The Joy of Crutches!

It's weird. I have such mixed feelings about being on crutches, but it's taught me a lot about human nature - and my own, maybe, unrealistic expectations. In spite of welcome progress in the way we view our fellow humans,I've still felt disgruntled about certain areas of inequality, at least as far as respect is concerned. Of course, no decent person can uphold inequalities about religion, gender, race,sexual orientation, disability and so on. But there are still some areas where it's "okay" to discriminate, even amounting to mild abuse. One is age. The other is vegetarianism. 

As far as age is concerned, I feel as though I'm not here much of the time. People walk straight into me as though I'm invisible, force me out of their way, jostle me. This can be especially dangerous when climbing stairs and needing to hold the rail and then some burly bloke virtually eyeballs you into letting go the rail and letting him pass. (I did because I was afraid he might push me and there were a lot of steps.) 

Recently I took a bus just for the ride because I had a bad knee. I just needed to get out, but couldn't walk far. But because I didn't get off at the end of the journey the driver shouted at me from his cab along the lines of "Where the hell do you think you're going?" (I wasn't fare-dodging as have a bus pass.) He was chastened when I told him the reason but only after he had given me a piece of his mind!

As a veggie I am frequently targeted quite aggressively, as though my life choice is a dreadful insult to the other person.People will actually challlenge you into an argument you don't want.

I can't do much about veggie opposers but I have noticed a considerable difference in the way I am treated with my crutches. Disability seems to cancel out age. I get all the concern and consideration I never had before, but really needed, on occasion, just as much. 

It's made me realise many people aren't unkind, they just don't notice. I feel I always see everything around me and am aware of situations but I guess that's part of being a a writer and not everyone is that perceptive.

EIGHTEEN AMAZING WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS you should have learned about in school but probably didn't.

This is my misery blog, of course, so in a way, this doesn't belong here. Except it does - if only that it's a crying shame not more is known about women philosophers whose work has had a major impact on all our lives. To address this, here is my book which covers great female philosophers from ancient history to modern day:

The e-book:
EIGHTEEN AMAZING WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS

and the paperback

EIGHTEEN AMAZING WOMEN PHILOSOPHERS

My Top Jobsworth Nomination of 2018

Sometimes it's like walking on eggshells!  Copyright Janet Cameron

It happened just a year ago, May 2018. Tidying up my computer I just found the letter I wrote to my local Boots pharmacy. I  received an apology from the manager but not from the perpetrator. So on the anniversary of  the pharmacist's unwarranted aggression, well, Boots, your Let's Feel Good slogan does nothing for me!

Here's the letter, which is self-explanatory:

  

Hello,

On Friday morning I queued at the Sales counter with what I thought was a reasonable request for blood pressure tablets that did not need a prescription, to tide me over until my Doctor’s appointment on 14 June, the earliest I could get to deal with my BP.

The problem is ongoing from 11 April, but I know the surgery is under enormous pressure. However, a reading of 180 over 98 at the surgery last week concerned me.

To my surprise instead of helping me to locate the right product, or simply inform me if you did not have them in stock, the sales lady rushed off to call the pharmacist. The pharmacist was annoyed and asked me who had told me I could get blood pressure tablets without a prescription. I tried to explain that I was “asking” if you had any blood pressure tablets I could take without a prescription, and that I had seen them advertised on the internet, and also on Holland and Barrett’s website.

I could not make myself heard or understood. The pharmacist talked over me and told me what I already knew, that she couldn’t give me blood pressure tablets without a doctor’s prescription. She also said that it was nothing to do with Boots (even though the non-prescription tablets are part of your range!) and I had to take it up with my GP  (another suggestion that was equally unhelpful.)

I left and went to get the tablets from Holland and Barrett. I called back just to prove to the pharmacist that I was not, in fact, asking her to carry out an illegal transaction. As I couldn’t see her, I spoke to the sales lady who said these tablets weren’t “medicine,” which, of course, I knew.

