Bee Orchid's most commented articles

After 2 hours of frustration and the network dropping, I’ve finally got my new computer up and running. Back in 2005, I bought a new computer with my first instalment of my student loan. It was expensive, and a great machine, and the staff in the computer shop installed everything for me. Not so anymore… My biggest complaint with Windows 10 is that it doesn’t come with Solitaire nor Mahjong preinstalled. Why not? I’ve tried a free version from the app store, but I hate it! Anybody know how to…

Despite being told Monday that Mum wasn’t ‘medically fit’ to be discharged, we had a phone call Wednesday asking us to attend a Medical Discharge meeting on Friday afternoon. We arrived an hour early, so we could visit with Mum. Once again, she was all packed up, ready to go. She is on a different ward, again. This is the third ward she’s been on, and even within the same ward, she had moved rooms. By my estimation, she’s been in at least 5 different rooms/wards. Is this any way to treat a demen…

On Tuesday, I had a great haircut; the first one this year I think though I’m not certain. Working like a dog, there was little time for frivolities such as a haircut! My son and I then had photos done in a Tardis-like photo booth. Him for an ID for when he leaves for university, me for a passport renewal. Good grief mine was bad. I look so tired. I had one done a few months back and looked awful, so this time I put on some makeup and a bright blouse to give me some colour. Better, but not good.…

After recently having a credit to my bank account, and not knowing why, I asked my previous landlord to forward mail addressed to myself. I offered to reimburse him for costs. If it were me, I’d collect up the mail, put it into a large envelope, and mail it. He has taken the ‘trouble’ to print sticky labels with my address and has forwarded ALL the mail from the old place including ones clearly marked ‘Current Occupier’ that are obviously from the energy supplier, and mail from the TV licencing…

Usually I’m the klutz and have dropped any number of items including glass ware. Barely a day goes by when I haven’t dropped something and I seem to have trouble some days feeling what I’m touching. I must get a check-up. Anyway, over the past few days, it’s been my son spilling things. He rang me on Friday and announced that the salt cellar flew out of the cupboard when he opened the door. It bounced off the dog, poor thing, and shattered on to the floor. Shame really, as I’d not long filled it…

Here, the weather has been very changeable. Monday, we had a very hard frost and my bedroom got down to 13C. The cold was making me cough and I got up at 4am and put the heating on. Tuesday it rained, heavily, most of the day but at least it was warmer. Wednesday it drizzled, all day long. We then had some frost on the car late in the night. Thursday has started damp. It’s hard to know what to wear from one day to the next. My landlord was supposed to call over on Wednesday to ‘measure up’ f…

…On a wet and windy Sunday morning. Now and again, I open YouTube and just see what’s available. I’ve been listening to Gerry Rafferty – Get it right next time, it really speaks to me – when I noticed an ‘ad’ for Enigma. Man, that took me back, and I spent half hour or so listening to various Enigma tracks before bed. It left me feeling very mellow, and Saturday night, in spite of the rain lashing against the windows, I slept well. Although I like Enigma, and more contemporary music too, my favo…

Money, we’re told, is the root of all evil, meaning all wrongdoings can be traced back to the excessive attachment of money. But what is excessive? Is wanting enough money, and more, to live a comfortable life excessive? What level of comfort are we talking? I wouldn’t want a mansion to be honest, but something with a bigger garden and kitchen would be nice. The popular song by the Flying Lizards states ‘what it don’t get, I can’t use.’ Whilst love is good, it doesn’t pay the bills and there’…

Although I’m part of the human race – a declaration my son does occasionally doubt – I often find myself people watching in a rather detached manner. Wednesday, my son had to attend a ‘module choice’ talk in readiness for year 3, the final year of his degree. He was only going to be about half hour, so I parked up, had a wander around the shops in the area, then sat in the car to wait. Before long I received a text stating he’d be at least another 20 minutes, so I angled my car mirrors, and simp…

It’s been a long week, and it’s only Wednesday. Monday, I did quite a bit of housework. Due to snow and ice, I didn’t go out except to walk the dog. Tuesday, the weather was better, and I met up with my kid sister and we visited with Mum. I was feeling inept and had trouble parking the car that day. The lifts at the hospital are pretty useless and we walked up one flight of stairs. These flights are almost twice as many steps as an average house by the way. We then took the lift up one flight, t…

