Half a century and counting

Chris enjoying time  and memories with old friends

A World Apart

One is about 43 degrees latitude N. and longitude 80 W, The other almost equidistant south latitude and longitude 174 E. Two women, two minds, different personalities and experiences, choosing a life of meaning, continual growth and learning, at the same time negating ageist opinions of exactly what ‘an old lady’ should be.

Chris G

The above is what I wrote in my gravatar back in November ’21 when JB and I started A World Apart here on WordPress. The reason I am using it today is for the part at the same time negating ageist opinions of exactly what an ’old lady’ should be.

You see yesterday the graduating class of 1969 at South Waterloo Memorial Hospital had it’s 53rd reunion. You heard me. Some may ask why 53rd? Isn’t it traditional to celebrate the decade? Of course those who are regular readers know the answers to that one…

View original post 303 more words

The Night Ferry

Today’s review

A World Apart

I have written before about a writer’s aid that I have.It’s called a Creative Writer’s Kit and it gives one, amongst other things, day-by-day suggestions of what to write about.

Needing some help today I turned to this kit and my eyes alighted on October 1 “On the night train to….”

I have recently finished another of Michael Robotham’s books. This one is called theNight Ferryand I thought that I would write about it. Not a night train, but close enough.

This is not in the Jo O’Loughlin series but instead is a stand-alone book.

Detective Alisha Barba is recovering having been badly injured while making an arrest.. After a very long stay in the hospital, while they fixed her back, she wonders if she will ever run again.Now she is sufficiently recovered to start running again and it becomes her lifesaver.

The school reunion is coming up…

View original post 243 more words

Stupid News

Chris is on her high horse today

A World Apart

Photo by Madison Inouye on Pexels.com

CBC NEWS -Ottawa police say they’re ready to shut down Canada Day occupation attempts – *this is expected to be a unique Canada Day, with larger crowds and a larger event footprint,” interim Ottawa police Chief Steve Bell said during aMonday news conference.

It seems the nice polite Canadian is a thing of the past. We have gone from peaceful demonstrations to occupations, not designed to protest or to make a point but to make the ordinary surrounding citizenry suffer and be terrorized. We learned that from the Trucker’s Convoy, which lost them a lot of support including mine. And what the heck is an event footprint?

REUTERS – Pro-life is not just opposing abortion, Vatican says after U.S. ruling. By Philip Pullella

Not sure exactly what the point is here. Well, the surface stuff sure but does that mean RvW should not have…

View original post 183 more words

Meandering and Musing on Monday

Untethered thoughts from an ancient mind.

A World Apart

At the end of another long day with no idea what to write about, I decided to look back on what I had been thinking and writing about ten years ago.

“Overeating regularly eventually leads to under-living.”
Mokokoma Mokhonoana, South African philosopher, social critic, and satirist.

In May 2012, I wrote a blog that discussed amongst other things, the fattest man in the world. He was Keith Martin a British man who at his heaviest, weighed 70 stone (980 lbs. or 445 kg). When I wrote my post, Keith Martin was 42 years old. he hadn’t been out of his house since 9/11. He was too large to go out. He was recorded as eating 20,000 calories a day, nine times more than the recommended amount. To read the rest of that post click here.

Then having read that post I decided that I would find out what…

View original post 507 more words

Freedom’s just another word

Cutting those shackles.

A World Apart

Me and Bobby McGee

Following JB’s post of yesterday about world reaction to the United States Supreme Court’s most recent decision, I had a mind to follow up on that topic, but realized there are a lot of folk who need to express feelings, thoughts and anguish, and I would stand down for now.

And so my mind took me in a different direction.

I forgot my ear buds when I went walking this morning (early, as it is now 31C), and it gave me a chance to do some free thinking. Bounce my thoughts here and there.

Freedom came to the fore, of course. Well, at least the thought of it. And what it meant. Different folk, different slant. Different hope. Different anguish.

