without any avatars in them, both on my own blogs and on other people's that I visited, and whichever browser or computer I used...

I did not really think I had lost my followers, and I did not really feel all that "out of touch" with you; I was just irritated about wasting a lot of time trying to find the fault in my own computer (or head), while really it was with Blogger all the time. When I turned to the Help forum, I found lots of people having the same problem since two days back - and Blogger rather unhelpful, not even including it among "known issues", in spite of  lots of complaints about the same thing. Today, however, it seems the problem has been resolved (although Blogger still has not properly commented on it).

So that was really what it was all about; even if I might have happened to add a more philosophical undertone to it when writing my blog post yesterday... That was just meant to lighten up the mood of irritation with technology!


(click on image to be transported)

With the new Picture Book blog, I'm actually more than happy that some people have already found their way to it. After all, it has only been a day or two since I put up the first link! It would truly have been a miracle if anyone had found it before that. (Actually, I did not even particularly want anyone to find it before that, because I wanted to take my time figuring out what it was I wanted to do...)

I'm not saying there aren't days when I keep checking my email for comments, and wish there were more of them. And certainly there is room for a few more followers yet in my widget boxes. But I'm not complaining about those I already have - just so you know!!! I never expected everyone to read everything, or even less comment on everything... (I don't do that myself, so how could I expect it of others?)

If anything, I'm still truly fascinated that I've managed to connect with a number of people "out there" (in cyberspace) at all. When I wrote my first blog post back in January, I really had no idea I would be meeting so many interesting people. Now I'm talking especially to you who are sometimes commenting here, and who know that I sometimes read and comment on your blogs too: You're all amazing, you know! Each in his or her own unique way... I have learnt so much from you already, and I expect to learn more as we move on!

I'm glad I found you, or you found me (whichever came first). That's why I complain (to Blogger) when you disappear out of sight.

And So We All Went Missing

Click on image to be transported.
 Also see yesterday's post for more info.

I just spent a looooong time trying to figure out why Followers weren't showing up at my new blog.

Not that I expected a lot of them, yet - since I did not even tell anyone it existed until yesterday! - but I knew I was at least following myself... and when I first put the Followers gadget in place, I showed up. Now I don't. Not yesterday, and not today.

Then I went back to this blog and found that there was no one here, either. Then I went to Soaring Through the World, and the world was empty. Then I went looking for the people who used to hang around, and thankfully I find them all at home each at their own place; but no one seems to have any Followers any more.

Do you all feel as lost as I do?
(It seems from the Blogger Help forum that a lot of people are having the same problem. But no Explanation.)

Picture from our walk in the woods on Sunday afternoon,

compare Sunday and Monday posts. (We did not get lost.)

Together Through Life (Bob Dylan)

For my birthday a while ago, my friends G&B sent me a gift certificate. I used it to buy Dylan's latest CD Together Through Life. I don't regret it! (Thank you, friends!)

I've liked Dylan since my mid teens, but only own a limited collection of his many albums. The first one I got was New Morning (1970); that one was among my first LPs so it got played a lot . The next one I got was Slow Train Coming (1979), and after that Saved (1980) and Shot of Love (1981). In the late 80's, there was quite a long time during which I only had a tape recorder. When I finally got a CD player, at some point in building up my CD collection I bought a Dylan Best of... (I also had my old LPs transferred to CD.) Then in 2006, I bought Modern Times, and it has been a favourite on my MP3 player since, especially when I'm out walking, because it has a great walking rhytm. My first impression of Together Through Life is that it has a lot in common with Modern Times - it is relaxed and playful and has the same kind of blues rhythm. An interesting addition to the instrumentation is the accordion. You can listen to snippets from the songs at http://bobdylan.com/. The lyrics are there, too. (I was a little disappointed that they were not included with the CD.)

The CD box I bought also included a bonus DVD included which I haven't watched yet, and the bonus CD Theme Time Radio Hour: Friends & Neighbours, with Dylan as host, playing other people's music. I had never heard of this radio show... I googled it just now (you who have got to know me a bit, will be adding "of course she did!"), and found there are lots more episodes available on the net...  

Autumn Is Here

My kitchen table

Summer is over, autumn/fall is here, and it's been "one of those days"... I had to shop some groceries in the morning. Outside the rain was pouring down. I put on rubber boots, an extra sweater, a jacket, and on top of it all a plastic rain poncho. And I took the bus. I still got soaking wet before I was home again. Moreover, in the shop the scanner system was not working. I hardly remembered how to shop without it but somehow I succeeded. Except that I forgot one of the things on my list. Had to come up with something else for lunch, and will have to be inventive again for supper with friends this evening.