These past few days I wouldn’t say that I’m bored, however I have felt at a loose end. The weather has improved somewhat and whilst glorious sunshine hasn’t been much in abundance, neither has wind and rain for which I’m grateful. Since Thursday I’ve dusted and vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the bathroom, been grocery shopping, done laundry including the ironing… I’ve taken the Ship’s Dog for a good walk to the further park today, the TV is boring me, I’m almost finished yet another book and…

The Matriarch is still in hospital, and whilst there has been some improvement, I’m still unclear if they will send her home soon. A nurse was asking all sorts of questions about her home life and between my Mother and I, we managed to answer them. This suggests maybe they are planning to send her home? She’s been moved 3 times whilst on the one large ward, and now she’s on a totally different ward at the far end of the hospital. Seriously, it must be at least a mile’s walk from the car park, an…

After snow flurries and ice on Tuesday, I wrapped up warm and braved the weather to attend an eye appointment on Wednesday. I came away after 90 minutes with a sinking heart, and another appointment for Monday next week. In the last 3 weeks I’ve noticed a marked reduction of vision in one eye. I’ve had my eyeballs photographed – looking good, the layers in my eye too – looking good also, however my eye test showed a huge reduction in vision in the one eye. I also have a lot of new ‘floaters’ in…

Whether it’s swinging in my hammock, or curled up in the crow’s nest, it has to be said that this pirate likes her sleep. Of late, my sleep has been very disturbed due to stress about an upcoming event. That event has now past and it went pretty well. Not because we have fantastic kit that works well (ha ha) nor because I have a good support team to back me up. No, it was sheer hard work, sleepless nights, and even tears. Thank goodness it’s now Wednesday and I have a brief respite. I have anoth…

As regular readers know, this pirate is on the lookout for a new cooker. Quite some time ago the oven door was sticking, and needed more and more force to open it. One day I opened the oven door, and part of the handle came off. I thought I could repair it, and so with screwdriver in hand, started to take apart the door to fix/replace the screw only to find that it’s a rivet that I’ve snapped. Now I can still use the oven, however I need a chunk of 4x4 to keep the door closed and it’s far from i…

This morning I arrived in work, at the correct start time, to find I was yet again, the only one here. I picked up a fire extinguisher from the hallway and smashed through the glass pane into my room. It’s always too hot in my office so this will let some fresh air in. I crept up the stairs to the first floor, and using the fire extinguisher as a weapon of mass destruction, proceeded to pound the living daylights out of our useless photocopier that only works when it feels like it. Next I laid i…

As a past student of English, I love words. Even as a young child I loved words and books. I was excellent in spelling tests, and I would write short stories too. At the risk of sounding like a nerd, I liked looking up words I’d heard and couldn’t wait to get out the dictionary and look up a word I didn’t know or to crack open the thesaurus to find synonyms and antonyms of words that I’d learnt. My Mum bought us kids a collection of reference books and dictionaries; how she afforded it back then…

I’ve commented before about the pro’s of living near a town centre; easy access to shops, library, GP and so on, the con of living here, is also proximity to all the shops and of course the people. For over a week, the freaking circus was in town and we had our ears assaulted by an a-hole with a megaphone and pounding music. The music might have been nice, but all we heard was the boom-boom of it due to the bass being turned up too high. Each night there were 2 shows by the sounds of it, with ev…

It’s been a week now that I’ve been off my meds. I think it’s such a funny expression, and I use it simply because it makes me chuckle. I appreciate for some people this is a problem, though in my case it’s less serious. My peripheral neuropathy has resurfaced though with only minor symptoms thus far in the form of mild pins and needles, and some localised pain in my leg. So far, none of the awful burning sensation in one leg that I was experiencing on a daily basis. The meds seem merely to disg…

Well, that’s another week over with. I managed to do almost 4 hours overtime; it should have been more, though the one day the vans were fully packed, and we finished hours earlier than usual. The extra overtime would have been nice, though I was tired, so I’m not too bothered, and I’ve picked up an extra shift for next week. I was supposed to be on leave for 9 days though they were desperate, and I need the money, so a deal was struck lol. A colleague jokingly called me a sucker. Strange… I’ll…