Although the topic is 'Benefits and finances', this post is a different kind of benefit. Not much in the ways of being payed money but more in the way that a natural source is a benefit for me :).
Yesterday I was on a sandy beach. I hadn't been on a sandy beach in yonks and it is testing on the old balance.
I took my shoes and socks off and let the sand get in between my toes as well :).
I didn't make any sand castles though.... Forgot the bucket and spade :).
Anyway, I found a piece of driftwood and I was, for my time on the beach, going to use the wood as a cane.
I was talking to Angela not long ago about using a stick and I said that I had tried one out years ago but I found it didn't really offer help.
I think I used to put some of my weight on the stick and therefore from me holding the stick, it could sway side to side kind of like my actual walking balance :).
But Angela mentioned about maybe using a stick just to hold or to graze gently over the ground could help.
This time around, I felt the driftwood was helping. Over the years, I think my left leg gets a bit worn out because of my balance issues but I think the new cane could help relieve a bit of stress.
I did feel like I was Skeletor from the film 'Masters of the universe' with the stick and I also felt rather debonaire too :).
Another thought, I also felt like Gandalf from the'Lord of the rings' and 'The Hobbit' films.
"YOU, SHALL NOT, PASS!!"
So, I have now adopted this piece of driftwood.
The best things in life are free :).
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Matt2584
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Well, it looks trendy and I feel it keeps me more steady at times.
If I have bad days with my balance, I usually hang on to a parent for support and my mum has told me before that where I am bigger and stronger, I can make her lose balance too.
On some occasions I use the stick as well as holding on, if I were going up or downhill for instance.
I asked my mum if she found it easier and she said it was so I am also glad about that :).
great one Matt, have you made that phone call yet? I've a bit of catching up to do on posts and replies. My nearest beach is about 2 hrs away by car, so if you find another piece of driftwood like yours, pop in post for me :-)) Shirley x
Lovey bit of serendipity and boost to your imagination as if it needed it. Lol
If your new friend helps take a load off your mind and your mum's I hope you will be sending invites to the christening of this adopted member of the family.
Have you got the sand out from between your toes yet?
My new friend has certainly taken something off of my mum. My weight from my swaying-like balance :).
Sorry, but no invites to the christening. I'm no church goer. I feel out-of-place being in churches. I'm guessing you were joking anyhow about the christening... Right? :).
Amzingly I did get the sand out between my toes. I remember when I was little being on a sandy beach, which was not a lot, it used to be hard to get the sand out between my toes.
Most probably cos I was little back then and when you are little, you are not very thorough with things. Some of the most easiest things were such hard work back then :).
Matt, I am grinning from ear to ear, Cheshire cat stylee !
Your own personal stick friend : )
Driftwood comes in some really beautiful, smooth shapes - I love tactile stuff.
I haven't been on the beach for 'yonks' either ( not sure how long a 'yonk' is - maybe as long as a piece of string ? ! ) Wonderful word - haven't heard it for yonks ! : )
Loose ,dry sand is very tough on the old balance and muscles, as it that hard ripply area just before the water's edge. I like to draw/ write in the sand but my big thing on the beach ( or anywhere suitable ) is looking for pebbles. I love to find the glittery or more unusual coloured ones but am especially on the lookout for natural heart shaped ones - they are an extreme rarity I can tell you !
My folding stick friend is accompanying me to Blackpool on Saturday. We are going to the ska festival and staying overnight in our usual guest house - not been for 2 years and am uber excited ! I expect to overdo the dancing and be exhausted and bad on my pins for a while so have booked a week's holiday from my cleaning job to follow : )
That's right, my own personal stick friend. I now have someone else to speak to other than myself haha, I'm joking.
A 'yonk' is 'donkeys years'. I'm not sure how long that is and I don't quite know why that term is used actually haha.
I am guessing from the sounds of how people use it, donkey's either live for a long time (which I wouldn't have thought was right, I would have thought humans could outlive donkeys) or donkeys remember things for a long time? I dunno, just a guess :).
Your right, it is the loose, dry sand that is hardest for the ol' balance. I shall finally say it, as I am home now, I was on holiday in Devon for a week.