The first thing I did when I got back home was get into a hot shower. (Warm wet instead of cold wet.) Before I even unpacked the groceries!

Then I had a phone call from one of the nice home carers looking after my dad. She informed me about some things I need to buy for him. I can do that, but I don't know when or how I'll be able to get them out to him. She also said he said he has a dentist appointment next week and did I know anything about that? I did not. Arrangements have to be made to get him there. She said call X. I called X. X said call Y. I called Y. Y said call Z. I called Z. Someone informed me Z will be back on Monday. (Sorry, I don't have the time right now to come up with suggestions for titles för X,Y,Z or explain the exact complications involved...) I also called the dentist to explain without really being able to explain.

Now I'm hoping the evening will be better. My friend G (the one who still writes letters by hand) with husband B will arrive in the evening and stay the night before they go on to catch a ferry to Denmark tomorrow morning. They have about 3½ or 4 hours drive here and it's still raining hard. I know they are even more exhausted than I am to begin with, and have to get up early tomorrow morning, so we'll have to make it an early night too. We'll probably end up trying to talk twice as fast as normal...

I'll also probably be late with my Wordzzle story this weekend, if I manage to get it together at all. 

It has been an Orange Week at Soaring Through the World. If you're not already following, click the link to see lots of colourful pictures! The one above, of my kitchen table, I decided to put here instead. The table cloth in this photo has a pattern of oranges and lemons designed by Swedish artist Lena Linderholm. If you write her name into Google picture search, a lot of colourful paintings by her will show up!

Now I'm going to have a rest before my friends arrive...

PS. I'm really fascinated by the LinkWithin gadget I put in a couple of weeks back. The one that suggests "You might also like..." When I published this post, one of the links suggested was my earlier post  Too Many Things...

I Am.You Are.

People are getting back from their holidays. I run into them at the supermarket. They tell me where they've been, and they ask about me. They understand, when I tell them about death in the family (my mother), that I probably haven't been having the best of summers. But it's when I try to explain the good parts of my summer that I get that blank stare from them...

"I've been out walking a lot," I say, "with my camera, taking lots of photos."

They smile expectantly, thinking of travelling and new exciting places.

"Nowhere in particular," say I. "In the parks, around town, in the neighbourhood..."

They stare. Sounds of silence creep up on us. I know it's pointless to go on. If I add the hours I've spent at the computer, trying to grasp the mysteries of photo editing software and blogging, they will just stare even more. There's no way, at least not in the crowd at the supermarket, that I can explain about magic moments with dragon flies in the park, exploring reflections in windows and polished stones, seeing "the Niagara falls" in the little dam we pass by every day, or going round and round every statue and sculpture in town looking for new angles.

"Who have you been seeing? Who have you been talking to?" they ask next. And I say well, I had lunch with A, and B stopped by last week, and I talked to C on the phone. That doesn't really cover much, but that's as far as our common ground supermarket language goes. That language does not have room for the experience of entering other worlds through the computer screen and communicating with people who aren't "really there". I can't casually say to these supermarket friends: Dan went to a car show recently and got to sell a lot of pictures. CJ spent the summer in the Hebrides with GB and took some fantastic photos. And oh, good news, Rae finally found a house!

I went home and sat down to meditate over how I came to live in two worlds.

("I am - you are" photo taken by me at an outdoor art exhibition. There was a whole row of these white stones, with the same words in different languages.)

Letters

Dan at Wood And Pixels had a charming picture of mailboxes the other day (click on the link to see it!), and expressed a certain pessimism about their future - fearing "the mail giving way to the same fate as phone booths"... However, he got so many comments from people still sending letters the old-fashioned way, that it does not seem time to take down the mailbox just yet!

Postal service has gone through some changes in the last few years, though - at least in Sweden. Here it's no use asking for directions to a post office any more, because there aren't any. For errands concerning money, you have to go to a bank. If you need to send a package (or pick up one sent to you), you will find this service connected to certain shops and supermarkets. It's not uncommon to find that the "post office" has moved to another shop since last time you needed it! (Happened to me not long ago.) But we do still get letters sent home. I even still get mine through a slot in the door; but in some apartment buildings they have boxes for all on the ground floor instead. I think there is still a discussion going on whether that should be made compulsory by law or not. I suppose it not considered fair that some mailmen must still run up and down stairs while others don't have to...

