Those Romantic Stories

They do leave real life behind.

This is the story of a young man who was a great chef who left his job and came home to help his mother look after his father. Dementia is what the father had and did not know his son but sometimes recognised his mother. 

He has to find a job and lo and behold he finds one at a garden centre, the daughter is taking over the garden centre from her overbearing mother. 

Romantic films will take you through the trails and torments of their budding love affair.

Hang on, what about the father? 

The dementia research has made a massive breakthrough, the way a dementia patient behaves can be linked to their personality. Scary stuff. It gets better, if you are a genuine person when sane then that will come out when you have dementia. If you are a person who harbours grudges, and fantasies about how they can destroy people, things or circumstances. That is how you will be when you have dementia. 

In short, those that are violent, aggressive dementia patients, have had that tendency all their lives. Those who are easily pleased, and happy with what they have, that is what they have always been and so will not be too aggressive. 

The father, well, we will never know, as we only saw him once at the start.

I listened to a story on the wireless the other day. It was about a girl doing her PhD on monarch butterflies. The story is about Sara Dykman following the butterflies on their migration. 

When Sara Dykman set out to bicycle with the monarch butterfly migration, from the mountains of central Mexico, across the USA to Canada, she didn't think about the 10,201 miles that she would cover. Climbing onto her old bike every morning, with panniers made from cat litter buckets, she just focused on the miles that she would attempt that day. Coping with headwinds, heavy rain storms, and everything from dirt roads to busy highways was not the challenge for Sara though. It was seeing how little of the Monarch's only food plant, milkweed, was left for them to feed on during their amazing, multigenerational, multinational migration. Just to be clear, Monarch caterpillars feed on milkweed plants, while adults forage for flower nectar.

After her glorious first day of cycling along a stream of butterflies, Sara typically only saw one or two monarchs per day on the rest of her trip. 

However, Sara found solace in the many conservationists and backyard butterfly gardeners she met along the way, and in the 9000 schoolchildren she gave talks to en route. Always on the lookout for milkweeds, Sara danced on the side of the road if she found a plant where monarchs had laid their eggs. She would then desperately attempt to relocate them if she saw a lawn mower approaching, as she did on many occasions. The most emotional part of the journey for Sara was the last three miles - arriving successfully back at the monarch's overwintering site in Mexico.

Jenson has won another competition, that dog loves, a good competition. The Knight Bridge Dog of the Year Award. Out of twenty thousand entries, he won first prize. Claudia entered him. Claudia has a dog that Mika bought for her a while ago. It is now home at the Gary Smith Dog Shelter. In all fairness, the dog in question is of dubious parentage and Gary and Alex are doing an amazing job of teaching the dog, to be a dog. Jenson loves her and that is all that matters. She does have a very high-pitched cry when chasing a ball on the beach.

Snow

It is snowing outside, crazy, I know, this is England, we swim every day, long walks with Jenson. It is snowing. Susan went for a swim this morning, she does every morning but this was a cold morning. 2 degrees C and a gale. She is really brave and I did not swim, maybe I should put my big boy pants on and follow in her brave footsteps. I will hopefully be strong enough to swim tomorrow. This video shows how strong the wind was, even though the sand was wet from the rain it still managed to blow the sand.

Those little town blues, keep melting away. 

I heard someone say that you must never let your fear, dictate your life. 

Today I did swim, cool, being strong has its advantages. The biggest problem was trying to get my hands and feet warm. Sandbanks has a lot going for it but under sand heating, it has not. For Christmas, I was gifted a water temperature reading instrument (Pool Thermometer) and put it to good use today. The water temperature is 5 degrees C. The outside temperature is 4 degrees C, so it is warmer in the water than out, madness.

Susan went to South Africa to visit her friends. South Africa is a land that has no respect for human life and it worries me she has not grasped the horrors of a country she thinks is all milk and honey. Thankfully she is back, safe and sound.

The last few days have been cold, very cold for even our island. Susan does give me the courage to swim as she goes every morning. Dark, cold mornings and she leaves at about 6:15 with Jenson for a walk and a swim. I always think that if she can go so early in the morning, I can swim at lunchtime. 

With her away I did not swim yesterday but today I felt a moral responsibility to swim, maybe because I can. Took the pool thermometer and as the car said it was 2 degrees C and I was interested to find out what the water temperature was. 5 degrees C, so warmer in than out! Was a challenge, we will see what tomorrow brings.

Someone said to me, ‘Act your age.’

I don’t know how to act my age, I have never been this age before.

Talking of age, where have the years gone, and why do children grow up so fast? One day they’ll climb out of your lap and never climb up again. The hard part is you never know, that’s the day. 

Have I been to church lately? Yes, funny story. I took my car for a wash, yep, it was not its shining self and on the way back I saw a church door open. Next thing I was in an empty church and overwhelmed, looking at the cross, I said to no one in particular.

‘It has been a while since I have sat in a church, too long, there is peace here. I wish it was as simple as using life as an excuse. But that is not an excuse.

I looked around and I was talking to an empty building, weird. 

Just to end.

A boy goes into his tutor’s office and says.

‘Sir, I cannot fail this class’.

The tutor answers.

‘Oh, don’t sell yourself short my boy, I am sure you can.