Thursday 17 December 2020

Dark and stormy....

 It has been a lovely sunny day here and I fully intended to have a walk out in the fresh air.   Just as I was about to put on my coat the District Nurse arrived with enough bandages for a whole football team.   Yes - you've guessed it - I have to have my legs bandaged again prior to having stockings.   I no longer have Cellulitis but I do have an Odeama.   Once bandaged and socked there is no way that I can get my shoes on - so house bound for a week or so..  Hopefully quite a few good books to read.   Good job I am not a small child who needs reading to. It reminded me of a story my father used to tell me when I was small.   He was into his fifties when I was born - and a complete surprise by all accounts - but he was a lovely Dad and would sit with me on his knee for hours.   This  was one of my favourite stories.   I would say - Tell me the Antonio story Dad - and this is what he would say:  "It was a dark and stormy night.   The brigands and the chiefs were assembled in the caves together.   And the chief said onto Antonio - Antonio - tell us a story.   And it started like this:  It was a dark and stormy night (and so on - each time we came to the end I would beg just one more time)


I found sleep impossible for some reason last night and at half past one I got up, made two rounds of toast and marmite and a pot of tea, switched on the heating and watched a programme I have intended seeing on iplayer.  It was a programme about life in the Faroe Islands - it kept me awake and enthralled for a long time.   We expect the way of life in some distant country to be very different from our own but the Faroes seems more or less on our door step but once we get past the fact that we all speak English our lives diverge.   They live almost entirely on seabirds and fish - they didn't appear to have much in the way of vegetables- much of which they eat raw,   And their incredible cruelty in the catching of the fish and birds I found horrifying.  But it is a way of life and as such we should maybe respect it.   If anyone else watched it I would be interested to their point of view.

Now, of course, although only half past eight in the evening, I can' twait to get my head on the pillow.  Sleep well.

22 comments:

justjill said...

Hope you had a good night. The Faroese sadly slaughter whales.

CharlotteP said...

I once saw another programme about the Faroes and agree with you about the slaughter; but I suppose we 'civilised' folk rely on others to slaughter our meat for us, and almost certainly that isn't as pleasant as we would like to think.
My Mom has some very good slippers with outdoor type soles. A bit of exercise and fresh air would probably be good for your oedema...apart from just being great to get outdoors.

Heather said...

I do like your Dad's story! Hope you get a better night's sleep tonight. It's horrid not sleeping well.
Glad the cellulitis has gone and I hope you will soon get your stockings. My legs would be so uncomfortable without mine.
Night-night.

Tom Stephenson said...

You are going through it Weave. On December 22nd the days begin to get lighter. Sleep well.

Anonymous said...

It may be their way of life but that doesn't mean we should respect that. Anyone who inflicts cruelty on animals, sea life or birds doesn't deserve any respect whatsoever. Sickening.

Kim said...

I hope your sleep was a good one, and continues to be good, too. I know that feeling.

I am afraid I can’t respect cruelty, when there are other choices, but since I know nothing of what they do, I can’t speak on the Faroes. I hope your days begin to look better soon, as Tom said, the light begins to return soon.

Susan said...

A sleepless night makes for a tired day...usually the next night is much better. Compression stockings usually get the swelling/fluid down. Sometimes a diuretic is needed. I accept that hunting and fishing for survival happens, even today. Story telling carries fond memories for me too.

L Northcott said...

Your Father's story is the same my Father would tell we children at odd times. It took us all some time to realise nothing more would ever happen with the story line unless we wanted to build more to it.

Safe and happy Christmas and a Health New Year to you from Western Australia.

Joanne Noragon said...

Your father and mine could have got on very well together.

Debby said...

I guess my take on it is that we really cannot enforce our moral code on anyone else. We simply cannot be the world's enforcers. So yes, there are ways of life that are foreign to us, things that we are horrified about. But we can only live by our own moral code, be true to our own beliefs, and let others do the same.

Respect those beliefs? I can't. However they are not my beliefs to respect.

Carruthers said...

The human attitude to other animals never fails to mystify me. We either exploit them or sentimentalise them. What we don't do, on the whole, is treat them with the respect due to other conscious beings.

Slavery and the death penalty, for example, should be abolished worldwide. Similarly, if people are being cruel to animals, they should stop being. The conscious beings (human and non-human) on the receiving end of the abuse are the ones who need to be respected.

Rachel Phillips said...

I remember seeing a programme of the Faroe islanders a while ago which indicated to me that they do not carry out the seabird killing now except for one/two days a year when they are allowed to keep their tradition, it looked like a hard life up there but all the film I saw was taken long ago in the 40s and 50s so I cannot say what it is like now.

Librarian said...

You and some of the others here do of course have a point in that we should respect other ways of live, and not enforce our own moral codes on others. Yes. But...
...does it mean we simply shrug off all cruelty, to other humans and animals alike, as a different way of life? Certainly not. Think genital mutilation inflicted on young girls, stoning of women for alleged crimes against the sharia, slavery which was - and still is - part of the "way of life" all over the world.

Can you still go out in your garden for a bit of sun and fresh air? You would not need to be as dressed for that as if you ventured further afield, I suppose.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for opening up the debate on a wider front. It seems that by and large we are all agreed.

liparifam said...

Linda McCartney said “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, the whole world would be vegetarian.” Yet, people work in those slaughterhouses, and others hunt and butcher animals by choice, so that is obviously not true. Unless you are a vegetarian (and I am not), I guess the real question is, can an animal be HUMANELY slaughtered? I think not, but when someone else is doing the dirty work, it is far too easy for us to just put that from our minds :(

Your father sounds lovely :)

Sue said...

I have seen programmes about the Faroe islanders and their ways in the past and I honestly don't think I could sit through one now, even reading about the cruelty they inflict as they commit this mass murder of innocents breaks my heart. Yes, they have to survive and no, they don't have the ability to grow many vegetables but there has to be a way of them moving forward.

Just because something is traditional doesn't mean it HAS to be continued. They used to burn women at the stake because they were deemed to be witches, sacrifice virgins to appease unseen Gods etc etc ... we have to move away from these practices whether they be committed against humans or other innocent creatures.

Most of all I love how this debate is being treated with such respect on your blog, so many different opinions are bashed down and trolled usually, it's nice to be able to speak about something in a civil way.

Derek Faulkner said...

I very much agree with the comment from A Smaller Life but if nothing else, at least those people are killing that wildlife in order to eat and survive. There are other barbaric cruelties carried out on wildlife, not for human survival but purely for unnecessary fashion tastes.

Granny Sue said...

Sleep can be so elusive. The story you wrote about was one I sometimes used in storytelling programs. So funny to see the children's faces.I hope the bandages and stockings help.

Daisy Debs said...

I do love reading your journal ! Yes we watched Mortimer and Whitehouse Going Fishing Christmas Special too ! They really make us chuckle and it;s so nice to feel like we are out there with them on their daft adventures :)
We are having a storm raging here too at this very moment ...dark and very gloomy ..angry wind blowing ....but the sound of the rain on my window helps me to get to sleep , along with my trusty old stone hot water bottle :)
Sending you a hug xxx Debbie xxx

Bea said...

I smiled at the Antonio story. My Dad used to put on the voice of the giant in Disney's version of Jack and the Beanstalk. 'Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum...Fi, Fo, Fe, Fe...Fifi, I don't know no Fifi!' That always made me giggle with delight.

Eileen in Fla. said...

Loved the Antonio story - The World needs more whimsy right now. My husband is a songwriter, and that story would make a lovely children's song.

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