Anyway, here's the comment I wrote at Dan's blog:

"I have one very close friend [G] with whom I've been exhanging letters and postcards almost weekly for 23 years. Hers are still almost always handwritten, and often with photos, cuttings from magazines, stickers etc pasted onto them. Myself I have difficulties writing by hand, so mine are usually printed from the computer, but sometimes with a handwritten PS or drawings in the margin etc to make it more personal. I also have a few other old friends with whom I still exchange letters by snail mail, although not quite as often. Among them four or five people in other countries that I never met but have corresponded with for 20-25 years."

The picture above shows some of the letters I received this year from my friend G; some from Sweden and some from Spain. She has the charming habit of pasting pictures on the envelopes as well! :)

Over the last two days since I wrote that comment on Dan's blog, I have received three letters to prove the point. One handwritten letter from a Swedish friend other than G. One from a penpal in the US, computer-written but printed on decorated and scented stationary. And another handwritten letter + condolance card from friends of my parents in England, whom I wrote to a few weeks ago to give them the sad news that my mother had passed away.

I also had a postcard from G on Monday. And two cellphone text messages yesterday - she got worried when I had not answered the first one within an hour! So yes, the times they are a-changing... But I do hope there is still a future for letters and postcards and stamps as well!

One Minute Winner

The One-Minute Writer blog by C. Beth encourages setting aside one minute a day for writing, and provides daily writing prompts. You can either link to a post at your own blog or just write a comment.

The other day I found that a comment I wrote on May 17 about the Internet had awarded me the button below. The writing prompt was: "Reflect on how the Internet has changed relationships, and whether the net effect is positive or negative."

Click on the button to read my entry as well as all the others!

And in case the button goes on strike some day, or whatever, here is a copy of my "winning" entry:

Nine years ago, an accident turned my life upside down. Not only did I have to stop working, I also had to make a lot of changes in my private social life. Since I can no longer "keep the same pace" or do the same things as many of my old friends, I have lost contact with a lot of them. But through the internet, I have found new friends, new interests, and new and different ways to keep up my some of my old interests, too. One good thing about the internet is that one does not necessarily need to be online at the same time to be able to have a meaningful discussion. In forums and blogs, you can "take your time" and still feel you are communicating with other people.

Picture from unknown source, found by Google picture search.

Old Friends & Lyrics

Simon & Garfunkel - Old Friends concert, 2003

My favourite songwriter since nearly 40 years is Paul Simon. I "discovered" him (Simon & Garfunkel) when I was 15, and I still listen to his/their records. The old LP:s I had, I now have on CD. (I still have the LP:s as well, but no record player to play them on...)


My previous post - "The Age Thing" - made me think of the lyrics to

Old Friends, from the album Bookends (1968)

(Paul, born in October 1941, was then 26)

Old friends,
Old friends,
Sat on their parkbench
Like bookends.

A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
Of the high shoes
Of the old friends.

Old friends,
Winter companions,
The old men
Lost in their overcoats,
Waiting for the sun.

The sounds of the city,
Sifting through trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends.

Can you imagine us
Years from today,
Sharing a parkbench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.

Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years,
Silently sharing the same fears.

Time it was
and what a time it was.

A time of innocence,
A time of confidences.

Long ago... it must be...
I have a photograph,
Preserve your memories,
They're all that's left you...

I loved Paul's music when I was 15 and I still do - so that part of myself remains pretty well "preserved"! Some of the early songs also bring back lots of memories; for example of old friends with whom I used to listen to the records and interpret the lyrics back in the 70's.

But I also love that he has kept moving on as a musician. Come to think of it, isn't this really a great illustration of what I was discussing in the previous post: a musician still playing the old music, but also continuing to write new songs and trying out different kinds of music and rhythms...

On his 2006 album, Surprise, 65-year-old Paul also discusses the problems of growing old:

It's a blessing to wash your face in the summer solstice rain.

It's outrageous a man like me stand here and complain.

But I'm tired. Nine hundred sit-ups a day.

I'm painting my hair the colour of mud, mud okay?

I'm tired, tired. Anybody care what I say?

No! I'm painting my hair the colour of mud.

---

Who's gonna love you when your looks are gone? God will.

Like he waters the flowers on your windowsill.

(from the song "Outrageous")