Lisa Invites Hilda to a Picnic with her Family

It was a gorgeous Sunday afternoon. Lisa had invited her best friend Hilda to go to a picnic there, that she was having with a family. They were going to watch the horse driving show from a perfect spot outside of the show grounds in Windsor Great Park.

Hilda was excited to be going to the picnic and to get to know Lisa’s family more. She had only met some of them once before. So she decided to get a big box of chocolate doughnuts from her beloved local supermarket Asda to share with them all.Whilst Lisa’s family had already settled onto their picnic spot.

Lisa and her boyfriend David drove over to pick up Hilda and were running a bit late. When they finally arrived at the park, they all gathered there things from the car and began to make their way over to the picnic spot. Hilda had a lot to carry. She had a bag with her lunch in it in one hand, her handbag draped across her body and most importantly the doughnuts in her other hand!

It didn’t help that the field was very uneven. They had only got halfway across and just as David says “Mind the…”, Hilda has already lost her footing and not seen the steep slope into a little ditch and she’s fallen down in to it with her hands full! She is literally on all fours in a dry ditch. Much to Lisa’s amusement (her best friend I might add) who was chuckling away.

Hilda then attempts to get up and make a recovery and pops her head up, only to see that Lisa’s family on the other side are laughing at what they are witnessing. Hilda then does a 90 degree turn and falls down again and as she raises her head up again a nearby picnic party have seen the goings on and are also laughing! Needless to say Lisa is now beside herself in fits of laughter. Friends huh!

However most importantly Hilda was more concerned with not damaging the doughnuts and they were all in one piece – That women’s got skills!

Eventually she manages to get onto her feet and climb out of the blooming ditch, “Phew” she gasped, thinking to herself thank god it she hadn’t fallen into loads of wet mud. A bemused David then quips “Well I did try to warn you Hilda!!”. Yup he sure did.

The three of them were then met with lots of laughter and Hilda was welcomed into their circle who were still processing how she had ‘travelled’ across to them in that moment. This was the first time she had properly met all of them together and in such an animated fashion.

Ever since then the story has become a funny anecdote they all would fondly recollect with Hilda at gatherings.

What a way to introduce yourself to your friend’s family, it’s definitely gone down in history!!

Hahaxhaha

~Dedicated to my best friend and partner in crime Lucy, Love you lots my darling! XO~

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Singing for Health & Much More!

Inside St Mary’s Church. Photo credit: Hina Singh

Singing for Health is a short course  that is offered by Slough CMHT’s Hope College to it’s service users. It was set up to promote mental health recovery, psycho-education and access to activities and support within the community.  

From my own experience I know just how vital this is.  The mental health sevices available have enabled the service user to build upon regain and strengthen self-autonomy and in tandem helping them to reduce the stigma. As a therapist said many a time we all have mental health not just those attending the CMHT with a diagnosis. Fortunately for us locals the Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust is a tour de force in the diverse mental health services it provides in the community not just in the clinical setting. We truly are blessed.

Now for my experience attending ‘the Singing for Health’ Workshop. I missed the first session but still wanted to try to get there, to help me rebuild on my lost; confidence, resilience assertiveness and its accompanied increased isolation. I needed an activity that allowed me to be sociable without too much politics & unnecessary competition. I just needed a place where I could go and leave my troubles at the door and upon leaving feel lighter for having attended.

So, on the morning of my first time attending the group I was very anxious , equally excited and exhausted due to minimal sleep. Nothing new there – moan, groan, moan, groan! Then I arrived at the venue, St Mary’s Church in Slough. I actually did a whole lap of the church trying to find the entrance. Finally inside, I found the group and a few familiar faces hoorah and some! Everyone seemed so warm and friendly & as a newbie I felt very welcome. The group consisted of 4 singing teachers, support workers and us service users. To be honest I was very distracted by church interior with it’s stunning stain glass windows, high ceilings and ornamental details scattered about!

I’m a huge music lover but also naturally very shy so I never had much confidence to sing growing up, except for at home! In particular much to the annoyance of my younger siblings, who would get fed up of their elder sister’s dulcet tones (hahaha). To the point whereby they laid down the ground rule that I wasn’t allowed to sing when ‘Top of The Pops’ was on the tele! If I sang along they would ‘mute the fudgin TV’! This would be preceded by all of us madly scrambling to hog the blessed remote control – that we lovingly nicknamed ‘the remo’ – just before the show began, Arghhh!!! Not that that stopped me singing at home at other times or whilst Top of The Pops or any other music show was on [insert Muttly’s mischievous laugh here]. I am sure most siblings in those days and now can relate to this madness of bickering!

Oops I digress.

As a group we start with some warm up exercises and then split off into three sub – groups to practice our specific parts of the songs du jour; the tune, the harmonies and the low tones. Before I knew it I had embraced singing with full gusto with the first song which was ‘Lollipop’ oh my god, I was in heaven (pun central oops). Suffice to say, I felt at home being a big kid and being reminded of classical films such ‘Stand by Me’. You know! That infamous scene when the 4 teenage boys go off on their secret adventure walking across the train track singing this song

Film: Standy By Me. Photo credit: Pinterest 

Also the brilliant film ‘Corrina Corrina’ came to mind when, Molly and her friend have a spat in kids gospel choir scene, they then hug it out and Molly comes to life as she throws herself completely into singing ‘This Little Light of Mine’. “Another classic TUNE”!

