Just another Day in La-la Land. (Inspiration Point).

I have to admit that I didn’t see the Inspiration Point topic until today. I was uploading another of my starting points to a new novel, ( I get inspired but never long past the 20,000 word mark), and thought ‘What a great idea.’
I sat back and ruminated…doing my mad cow expression until I scared my cat into total submission. I have to add that my cat, Kira, named after Major Kira in Star Trek series Deep Space Nine, suffers these indignations on a regular basis. At the time she was happily settled on my lap…actually overflowing it (she’s a big cat), when my knee jerked and she was propelled towards my PC at an alarming rate.
Don’t worry though on her account. She’ll get me back tonight when I try to get into bed. She’ll either nip my ankles or sit on my head. Either can be down right frustrating and bloody uncomfortable to say the least. Lisa =1 Kira =5.

So I’m thinking about what happened today that might set a series of thoughts or actions in motion? Apart from upsetting my cat and postponing my evening meal I could think of bugger all. Then I thought of the nice surprise I had in this morning’s post. The envelope suggested a card and it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together. Yes, you’ve got it…I’m a mum and also a Nan. Given that they live in London and me in South Wales, I can see the point of posting early for Mother’s Day. Maybe a tad early, but since it had the word NAN in bright pink letters, I knew that my daughter had been shopping for my grandson Jack. He’s not three until April, so he didn’t spend his hard-earned pocket money on me.
What my daughter actually wrote on the card was indecently true of both of us. I am invited to join Jack into sharing my birthday with him (late March), or we can both play havoc on his birthday (April 16th).
This was indirectly hinting at the last time Nan and grandson got together at the beginning of February. Given that it was an astoundingly lovely sunny day and my joints were not aching too badly, we did have a pretty good time. A stroll through the park and a meal near to the waterfront is asking a bit much of two Aries, when the sap is rising in the Spring sunshine.
Nan shrugged off her walking stick and pending her pint of Carling and Jack’s “present juice”, proceeded to go and explore the beached boats and the ‘just-for-show anchors.’
(if you want a description of the setting you’ll have to wait until I feel up to reviewing the location. I write consumer reviews for a few pence…I know, sad b……..d.)

Jack and I don’t see each other often, but when we do then all my daughter’s carefully laid plans go out the door. I don’t know if it’s our star signs being the same (Aries is the Ram…a rather headstrong personality tends to overshadow our loving and loyal natures.) Or whether Jack and I just happen to love bending the rules. We had our meal in Chepstow and proceeded to Tintern Abbey, a spectacular world famous abbey that lies on the River Wye and immortalised by such artists as Turner and poets Wordsworth, Byron and others. Since it’s practically on my doorstep I tend to forget how celebrated a place it is. What happened was that we had arrived too late to go around the Abbey. I didn’t mind since I’ve been inside many times before. Jack was very miffed though. The “big building” was obviously one of Bob the Builders unfinished projects and he wanted to see inside. My son-in-law had never seen it before and was also disappointed. I didn’t blame him, it’s a humbling experience. Built way back in the 11th century, even Henry V111 couldn’t destroy it’s imposing structure.

Still, we couldn’t get inside, it was about to close since it was still on Winter timetables. Jack was about to throw a tantrum, but his Nan knows all about these, she can throw some pretty good ones herself when she wants to. Fortunately there are the ruins of outbuildings than lie outside the main part of the Abbey and it’s fairly easy to con a child into looking through the “dungeons” of the place. Did I ever meet my match with Jack?
This area abounds with ancient stones and child-size cubby-holes that just invite exploration. That’s another thing with Aries, or is just endemic to our family? Our imagination knows no boundaries. There’s a popular children’s television show called “In the night garden.”
This is very popular with many children because it’s down-right daft, the characters have wonderful names that just beg to be spoken and they all have their own places in this magic garden. One of these residents is a plump figure much like a Tele-tubby, but without the head gear. He/it is called Macapaca and lives in a cave with stones outside the entrance. Now need I say more? Jack was busy trying to coax the character out of his hiding place in amongst a group of centuries-old stones. (Oh the power of TV). When that failed and Bob the Builder didn’t arrive with his talking trucks then we made our escape to a nearby pub where we adults managed a quick pint and Jack had his “present-juice”. This refers to conning Jack into thinking he was toasting us over Xmas Dinner with watered-down pure orange juice while we downed a bottle of bubbly followed by a nice Pinot Noir. ‘Cheers m’dear!’

We wrapped up the day by leaving the Wye valley in a gorgeous panoply of dark green fir trees, a mist rising up from the river that could put to shame a scene from “Lord of the Rings” and driving through hairpin bends with a molten golden sun just touching the far reaches of the tree-tops. Spooky and evidently it had far-reaching consequences as Jack’s Nan lives in a magic land where dragons breathe fire and TV programmes come to life.
Writing this I am aware that I am doing almost exactly what I blamed my own mother for doing. I.e. she undermined my authority so much that eventually we brought my daughter up in both our ways and since she is a clever woman I guess we did okay. She’s been dead nearly five years now and I miss her like hell. She never got to meet Jack, I wish she had.

The point is that I have some health problems and trying to get me to travel anywhere is a major battle. I’m okay on my home ground, but travelling to London is a twice-yearly nightmare for me. British Railways do not cater for disabled travellers, especially those with walking sticks and a need to squeeze into tiny toilets to…um deal with catheters. I hate BR or whatever they call themselves nowadays. I sit down in my seat with my tiny suitcase on wheels and proceed to put any other passenger off by opening my can of carling and my ham sarnies.

I think of my card today and just how well my daughter knows me. I think of Jack as well and how I somehow manage to shove those health problems to one side because I want my grandson to be like me. I’m damn well proud that he knows his Nan even if he only sees her five or six times a year. I love it when he gets on the phone and says “Hiya Nanny.’ I wish they all lived nearer to me so I could push myself a bit more all the time. Depression and ill-health go hand-in-hand. It’s bloody amazing what I get up to when I forget my aches and pains. Then again, it’s my daughter’s choice of life and I have to respect that, even if I don’t like it. In turn, she accepts that when I see Jack then she’s in for a few days of bedlam.
Of course we create havoc together. We are very alike in our daft personalities and I have a sneaky feeling that my daughter doesn’t mind that much. Sure, I do get him worked up and his bedtimes go out the window. But when we have both worn each other out then he sits on my lap as I read him a bedtime story. For a moment he might play up a bit. After our latest escapade together we started adding nonsense words to songs. Have you ever heard of “Twinkle, twinkle, little biscuit?’ I laughed…I couldn’t help it. Then he head-butted me and I had to kiss him into submission.

I’ve almost forgotten the idea of the Inspiration point. Maybe I just wanted to say something about the card that started this all off. After all, I only have Kira to listen to my ramblings and said cat is now drowsing, unaware that before long her owner may turn into the monster from hell…Jack’s scatty and much loved Grandmother.