Legitimate Icing On The Cake!

This was the photo that I was hoping to take the day I went into this shopping precinct, but could not because a security guard told me that I couldn't take a photo in there.

For those readers who might not know what happened last time, press here.

I was idly listening to the news last week and suddenly I heard a bulletin that caught my attention. A grannie, (definitely not me!), who was also visiting this precinct, had tried to take some photos on her digital camera and had also had a problem with the security guard telling her she couldn't take photos there. Only this lady was more feisty than me and held her ground, arguing that it was a public place and that she could take photos for her own use. She had eventually been told to leave and thought that she was about to have her camera confiscated.

She went to the media who contacted the shopping precinct. The person who had full authority there, said that only professional photographers had to ask permission and it was perfectly acceptable for ordinary folk to take photos for their personal use, without being hassled.

Apparently the security guards, were not guards at all but Customer Servicemen. It turned out that they had been over zealous!

Well, being the type of person that I am, I travelled back there and went up to the top floor where one of these men was standing, and took out my camera and snapped the photo that I wanted. He saw me do it and said nothing! I thought that I would leave it at that. I had got the photo that I wanted and a story to go with it.

I feel pleased to think on that first visit, that the man who I thought of as a security guard, thought that I was a professional photographer. Even though I am a grannie and had a tiny camera and no other gear like tripods or long angled lenses. Or maybe I am flattering myself and he just didn't know the rules. Or maybe the company were forced to change the rules so as not to appear foolish.

Anyway, I admire the other grannie who stood up for herself better than I did and if she ever gets to read this......... well, thanks!

The Empty Box

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

A couple of years ago, I was stunned to receive a letter form our county council informing me that I was being awarded a substantial sum of money for long service in my place of work and that I could go to a shop and choose something to the value quoted in the letter. I could then show them the voucher and take the goods home.

Well, strike me down. All that work in the special school over the years, cleaning up sh*t and all those kids I had lifted onto changing tables at great detriment to my back, the crates of sandwich boxes that I lifted and carried.............. now being recognized. I couldn't believe it!

I read on, I couldn't have the gift in cash and I had to spend the voucher in one shop.

I gave the matter great thought and eventually decided to get something that I would never think of buying for myself. Something I would not normally be able to afford. An indulgence!

I chose a gold bracelet in two colours of gold. White gold and yellow gold, sort of entwined around each other in a kind of plait. The bracelet had a good clasp that looked secure. The bill came to just over £300, more than I would ever pay for a bracelet.

Well, I showed it off and wore it on special occasions. I kept it in its posh box that had come from a posh shop.

Last summer holiday, I was having all that worry with my sick son in law and had planned to go and see him. However it was the start of the school holiday and I decided to wear the bracelet for the duration and felt it would be safer than leaving it in the house, in case we were burgled.

The day before I was due to go away, I noticed that the bracelet had gone. To my horror, I realized that I hadn't seen it since the day I put it on. That was three weeks before! I would normally have taken it off for showers and things but because I was not used to wearing it, I'd forgotten that I'd even put it on.

I searched the whole house. I searched the garden. I tried to think what I had done that first day of the holiday. I'd gone shopping and I just hoped that it wouldn't have been found by some druggie who would sell it cheaply for his next fix, or some kids who might have just tossed it about without realizing how valuable it was. 

Then I realized there was a possibility that I had accidentally thrown it in the council garden waste bin along with all the twigs and branches that I had chopped back around that time. The thought that I had given the bracelet inadvertently back to the council was very ironic but was a distinct possibility. I could imagine some one opening a bag of compost that the council had sold to them, made with my leftovers and the look of surprise when they pulled out their bounty. It was a sickening thought.

Of course it could be nearer to home. It might be under the soil somewhere or at the bottom of my mini pond. In fact it could be anywhere. If only I knew where and when I lost it, I might have had a chance of getting it back.

I didn't even get a photo of the bracelet. All I have left is the empty box.

It has taken me all this time to blog about the loss. I was too gutted at the time it happened and had felt very sorry for myself. Everything had seemed to be going wrong in my family.

However, in the end, I began to realize that it was only a material possession and not flesh and blood. I never had the bracelet before, and I haven't got it now. I am exactly where I was before I received that letter.

The council might have reclaimed their gift through the compost or it might be on the wrist of some lucky person. I only hope that person stops to think who might have lost it, though I doubt it. They probably thought it was owned by a very rich person who didn't deserve to have it in the first place!

I keep hoping it will turn up, though I doubt it.

This story was told for Photostory Friday hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

With apologies for the uninteresting photo!

