Friday, 17 January 2025

Defying the bad

 January is never the jolliest time of the year, let's face it, so I have been planning and preparing for fun times ahead. In addition, today is Friday 17th which in Italy, Greece and some other countries is as bad as Friday 13th in English-speaking ones. To ward off bad luck, you are supposed to scratch yourself. And not plan journeys, do business, or cut your hair. Oh dear, there's a lot of bad luck on my way, then, as I've been doing all that today. I'd best hire a scratching robot to purge the evil.

Fear of Friday the Seventeenth is known as Friggaheptadecaphobia. Which sounds exactly like the sort of expression you mutter when bad luck befalls you! (Or is that actually what Muttley used to mutter when in the dog house!).

Anyway, here's what I've been doing to score on the femmometer this week.

Slimming to slinkier dress sizes - I lost another two pounds in weight (0.8 kg), which is a decent weekly loss and it would be great if I could keep that up steadily. Time for a reward!



Clothes - I am so much in love with the soft cotton trousers I bought in the sales last week that I got another pair in a size down - after all, slenderer is what we're aiming for. Thank goodness for elasticated waists, eh, girls? I also got an additional pair of feminine corduroy trousers for winter with those all-important deep pockets. I might make a repeat purchase of those, too.

Hair removal - I got a new lady shaver in purple that so far is proving useful for quick and easy hair removal. Not as accurate as a wet razor but a lot less painful than epilation. Time to find a waxing specialist for summer, though.

Travel - I have started booking my next major trip to Britain to sort residual things and have some more girl time with trans friends. So far I have bookings to visit London, Salisbury and Nottingham in late May / early June with Bath, Bristol and South Wales as other possibilities. A busy trip!

Salisbury Cathedral Close with Dee and Chrissie, November 2010

 

Grim Reaper

Not so good at the moment is the prospect of my having to attend a relative for some weeks after he has an operation as I am now his nearest kin who can. His other half and stepdaughter (a nurse) would have been ideal, of course, but his partner is now in hospital and the daughter died just before Christmas. We are all very upset about her passing. She was 62 and had had a lifelong heart problem that the doctors eventually ran out of options with. The Grim Reaper has been culling a lot of my friends and family these last three years and I confess it's getting me down, especially as most were my kind of age. If scratching's the remedy for this, too, then I'm scratching away!

 

Social media

I was annoyed to lose my Facebook account to hackers last autumn. But given the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, their increasing twists and turns to make your info public, and now their policy change to reduce fact checks and allow more toxic discourse, I wonder if I'm so bothered and whether I would ever return. I'm becoming cautious about any social media site based in the US in the same way that I don't use any based in China. Maybe these sites have had their day as a place for enjoyable exchanges. OK, so this site, Blogger, is run by Google in the US, but that seems less Trump-leaning at moment, or am I uninformed? Lynn of YATGB offers a characteristically wise and informed summary.

Have a good weekend.

Sue x

8 comments:

  1. "...I'd best hire a scratching robot..."

    Or borrow a cat? 🙂 Funny how different cultures have lucky/unlucky days. Just let the cat away from the nice trousers!

    Hmm. The Google situation, that's a question. I've not been following the IT press closely for a while, but they (Google) don't seem to be courting the new administration. Might be wrong on that. Best backup! 😁

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    1. Backing up and saving thoroughly is what I'll be doing over the next few weeks anyway. Time for Western Europe to regain some dignity and initiative and establish a more Eurocentric internet IMHO. I'd trust the Scandinavians to come up with something excellent.

      As for scratching, I did wonder if a Roomba could be repurposed as a suitable bad luck avoidance device?

      Sue x

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    2. Oh, I forgot to say what a top choice for the image. Mutley did love a medal 🏅

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    3. Gimme, gimme, gimme! Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh!!

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  2. "Friggaheptadecaphobia". Definitely Muttley. Is epilation or shaving also unlucky on that day? Oops.

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    1. Well, that's a question I haven't been able to find the answer to. I suspect it's unlucky, too. In some places they say you shouldn't even cut your nails. Apparently, the devil will take what bits of you he can ...until presumably, over many years, he gets enough overall to own all of you. But since in England you don't live so much under the shadow of Pythagoras and his concerns about the number 17 you'd best stick to behaving on the 13th instead!

      Sue x

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  3. I hope your Friday 17th was not so bad...I know 17 is a bad number in Italy...here it is 13. But I don´t believe in such things. Oh yes, we have to be aware of the US, China and of course Russia. But let´s enjoy life ..we´ve only got one as far as we know. What a nice pic of past times. Maybe you post a new one?.
    Have a good time and all the best
    Violetta

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    1. My Friday 17th was fine. The fact that people can't agree on what's bad about it suggests we shouldn't take these things too seriously.
      I will try to post some new photos but I have a problem with workmen in and around my house all the time at the moment.
      Sue x

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