Deirdre Geraghty

I have now received my invitation to go for my flu vaccination so I know it is now the time of year when I should prepare myself for the winter. I don’t go very far from the house at any time of year but the cold winter days I don’t really go out at all apart from in a car or by cab. I am so relieved to be safe at home having been trapped outside unable to breathe and unable to get back so at least I am safe here.

So we have finally reached the day when the people in Scotland decide whether they want to be completely independent or remain in the UK. As I am not Scottish it is really not for me to say but I will say it must be a very difficult decision for many. Being Irish I can completely understand them wanting to be free at last but on the other hand, for purely selfish reasons, the rest of the UK would be really sad to lose them. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

I ordered a new clock for the dining room. I knew it was a radio controlled clock and it was a bit more expensive than I had paid before but not really what that meant. When we put the battery in (my neighbour John was helping me) the hands went around to 12 o’clock and there they remained. The leaflet said they would set themselves overnight. Well they didn’t so 5 in the morning I moved the clock nearer the window for a short while – still nothing – so I put it down on the dining table. When I came back 10 minutes later it was working so I don’t know if the clock will correct itself when the clocks go back or forward in the place I have put it. Perhaps when the time comes I should place it on the dining table!

I had just decided that was the end of summer and gone into long sleeves when I was proved wrong. Now I am back in short sleeves and it’s feeling a little chilly. At least I won’t be too hot this afternoon.

I don’t think I will ever be confident doing things online. I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to make sense of the new lottery website. It’s nothing to do with the website – it is me. Every time I know what to do with any website they go and change it and it takes me another 6 months working out what to do with it.

For years now my cats have been waking me at 5.00 or 5.30 for their breakfast so I have been able o do my exercises early before the day starts. But for the past few weeks they haven’t done so. I have been waking late and everything is being done late if at all. Hopefully they will get back to their old routine soon!

My youngest sister has wanted to go to Cuba for a long time. She finally did it and was very excited. Only in the hotel one hour when she had a fall, broke her pelvis and confined to a wheelchair. Thankfully she is now home.

I have a new cleaner again. I am unable to do essential cleaning jobs like hoovering and as I live alone I have a cleaner. My last one kept sitting down and chatting which I can’t afford to pay for and then kept letting me down and not coming so, finally, she had to be replaced. My new cleaner is young and enthusiastic and I am really excited to have her.

Is it the end of summer? – I hope not. I haven’t been able to appreciate the warm weather this year – and unable to get my walking further this year as my back keeps giving out – oh well!

If anybody calls to see me after 5.00 they will find me in my pjs. Something I learnt from my dear old friend Fruzsina that when you decide it’s the end of the day then it is time to declare it time for pyjamas. I eat my dinner early and then retire upstairs with a drink and the cats and put the television on. What heaven!