I’m starting off this morning with a moan. O.K. no one likes listening to other people moaning – but look on it this way, you don’t have to. You’re reading about it instead or not if you miss a couple of paragraphs out altogether.

My Dad has just rung me at work to ask where his newspaper was. I’d forgotten it, he said. I hadn’t as it happens. Himself is off work this morning, he has his first appointment with the physiotherapist. He said he’d get the papers after he’d been to the garage to fill up his car with petrol. I would imagine that he was on his way back as we spoke.

That is just typical of my father. I’m 5 miles away from the shop, he can see the shop through the front room window as he’s speaking to me on the telephone. Would it really have hurt him to have just walked up the road and get them himself? If he didn’t feel up to walking he could have got in his car and drove up. All of this could have happened in the time it took to ring me. But he couldn’t just do that – oh, no, it was vitally important that I knew that he knew, that I’d not done it.

Of course all of this is because since Christmas I’ve started to put myself first on occasions. I’m not at his beck and call all of the time, he has to wait occasionally and emotional blackmail isn’t working. When I started going out for a drive over the weekend he tried everything to make me feel guilty for doing it. He even went to bed on one occasion saying he was too ill to sit in the chair. That would have had more of an affect if he hadn’t just polished off his Sunday dinner. He’s adapted to the idea now – but it cost me emotionally putting it in place. I really had to make myself follow it through and for ages I didn’t actually enjoy my afternoon out.

That probably paints him as selfish and in lots of ways he isn’t – he can we very thoughtful and generous when he thinks about it and I think that’s probably the heart of the problem. He doesn’t think. He has his own little routine and he doesn’t like it to differ in anyway.

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If Ikea and Tesco’s can’t get it right – what chance have I got?

http://www.wronglish.com/

Don’t ask me how I got to this site – no don’t. No, honestly, you don’t want to know. Oh O.K. then, you twisted my arm. Remember you did ask.

Anyone who reads my blog for any amount of time will have spotted that I have my own ideas on the English language, spelling and punctuation in particular. What can I say? – I’m unique, they broke the mould when they made me. Didn’t want to make that mistake again.

Just because I have my own slant on things doesn’t mean I’ve stopped trying to teach myself ‘the correct’ way. There are loads of sites out there that help you perfect the skills needed to write a story that others can not only read, but also understand. I’ve got quite good at searching for them – it was during one of those searches that I found the Wronglish site. Well you did ask and I didn't say it was interesting – it serves you right.

Of course that started me off surfing the net, any excuse not to finish that story. There are some very sad people out there.

http://www.pimpthatsnack.com


My personal favourite is: http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/project.php?projectID=302 Fancy the Easter bunny trying to carry that one. Poor thing, he’d end up with a hernia.

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I had a slight set back with my assertiveness at work yesterday afternoon. The FC asked me very nicely if I was going to attend the data meeting; he’d really appreciate my input. You now, the meeting that I’d been told not to worry about until I got some help. Well I gave in and went. What can I say; old habits die hard.

But on a plus side – I gave my opinion, they listened and made notes and I didn’t volunteer to find anything out or take any work away with me. Which is really good for me and most definitely an improvement – I had a nasty habit of being railroaded into things and ‘yes, I’ll do it’, used to just trip off my tongue. So all in all I think I did really well.

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And today’s photo was taken last night whilst out walking the dogs.