I don't usually like announcing that I am away on holiday cos you never know, some unfriendly git could pick up on that and rob me while I'm away haha. I have heard things about the internet being an unprivate kind of place.
Anyway, I was at Woolacombe beach when I walked on the sand with naked feet :).
As soon as I started walking on the dry sand, it was like quick sand :).
I held on to my dad until I got to the more wet, firm sand.
After (Willy comb) Woolacombe, we drove over to Putsborough beach (that's right, more sand :D). I did not walk this time with naked feet but that is where I found Tyrone the helpful piece of driftwood :). I know, I named the stick in the time I read this message :).
I think you would get on well with my mum, she likes gazing at stones and pebbles and brung some home with her. She also likes hearts too. Not sure if she got any heart-shaped stones or not. The decor in the cottage we stayed in had hearts everywhere. I think my mum liked it :).
I used to do a bit of stone searching when I was little though. I remember going to Lyme Regis and collecting stones that had ammonite fossils in them and glittery stones too. I used to collect a lot of rocks and minerals.
I still have them upstairs in a box and I did buy some gemstones while I was away. Gemstones have healing, protection powers and so on.
You mentioned dancing and being bad on the pins, do you have pins in your hip or anywhere else on the body then?
A friend of mine from Headway, he does use this forum actually, he has pins in is hip.
I shall take a picture or two of Tyrone in due time :).
Sounds like you all had a great time on hols - I have just checked out 'Tyrone' on your other post. What a great find and nice that your Dad is going to sand and oil it for preservation : )
I had a great time too but legs are iffy as expected ( ska' ed to death lol ! ) Lots of stairs at the Winter Gardens Ska venue too so had to use arms to haul up after power in legs vanished ! Slept for three hours after we got home today !
'Pins' is a slang word for legs, apparently of cockney origin 'Pin pegs' !
So no metal pins in my legs, thank goodness but slightly dodgy 'pins' after dancing a fair bit !
Have looked up donkey's years - apparently another rhyming slang from 'donkey's ears' , although donkeys can live over 40 years , so are quite long lived too : )
I love gemstones and have a few - went to the market this morning and bought a polished heartshaped stone keyring with 'Blackpool' on it - just couldn't resist ! : )
Visited the indoor illuminations this afternoon - it's lovely and so relaxing. One of the displays was like walking through a giant garden in Alice in Wonderland : )
I went out today and before I was about to go out, I was going to grab the stick but mum wanted mr to use another stick to walk with, a proper looking stick.
I was a bit miffed but she reckons I'll get some funny looks by using a bit of driftwood called Ed-wood. That's right, I changed the name :).
She was saying that when the stick has been buffed up, then I could take it out.
I didn't care if I got weird looks or not. She was worried I might attract attention of the younger, immature, males who could end up picking on me for having a stick.
Sounds pretty negative to think like that. But anyway I took amother stick with me today, it was shorter than Eddy but it did the job :). I think I shall call this other stick, Dave.
I also found out that the stick once belonged to one of my great aunties so it is quite an honour to have used it and I got a comment from a guy in a charity shop, he said he liked the cane :).
Ah I see, pin pegs. Yes I know a bit of the cockney rhyming slangs too. I will be foing down the old, apples and pairs in a mo to have my dinner :).
Wouldn't it be weird to get pins and needles in your pin pegs? :).
The garden you walked through that was like Alice in wonderland sounds good.
Yes, it certainly is nice to get away. I have told my parents, I think we should go to Devon once every year
Black gemstones. That wouldn't be Onyx would it? I had some Onyx once that I got in Ludlow but I don't know where it is now :(.
All gemstones have characteristics and meanings such as putting rose quartz under your pillow helps you sleep at night.
I have not actually put rose quartz UNDER my pillow but I just like to be in possession of rose quartz really. That's good enough.
To be honest, I think I would lose the rose quartz if I put it under my pillow :).
I like to believe that it is because of gemstones that my life is the way it is. I read while I was on holiday that Quartz is good for brain disorders.
I have a himilayan salt lamp and it is a chunk of Himilayan rock/rose quartz.
