Dementia Centre

I've started volunteering at a Dementia centre. It is a group where people with dementia can come and socialise and relax with sufferers similar to them. My job as a volunteer is to sit with the attenders and chat and look through books with them, listen to music from the past, and eat dinner and have lots of tea and biscuits in between. I was slightly nervous at first, but I settled in extremely quickly.

Everyone is very friendly and sociable and it must be good to be in a patient and caring and upbeat environment for them.

All of the attenders are really lovely. They are all of the older generation, some are nearing ninety and I think a few are in their nineties!

I think when you become "the older generation" you tend to lose your identity. You become a "granny" or an "old person" or a "senior citizen" and you overlook them as people. I mean society in general, not you personally. But if you are overlooked when you are older, it makes society that we live in seem quite superficial.

I was going to use the example that : many of these people will have had a first day of school, the first day of their jobs and a last day of working. Cried in bed and had labour contractions, gone dancing, and made sandcastles with their brothers and sisters.

But I thought it was patronising as if they aren't even human anymore!

That wasn't the point I wanted to get across. I just feel that when you age you are still the same as you ever was, they have all been children, young men and women, ladies and gentlemen etc, you just slow down a bit but have so many years and experiences behind you.

It just seems like when you are a person of an older age, that is forgotten...and I think people with dementia are seen like this even more so and you think they are lost within this diagnosis when there is still a person there.

Losing it.

I'm anxious at the moment. I lost my swipe-in card, locker key, and smartcard (so I can get in the building) for work (they are all attached together you see.) This seems a pretty normal event but in 2009 I have already lost my locker key once before, had 2 new smartcards because I broke them both, and then lost my new one, and lost my swipe-in card again!

I don't tend to lose things easily, so it's really annoying that I keep losing these.

I'm annoyed at myself but I'm scared what they will say - I imagine tears (from me) and I am thinking of a dramatic speech about how I will guard it with my life and dedicate my life to not losing the card. They were really awkward the first time I lost it so who knows what they will be like now.

I've tipped the house upside down looking for it. I've got the torch out and looked down the back of everything, looked in places it never could be (like the oven or fridge) and looked in the same spot twice and found things that I previously couldn't find before.

Oh dear.

-----
OMG. The *moment* I posted this entry my Mum came down and had found it! It was in a pile of my Mum's clothes in the loft! No wonder I didn't find it but I'm so ecstatic now! YAY.

Vegetable Soup...

I made vegetable soup the other day and it was a success! I'm especially pleased with it as I don't really like vegetables. I grimace when I eat a salad and I only like carrots, potatoes and sweetcorn apart from that. Cucumbers and lettuce are quite nice.

So I'm thrilled I like a soup that includes:
Leeks
Carrots
Turnip
Red Onion
Celery

ALSO I'm also really happy because I'm on the Weight Watchers diet and the soup is zero points and very filling. I think I will just live on it now

Recipe:
Chunkily chop all of the vegetables up(peel the carrots, and the top layer of the leek, and red onion, cut the purple stuff off of the turnip) put them in a pan, cover with water, add vegetable stock, bring it to the boil and then let it simmer for 1.5 hours. Then whizz it all up with a blender.

How Exciting!

19 Million Hens in the UK live in cages...

I posted about carrier bags the other day and commented that to live without damaging the world around us seems an uphill struggle. I wish there was a "for dummies" guide on it all. I'm a vegetarian and I also try and eat free range eggs (which a lot of people do), but it took a short while to realise how many products I buy, have non-free range eggs used in them...

I've been researching online and found this useful information on the Battery Hen Welfare Trust charity website:

"

A staggering 65% of UK battery eggs are used by food manufacturers.

If you buy any of the following you could inadvertently be purchasing eggs laid by battery hens:

• Cake
• Pasta
• Chocolates (fondant filled)
• Quiche
• Ready made Yorkshire Puddings
• Ready made Pancakes
• Biscuits
• Ready meals
• Noodles"

Informative Websites

• The Vegetarian Society lists their approved products on their site
• The RSPCA also has an online leaflet explaining about free-range foods and approved products and manufacturers

I don't preach to people who eat meat, but for me in the past, the reason I happily ate any egg I ever saw or any sort of meat was because I didn't really engage with the suffering involved. To be honest even now it's so easy to buy, for example, an egg sandwich, and it's an afterthought, the life of suffering the chicken will have. I suppose unless it was a life or death situation, I couldn't end the life of a chicken or a pig myself, the only reason I ever ate it is because it comes in a little packaged box and says "sausages". A friendly little word really. In conclusion, it is a lot to take in..but I am going to do my best and buy ethical foods.

Writing is hard work.