The point is I wasn’t queuing at the pharmacy counter for medicine. I was queuing at the sales counter for non-prescription blood pressure tablets, which, as mentioned, are itemized in your own range of products for sale, see attached sheets.

Crossed wires, of course, but all the same, there is no excuse for the way I was treated,  it made me feel low for the rest of the morning.

Janet Cameron

It's not just about being right. It's about aggression and a poor attitude. I don't mind she made a mistake, but I do mind being shouted at in a shopful of people!  

Wouldn't you?

10 Pet Hates

I hate this artwork (Tenerife) Photo copyright Janet Cameron

I thought I'd post my 10 pet hates. (IWell, 11 if you count the photo)  I'm not including obvious "big" things in this list relating to politics, etc. Just little things that I find very very irritating.)

1. OAP Fish 'n Chips - I'm not an acronym never mind one as disrespectful as this. Keep your cheap fish 'n chips.

2. 2nd one FREE - It's not free if I have to buy something to get it.

3. Huge Fierce Eyebrows. I'm all for feminism and power but - please - these young girls scare the bejesus out of me!

4. Commercials on daytime tv shows -These commercials are relentlessly repetitious. For example, happy old men and women adveritising jolly (and cheap!) funeral plans, Oh how exciting! Hurray! I think I'll get one too. How about you? Let's have a nice cup of coffee and discuss it cos our kids are gonna be so happy and impressed! (Guilt trip implication here.) And all the cringe-making medical ads that I won't go into here. 

5. Bus drivers who accelerate suddenly before you've managed to sit down. Shame on you, meanies! You will be old one day.

6. Packaging. Everything is so hard to get into. I completely understand and endorse safety aspects to prevent children from accessing dangerous chemicals, but honestly. for many things it's all gone too far. If you need to use it immediately and if you don't have scissors, pliers or some gunpowder to hand, forget it.

7. Being Patronised. I'm quite old and sometimes a little deaf and slightly visually impaired, but I am not daft. (Well, not all the time.)

8. Labelling Products. Products should be more clearly labelled to accommodate those of us who can't see 8 point font. What the product is should be in the largest possible letters for its size.

9. Very cruel jokes. Stand up is becoming more and more offensive. I don't mind risque, 
naughty, challenging or mickey-taking, but I hate sick or hurful. 

10. Gratuitous moaning. So this is where I check out

READ (while) NOT DEAD

Where does Google bury old blogs and the money
they earn?

I have been running my six blogs for quite some time, but the earliest -janetcameronwriting.blogspot.com - has been going for 13 years. I've had page views and good comments (and a few negative ones too) and I've posted frequently albeit with some gaps when life got in the way.

I've had ads going too, and shifted them about to try to optimize my "profits." So far I've earned £19.26. Lucky I do it for pleasure and not the money!

All the same, I will never see that £19.26 or any further profit I make. The sad truth iis, since it took me 13 years to earn £19.26 and Google only pay out when you reach £60, I am not going to live long enough to hit gold, and even if I did, I will be too gaga to know it. (PS: that might be dollars, I'm not sure. Still makes no difference under the circumstances.)

Fortunately, as I writer, I have had alternative more profitable employment, but I do wonder what Google do with all the money from ads left on the Earnings tab of people who have done their best and sadly popped their clogs.

It would be nice if it went to charity.

Blimey - What Next?

The park where I was followed.

Hi, doesn't life go up and down? When mine is up, is very up and when it's down I am in despair and ready to throw myself off the pier. (That's not as dramatic as it sounds if you've ever seen Littlehampton Pier!) Anyway, after my trials which I posted recently on FB, another thing happened. I was followed.

Yes, I know, if an old lady says she's been followed by a bloke everyone says, "Poor old dear, she's fantasizing about her youth." But I'm not and he was, but probably wanted to get a hold on my handbag, my credit cards and my phone.