It comes with a small light that you put inside it and it gives off such a calming glow, it's kind of like a fire.
when on a short hol to either Sicily or Tunisia, I brought back a lovely size piece of Quartz I found there, and a small bottle of 'firewater, bought at a tourist stall en route up Mt Etna, the ground was warm underfoot, but freezing air, just standing there near the top. on the black charcoal, that was really weird! it's funny how different topics bring back old memories I'd forgotten. sad thing is I dont know what happened to the Quartz when we packed up to leave UK. I was still working, Oh had finished and did a lot of the fiddly bits packing up, it may even be somewhere down there in new home we bought, but I'm not there now. I've recently got into collecting small turned and polished bit's of wood that look like mushrooms or nicely rounded fruit. don't think they represent anything or their than good craftmanship.
You found some quartz on holiday! That was lucky of you to find some. Could you actually harvest the quartz from where you found it or was it left there by mistake. Mt Etna, isn't that a volcano? I could see why the ground would be warm and the air freezing. Must have been kind of strange. Kind of like eating something hot with something cold. Like hot meat with coleslaw. Glad it brought back memories for you though :). And that is a shame you lost or mislaid the quartz :(.
The polished pieces of wood or rounded fruit might not serve a purpose but at least it makes you happy :).
Thanks for sharing that website, Angela. I have been briefly looking through some websites to find meanings of certain gemstones.
I'm quite interested how they all, or most, have different meanings and do different things.
There are so many gemstones out there and so many cuts as well.
When I was in Devon I think I got 14 different gemstones altogether from different gift shops.
Amethist was one of the gemstones. It was a polished gemstone or 'tumbled' is another word for it.
When I got home from my hols, I took a closer look at the stones I already had and I have got amethist already but in it's rough, pure form.
I already have some quartz in its purest form as well. It looks like a small stone that has been cut in half and inside is little stalagtite/stalagmites of quartz.
Also on my hols, I got a tiger's eye bracelet and a hematite bracelet.
The tiger's eye is good for confidence and hematite good for energy... Apparently :).
Matt did you do any surf-skimming with stones, obviously better on flat calm water and loved it when I could beat my sons and husband in distance, I just seemed to find the knack for it! glad you had a good time out on beach with your mum and dad, wasn't the sand cold if it was wet?
Devon is a lovely county, I went to a Convent day school there, in Torquay for about 3 yrs mid-late 1950's,before Dad moved again to Kent, but one weekend 4 or 5 of us girls cycled to Dawlish Warren and back, i been to Salcombe, Paignton and ??, oops memory just folded begins with a C...ah Cockington Forge, where in springtime the daffodils, primroses and bluebells were beautiful! I wonder if that park is still there? Dartmoor is also lovely, but the terrain quite tricky for walking on with balance probs which I didn't have then. you'd defo need a stick there. Shirley
I didn't skim any stones while on my holiday but I have in the past. I'm not that good at it. Apparently it is all in the wrist... Whatever that is supposed to mean haha.
The first beach I went to in Devon was at Willacombe. I walked to the shore and back in bare feet. The dry sand is difficult for the balance but good exercise.
My physio once told me to walk on the beach, sand or shingle. The different levels of terrain is very good for the muscles.
The wet sand near the shore was not so cold, quite nice as the weather was quite warm when I was at the shore.
It's when my feet were in contact with the water, the water was cold.
Devon is lovely place indeed. We used to go to Dawlish when I was little and we stayed in a caravan park.
Me and my parents went to Devon a few years ago, south Devon and last week we were in north Devon. I hope we get to visit more often and explore other areas.
With the soft sand bit I tend to walk on the firm sand down below high tide mark.
As for the stick, I got one, a folding one, I take it with me and keep folded as much as possible and tend to use, as you describe, when my balance gets a bit too unpredictable or if I'm tired and the poor old cartiledge arthritic knee say's so.
Are you going to fit a silver top to your driftwood cane to complete the debonare look?
A picy of you with driftwood sound a cool subject for a sketch.
I actually think they're Louie Walsh's illigitimate off spring.
Can't say they appeal to my taste either... well not sure what a couple of hours at gas mark 4 with a red wine gravy and mint sauce might do to their flavour
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