Wordless Wednesday

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Ever since they were toddlers, my two grandsons have been mad about trains. They started off with plastic baby toys and then went on to wooden Brio. Later, their interest was focused on mechanical and electric train sets. 

They are both obsessed with computer games that have anything to do with trains, such as a Lego train game with different variations of building tracks and layouts. They would both spend all day on these computer games if they were allowed.

They have always liked going on train rides. This started off with small rides by the sea on miniature railways and progressed to proper steam trains like the one above. Though why the seat was tied down like that, I do not know. I'm sure it wasn't because my grand sons were coming!

The oldest grandson has just been diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, at twelve years of age. I have mentioned before that I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd have had Asperger's Syndrome, but no, it is not that. Apparently Rick doesn't have the obsessions that go with it. Children can have intense interest in something, apparently, and not be unusual.

I've mentioned before that he has been really struggling with Secondary School and had been appointed an extra helper even before the disorder was diagnosed. It isn't as though he doesn't understand the work. He is quite clever when he is focused on anything. He just has a problem with emotional and social skills and sticking with things that don't interest him.

 

He likes to play with younger people and is usually very good with them. Sometimes, though, when I think he is acting unfairly to some other child, I have asked him, "How do you think that makes that child feel? Happy or sad?" He has usually replied to that kind of question, that he is not sure, which has often made me rather annoyed, until now that is.

It's the same with eye contact. All of us have had to say to Rick, "Look at me when I talk to you."  However, I often have to say that to the children at school, even the ones without a problem.

Rick often stares at the speaker, with such intensity, and that doesn't seem right either.

Usually, if we ask a question that involves a feeling, he will giggle and look awkward as he genuinely cannot answer something that he cannot understand.

Much of the time he is fine, but certain things cause a problem. Excessive faddishness with food, to the point of almost starving himself if he doesn't have the right brand of bread. Or his beans are touching his chips and he has to have them put in a dish away from the dryer foods. He is very thin, like a bean pole and Dean, who is younger by two years has always been a larger and sturdier child. So we cannot make it too difficult for Rick to get enough to eat.

He is under a dietician at a hospital and is waiting for blood tests to see if there is a medical problem.

He refuses to do homework and anything else that he really doesn't want to do.

So far, we have not had any advice as to what to do about behaviour and although Rick will be followed up at the hospital now, Deb and I are having to look up on the net to see exactly what the condition is. However, there doesn't seem to be any guidance about what to do. Most children are picked up at an earlier age.

What will happen about exams?

Will he ever have a normal relationship when he grows older?

Will he be allowed to drive?

What about work?

So many things are going through our  minds right now.

I know some of you have autistic children or grandchildren. Could any of you point me in the right direction as to what books I could read. Where do we go next? 

I realize that the condition varies from being very severe to mild and that it might not be as easy to find answers to our questions.

However, opinions and help would be much appreciated. We both feel we have been left to our own devices. Help!

So Am I A Criminal Now?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

I don't normally like modern architecture, not for the sake of it that is. However there was something about these glass domes in this new shopping centre, that really caught my eye. I was like a kid in a toy shop at Christmas......... and  I had my camera handy. I started snapping without a care in the world.

Up on a higher level, things got even better, snapping glass domes through other glass domes and the patterns were fantastic. I was really looking forward to going to the very top level and taking photos looking down through the glass domes and seeing all the angles and unusual shapes that would come out in the photos.

"Excuse me," said a voice of a man behind me, "You can't take photos here." 

I turned around and saw the security guard! Gulp.

"Its just that these glass curves in the roof are so fantastic," I stammered. "I am an amateur photographer. They are only for my own use."

"You will have to get permission if you want to take photos here," The guard went on to say.

I half expected him to demand that I delete the photos from my camera or worse still to confiscate it. 

I went on to ask where I could get permission. The man, who was speaking in a very heavy foreign accent, told me some brief instructions that I didn't fully understand, so off I went. I had to go right to the top of the precinct to get to the Management Office. 

Was I feeling unusually bold? I figured that as I was probably captured on thousands of CCTV cameras as a would be terrorist, that I had better go and make it legal and explain my case.

After much asking around (why did I always chose a foreign person each time, who I couldn't fully understand) I did eventually get to the Management Office. The doors were heavily locked and there was not a person in sight.  

Surely that security guard must have known that the office was closed. Is that what they do to put people off? Make it so difficult that they hope people will not bother?

So that was that then. I looked down at the glass domes and realized what it must feel like to be a junkie needing one more fix, or a gambler needing just another bet, an alcoholic needing one more for the road. What was happening to me? 

