The perils of being honest

I have a reputation amongst immediate members of my family for being too honest. One thinks I’m a blurter, another that I’m too blunt, another that I don’t hold back in expressing an opinion.

My own view is that I sometimes speak too hastily and then regret it. But I can live with the criticism of being too honest, even though this comes from someone not a million miles from here who says things like “You look all crumpled and sad, like an ancient party balloon that’s got caught in a tree.”

So, being that honest person, you can see why I miss Mary so much, when she was the only person in my world to whom I could say absolutely anything and be sure of a sympathetic and understanding hearing. If she didn’t understand, she would gently probe until she did understand.

My honesty makes blogging difficult, and that becomes more and more true the longer I go on, because I am now aware that there are a lot of readers out there who are hugely sympathetic, and that makes me want to be more open.

So this week, while the biggest thing on my mind has been the debate about whether the UK should bomb Syria, I’ve not been able to talk to you about it, because this is a 95% politics-free blog. Yes, it’s my decision to make it politics-free, and I think it’s a good decision. If I changed my policy, you’d get nothing but rants.

So….what I will tell you is that yesterday I got a new £10 phone handset

(non-smart) and when Dave rang me up I couldn’t work out how to answer it.

And when I went to the dentist for a check up, he’d been replaced by someone who looked 16, and took two minutes to give my teeth a “check up” and when his fingers were in my mouth he asked me what I was doing today. (I can’t stand it when people I don’t know ask me questions like that, even when they don’t have their fingers in my mouth.)

Lastly, when I cycled down the lane yesterday I found that while I was doing the vacuuming, someone else had been down the lane with a spade and cleared out all 12 drains, and I was gutted. Never mind “Make hay while the sun shines” it should be “Clear drains while the rain falls.”

Here is a December photo of the ancient bridge over the river Wye in Bakewell. I’m so relieved it’s December. My stock of decent November pictures is miniscule.

p.s. I have changed my dentist.