Late night ramblings

Nikki, this is fabulous...I love it! Do you write it yourself or in a team? Who does the artwork? What a creative bod you are.  

Pepys xx

Why, thank you, Pepys. I’m the art editor so all the design and creative stuff is me. My editor and a writer do the words. Just a small team but I’ve done this stuff for over thirty years now so it’s like rolling off s log now. I’ve covered all sorts of genres - Doctor Who (that was a favourite), Lego, animal mags (which got me into the wolves as we did a feature on them) and Top of the Pops. I used to chase pop stars round Elstree for photos and quotes. That was at the height of Spice Girl fever - they were fun girls. The best person I met was David Bowie. Only time I was properly star struck but he was absolutely lovely. I always think no one is any better than anyone else but he was special.

Hello Nikki,

i would have swooned with delight had I met David Bowie. It all sounds very exciting! The nearest I’ve ever got to him was at  the excellent exhibition at the V&A. A hologram of him and Mick Ronson, of whom I’m also a big fan. It seems you are very wide-ranging in your interests and can turn your hand to most things. I admire you! 

I’m in Glasgow and returning tomorrow. It is actually quite cold here and I’m wearing opaque tights to warm up the frozen blocks of my numbed feet. I seem to have sprained my left ankle without knowing when I did it. It is very swollen indeed. My body feels very alien to me,,all sorts of things happening behind my back. 

Hope you are all well.

And how are you feeling, Kate?

pepys xx

I did swoon a bit as am a big fan. After we’d done the photos I said thank you very much and he said “no problem,” then winked at me! He was quite small but had a huge presence. His guitarist was with him - a very tall black lady who was dressed as a horse. Sounds mad but she looked magnificent. He insisted she was in the photos so it wasn’t all about him. Marvellous. I went to that exhibition too. Was very cut up when he died - don’t think the world has been the same since. The very first gig I ever went to was his Serious Moonlight tour in Wellington in 1983.

Hope you had a lovely time in Glasgow with your boys. Sorry to hear about the ankle. Our bodies work in mysterious ways, especially when possessed by the Beast that is cancer. 

Its finally raining here - such bliss! I stood out in it and did some gardening as well. The wet earth smelt heavenly.

Am currently binge watching the new series of Orange Is the New Black on Netflix. A friend put me on his account when I was having chemo which was the best present. I binge watched Breaking Bad which was apt in the circumstances. 

Take care all and keep cool. 

Evening everyone 

well kiwiwolf I am seriously impressed. Firstly with the magazine cover that’s great then came TOTP, but then you totally blew me away with the David Bowie tale. In my mind I have had a life long relationship with him, Freddie mercury and Robert Plant. As a young teen I was convinced I was going to marry one of them when I grew up. I suppose I could still have hope for the latter. I was very disappointed when you said he was small, you always expect your hero’s to be giants.

Freddie was a joint crush with my mum years ago we saw We will rock you and my mum got told off for dancing on her chair then in feb 17 on our last holiday together we went to Zanzibar and did the Freddie tour, it was obvious to me that she ways already sick but as always her enthusiasm for life took over and the whole trip she kept bursting in to Queen songs. 

Sorry for the other night. I’m usually an optimist but there have been so many new members with the usual story it really got to me.

ive had such a busy weekend. Our small town had a food festival so we had a stall to promote the bar which was a huge success the result of which has been heaving last night and all day today. I really get a buzz when it’s like that but boy do I feel it now. I have a couple of staff on holiday so no day off this week I can feel the eye bags getting bigger at the thought. 

Hope the ankle feels better soon Peyps, I can’t wait to hear about your trip. Btw my freezer is full of stock and bones. I can’t bare to throw any away but other than my mums soup there’s nothing to eat. 

Have a good one all xx

Hey Lady P & Co. hope you enjoyed Glasgow P. I love the old buildings there. The old Tennament blocks. Mind you. I didn't look lovely in Rab C Nesbitt's day! Mum loved his comedy show. She had this really chesty laugh from her asthma. But when i made her laugh. It was great. We often used to say it's a sign of generosity if you laugh with all your heart. We both had the same sense of humour. I so miss that!

