Helping STAMMA

The routine of every day, the constant grey and being alone week in and week out—except for three hours a week of dog walking with friends—is taking its toll. I love reading, but it’s still very hard to sit still. Not only that, I’m sick of television, no matter the program. I hate being sedentary; I find that time passes very slowly. 

For a change in routine, I decided to bake myself a Garlic and Spinach pie. It’s a dish I love, and I can eat it for both lunch and dinner for a few days. Baking dishes that take time to prepare is one way to make time pass more quickly, plus, I’m rewarded for my effort with absolutely delicious food.

And… I rearranged the living room. The sofa used to be in front of my window and my chaise longue was by the fire so that the user could be warm and look out the window (but the sofa blocked much of the view). The rearrangement makes watching TV on the sofa far more comfortable for me and having the chaise by the window creates an idea reading spot for me that gives me lots of natural light coming over my shoulder and an easy view of the street.

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I have a new passion: It’s for Claudia Jessie, and English actor. She plays Eloise in Bridgerton, Amelia in Vanity Fair and now I’m watching her play a cop in Line of Duty. I’m deeply impressed by her immersion into every character she plays; she’s brilliant!

So is my Garlic and Spinach pie. I’ve eaten a quarter of it already.

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I got a proposal from Eoin and François to get together on New Year’s Eve for a meal. They’ve also invited Jay, but he’s been MIA for a while. I hope he emerges and that, in fact, we get together. I think it’d be great for my mental wellbeing. I’m having quite a bit of trouble with phone calls and would value any experience that might lighten my load.

On the plus side of my speech dilemma, I’ve been invited to participate in the planning of a support group for late-onset stutterers by STAMMA, the British Stammering Association. They asked for study points to consider and I wrote them quite an essay, mustering all my long-dormant technical writing skills. I’ll be part of a team of four people: A STAMMA program director, a speech language pathologist, an English late-onset stutterer and me.

I got involved with STAMMA because I wrote to them having heard, at the Zoom conference of the Canadian Stuttering Association that STAMMA was considering forming such a group.