Favourite Games

I am still in the process of moving out of Facebook. Probably going to take me another couple of years at the rate I am going. All games have, however, now been deleted therefrom.

Anyway, herewith is my list of favourite games, with links (mainly from Wikipedia) where available. Due to my various disabilities these days I can only play games using a computer keyboard; these are denoted with an asterisk (*).

Looking back at the list has prompted memories of those who played with me as I grew from childhood to young adult. Happy times! %D

Active games

boules

croquet

French cricket

hide-and-seek

kick-stone - a form of hide-and-seek where the players have to kick a specific stone to get themselves out of the running. If the person who is 'on' kicks the stone before them, then the person is in the running for being 'on' next game.

rounders

Board-type games

*Battleship

*Connect Four

jigsaw puzzles

Ludo

*Mah-jong

[Image description: game of mah-jong in play from apple store]

marbles

Monopoly ® Hasbro

noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe)

Trivial Pursuit ® Hasbro

Card games

chase the ace (aka Old Maid)

contract bridge

German whist (aka Honeymoon whist)

happy families

*patience (solitaire)

snap

Mind puzzles

*concise crosswords

I-Spy

*sudoku

[Image description: game of sudoku in play from apple store]

*word-searches

Sex games

doctors and nurses

you-show-me-yours-and-I'll-show-you-mine

Hopefully one or other of the games on my list will have made it on to your list. If not, feel at liberty to add a comment about your favourite game below.

To Keep Or Not To Keep…

Yesterday, JuliJuxtaposed published the following blog-post here. She quite succinctly sums up what many disabled folk have been and are thinking about Ed Miliband and the Labour party. Please read it and share widely, as we need our disablie voices heard loud and clear.

After the blog, appear my comments.

[Image description: Ed Miliband addressing Mancunians in 2012]

*******

Not just Ed. Maybe not Ed, at all.

To Labour,

Taking into account the Media’s efforts to paint Ed as a disaster and halving it – and halving it again – the fallout around poor old Miliband is still not fuelling confidence in me that he can hold it together, even if he wins the next General Election. What kind of Cabinet will his ‘team’ make? Who will be served by it? And how much is Ed Miliband the real problem? Is his perceived weakness due more to his ‘awkwardness’ – by now a self-perpetuating force – or to his inability to discern and avail himself of useful, appropriate advice? Most of his team, whether front or back benchers or hired consultants are hardly helpful or even inspiring. He surrounds himself with the dismal advice and strategies of banality, nostalgic muddle-heads and should-be Conservatives. Did he actually choose this team? How much of it is chosen for him? Is the weakness not in his judgement, then?

The party bigwigs should make their minds up about how their individual, personal philosophies fit to the mission statement. The ‘crisis’ in the party is that, like the Conservatives, Labour doesn’t know itself anymore; like the Conservatives, Labour has become two parties in denial. Like the Conservatives, Labour doesn’t identify sufficiently with the real worlds of its electorate. So, by all means, get rid of Ed, if you think it’ll help but, for goodness’ sake: don’t stop there! Wake up and lose the stale and mouldy obstacles. Not just Ed. Maybe not Ed, at all. Are you sure you’re not worrying a little too much about the wrong Ed? Get rid of the Blair acolytes and apologists; get rid of the Brownonian bulldozers. Shift them all to the back benches or suggest they join another party if they’re so keen on being a politician but tell them that their ideas of what Labour means have turned out to be an historically nasty, neoliberal blip and that they are not at all the desired trajectory.

The social, political, economic circumstances in which this country (and indeed, the world) finds herself are too grave to waste time on loyalty for loyalty’s sake. Be loyal out of respect and faith or walk away. Keep Ed, or don’t. Put up or shut up. Shit, or get off the pot. Just make your minds up and sort it out already! Change your rules or overrule him if that’s what you want and that’s what it takes. But is it entirely Ed Miliband or is it mostly the scaffolding?

The Conservatives will kill us if they win in 2015. You know it. And you know why. Stop imitating them. Stop pandering to the right-wing press. Stop pretending you know what we want just because you wandered around in public the other day, surrounded by cameras, looking for a photo-op and a soundbite. Stop seeing us through your own projections and try actually listening beyond received clichés. Try speaking to us in more than soundbites and clichés. Be brave, get a grip and give this country or however many countries we are, these days, a credible box on the ballot. One that will be my pleasure to mark my cross in.

Whatever you do, it’s going to be a risk. Lose because of him. Win in spite of him. Win because you dared to change the guards and the message. Lose because you replaced him too late with the effect of greater farce. You have to choose which one you can live with so that I can choose.

Please… Choose integrity. Choose authenticity. Choose to have courage in your convictions. Choose. Hurry up and choose.

© JuliJuxtaposed

******

I have met Miliband: I find him to be a very thoughtful, intelligent and caring person; I also believe he does listen to those to whom he actually speaks. Alas, as you have so well encapsulated, Labour is not their leader.

Nonetheless, whilst I respect Ed, a good leader would have gone out of his way to castigate the bigwigs who shifted the disabled folk at the last party conference and would have personally apologised to the individuals concerned.

A few months back, I was invited to his key-note NHS speech in Manchester (blog-post). Those of us in wheelchairs were in a no-man's land at the back where he could not possibly see us, let alone interact with us. Again, not his fault, but that of Labour organisers & bigwigs. We disablies are an after-thought if we are even considered at all (we were not at a previous event of his & MEN in 2012 - blog-post).

Toxic Individuals; Toxic Affinities

[Image description: a photo of sky above mountain peaks,

upon which the following text is overwritten -

You don't ever have to feel guilty about

REMOVING TOXIC PEOPLE

FROM YOUR LIFE.

It doesn't matter whether someone is a relative,

romantic interest, employer, childhood friend,

or a new acquaintance - you don't have to make

room for people who cause you pain or make

you feel small. It's one thing if a person owns up

to their behaviour and makes an effort to change.

But if a person disregards your feelings, ignores

your boundaries, and "continues" to treat you

in a harmful way, they need to go.

- DANIEL KOEPKE

© Simple Reminders

SIMPLEREMINDERS.COM]

*

I have separated myself from very toxic parents. This was done on the advice of my G.P. (family doctor), psychologist and psychiatrist more than a decade ago. My mental health has never been better and I can genuinely say I am now a content and happy person. My previous (the afore referenced) G.P. noted within a matter of months the amelioration in my confidence levels, previously never experienced by myself. I can never wholly clear out their toxic legacy; but I have done my level best.

A couple of years back, a friendship that was adversely affecting my amour-propre was brought to an end by myself after discussing with the chap and finding no way to improve matters.

One of my cousins, whom I love dearly, is extremely negative, so I try to avoid as much as possible, especially when feeling low myself. But I should never wish to cut the person off completely, as there is much good in them.

Knowing that specific folk are toxic to one's health, is the first step in preventing them from causing one harm. It is never an easy step and one ought to fully consider all the ramifications before ending any relationship. However, I personally can vouch for the benefits of ending toxic affinities.

%)