Words & Pictures: Just Me, Just Bike

Scrolling through my phone I noticed so many photos that I took but never revisited thereafter. Sharing these every so often supported by my thoughts.

Just Me, Just Bike

      He climbed the hill and his thighs felt like they were on fire.  Reaching the top he had the option to stop, to take a breather. But he ignored the internal call and rode straight down the steep hill. 
     It was hard to tell whether it was the wind, or something else which caused tears to stream down his cheeks.  No one saw, only he knew. 

Location: Bottom of Old Watling Street (Kent A2)

Being arty – drawing people

I like to draw from time to time and always enjoyed art at school (albeit I wasn’t great at it). So regardless of the fact that we are all locked in and trying to keep ourselves occupied, we enjoyed this activity a long time before.
The weekend just gone my youngest son and I took a photo each and attempted to draw it, the results below.

The Pirate In me

95% of the workforce in the company I work for are now working remotely. With around 16,000 employees worldwide our company were quick to react to upgrading it’s remote networking capability. As a team tool for communicating, we use Microsoft Teams. For those not familiar it’s a collaboration tool which allows internal teams to share documents, online chat and video/voice conferencing.

Words & Pictures: Luggage

Scrolling through my phone I noticed so many photos that I took but never revisited thereafter. Sharing these every so often supported by my thoughts.

Luggage

The boatman came ashore to a foreign land, noticing a lonely figure waiting for him.
“Step in carefully sir, any luggage you have” he asked coarsely
The man looked at him with delicate eyes.
“The only luggage I carry is my heart”
Within minutes of leaving the mist had smothered them both.

 

Location: Cardiff Bay, Wales (Photo taken while on a weekend break)

What Not To Say To Those With Mental Health Issues

Hi All. Featuring an article by our community writer Nikki on the subject of Mental Health. There is so much written about this subject, with increasing (and rightfully so) coverage and awareness around the world. A personal post which will provide a deep insight and which has raised a lot of awareness for myself. Thanks for sharing Nikki.

Blogger Community

There are many ways to be empathetic and compassionate to someone who is experiencing problems with their mental health. There are just as many ways to unknowingly belittle someone and make them feel even worse about themselves. So let’s run through some of the well meaning common things people say to the mentally ill thinking it will help them when the opposite is true.

If someone is in a bad mood or quick to become angry or irate…
Don’t ask, “Are you off your medication?” or “Did you forget to take your happy pill today?”

If someone is struggling, tearful, and feeling beaten down…
Don’t give them lame platitudes like, “You have to pull yourself out of it,” “You gotta pull yourself up by the boot straps”, “You have so many things to be happy about and thankful for, snap out of it.” You might as well punch us in…

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11 Questions

Fellow blogger Aanchal Gounder kindly tagged me in for a sunshine blogger award. Thanks Aanchal. Check out her blog, thought provoking words. But I’m going to partially disappoint Aanchal. The good news is I will answer the questions. Bad news is I won’t follow through tagging others and posing my own set of questions. However dear readers feel free to answer the questions below and you may want to share with others.

• Do you have any other creative outlets besides writing? I perform and host standup comedy with a friend. Our brand is called ‘The Chucklesinghs’
• What makes you smile? My family
• What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives? Buy a stranger a warm brew and tell them they are doing a great job
• What is the story behind the name of your blog? (1) My wife’s maiden name ‘ahluwalia’ but also sounds like ‘aloo’, indian for Potato. (2) My surname ‘sahni’ but English folk at school used to call me Sandwich, like a Sarni.
• What are some small things that make your day better? That I’ve been able to take time to sit with my wife and kids and listen to how their day went. Washes away my own ego and that it’s not always about me.
• What in life is beautiful to you? That my mum may feel life has somewhat compensated her for her loss with the love she gets from all her grandchildren.
• What’s something that no one else knows about you? That will remain a secret
• What is the one food you refuse to eat? Marmite. (Yuk)
• What do you love most about yourself? Calm. Measured. “Every day is a bonus” attitude.
• If you could switch places with one person for a day, who would it be and why? Neil Armstrong and that walk on the moon with the view of planet Earth on the horizon. Gods handy work a little closer up..
• Do you believe everything happens for a reason? Definitely. I wouldn’t say that means the type of shirt we put on or whether I put jam on my toast or not. But I’ve experienced first hand moments where the reasons only revealed themselves later, as my mind began to understand them.