I had such an emotional day on Monday. I secretly promised mum that i'd get the guts & go to her house. She lived in North London. My flat's 40 mins away by tube in Central London. I was dreading going. I hadn't been since last November. (She died last October). When i went before it was freezing & snowing. It was just right yesterday. But i felt so emotional getting off the bus & walking the route i used to before. She was always welcoming. Would have the kettle on, with a nice creamy treat! Or if i was hungry. A nice big plate of hot shepherd's pie, with loads of worcester sauce!!! Only there was no-one there to greet me yesterday. Bloody sad. I used to play a trick on her & ring her on my mobile. Tell her i was stuck at the station. Or say sorry i wasn't coming over. Then ring her bell. Surprise her. So it was so eerie walking into a house that i've known my whole life. But thank God my brother had been great. Put some things into storage. But not too much. Wasn't too empty. He's paying mum's gardener to keep it nice aswell. Thought i'd only have the guts to stay there 10 mins. But in the end. I stayed a couple of hrs, took some photos. A big house at the end of the rd is being demolished & 9 flats are being built. Mum & i often dreaded that happening. It's a nice quiet little rd. So i hate the fact there's going to be more people & traffic. I spoke to her neighbour. She misses her. They knew eachother 40yrs. She's obviously nervous about who her new neighbours are going to be. Plus all the workmen that are going to be in the rd. it was a sad but strangely uplifting day for me. I was elated that i faced such an emotional situation. I've been putting off going for months. But at last i felt really grown up facing up to it.

a lovely thing happened this morning too. I was so tired from the emotional & physical day before. I was reading in bed, had the window open. I live on the 4th floor. It's surprising that we do have quite a few birds (the feathered kind), in central London. But i heard 1 chirping & it sounded so close. I looked out. It was close. Was within inches from my open window. Was lovely. I whistled & spoke gently to it. It stayed there with it's head to one side. Then flitted off. Some people with think i'm mad. But i think my mum sent it. That has NEVER EVER happened in all the 15yrs of me living here. It came onto my window ledge & there are wires all round to stop them. But the way it looked & just sat there. It had been calling for a while. It really comforted & moved me. X

Hi Vixen 

Tvman here,  popping in as I do from time to time.  Very poignant and thought provoking story there Vixen. I'm in central London too at the moment, in a lovely hotel on Albert Embankment. I'm over from Northern Ireland to enjoy a Michelin starred meal in 7 Park Place, Mayfair. She bought it me for my 60th birthday present. We're staying with her in Peterborough for a couple of weeks and nipped down to London for 3 days. We were in Kew Gardens yesterday, and such a lovely place !

As well as being an incurable,  I'm a wheelchair user which developed just 3 months after my cancer diagnosis in March 2015 so it was a little tricky to get to kew and back due to accessibility problems, but we managed,  apart from  starting to run out of juice in my motorised scooter  so we didn't see as much as we wanted. Another time maybe. 

Well, I'll try to get back to sleep now, it's 5.00 am. I've trapped nerves in my back and I get woken every night with pain,  very bad this time. Ah well, worse things in life lol

Take care Vixen 

Tvman x

Good morning

Nice to catch up with everyone’s news.

Ive not seen the deer recently but the magpies are pulling up the plants just now!

Looking forward to hearing about your visit to Glasgow, Pepys.

i lived in a tenament in Edinburgh for a number of years, Vixen. Do you have a lift in your building or do you have to climb the stairs?

Squeaky

Hi Tvman. Albert Embankment's very plush. I'm not into modern buildings at all. Love old Victorian/Georgian. But there are some unbelieveable flash flats aroubd there. Fantastic views of the Thames. There's a Woody Allen film set around there. (Matchpoint). He rented someone's flat from there. Stunning views.

