Rhyme and No Reason!

Blogger, author and rhymester who likes to find the humour in life.

Episode 259: Multi-Tasking or Mayhem? — March 28, 2015

Episode 259: Multi-Tasking or Mayhem?

Apparently us women are supposed to be pretty good at multitasking; I think I am to a point, especially when I’m on the phone. Sometimes I can be talking to my sister on the phone for an hour or more, so being able to get on with some other jobs at the same time can come in handy!

I am pretty good at ironing with the phone balanced between right ear and shoulder, as well as carrying on a conversation, likewise dusting and polishing.However, I cannot talk and type, or read at the same time. No, that is definitely too much for my poor little brain to manage at once and the concentration goes completely, so that I am either typing rubbish or talking rubbish (well, more so than usual, anyway)!

I can knit and watch TV at the same time though. Yes, I bet you are impressed with that one. What I need to mention here is that only applies if I am following an easy pattern. If I am counting stitches or something that requires a smidgen of thought, then I usually miss a huge chunk of what happened in the film or programme and drive everyone mad by asking what is going on. Other than that if a juicy bit comes on the TV then I need to watch, then stitches can get dropped, or I have to unpick rows that I have buggered  up!

I can’t do anything else whilst driving, except listen to music, and that has only been a recent thing. I suppose it is due to the fact that I am not keen on driving and feel I need to concentrate. When I used to smoke I rarely had a cigarette whilst driving. I remember once when I did, and the top of the cigarette fell off onto my lap (it was still lit), I was panicking like mad trying to bat at it to put it out, whilst concentrate on the road. I didn’t do that again!

At work of course is a different matter entirely, I am a very good multi-tasker as we all have to be. We are constantly running from one job to the next, and on the way to that job, get grabbed to do another one or two. That with answering the buzzers, and talking to relatives, or other medical staff as you go about your chores, is just part and parcel of the job.

Are you a good multi-tasker, and do you think women are better at it than men?

Episode 216: Mum’s The Word! — March 12, 2015

Episode 216: Mum’s The Word!

On Sunday, here in the UK it is Mother’ s Day. My Mum is quite a character and I have written about her a few times over the last six months, which is no surprise of course, seeing as she is one of the biggest influences in my life! I thought I would share a few more snippets of her wise and wonderful ways!

She is 82 years old, yet refers to both of her neighbours and others younger than her as ‘old ladies’! That always makes me laugh. How old do you have to be before you consider yourself old?

She is the worst ‘re-gifter’ in the world! I think most of the girls in my family have been on the receiving end of something we recognised giving her for a previous birthday or Christmas present!

On a similar theme. She leaves the prices on all the presents and also forgets to label them, so sometimes you open a present which you really like only to have it snatched out of your hand and told it isn’t meant for you! Or worse still, you might get a rather snazzy pair of boxer shorts, which despite most things being unisex these days, some women are not so keen on the front opening!

When you phone her up if she does actually hear it and pick it up, you can barely hear her voice over the racket of the TV. It is positively BLARING! When you go round there, you are almost sent reeling with the assault on your eardrums!

She is one of the best cooks I know! Although my Mum does not do as much baking as she used to, she still makes a damn good roast dinner. As long as you can overlook the fact that the meat might have been cooked the day before and left in the microwave overnight as she put it there to cool down as it ‘is covered’ and then forgot about it!

She has a tissue permanently up her sleeve! What is it with old ladies and their tissues? I thought it was only little kids that had permanently snotty noses, (and they never have a tissue handy preferring to wipe it on whatever is to hand). Every room you go in there will be a crumpled up tissue!

Starts a sentence with, “I don’t want to be a pain but…” and you know you are not going to like what you hear next! She has just done all of her shopping and when you go to put it away she realises that she forgot to get milk or some other necessity that you had reminded her about constantly whilst in the supermarket! Or Another one…. you are all going out somewhere, a few miles away, you are nearly there when she tells you she has ‘forgotten her purse’. You tell her it doesn’t matter but no, you have to go all the way back to get it!

Those are just a few of the little ways my mum has that drive us all mad! However, she has been there for us all at some time or another over the years, and having six children could not have been easy for her, I hope she realises that she is appreciated!

Episode 148: Family Night….. — February 6, 2015

Episode 148: Family Night…..

The weekend is upon us. The time for families to spend quality time together enjoying each other’s company….not in our house!

We all started off sitting together in the front room having dinner, then Miss Hap got a call afterwards from a school friend, She decided that they needed to ‘face time’ each other as talking is obviously not enough (neither is the fact that she was just with her at school a few hours previously) and she clomped off upstairs to get some privacy!

I remember those days when younger and my friends would phone on the weekend. My Mum and step-dad would moan loudly about ‘bloody kids’ phoning up when we only saw them 5 minutes ago. We didn’t have the luxury of a cordless phone and the cable wasn’t that long either. That normally meant sitting in the front room trying to talk to your friend whilst getting withering glances from the others as you were disturbing their TV viewing pleasure!

Privacy was not an option. If you were lucky, you might be able to yank the phone out to the hall and sit on the stairs for 5 minutes, before being yelled at to ‘get off the bloody phone’ – even if your friend called you! Those were the days!

Mt Grump has plonked himself in front of the (blaring) TV  with a few beers, to watch the Rugby. It is England V Wales, and is being played in his home town of Cardiff. The rest of the family are English, and he has been getting a few texts from them commiserating over Wales’ inevitable trouncing by England even though it hasn’t started yet! In fact we are being treated to a light show of dizzying brilliance.

I am sat at my laptop trying to block out the bloody racket coming from the TV. My headphones have blocked out about 50% of it, but no doubt I will still hear the shouts if Wales score, or the swearing if England do!

Good old technology. where would we be with out it?…..Probably all sitting around playing a board game and spending quality family time together no doubt!!!

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