Saturday 11th October

I just saw this and thought, golly me, if it's not the neighbours with their guns and pit bulls, I could come to an untimely end at the car wash, who knew.  I'm a regular customer at that car wash, and it's not like I can just drive through, I need to get out of the car to push the wing mirrors in, then pull them out again.

The Queen has probably got as much Alzheimer's as I have.  When we are 85, or pushing 80, we have all got plaques and tangles in our brains, and forget things.   But Alzheimer's isn't forgetting where we have put the car keys, it's forgetting what they are for.

And I saw her on television yesterday with - I think it was Angelina Jolie - and she looked far from dying to me, and very aware of where she was and what she was doing.    I did notice a little curvature in her spine I don't think I'd noticed before.     Being Queen Mary's grand daughter she has had a ramrod straight back all her life, she's entitled to be a little bent at 85.   According to Princess Alexandra that's where they got their ramrod straight backs, a lifetime of sitting up straight, not slouching like the rest of us.

I don't think I have been up to very much the last couple of days.  Kiwanis Thursday morning.  I was saying that now Fr Clark has gone I will probably be sitting on my own, but a kindly member (although they are all kindly) came and sat with me.  It is like kindergarten isn't it, "will I have a best friend to sit next to me".

It is my little job  there to take notes of what the speaker is saying, and write them up in the following week's bulletin, but the speaker was the Oklahoma Senator reporting on the latest legislative business in the state capital.   I told Louise I couldn't even begin to do that.  He started with education and was talking about something called 'common core', a subject with which everyone is familiar, unless you are a foreigner, in which case it is totally over your head.

I mention who our speakers are at Kiwanis, but not so much what we do.  So to give you an idea, the Board  decided at the last meeting to donate $150 to the Early Childhood Development Centre to purchase bicycles again this year to promote perfect attendance; donate $150 to the Shoes that Fit programme (a lot of children don't go to school in proper shoes) and donate $100 to the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club.   I think I have mentioned that the Mission Statement of the club is to help children.

On Friday I was at the hospital in the morning, then had lunch with Bill and that was very pleasant.