I clenched my hands in my pockets so that I wouldn't be tempted and tried to think of other things. 

I would find a way to come back some time in the future and ask the Management Office if I could take the photos from the top level.

So for the sake of security, I cannot tell you where these pictures were taken. In which town or city or even in which country. However I will reveal to you that it is somewhere in Europe.

However, as I didn't have the camera interfered with in any way, I feel that it is OK for me to use the pictures that I had already taken.

Am I wrong? Gulp!

These are my photos (I think!) and this is my story for Photostory Friday. Hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

Sunset By The Lake

This is a response to a monthly invitation to write a story on a given theme. It is hosted by Jeff B from Word In Edgewise. Look him up and see the set of rules.  This is the November entry. Why not have a go!

This is my first serious attempt at fiction story telling! Are you sitting comfortably! You will need to! 

Sylvie glanced once again at the place by the rocks, where Greg's silver convertible usually stood. She had watched the sunset by herself that evening and now it was dark. She could hear the gentle lapping of the ripples in the lake nearby, as they pushed against the stones on the water's edge. 

The lamp had been left in the tent on the hillside above and now she could see the faint light shining boldly into the darkness. It was an old glass jar with a thin wire handle, the type of jar used in kitchens for bottling fruit, with a thick candle inside, but it gave out enough light. She realized she must go to fetch it. Greg would be coming, she knew that. He had put the tent up earlier but where was he now? He had never done this before.

The thought of Greg sent ripples of pleasure tingling throughout her entire being. She was almost forty and had never really loved anyone like this before. There had been men in her life, of course, several in fact, but Sylvie was a career woman and the thought of sacrificing her life to marriage or a long term relationship with any man, had never been for her. This was really different though..... Greg was different. She found that she needed Greg more than anything else in the world. 

She thought back to the time he had first asked her out. The guy from work with the silvery streaked hair, who was really rather ordinary and a good bit older than she was. Of course he had to be a married man. Well, that hadn't bothered Sylvie at the time. 

"Take what you can in life and enjoy it," was her philosophy. 

It had all started off innocently enough, with a meal out and the drive to this lake that Greg loved. They had talked for hours in the car and Greg had told her about his once beautiful wife with the long red hair and the fact that she had become so ill. Sylvie understood this and it didn't make any difference in the beginning. They watched their first beautiful sunset together. The striking colours in the sky seemed to explode into fiery reds and yellows and orange against the darkening clouds. It was not long before their talking stopped and they began a passionate explosion of their own, that equalled any fiery sunset.

They used the convertible at first, but then Greg came up with the idea of the tent. There were trees all around the lake, except for this clearing where there was a steep hill that levelled onto a small field and Greg pitched the tent up there.

Every Friday evening, Greg left work earlier than Sylvie and put up the tent in readiness for their rendezvous and she followed later, parking her mini in a lane nearby. They both felt they were being very discreet as this was a lonely place. They would spend a few hours together in the tent and although they wished it could be for longer, Greg's wife found things difficult. He had to get back to her.

They used the lamp to find their way down the rough track that led them back to the car parked by the rocks below. Greg walked Sylvie back to her mini and kissed her goodbye. A long lingering kiss that could have started a repeat of their lovemaking before. He would then get into his car and leave first. Sylvie always followed a few minutes later.

This arrangement seemed to work out very well for both of them and Fridays could not come soon enough. However, Sylvie often felt that they were not alone. She shuddered at the thought of this, but suspected that it was her guilt that caused this feeling, for just recently, she had started to feel guilty about Greg's sick wife. She was also aware, that in spite of everything, Greg still loved his wife. Sylvie was desperate to persuade him that he would be better off with her.

                              ********************************************

Greg was miles away from the lake. He had parked his car to sit and think out what to do next. He held his head in his hands and sobbed, great heaving sobs of desperation.

It was never meant to turn out like this. His wife had always been prettier than Sylvie could ever be. When they were married she had been petite and she still had that long, red hair that he'd so loved.  He had always thought she looked so lovely in green. She used to dress up for him.What had happened to her over the years? She had become like a zombie, swallowing a concoction of pills and her once attractive green eyes, seemed constantly glazed these days. She also drank, but she was careful to hide the bottles away and she denied there was a problem. She had let herself go, sometimes not bothering about her appearance at all. Greg marvelled that he still found her attractive, even in this state. He needed her but she pushed him away.

