Bee Orchid's articles

© Fran C 2015 The sun beat down as I walked to work under a clear blue sky. A gentle breeze blew my hair, playing it across my face and I absentmindedly tucked my hair behind an ear. As I walked, I heard a crunching underfoot and I glanced down and scowled. All across the pavement was the detritus from a visitor to our shores. I walked carefully, aware that the broken detritus might damage my shoes. The bushes rustled and I thought I espied our visitor but he hid from me. I’ve tried to be fri…

© Fran C 2008 A bright, almost white sun shines down on a sea of houses. A gentle breeze blows a full line of lavender scented laundry. Speckled starlings bathe in the pool of water collected on the shed roof, while a lone seagull soars overhead. White clouds like cotton balls gently slide across a deep blue sky. The sun beats down, warming the flagstones that last night suffered frost. Cream coloured vertical blinds shield the sun and prying eyes from what goes on within the four walls. I…

Dumping Fred © Fran C 2007 Recently I noticed that I was being followed, I’ll call him Fred. A few times I went out to my car and Fred was lurking there. My son was afraid of him, but he just irritated me. Some mornings he’d be there, waiting, other mornings he was nowhere in sight. I noticed that once or twice last week he followed me to my son’s school, and then to work. When I finished work, he was still there! He never seemed to get tired or bored of waiting for me. On Wednesday, my s…

This week I have been mostly feeling annoyed. We’ve had more missives regarding space allocation in our ‘new campus’ and some staff have even been shown where their desks or work area will be. Not me. I’m not mentioned on any of the moves, nor do I have a space set aside for me and my kit. I’ve gone from feeling anxious about it to downright annoyed, verging on anger and have today sent a polite if a little terse request for information. I’ve basically stated that after working for them for 9 ye…

My week off is almost over, and on Monday it’s back to the mad house that passes for work these days. It’s been mostly good, although the weather has let me down, big time. In fact, we only had one day when it didn’t rain, even if it was only a brief shower. I managed to visit my sister who’s a bit poorly, and my Dad in hospital. He’s thankfully now home, after a 2 week stay in hospital, and although not that well he’s glad to be at least sleeping in his own bed. Hospital is no place to get any…

On Saturday, on a whim, I decided to make some cherry jam. A couple of supermarkets are selling them at a reduced cost, and I (used to) love making jam, marmalade, chutney… Anyway, I got everything ready which took an age! You try stoning over a kg of cherries lol. The jam was bubbling away but showed no sign of reaching setting point. I used to have a jam thermometer, but I followed the instructions for it one time, followed them to the letter, and the damn thing went ping when it touched the j…

Over the weekend my stepdad was taken into hospital. He had a bypass operation a number of years ago, and they suspect he has a leaky heart valve. My boss kindly let me slope off early on Monday so that I could visit him. I’ve no idea how to get to the hospital that they have him in, so I had to drive to my sister’s house, wait while her 2 children finished their lunch, then 3 of us drove in the one car to the hospital. Now, if you’re an avid smoker and easily offended, skip this paragraph:…

When I worked in the Civil Service there was a policy of Last In, First Out. You kept an eye on who came in after you, as they were more likely to go if staff numbers had to be cut. It was a tense time being the newbie I can tell you. These days I can’t afford to go back in to the Civil Service, much as I’d like to. They don’t get paid much unless you’re quite senior, and their pay rise is being capped at a mere 1% whilst MP’s are having a huge pay rise of around 10%. Today we’re being informed…

I just read that Val Doonican has died at the age of 88. When I was younger I was quite a fan of his, and my Mum used to tease me that I wrote an essay in junior school about him. We were asked to write about our favourite pop singer and I stated that I didn’t like pop music, but if I had to pick someone, it would be Val Doonican. Back then my Father listened to opera and he took me to see a rendition of Madame Butterfly, and Porgy and Bess which I thoroughly enjoyed. He also listened to a lot o…

And other misnomers: Change can be good, but not always. It depends on if the change is beneficial. In work we’re changing who supplies our printers. At present we have large printers that are situated around the building that can print, photocopy, scan, and even fax. Basically they do everything you need, except make the tea ;) Most of us have finally got used to these printers but apparently they’re all going to be changed over the summer to new machines and a new brand. I look forward to it w…

On Wednesday I felt compelled to apologise most of the day for problems that were not of my making. I was on our other campus for candidate exams and apologised that the room we were in was in a state of being half painted. I kept the door open as long as I could to dispel the stink of paint. I then apologised that a server we needed was down. This wasn’t our server so it was completely out of my control but candidates had to complete a paper exam rather than a computer based one. I was given ‘d…

This morning, on a whim, I decided to count my potted plants. Now I say ‘potted’ because many years ago I mentioned that I had a lot of ‘pot plants’ and an American friend thought I was very liberal, openly growing pot plants. LMAO. No, these are potted plants. Anyway, at last count I had around 40 pots, this morning the number has reached a dizzying 73! This number will grow a little over the weekend because I planted some flower and herb seeds, and these now need thinning. It’s getting out o…

I’m seriously considering naming my house Leak House. A few years ago the shed roof was leaking and had to be repaired. The sill above the back door has leaked and had to be sealed. The sink tap was leaking and had to be replaced last year along with some pipework. More recently the bath tap was leaking and I had to have some pipework replaced. On Sunday, after we’d showered, I noticed the leak was there again only much worse than a dripping. The plumber came back today, tightened the tap he’d k…

We’ve sprung a leak! Ok, now let’s not panic. Although the ship had sprung a leak, it wasn’t actually too bad. Not for the first time, water has been dripping down into the galley from the bathroom above. We’ve had some really bad rain, and a few years ago water was coming in through a sill above the back door. The landlord sorted that, however I borrowed some sealant and gave it another spraying for good measure. No good, water still dripping after days of no rain. There are some bathroom t…

We’re having here what some call Yo Yo weather; one day high winds and heavy rain, the next very sunny and mild. The forecasters had ‘promised’ a heatwave by the end of the week, but I’m guessing they just mean London. If it ain’t happening in London, then it ain’t happening. That’s my interpretation anyway. It’s sunny here today with some light winds, but 15C doesn’t make it a heatwave in my opinion. Work has been pretty busy with me getting in early most days to set up cameras for recording…

Last week was very quiet apart from one of the pirates and me having a play with some new cameras. One even tracks you around the room! What fun. I made a short video and watched it on playback. OMG it’s true when they say the camera puts pounds on you! That or I’m just getting old and heavy LMAO. Some days I feel like an ‘old’ woman. Other days, like today and I’m springing up the stairs at speed that would shame people much younger than me. Today I feel good. Tomorrow? Who knows… We had…

This morning I took my son to an informal interview for a college course. He came out grinning; they’ve accepted him on to the course. The good news is that it will only cost £40 for the year. At the moment he’s getting Job Seekers Allowance because he’s been looking for a job. He’s been looking for a year now, and college was his fall back plan. The job centre has ‘threatened’ to force him to do ‘voluntary’ work because he hasn’t found a job yet. I stated that it wouldn’t do him any harm, a…

I have a dog. He’s quite a large dog and maybe just a little crazy in that he always seems to be hyper happy. He’s trained, though still gets deliriously excited when I come home, or if we have visitors. On one level I like his exuberance, though it can get tiresome. My youngest sister has 4 small dogs. Between them they weigh about half what my dog weighs, but I genuinely don’t know how she can stand to have 4 dogs around the place even though they’re well trained. She used to have a lizard…