Making the best of it

Monday 19th Jan 2026

“I want some sweets.”

How often we have heard this cry in a supermarket. Sometimes the child even lies on the floor in protest. Often it is easiest to give in.

“Oh, that’s alright we have plenty of those at home,” said the dad and the little boy went placidly to the check point. I wondered if they really had the sweets at home or if the child would forget. You have probably heard the joke where a parent tells the child that the ice cream van chimes mean that they have sold out. We all invent ways of coping.

Our old sunflower heads are finally completely over. We left them for the birds long after the glorious golden flowers had wilted. Now after this snowy windy weather there are only brown bent and twisted bits of debris hanging there. Oh, how I long for the summer to see the golden delights again. Then when I was coming out of the supermarket, I saw tubs to buy presumably filled with sunflower seeds as the pots were covered with photos of the yellow flowers. I was like the child; I wanted those now. I resisted, knowing that I had plenty of the seeds at home.

To cheer me meanwhile my tulip bulbs are showing bright green shoots. I planted them in a bowl last year as the dark nights approached and now here, they are and I can even see a bud as they stand stoically on my kitchen window.

And we too had be stoic the other day. Mr T had to go to the hospital for a check-up, we ended up being more worried about where to park than what the doctor would say. There are lots of building alterations going on and we did not know where to go. But luckily, I found a sign to the ward and a park nearby.

It was hard to cope and after six hours we asked the busy workers, ‘Where am I in the doctor’s queue?’. A man called Clive came in with his battered trilby hat askew. He had been brought by ambulance from Hereford and travelled 65 miles but there was no bed for him. He waited with us. A couple in matching beige anoraks were given bad health news.

Eventually we could leave (Mr T was OK) and a bed was found for Clive. But how to operate the ticket machine and pay? The parking camera had not been able to recognise our car. What do you do? The couple with bad news helped me. I paid the virtual ‘Honesty Box’. They were going back the next day to get more help and meantime they helped us.

 Taken from my column in The Star