I was sitting in the park, by the lake. He passsed me, said "Good evening" then stood on the narrow bridge over the stream that feeds the lake, blocking my way back to my home and started talking to me in incomprehensible slurry language.

I got up and started walking to the other end of the park. I glanced back, he was walking behind me. I walked faster. So did he. Now any decent man would know that this is frightening for a woman alone in a park and would have slowed down or hung back. He didn't and I was terrified. There was no one else in the park.

Then I saw a young man ahead by the cafe at the sea end and I yelled at him to wait for me. I started to run, insofar as I am capable of running! He was pretty surprised and I apologised and asked him to talk to me as if he knew me because I was being harrassed. At that moment the stalker passed by and the young man said, "You are right, he does look weird."

I said I felt stupid but I was scared so he said, "Would you like a hug?" and spread out his arms. I said, "Yes please," and he gave me a cuddle, bless his heart, which was very sweet and I think very unusual - I am old enough to be his Gran!

Next day when I took my blood pressure which is under review it was 190 over 100, the second highest it's ever been. My knee hurt like crazy after running the previous night. I managed to get some temporary blood pressure pills from the herbalist while I wait for my doctor's appointment, and now it is stable and much lower, thank heavens.

Meantime, I'm on an "up." Seven poems now placed and to be published shortly, a dozen or so more submitted, and I'm starting another ebook utilising material from my MA in poetry. Yes, I know I said I wouldn't do any more books. I believed that at the time.

Also I have become a Great Aunt to a beautiful little baby. And, shallow of me to mention it amidst all the other news, but I have lost 5lbs.

5 Things I HATE about Hairdressers !!

Public Domain Cartoon

There are any number of reasons why I get the heeby-jeebies about going to the hairdressers.

Maybe it's me, but it seems I always go off my hairdresser eventually, although I have outlasted one or two who went on to better things in posher, more exxpensive salons.

I'm not a monster though. I can forgive the occasional mistake, but some things are DEAL BREAKERS!

1. THE ATTACK

My current hairdresser is very good, but I'm never going back there again. She does a great job and my hair always looks wonderful, but, boy, does she leave me with a sore head.

She's so rough, pulling and grimacing as though my hair is a force to be subdued, not crafted into a delightful concoction that will transform my looks until the next high wind or rainy day.

I suspect - although I may be wrong - that this is deliberate. Surely she must know that her relentless yanking must hurt like hell, especially as I am wincing and squishing my eyes together like a terrified rabbit facing a shotgun.

Why don't I say something?  I'm a wimp about some things. I guess I think she might take it out on me in some other way. The woman with the scissors wields a lot of power. Easier to go somewhere else.

2. THE CHOP

Getting my hair cut is the worst thing. I love my hair short but not right up the back of my neck, thank you very much. Once I was driven to drawing in extra little wispy hairs down the back of my neck with an eyebrow pencil. No one, but the youngest, slenderest, prettiest girl looks good with hair cropped right up to the top of her ears.

3. LEAVING MY COLOUR ON TOO LONG

This happens when the salon overbooks. There's not time to take out my colour because my hairdresser is in the middle of removing the split ends from a fellow customer with a lot more hair than I have. As a result, my brown has gone black and black hair only suits (yes, you got it!) the youngest, slenderest, prettiest girls.

4. NOT PROTECTING MY SKIN FROM COLOUR

This is sheer laziness and ineptitude and no one should ever leave her hairdresser with a product tidemark on the back of her neck. (Always be suspicious if your hairdresser fails to use a mirror to show you the back of your head.)

5. GETTING NASTY IF I CUT OR COLOUR MYSELF BETWEEN VISITS

I do try not to do this, but sometimes there's not time to get to the hairdresser and if I can't see under my fringe, I give it a little trim. Usually it looks okay. Once I made a mess because my regular root touch-up was not available and I bought a different product. It looked terrible but, after all...

IT'S MY HAIR AND I DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN!

Oh well, onward I go. I do believe there's a salon I haven't tried in Bognor.