Sunday afternoons and evenings have always seemed a bit boring, no going out or having fun, doing last minute homework when I was a student, or preparing classes when I was teaching, and ironing for the week ahead when the kids were young…
Now it’s just a quiet day for having lunch with friends or family, resting, reading, watching Christmas themed films and thinking how lucky I am that I’m not fretting about Monday.
The perks of early retirement after 39 years a teacher!
I love this flyer, well it’s a brochure really, with the kid’s mother and grandmother, but where are the men in the family???
Christmas Presents
Flyers everywhere,
Come buy our toys on offer!
Children’s paradise.
It’s the time for toys! Parents, and in my case grandparents, spend hours searching for the perfect Christmas present in flyers and shops, asking children to write letters to Santa and promising he’ll bring the selected presents, of course.
I’ve always had mixed feelings about this pretence, although I’ve mostly played along. I’m no Scrooge!
I know from my children and grandchildren that they love the anticipation and surprise, and when they’re very little, I’d say under 5 or 6, they tend to believe in the fairy tale, and that’s sweet, but, there comes a time when they no longer believe in magic, and yet, both parents/grandparents and children keep up the pretence for a few more years, just because….they can….they both agree to play along….
I’m not sure, even today, as I wrap my grandchildren’s presents (yes, I bought them early on special offer! I have four grandchildren!), how I feel about this. I mean the idea that you ask for something, wait for the set date and get it, or not, on Santa’s whim. What about preparation, effort, and hard work rewarded? Where does that come into the equation?
Although most parents/grandparents threaten to tell Santa if the kids are naughty and don’t deserve a present, but do they do so, or even intend to do so?
Christmas presents for adults are a different story, altogether, but more about that in another post.
Stream of Consciousness rant over.
How do you feel about Christmas presents for children?
By the way, this post was written in response toLinda Hill’s weekly prompt, pop over to her blog and join in or read other entries. The topic for today is flyer/ad
One of the gates surrounding Jerez’s Royal Ecuestrian School
I was recently in Jerez for a few days with some friends from the UK and couldn’t resist taking some pictures of its beautiful doors to share with you!
Jerez is the 25th largest city in Spain, the 5th largest in Andalucía and the largest city in the province of Cadiz.
It is famous for The Royal Andalusian Ecuestrian School of Equestrian Art Foundation. We really enjoyed its famous show, “How the Andalusian Horses Dance”, a fascinating exhibition of horsemanship. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed during the show, but here’s a picture of one of the horses on its way back to the stables.
Here are three doors seen around the beautiful gardens on the grounds of the School.
After the show we had some tapas at a very modern, Michelin recommended restaurante nearby.
We stopped for a glass of famous Jerez wine. The city specialises in sweet and dry sherry. Sweet is my favourite! The dry sherry is very dry indeed.
Jerez has many beautiful traditional Spanish buildings, with stunning doors. Here are a few I saw strolling along its ancient streets.
We stayed at a charming, Modernist style, small hotel in the city centre, Hotel YIT Casa Grande, It must have been the home of a very rich family in the late 19th or early 20th century.
There’s a Cathedral and there are plenty of churches in Jerez. I’ll show you some church doors next week!
Meanwhile, do pop over to Norm’s Blog, #ThursdayDoors host, to join in or to check out other fabulous doors from around the world!
If you feel as if you’re in a tiny fishing boat, alone in a vast, dark and stormy sea, and there’s nothing you can do to help yourself, look around, do something for someone else to make you feel better.
And the best thing is it works.
Your own troubles will seem less dark, you’ll feel good about helping someone else, and who knows? Perhaps you’ll be someone else’s distraction from their own dark and stormy feelings. Trust karma.
Jane helping Rochester after falling from his horse.
Jane Eyre knew all about the positive effects of helping others:
My help had been needed and claimed; I had given it: I was pleased to have done something; trivial, transitory though the deed was, it was yet an active thing, and I was weary of an existence all passive.
These are Jane’s reflections in Chapter XII, after meeting and helping an unknown gentleman who had fallen off his horse on a cold, dark afternoon in January, when the days are very short and dark in Yorkshire. Jane had offered to take a letter Mrs. Fairfax needed posting to Hay, which was a two mile walk away.
Jane had been feeling sad and lonely after spending the first winter months at Thornfield, and yet, a kind gesture led to a second kind gesture and her first meeting with Mr. Rochester.
Jane overcame her passivity and ventured out of her comfort zone, to help others, and in so doing she opened new avenues by meeting the man who would change her life.
If she had satyed at home wallowing in her loneliness and misery, they would probably never have met. Mr. Rochester probably would have had no interest in meeting his ward’s governess under normal circumstances.
Don’t don’t overindulge in your own problems, if you can’t do anything for yourself, do something for someone else!
After over a year writing and rewriting various drafts of The Ghost Wife, I still wasn’t satisfied, so I stopped to plot and plan, all over again, from the beginning.
I Stared from scratch, back to basics, with main character arcs, secondary character profiles, scenes, sequels, and three-act structure.
Rereading Jane Eyre 