If we were having Coffee: Christmas, plenty and dearth

Hi everyone  I am publishing   if  we  were having coffee  early  this  week  because  I need  to take  a break!  I will not be on wordpress 23rd December  until  the 30thDec. I know I have been sad  and it has been showing  in my blog. I do hope I have not frightened  you all away!  Now  don’t  panic  Paul’s  wonderful blog  will be  over at Mark Bialczak  blog on Sunday  28th!  Mine  should  appear  here  if I can sort  it out  before  the 23rd! Please  don’t  forget  to visit  there  for coffee! After  that I hope  to be less  weird  and  we will have our  normal Sunday  slot  back!  I hope I shall be less weird  by then too!  I am sorry  that I shall miss all your  posts  but I shall do  my  best to catch up  when I get  back on line! I love  you all  have a Happy  Christmas!!

If we  were having  Coffee:  I would  tell  you what  a  busy  and  difficult  week it has  been here! I have  been  busy  looking  after  the  hubby  who  is  taking  a lot  longer   to recover   from  an operation   he  had  nine  days ago! He  is  complaining about  the standard  of  nursing   that I am providing!! 🙂  mind  you  he is  saying  this  tongue in cheek!…. well I  hope  he is!

Oxford Street London

 

If we  were having  Coffee: I think I have  finally  managed  to finish  our Christmas  shopping  for family  and  friends. The  hubby  and I  certainly  did  not  need  anything  for  Christmas  so  we have  decided  to  to donate  to Crisis at Christmas   learn  more  here

Homeless At Christmas

I hope it won’t snow this Christmas it’s one of my biggest fears.

It was so bitter last year even thinking of it makes me shudder and shed  tears.

They won’t be eating Turkey with all the trim

Unless they find a charity shelter and they can get in.

The people at the shelters are angels from up above

They give their time and more importantly, plenty love.

They really are saviours they really do so much good.

They give warmth and comfort and Christmas dinner and even  Christmas pud.

OH! why are they out here I hear you say

There are lots of reasons, have you got all day?

Dave got made redundant the bills he couldn’t pay

So the bank stepped in and took his home away.

His wife could not stand the B&B that the social offered them

So she took the children off to live with her mum so Dave won’t see them again.

Homeless young

Jen, she was cheeky girl always having fun

Staying out late and playing up in the end it got too much for her mum!

After a big row one night  in the summer she asked Jen to go,

So she is struggling along out here now,

When you are homeless it is amazing how fast your friends all go.

Rob,  well his story is very sad,

It all started with his drinking then he discovered drugs

He became violent and everything turned bad.

He fell out with his mother’s boyfriend who told him he had to go

And then threw him out into the January snow.

The reasons are legion you can take your pick,

People  who  loose  their jobs  because  they became  sick

From parents who can’t cope

To addictions that make you loose all hope,

Parents or family who beat you, family who will not stop at a touch

They want, you to give them, it all gets way too much.

No home at Christmas, no hope.

This may all seem morbid this may all seem too sad

I hate to tell you all, things can be so very, very bad.

People young and old see their hopes and dreams unfold and vanish in clouds of smoke

As they end up on the streets lost and without any hope.

So enjoy your Christmas parties, your families and your Yule tide fare

But as you raise a toast remember the homeless ones out there .

Homeless Man

 

So  please  spare  them a thought!

If  we were having coffee:  I  would  say I  feel  so sorry  for  the  the people of  Pakistan where at least 141 killed in a  school in  Peshawar, read  more  here. Why  would  you slaughter  the young  of  your  country??

Also  the  tragic discovery  of   eight children  found dead at a house in Cairns in northern Queensland Australia.

Police said a 34-year-old woman who was the mother of at least seven of the children had been taken to hospital with stab wounds but was stable.

Police have not confirmed Australian reports that the children, aged between 18 months and 15 years, were stabbed.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said in a statement it was an “unspeakable crime”.

He said all parents would feel “gut-wrenching sadness at what has happened”.

A candlelit vigil and church service were held in Cairns on Friday night.  read  more here.

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Strong Liquor

If  we were having Coffee : I would  say  okay  enough  bad news  lets  have  another coffee  and  some cake ,  maybe  some thing  stronger ?

Cakes

We  must  not  despair  the  world  has  some  truly  awful  and  evil  goings  on  but  there is  still  a  lot  of  good  out  there  . All we need  to do is look for it!

 

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE:  I would say  lets  go and see what Paul’s  guest are up to lets  all mix  and have fun.  I would ask you if you would  like

another  cuppa, or  another cake . !   If we were having Coffee  Original idea  from  http://parttimemonster.wordpress.com/

Warm and Cosy

 

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE: GUEST POST ,THE POWER.

Hi everyone  I am publishing   if  we  were having coffee  early  this  week  because  I need  to take  a break!  I will not have internet  access from 23rd December  until  the 30thDec.  Now  don’t  panic  Paul’s  wonderful blog  will be  over at Mark Bialczak  blog on Sunday  28th! Please  don’t  forget  to visit  there  for coffee! After  that I hope  to be less  weird  and  we will have our  normal Sunday  slot  back!