But, for this moment I am thinking about the losses of freedom we put on ourselves. Think, breaking self-imposed chains. Things that affect our everyday life…

View original post 258 more words

Concern and Disbelief

“Our mothers teach us to speak, and the world teaches us to shut up.”  
Valeria Luiselli, Mexican author
1983 –

I looked on from afar and then muttered in disbelief that this couldn’t happen. But it did. The US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade. This had been in law since the early 1970s.

And now we are told by the BBC “After the Supreme Court ruling, abortion access is expected to be cut off for about 36 million women of reproductive age, according to research from Planned Parenthood, a healthcare organisation that provides abortions”

Here in New Zealand abortion is legal. Up to 20 weeks a woman may seek an abortion from a health professional. After 20 weeks abortion is permitted only if a health practitioner deems it “clinically appropriate” and consults at least one other health practitioner. So we find it hard to accept that a ruling that has been in place for more than 50 years can be overturned.

I once came into play with a group of anti-abortionists. A client had just purchased a hospital to add to its other properties. But this one housed a well-known abortion clinic. I was abused by a screaming bunch of zealots who called me a murderer amongst other things. They had no response to my query as to who was going to care for the unwanted, unplanned infants. Not pregnant but abused nevertheless.

I will close here – although of course, this enquiring, ancient neighbourhood of my mind, will follow this through the weeks and months that follow.

JB June 25, 2022

Thoughts for Thursday

Thoughts

A World Apart

“What is it with you and that book?”
Rafael laughed. “We have a personal relationship.” 
Benjamin Alire Sáenz, American poet, novelist,
and writer of children’s books

Lunch today was cancelled because one friend had a horrible cold and didn’t want to go out nor did she want to give it to us.

So time for me. But where did the three hours I would have spent between leaving home and returning go?

The groceries were delivered bright and early (what a godsend that is to we oldies), and then the FaceTime chat with Chris. We talk twice each week, usually for an hour or so – 10.30 am my time so I have the rest of the day before me; while Chris, some 16 hours behind me, is looking forward to her evening activities.

I had promised myself that I would use this unexpected free day on myself. So…

View original post 305 more words

AS TIME GOES BY

A very favourite series. Thank you Chris.

A World Apart

I had another post in mind right up to the point of starting to type, but something else won out.

I have become enamoured of late with an old TV Series from Britain. It has started a once a day episode and I PVR it, generally watching in the evening.

It’s an old tale about love lost, and a reuniting thirty-eight years later, when paths cross again.

It’s a lovely show, starring Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer, that makes me feel, sentimental, wistful, and comforted. I guess. Not sure if that really says how it makes me feel, but it’s the best I can come up with.

It’s a calming time, a laughing time, that ends with a sigh. (Mine not theirs)

Sometimes I find myself wondering if there had been someone who loved me all those years ago and I didn’t know it. Something to ponder.

The series…

View original post 328 more words

Grab pluck or seize – this is the day!

The longest day in Canada and the shortest day here,

A World Apart

And what a day it is!

When I woke this morning at 6 and read the news –

Summer Solstice, Longest Day of the Year, First Day of Summer, Planetary Alignment I just knew it would be a special time. Lots of thoughts came to mind –

Hamlet:
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy

Next I thought SEIZE THE DAY!

Carpe is the second-person singular present active imperative of carpō “pick or pluck” used by Horace to mean “enjoy, seize, use, make use of”.^[2] Diem is the accusative of dies “day”. A more literal translation of carpe diem would thus be “pluck the day [as it is ripe]”—that is, enjoy the moment. It has been argued by various authors that this interpretation is closer to Horace’s original…

View original post 222 more words

A New Public Holiday

A World Apart

“The greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals.”
Siddharth Katragadda is an Indian American writer,
artist and engineer.
1970 –

via wikipedia

This year we have a new public holiday. The holiday is to celebrate Matariki. In Māori culture, Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and of the celebration of its first rising in late June or early July. This marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar.

The first public holiday to celebrate Matariki will be on Friday 24 June 2022. “The Government has committed to ensuring Mātauranga Maori is at the heart of celebrations of the Matariki public holiday, and it will be a time for: Remembrance – Honouring those we have lost since the last rising of Matariki.”

Here in New Zealand we are working hard and making recompense for the way the indigenous people were…

View original post 48 more words