Film: Corrina Corrina. Photo credit: Wikipedia

I cannot help film referencing as you can see, sorry.

So back to my singing experience by now I was grinning from ear to ear, as I sang my heart out and happy childhood memories ensued. Memories of attending my beloved St Laurence C of E primary school, yonks ago. For this reason I feel somewhat of an affinity to Christianity even though I am Hindu. Ah my little hymn book and saying the Lords Prayer every morning in assembly came flooding back to me standing in front of the stained glass windows you can see in the picture above.

Everytime we reconvened to sing as a collective something beautiful happened, hearing the harmonies subgroup as we all sang I ‘drank in’ the whole exponential spiritually uplifting experience, finding that inner voice and being totally in the moment totally present and mindful. Priceless.

Finally, I recall talking to the support worker and saying “Why did it take me so long to come to this group?! She knew exactly what I meant and remarked “It’s hard to put it into words, right! When trying to encourage a person to attend, words alone cannot explain this, you really have to come along and experience it for yourself.

She was so spot on! – (You know who you are).

~Blessings to you all,  Hina xo ~

The Ice – Cream Metaphor

A psychologist mentioned the ice-cream metaphor to me when I was struggling with coping with good moments in life ending.

It’s a simple realistic perspective but applying it can be a challenge…

On-Off Healthy Snacking to Help My PCOS Issues.

I love crisps & chocolate both my big time weaknesses so trying to get back to eating more protein with my snacking with some protein; low-fat & cheese and nuts. Although I don’t have diabetes I have an insulin resistance problem due to PCOS (polycystic ovaries syndrome) which I haven’t banged on about for a while online. Lots of women have this hormonal and insulin related condition. You collect weight around your middle, struggle with your weight but not all women do. Your hair thins and you can get male patterned baldness, high or low testosterone levels, crave carbs but your body can’t break them down. So if necessary you have to take medication to breakdown the carbs that are prescribed for diabetics. It sucks for me having it alongside other diagnoses as it’s mental, emotional & physical overload. Many women are able to take control of it but it’s extremely difficult with other mental health issues to do so. Also long-term mental health medication can cause PCOS due to the side effects of extreme hunger especially at night. PCOS can go undiagnosed for years as in my case even when I was sent for tests by the doctors it wasn’t fully diagnosed and didn’t show up on the scan until a few years back.

Mr Owl’s Thoughts On…

When Basic Self Care is A Monumental & Frightening Effort

Just a cuppa and some toast BUT it’s a major part of self care that can become extremely hard to do when you’re in mental health crisis or depressed. My mind struggles to do the basics at these times as the tasks get so broken down microscopically that doing them is sooo hard! But no one can see this as its invisible in my mind.
So, I’m proud of myself to be able to do this in the day time yesterday after a while of not being able to eat or drink. Nutrition is so important for mood & blood sugar levels.

Readjusting to Home Life After Being in Hospital & Reigniting my Tenacity & Goofball Humour

Reaadjusting to Home Life After Being in Hospital & Reigniting my Tenacity & Goofball Humour

Shortly after catching up with a dear friend for a overdue coffee and some much needed real talk and coping with being hyper alert and hypersensitive to the outdoor environment not longout of hospital (a few weeks) from a horrid anxiety & depressive relapse.

So it was a lot to refamiliarise myself with high sensory overload so I felt like an imposter sitting outside the coffee shop with my buddy, having a anxiety ridden fag and it being too “peopley”. People just going about their day to day business. All I could think was I’ve been in Mental hell, dragged my precious friends through it with me. had a short stay in hospital (fortunately a very good one) and I’m trying not to wallow in the shame I feel about the whole thing.

What transpired was a good old catch up with one of my Bessie’s, a rant here a vent there, some humour chucked in, tears trying not to turn into wails and a pinch of belly laughing for good measure!

So then we went our separate ways I did a quick bit of shopping before going to the bus stop to wait for my bus home.

Photo credit: Hina Singh -Just me sitting at a bus stop with my new super cool mop gadget.

Now I bet your dying to read about me discussing my mop? Go on you know you want to…🤓 [Insert The A-Team Theme Tune or their instrumental “when they feel a plan coming on!………… Da da da, da da da……] 😂😎

Project: Cleaning Bathroom Ceiling, Problem Solving Attempt 3

My bathroom doesn’t have a window in it just an extractor fan. So periodically I have to clean mould off the airtex ceiling and wall. First try was by hand with cleaning wipes stood precariously on a little stool: risk of falls and slips.

2nd attempt: Bought a window cleaning kit pole with cloth cover that I soaked with water & sprayed demould spray on it. Did the job but the cleaning head needs to be spongier to get inbetween the airtex nooks & crannies. Only just used this method again yesterday.

Now for the exciting bit when the bloody mould builds up again in the future with attempt no.3.

Seriously, What’s wrong with me? I’m getting excited about this ceiling issue that’s been so annoying. I just walked past my brand new mop standing their in my hallway and am thinking it might be a secret transformer you know like bumble bee. 😉😁😂🤣🤗

It’s nice to be bringing back the humour to my life, the LIGHT and the shade instead of just the latter.

It’s comforting and grounding to be thinking of things to be doing at home after a tough time with OCD that it became somewhere I couldn’t cope with.

Who would’ve thought a mop could help with that. Lol

#house #problemsolving #mop #excited #bathroomceilingmould #orange #hinathebuilder #transformers #bumblebee #independantwoman