Caring.

I’ve just been watching a video on Youtube called “My Name Is Lisa”.

The video is about a 13 year old girl dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s Disease, and those who are familiar with Alzheimers will recognise some of the symptoms and the timeline.

I thought I’d share the video with you.

The video made me think and made me think hard, about what I’d do in that position and how I would cope. It also made me think about whether people really care or not. I like to think I do, although sometimes I care too much and it hurts. There are situations I deal with, people I visit, situations I have to try and resolve and after a while it gets to you.

You try not to care, but you can’t get round it. It affects your enthusiasm, your motivation, your eagerness to do the job in hand.

Yesterday I got chatting to a couple of people a lady and a man. I won’t mention their names as I said I wouldn’t. Both of them were probably in their late 50’s or early 60’s. I met them randomly on a bus and we got chatting after some minor thing happened outside the bus. I happened to comment that the incident was “unneccessary” which opened up the conversation.

The lady was telling me she suffered from a heart condition myocardio-something and a few months ago she got rushed into hospital because it was suspected she was having a heart attack. She told me that she honestly thought she was going to die. She kept wanting to close her eyes but the Paramedics wouldn’t let her, and they kept talking to her to keep her awake.

She had to be rushed from Worthing Hospital to the Royal Sussex County Hospital on a blue light run. The only part of the journey she could remember was coming past Hove Lagoon.

I wanted to ask her how she felt in thinking she was going to die but I couldn’t pluck up the courage. I guess it also wasn’t appropriate to ask on a number 1 bus at rush hour time!

Her friend who was with her, chirped up to say that he had just finished a Spiritualist self healing course, and he was hoping that he would be able to use his new found skills to help people get through difficult situations in their lives. He was really proud of his achievement and not embarrassed to share it with a complete stranger.

I had to get off shortly after to come home, but I wish I could’ve stayed with these two. I found them both amazing.

There I am on the bus with 2 strangers, one who has, in all reality,  experienced one of the most distressing things that could ever happen and another who was telling me about his achievements.

I love people like that. I can sit and listen and talk with them for hours. They are truly caring people.

And so, it’s that, that I wanted to get across in this message. The world isn’t as bad as it seems. This country isn’t as bad as it seems. There are a lot of good people out there, every day people having every day experiences. What sets them apart though is that they care.

Back to the video, please think about all of the Lisa’s out there. Normal, everyday people doing extraordinary things and caring. Caring about what happens and doing the best for the people that they love.

Another B&W TV Video

It was a cold and wet miserable Wednesday and I didn’t know what to do with myself.

I sat down with a coffee and a Jaffa Cake bar and thought long and hard about what I could do to pass some of the time. Nothing came along. I stared out of the window at the miserable A259 and still nothing came along. Then I went on Youtube and started watching some videos from Chris aka cwilliams1976.

Watching the videos on Chris’s channel gave me an idea.

I would make a black and white TV video.

So I did.

The master is actually in colour, and the music is from one of Chris’s testcard  videos entitled Finally Swing Time. I did a quick video on the PC with another test card, converted it to 3gp and put it on my Nokia N95.

Then, to make it more technical, I plugged my B&W TV in, ran a coax cable from the VCR to the B&W TV and plugged my N95 into the VCR. I recorded it onto video (so that I have a permanent copy) and then played it back.

The result, watching mobile phone videos on B&W TV via video tape.

What an excellent way to spend an otherwise miserable afternoon.

Here’s the Youtube original;

and here’s the re-created colour version featuring Test Card F and Finally Swing Time,

done

and here’s the video recorded of the black and white TV playing the same video.

done

Who’d have thought that owning a 1970’s black and white television could be so much fun?

Incidentally, if you want to start creating your own test cards, here’s a wonderful piece of software that will let you do it!

Now I’m sorry to say, that will be the last post for a couple of days as I’m back to school tomorrow (I’m not really at school, I’m 35, but it saves mentioning what I actually do for a living) and so it’s a bath and early night tonight (and post school drinks tomorrow night, followed by early morning hangover on Friday morning).

I’ll catch you soon, when I have something else to write about.

A (Rather Odd) Dream

Last night I had a strange dream.

I dreamt I was walking past Woolworths in Blatchington Road, Hove when I saw that squatters had moved in. (Woolworths as you’ll appreciate has sadly closed down). I happened to find the window they had got in from and nailed it up so they were trapped in there and couldn’t escape.

Hove Woolworths

Then the next time I went past, it had re-opened as a Woolworths, with all sorts of lovely stock on the shelves, like it used to in the days when I worked there. The reason for it re-opening was that the Carphone Warehouse had purchased the Woolworths Head Office in London, which meant that all life had been sucked back into the company and it could re-open.

I walked in to speak to the Manager who told me it was true, and because of the work I had done with the squatters he would give me a job as Deputy Manager, because I had shown such great concern for the company and the store.

How strange!

Maybe I should go and take a walk up George Street just to go and check out the old building.

Clever Advertising

Cadbury’s have done it again.

Their new advert is cool.

Their last one was cool too – with the gorilla drumming to Phil Collins. I recently found out that I know the person who was the gorilla, but I’m not going to tell you who it was.

I also have the tune to this new advert in my collection. It’s by Freestyle and it’s called “Don’t Stop The Rock”.

Look out for the especially clever bit with the balloon!