D M Roberts's Blog, page 5
February 14, 2024
Give me 5 minutes
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
This is the sentence I have heard consistently throughout my life. That 5 usually stretches out to 10, 20, an hour or never.
Tick tock It seems I have always been waiting for someone or something to the point that I often wonder if I were to add all of this up I’d be owed at least 45 extra years on my life. Who would I contact about that?
Sending a stern email I remember once asking the kids did they want to go out for lunch – it must have been around 10.30 in the morning – they said yes and toddled off to get ready…fast forward to 3.30 and still waiting for my teenage daughter! Of course it makes me smile now but at the time I am pretty certain I was not laughing.
What to wear All of my life I’ve been a patient person, mostly that’s a good thing & sometimes it’s a curse that many take advantage of. My part 2 biography would be, Put your foot down.
February 13, 2024
Heaven and Hell
What were your parents doing at your age?
This will be short. At my age my mother had been dead quite some time, I like to imagine that she is up there watching over us.
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February 7, 2024
A little insight
Do you need a break? From what?
Honestly, who doesn’t need a break? Whether it’s from work, the mundane day to day chores of life or the weather, at some time we all need a break. It isn’t that i don’t love life, I do, some mornings I wake up and it’s a real effort to drag myself out of bed and get ready to start the hard slog that is daily working life.
dreamingI would love to wake up in a hut on a sandy beach, at my leisure, coffee in hand and spend the rest of the month simply relaxing, thinking of nothing but the blue sky and waves. So yes, in answer to your question, I need a break.
“If you can’t fly, then run; if you can’t run, then walk; if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Saint or ain’tAnyone that reads my blog knows that I write, as much I enjoy it, writing is not what I do for a living. My actual job is in the care sector. I am a learning disability support worker. I often think I was born to do this type of work. I was blessed with the patience of a saint and it’s been my saving grace on many occasions It’s fair to say that like others in this profession I have had the odd moment where I want to lock myself in the ladies because I feel overwhelmed, I start asking myself what am I doing here, I’m not cut out for this, this is just too stressful. And breath… Then I pull myself together and away we go. Luckily I have a good sense of humour, you have to in a setting where you are dealing with situations that go from one extreme to another in a split second.
stress It’s fortunate for me that I usually work with a good team of colleagues that do a fantastic job, have a good work ethic and help each other out. It is so important in this industry to work as a team. Treat your clients how you would wish a loved one to be treated is how we see it.
caringEven now I know there is a lot for me to learn and I am always happy to take or ask for advice when it comes to the betterment of someone else’s life. So, what, as a support worker do we do? There are many that assume we hand out a cuppa here and there, a chocolate biscuit for the deserving maybe and a day of jigsaw puzzles with quiet unassuming individuals that think of us as the most wonderful creatures that God himself put here on earth…
… 7.45 a.m is handover time, let the day begin
Check the diary for the days events, appointments etcDisease control wipedownStart breakfastSupervise breakfastWash dishes, put dishes away, tidy kitchenStart laundryMedicationPersonal care (toileting, showers, shaving, teeth brushing, hair styling, dressing, nailcare) Bed making, general room tidy (more laundry)Go to appointmentsActivitiesPrepare lunch (more laundry)Supervise lunchClean and put away dishes, tidy kitchenDeep clean bathroomsDeep clean bedroomsTake out for personal shoppingGeneral cleaningCheck vehiclesCheck fire alarmsActivitiesClean windows, dust, vacuumCheck supplies, order suppiesPrepare dinnerServe dinner, supervise dinner, clean kitchenActivitiesMedicationPersonal care, pyjamas, teeth, wash etcBedtimeThroughout the day documenting as you go with food, fluids, behaviours, appointments, phone calls, visits etcAnd that, dear friends, is why we value our breaks.
February 3, 2024
Housekeeping
Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.
Kitchen cabinets, kitchen drawers. Every time I’m due a day off I say to myself the night before ‘tomorrow I will wake up early, roll up my sleeves and sort the bejeezus out of these overloaded, messy, cluttered storage traps ‘
Overkill I’m sure I’m not the only person that has a junk drawer? This has all those important little items, menus, stamps, nail polish etc that are stuffed into the most convenient and safest of places that you tell yourself you will re-home when you get a chance. Several years later they are still waiting patiently for their permanent home.
I can dream? In all honesty I am doing the same thing today, writing about it rather than doing it. I read an article once that said people put off doing certain things not because they’re lazy but because once achieved they would no longer have to spend hours thinking about doing said things leaving their minds free to think about the issues they don’t want to deal with.
Thoughts A little deep for me, or maybe they have a point. Other things on my to-do list are (in no particular order)
Finish my next book. See the world. Get a manicure. Have some decent sleep. The possibilities are never ending.
January 31, 2024
I love taking photos 
If Candlemas Day is clear and bright…
This Candlemas (2nd of February) post was originally published in 2014. Hot at Candlemas I just sat in the hot place. It was good. It was sunny and bright, though it offered only a vague warmth today. The ‘hot place’ is a point on our property that is sheltered from both north and east winds…
If Candlemas Day is clear and bright…
New Release Book Review: Lust (Seven Deadly Sins #1) by Sienna Moreau
The first book in Sienna Moreau’s new Seven Deadly Sins series, Lust kicked it off with a bang. I was hooked from the get-go and didn’t want to put it down. I enjoyed learning about the alternate world that she has created where the Sins are demigods who rule over the humans, and where there […]
New Release Book Review: Lust (Seven Deadly Sins #1) by Sienna Moreau
The driver not the drive.
What’s the thing you’re most scared to do? What would it take to get you to do it?
I have faced many challenges in my life and mostly overcome them with logic. I would never put myself purposely in danger. I wouldn’t, for instance, go out into a city at night on my own. I will always survey a situation for a possible problem before I enter into it and if I can, rectify any issues before they become a problem. I’m not saying that I’m overly cautious with everything I do I am simply old enough to suss out potential red flags
ThinkAnyhoo, my demon fear is something you guys probably do every day without giving it a second thought.
Open road I am terrified of driving. There, I said it. Phew that’s a relief. I started off loving driving, it was freedom and independence all rolled into one. I felt like I had mastered something that could only ever be a good thing. I felt I was a good and careful driver, bang the music cassette in, crank it up and away I went.
That’s the one I didn’t have an accident, didn’t cause one either, I simply froze. I have no idea what happened or why, I saw a hypnotherapist and still couldn’t get to the bottom of it. All I know is that I could not even look at the car that sat outside without shaking and feeling the most overwhelming nausea ever.
Redundant I tried again a few years later, sadly nothing had changed. The strange thing is I love travelling around in a car, I just can’t be the driver. I often say that in an emergency I would have to, but could I?
January 30, 2024
Ain’t complaining
What do you complain about the most?
Interesting question! Being the easy going person I am I tend not to get phased by much. I try to see the reason behind why a thing is the way it is or, why a person does what they do.
Just go with it I guess one of the things that I complain about would be lying. I cannot stand lying. I especially don’t like it when a person takes you for an idiot and you know they’re lying but they continue to do it anyway.
The other would be socks. How do we manage to lose one in the tumble dryer? We end up with a ton of odd ones.
It’s better with 2 I imagine there’s a community in the Amazon jungle of mismatched socks. The larger thick ones are the dads, medium size are mums and the little ones are the children. It would be the perfect society, all different but all getting along.
TwinsAs you can tell, I have thought long and hard about this ,,