Sylvie, on the other hand was vibrant and he could talk to her about anything and they could laugh together, something that his wife just couldn't do. So it was no wonder that Sylvie, being passionate by nature, provided everything that his wife could not give him. He had not meant for the affair to go on as long as this, but surely he was entitled to some happiness? Was that so very wrong? It wasn't as though his wife had suspected anything, when he met up with Sylvie by the lake. He had explained that he had to work late on a Friday night. So why did she have to get so het up about everything? Why choose tonight to rant and rave at him like a wild thing? She had accused him of infidelity and he had denied it. How had she found out about Sylvie? Greg thought it was just guess work as they had been so careful. 

He had  managed to sneak away and had gone to the lake earlier and had put up the tent as usual and even lit the lamp, but as he came back down to the rocks where he'd parked his car, he knew he couldn't go through with the evening after all. Everything was now too complicated. He had chickened out and left, not even bothering to pick up the tent. 

Sylvie wanted more commitment than he could give her and why did he feel so guilty about cheating on his sick wife? He had done the same thing before Sylvie came onto the scene and he hadn't felt like this. The problem was, she was falling for him in a big way and that was not what he wanted. Non of the others had done that. They had been happy to just meet up for sex and he'd thought Sylvie felt the same. 

He must give her up. He couldn't go back to her now. Tonight everything had been spoilt. 

The more he thought about it, the more trapped and desperate he felt.

                              *****************************************                              

Sylvie walked back down the path that led to the lake. She held the lamp high and glanced over at the place where Greg's car should have been. She was sure something had happened to him by now. She took out her mobile but she already knew there was no signal in this place.

Why had he put the tent up and disappeared? Why had he left the lamp lit? 

She was beginning to regret that she had told Greg how she felt about him the last time they had met secretly in their work break. How she had clung to him and told him that she wanted to be a permanent part of his life. Why had she messed up things by saying all that?

She held the lamp out towards the lake for one last look. She would go home, ring Greg and find out what had happened. She would tell him she didn't mind that he couldn't give her what she wanted. She would keep the relationship just as it was. Anything was better than losing him, anything. She was angry with herself for having spoken out like that and angry with Greg for loving his wife, even though she was an alcoholic. How could he love a woman like that more than her?

Her eye caught something floating on the lake. It was a fair sized thing, like a log.

Sylvie went nearer to the water's edge to look more closely. What she saw made her blood turn cold and she stood unable to move. Floating just below the surface was a woman's body. A woman in a green dress, her face white and her eyes half open and still staring vacantly ahead. Her hair was floating about her in all directions, dragged by the water, moving this way and that. Red hair........... long red hair.

Sylvie dropped the lamp and screamed. A long piercing scream that broke the stillness of the night and set off a dog barking in the distance. The lamp smashed into many pieces on the rocks and in the ensuing darkness, Sylvie knew that the dream that she'd had about a future with Greg, was now lost forever, shattered in a moment, like the lamp.

To Cycle Or Not To Cycle?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Not long ago I described a lovely walk that I enjoyed with my sister in law and these are some of the photos that I took as we walked along the cycle path.

I described how dangerous the silent cyclists were when they sneaked up behind us with out warning, not ringing their bells or shouting out that they were there.

However,  all this cycling  talk reminds me of the last time I was on a bike myself, only few years ago.............

I used to cycle to and from work........... but not anymore!

One lunch time, I happened to be cycling home from work and was waiting at a junction to turn right into a very busy main road and I can remember pulling away.......... 

The next thing I remember was lying on my back in the road and an ambulance was not far away. I could see it. A lady was saying, "Now don't you worry about the blood, a little bit goes a long way. You silly girl why didn't you wear a crash helmet?" 

The paramedics had arrived by then and put a neck brace on me and slid a straight board under my body. The right temple over my eye brow was gushing blood. They bandaged it.

I was worried about what would happen to my bike and a woman in one of the houses said she'd take it in for me.

It turned out (and I only learned this later from other people), that an elderly driver had driven into the back of my  bike while trying to pull away on the same righthand turn too, but had not given me time to get away.

When she saw what had happened, she ran away to get someone to help, leaving me to lie unconscious in a busy road that has juggernauts thundering by. Anyway I was well out of it so didn't know the danger I was in at the time.

After a couple of days in hospital suffering from concussion, throwing up and so dizzy that I could hardly walk, I looked a sorry mess with black eyes, bruising and swellings on various bits of my anatomy, I had to take a couple of weeks from work and was sore for ages.

People used to joke as to whether my old man had given me the black eyes. Not so funny after the first half dozen times you hear that!

I did try and get back to cycling again, after I'd had the wheel straightened out, but it wasn't the same after that.

Flashbacks........

This is my story and these are my photos. Photostory Friday, hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.