The Power

Christmas Afternoon Champagne Tea at Claridges in London

Welcome to Willow’s weekly coffee and tea garden. My name is Paul and I’m happy to be here once again inside Willow’s home where it is nice and toasty, tending to your needs for a cuppa, and sweets. We’ve moved inside to beat the winter cold in the garden. Willow has fluffed the cushions and stared a blaze in the fireplace to make a cozy place to sit. I’d be pleased to bring a pot of whatever beverage you prefer – we have a wide range of teas and coffees to satisfy our world-wide readership. We can relax with a cuppa and calorie free electronic sweets while we discuss the affairs of the week both personal and/or worldwide. How has your week been?

In case you will be travelling to London over Christmas, you can indulge yourself in Afternoon Champagne Tea at Claridges – as pictured above. You can find a picture of a few of the sweets available at the bottom of this post. Oh, just a heads up: the pictures come with some fine print at the bottom: “discretionary service charge will be added to your bill”, so behave yourself.

My week’s been not bad. A few little bumps in the road that caused me to miss my dialysis treatment on Monday – they rescheduled me to another hospital and were unable to change my normal transport so as a result I had a scheduled treatment at one hospital and transport to another. I gotta tell you, having done logistics most of my life, I have to bite my tongue and roll my eyes when I see them dabbling in logistics – the medical care is second to none; getting the patients, doctors and equipment all in one place at one time often seems beyond them. It is funny in retrospect and if I had deemed it to be life threatening, they would have moved mountains and made it right, no matter the cost. Either way it was going to likely result in my finishing dialysis at about 2 am and then having to wait until 7 am for a ride home. My health was better served by sleeping in my own bed (sleep can sometimes be an issue for dialysis patients and missing too much will cause problems in itself). But by Wednesday, everything was back to normal and they apologize profusely and promised to never do it again.

So, how was your week? Anything interesting going on? Perhaps plans for visitors next week, perhaps travel plans? Have another cuppa and a sweet, settle in and do tell.

1981 Chevette – Vroom, Vroom!

I thought perhaps we’d take a short break this week from discussing Christmas and do something else instead. I enjoy our weekly Sunday teas and Willow has encouraged me to discuss any topic that I please. She is very creative, often writing poetry and verse to express her feelings, a talent that I admire and am sadly lacking. However, upon occasion, for reasons I am unable to ferret out, when I am stressed, I will write verse.

Twenty three years ago on Dec 31, 1991, I packed up my little 10 year old Chevette (for our non- North American readers, that was a compact car sold here for many years and it was tiny) and set out from the Maritimes to drive to my girl friend’s in Ottawa – about 700 miles away- where she and I were planning to live. I had no job lined up, an old car, just enough money for gas to get there and even a portable radio taped to the dash for music.

The Power

Being a pensive sort, I used the driving time to think and when I arrived on January 1, 1992, I wrote the following verse:

The Power

Dear God please grant me The Power.

The Power to believe in You and in myself –

To the point where I could easily work for someone else

If it was required or equally to have

People work for me and treat them

Fairly as human beings.

The Power to discard what I believed

Was wrong and not long for it back.

The Power to pursue Truth and Love

Without getting caught up in personal gain and sex.

The Power to live without fearing death and,

The Power to die without clinging to life.

The Power of having without needing to possess.

The Power to give without expecting to receive.

The Power to believe in Good without seeing it and

The Power to understand Evil without becoming it.

The Power to Live and make a difference in this physical world Without being dragged down to its level.

Stress Brings Out The Poet

Have another cuppa and a sweet – we have Beaver tails available now too and stiffer drink for anyone who pleases. Well, I wrote The Power and left it in passing on my bedside table, not sure what to do with it. I didn’t keep a diary or any form of written logs, and I didn’t have anything to join the verse in a file. It was just one of a kind, sitting there on a piece of paper and eyed occasionally somewhat leerily by me. My girlfriend found it homeless and so enjoyed it that, unbeknownst to me, she had it printed on fancy paper, mounted in a frame and gave it to me as a gift. It has accompanied me wherever I have moved for the last 23 years. Looking back I can see that it well expressed my emotions at the time: jobless, new home in a new city, broke, new relationship (that came with 2 kids – also new), and every other stressor available to mankind. Ha! Still had my radio taped to the dash – that was some comfort. Do you have any stories about big life changes over the years and how they affected you?

So, that’s the story of The Power, and it has never been published or even seen by anyone other than my Ex until today. I hope you enjoyed it. So it’s time to settle in front of the fireplace with another cuppa. Sweets anyone? Willow and I are honored that you dropped by today to visit. I hope you’ve enjoyed yourself and the conversation and please feel free to look around at Willow’s other posts while you’re here. Have a great week.

We look forward to seeing you here for tea (or the beverage of your choice) again next  week.

A Sampling of Sweets at Claridges Christmas Champagne Tea

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE: I would ask you if you would  like another  cuppa, or  another cake . !   If we were having Coffee  Original idea  from  http://parttimemonster.wordpress.com/