Reusable Bags

In the supermarket that I work in we have recently stopped giving people plastic carrier bags. This has annoyed many customers as they have to either buy bags or bring their own. We have Bags For Life at five pence each, which are made with recycled plastic - and if you keep bringing them back each time you shop and they suffer wear and tear, we give you another one for free! I keep trying to emphasize this point to angry customers.

I have had these responses many times:
-That's ridiculous.
-I'm not buying your bags and I'm not putting it in my trolley without bags, so what do you expect me to do?
-I'm not buying bags..I'm leaving my shopping.
-I'm not shopping here again. I'm going to Tesco.
-I can't believe you can spend £100 but still have to buy bags.. but that's okay cos I'll just nick your trolley.

:|

I sort-of understand why people are annoyed as I turned upto work and asked where the bags were, and then was informed that we no longer had any! I can understand that it might be a bit of a shock to some people..and since there is a "recession" spending extra money isn't what you want to do. But then again, at our supermarket (and I presume many others) asking you to buy reusable bags or bring your own has been going on for ages.

People probably hear in the news, and shops, that you should bring your bags and they know it's to do with the environment but I don't think people have been properly educated to make them care enough. I know I haven't..not until I've been browsing about them online. And I still don't feel I really know enough - since the government are trying to ban carrier bags I think they should make a leaflet explaining all the reasons why this is a good thing - at least to ease people's anger.


One reason that I think is very important and makes me want to be more conscious environmentally is the fact that Leatherback Turtles are mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish and eating them, the plastic gets twisted up in their organs and kills them... "Many of our plastic bags travel along rivers and streams and end up out at sea. Leatherback Turtles coming to UK waters for jelly fish are increasingly mistaking our plastic bags for jellyfish." - www.turtlebags.co.uk

Since our lives have been made so easy and quick, it actually seems an uphill struggle trying to live without causing some sort of damage to the world around us. But I feel more motivated to try and be more "green".

Secret Diary

I was cleaning out my room when I came across a diary I had written in when I was 11 and 12. It was interesting reading it as I seem so..young. At the time I thought I was the height of maturity. It's not very in-depth or well written, and I've included all the entries I've written in the diary I just didn't write in it very often! There are quite a few spelling mistakes and at the time I liked to use the word "bitch" a lot and liked to rate each day out of ten....


12th April 2002
Kate didn't come
I hanged about with Mouna
I did PE - netball.

7/10

15th April

Didnt walk up to school with amy she was late i think. ignored and shouted at me - bitch.
Kate didnt come
got moved down a set in maths
ITS BETTER i think
NOT AS MANY PEOPLE
Amy wen walking from school said hello only to kirsty
I think she likes her better than me

8/10

17th April
went in the car to school with amy
bitch in science copied my work so i was bored
walked home Kate said 'coming out' to Luke "N" Kirsty and
coming to skool 2morro Jen

5/10

9th of May
amy is always late - told her she said
"God you always yoused to be late you look like you are going to cry" bitch!
Sat next to Jonny in humanities
was ok
My hamster didnet come out yesterday

4/10

10th of may
Did rounders it was ok.

23rd of May
Did P.E
Sarah keeps errgnoring me and going off with Donna, she dosnt want to hang out with me after skool.
She asked Laura if she was cumin out - bitch
Sarah R, Kirsty & Hailie kept makin fun of me cus i had greasy hair and yesterday Sarah knicked my nice pen. i hate her.
Sarah is my only real m8 and she dosnt want to hang out

5/10

24th of May
big brother starts today at 9 i am exited
i had P.E today i am trying not to do very well in P.E cus i dont want to get moved up next year.
Sarah ignores me she says she did cus i ignored her but she was the one ignoring me.
i am on the internet now seeya
Jenny

7/10

4th September
I start school 2morroe "Oh No"
I started my period August 29th Yey
Dont wanna go 2 school
"HATE IT"

2nd December 2002
hello since i wrote life has gone down hill.
i have no friends . i thought since kate goes to the shops she would treat me better.
she treats me worse. i feel so lonley. I miss Leo. Im not at school. I am dreading it tommorow.
Only as Kate will be saying 'I am aloud days off" bitch! Oh well
I am missing english "oh know"
gotta go by by

9/10 (no school 4 me)

April 2003
It was okay since I didnt go to school
Easter holidays -
watched "Thats so Raven"
My sister said i may b depressed

Snow

Yesterday, snow was everywhere. It was like a winter wonderland. It seems it was a "snow day" as everything had stopped but I didn't have any plans anyway! I did venture outside to take some photographs though...

Everywhere is still covered in snow but it has turned icy and hard as rock.








It's also interesting to see a cat's footprints in the snow, as you never usually get to see where they are going!