Lovely treat & you've been lucky with the weather. Especially coming from Belfast. My lovely mother was a 'Belfastian'. She moved over to London in the 50's when she was 19. Was an office temp for a while. Worked in Red Lion Sq, near Holborn. I enjoyed it when she talked about a really old building she worked at for a couple of weeks. It would have been condemned now. Health & safety. She said there were holes everywhere in the rotten floorboards. It had lovely big old doors. Really steep stairs. The guy she worked for was as old and dusty   as the building!! She worked hard. She was only doing holiday cover. He was sad to see her go. But the secretary she had been covering for, was as old as him. She'd worked for him for YEARS. She was jealous of my mother being so young & she was lively, had a great sense of humour. Think the woman was glad my mother left!!! While she was temping, she lived in a hostel at Victoria. Run by nuns. My mother HATED NUNS. Like i've said in an earlier post. She went to a jazz club in Soho one night. She & her friend loved jiving in the jazz clubs. One night they got locked out of the hostel. Think the mean nuns locked the door at 10pm every night.  My mum & friend had to sleep in a phone box one night! Then another time they went to a Police Station. Had a cell to themselves!! Wouldn't happen now. They haven't got room for the baddies. Let alone for someone that's been locked out.

Awful about your health stuff. Bad enough you got the evil cancer & then in a wheelchair. Trapped nerves are excrutiating. I have reactive arthritis. I'm 47 now. But it started when i was 21. I get attacks of iritis in my eyes & have glaucoma in the left eye. So i'm in & out of hospitals all the time. I'm on infliximab an infusion every 6 weeks at UCH in Euston. Like i've said before. Everyone on here knows about hospitals!!! Anyway. I've read your posts before Tvman. Like you said. Any friend of Pepys... Hope your Glasgow trip was special Pepys. Another experience for the memory box! Enjoy the lovely weather everyone. x

Hi Squeaky. You're the one i sometimes envy. A lovely garden, near some woods & the sea just beyond. Sounds idylic. Living in Central London means you don't get any outside space. Unless your'e lucky enough to get a few inches of balcony. Space is precious. Same in every big city i suppose. Eventhough i live in the city. We have good wildlife. (Not just theatres & clubs). We have quite a few species of birds. Crows & seagulls. They often fight over territory. I love watching them nose diving & knocking eachother off the rooves. We have magpies that are so loud with their rattle crys. One Sunday morning a crow was frantically calling for it's mate. It was hopping about panicking. Looked so human. People came out onto their balconys to see. I felt sorry for it. There's a residential cat that lives below... 

Like i've said before about reactive arthritis. I'm on longterm treatment. (For life). I have an Infusion every 6 weeks. I live on the 4th floor of a 5 storey building. I could never live in a tower block. We do have a lift but i can be very unpredictable. When i first moved here, i had to have major surgery on my toes. (I was pigeon toed). It was horrible, they were all deformed. (I was 32). They took some bones out so i could walk more comfortably. Recovery was awful. Pounding pain, as if being hit with a brick. Was on morphine in hospital. Of course my lovely mother came to me every day. She stayed at mine while i was in the hospital. Then she nursed me when i came out. Of course the lift really let both of us down. When i really needed it. It buggered up. Was out of action for about 4/5 months. It was waful, as my mother had asthma too. I was limping & moaning going up with sticks & she was puffing & panting up the stairs! I'm grateful for it though. I've got a Peabody flat like i've said before. But i don't live on the estate. None of the buildings there have a lift. They've got 6 floors!! I'd either be fitter or miserable living there. It's a lovely estate. Some of the flats are right on Drury Lane. I love to read about the history of all peabody estates & look at old photos. There's one i thought was sweet. A woman had a flat right on Drury Lane, this was in the days when milkmen & their floats were around. The milkman just handed her stuff through her window. Great! My boyfriend used to live in that estate when he was about 7. He's in his late 40's. He told me they used to have a horse & cart delivering the milk. I envied that. I lived in the burbs when i was younger. Didn't start living in central london until my mid 20's. He won't ever go in the estate anymore. When he was a child, he saw a guy on fire jumping out of a window. (He died). Harrowing. So he never sets foot on that estate. Which is a shame. I like going there on summer days. It has a nice community feel. There's a play area for kids & loads of benches. Anyway. Rambling. (Mind u. I'm half Irish. Goes with the culture). My mum could talk forever. I miss that. 'Mail soon'.x