Love in Lockdown

Love in a strange place and time – falling deeper into your arms.

Love in a strange place and time.
Surreal and real at the same time.
Holding on tight to the belief that I am worthy.
Worthy of your love.
Worthy of your soul.

It’s strange yet exhilarating.
I’m scared to let you in
Yet I yearn for your love
Seek out your touch and smell
I lean on you as never before
You sense my fear and stay still
Knowing me more than anyone ever before

You draw me closer
With warm tender words
Show me the real you
Trusting me with your beautiful soul
Begging me not to hurt you
I freeze.
I can’t promise that.
Please anything but that.

This cat has claws
Which swipe and scratch
When people venture too close
I hiss and scream and push away
Anyone who approaches my lair.

Yet you – Foxy – dared to enter
Into my space
My kingdom
My world
One step at a time
You showed me what could be mine
If I dared to put the claws away
And turn to you fur standing on end
Back arched, hissing, yet moving closer
Despite my fear and almost against my will.

I find myself swept into your warm strong arms
Drawing me closer to you
Heart to heart
Eye to eye
Lips to lips
We kiss slowly and gently.
We hold each other carefully
Neither smothering or possessive
We hold our own space
Inviting each other into our world
With warmth, courage and trust.

Trusting that we will do no harm to each other
Trusting ourselves with each other’s heart and soul.

Your Grey stormy eyes see me.
The real me.
Never before have I felt so safe.
Your beautiful calm soul soothing my pain.
What have you got to gain?
What have I to offer other than pain?

When you turn to me,
Bedroom eyes drawing me in,
I want to hold you close,
Smother you In love and tenderness
Release your beautiful soul to be free
Knowing that you will come back to me.

This is a once off love.
Swept through our hearts and off our feet.
A love in strange times.
We fought it,
The timing was wrong,
Vulnerable and exposed
We had no choice but to give in.

When is love ever in the right time?
We whisper to each other
As we explore this precious treasure chest
Of laughter, hope, honesty and desire
We have no choice.
We have no chance
To put on hold our love and desire
So we enter the churning sea.
Together.

Holding hands
Staring deep into each other’s eyes
We jump off the cliff together.
Trusting we will land in wonderland
Made up of two – me and you.

I love you Foxy.

I love your smile,
Your shy approach
Hiding a strength that is deceiving
Your deep still waters calm my chaos
Your pure soul deserves love and passion
All that I have to give is yours.
I promise to try to not hurt us both.
I withdraw my claws,
Silence the hissing
Turn to you with arms held wide
Drawing you closer to me and my warm cocoon of love.
I will do my best to love you deeply, without restraint.
Rose coloured glasses removed to see you clearly and always.

Foxy – I love you no matter where we end up after this crazy, surreal and fucked up time is over. You deserve the sun, the moon, the stars – my world is a better place for having you in it.

You make me want to be a better woman
A better me
For you.
But mainly and importantly – for me.

Lots of luv,
Me
Isabella

Don’t stop swaying – Sophie B Hawkins
https://youtu.be/JU1AxJvAy38

Anything for laughter in lockdown.

Anything for a laugh to ease the anxiety.

Good morning everyone!

Funny for the day to try to shake off the doom and gloom which is the reality for a lot of people at the moment.

Did you know that Bees sometimes sleep inside flowers, also like to sleep with other bees and hold each other’s feet.

That’s glorious love or an orgy 🧐❤️😇😂❣️❣️❣️

Story of my life – hiding away face first thinking I can’t be seen!

Are they married?

In many ways, once again, I feel fortunate and blessed during this time of world of confusion and fear. Social isolation has been my go to when I’m feeling scared, alone (not lonely), invisible, forgotten and unable to cope with life.

From a very young age, being alone, unseen and hidden has proven to be a strong safety response that I carried into adulthood. Today, to feel safe and calm, I need a quiet sanctuary of peace and security – physically yes, however emotionally more so.

As a child I used to sleep with my eyes half open – so I could watch the door or window and be prepared to run. I’ve always had an emergency exit plan, what I need to grab, which ways to run, where I could hide and what I could do to block entry to my house or room.

When I was about 8 years of age, I vividly remember having to block the wooden flimsy front door with an ironing board wedged against it and a cupboard opposite. In housing commission flats that’s as good as it got. It didn’t stop my dad from calling mum and I from the local pub – the “Collo” in the middle of the night. Waking us up, yelling that he had his kicking boots on and would be there soon. To kick the door in, then to kick mum around. The door always had a hole in it – anyone could get in.

I hate open windows to the night without blinds – you can’t see out but people can see in. I have alarms and cameras now as an adult, when I was young I had nothing. Except the time I was told to sleep with a knife under my pillow in case someone kicked in the back room windows and flimsy door right beside my isolated back of the house bedroom.

So why do I feel blessed and safe today during this virus pandemic? Because I already have the skills, knowledge and experience of being completely alone in the world.

I’ve learnt to be self sufficient, to self soothe and calm myself, to accept what I cannot change.

To love my small group of carefully curated friends even when they don’t have time for me.

To accept that, yes, I am loved as a friend, however I am no-ones priority or first, second or third thought. That I’m an afterthought even in “non-COVID19” times, that an hour catch every few months is all they can spare. Which is sometimes cancelled by me due to not feeling well enough to leave the house and be vulnerable with friends. When I do force myself to go, it’s always wonderful to see them – however some days (ok most) I deflect artfully any personal questions and focus on my friend. I have realised that this has created a barrier that stops people from feeling like that can help me. Therefore I, in my fierce determination to be independent, create a circle of distance and isolation. That’s ok – we feel safe.

Being with yourself 24/7 forces you to either live well to the best of your ability, or swan dive into depression, anxiety and thoughts of ending the desolate desert you call life.

I keep timidly choosing to live well and this gives me the skills to manage in this self isolation.

Keep strong my beautiful friends. Try to find the positive in your situation.

Gratitude may be too much to strive for some days – and that’s ok.

Take this surreal life one day at a time.

One hour if that’s what it takes to get through the day.

One minute if you feel like you can’t breathe or possibly continue in this new strange and scary time.

Call your friends and family – don’t message them. They need you more than you realise – you need them more than you have realised. Hearing your voice and laughter can change sombody’s day totally around.

Trust me – I know.

Lots of luv,

Isabella.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

🦋🦋🦋🦋

Stolen car? Invite thieves into your home for a Sunday roast.

Coz I love you all – consider this – if your car was stolen when parked away from home (or even from your home) it would be a hassle right? Of course it would be!

Now think – what items in your car do you have?

  • Garage remotes
  • Car service books – with your name, phone number, address
  • Spare car key (hello Lexus)
  • Glove box/floor/back seat/boot – items, paperwork and mail with your home address, phone number, work address, family information, bank statements – you get the idea
  • Spare set of house keys?
  • Work access fob with the name of the company
  • Sports and gym information
  • Sat nav (this is a big one) – home address, places you frequent, family addresses, work address
  • iPods for music with apps one them and personal info.

All of these items will help the lovely car thief potentially visit your home – hopefully when you are not there. They will be able to help themselves – not only your car – but your house as well.

May as well make some sandwiches for them and put out few beers for them. Because you’ve just invited them into your home and helpfully given them your details.🤦🏼‍♀️

Check your cars lovely people.

Remove everything that has your details.

Set your home address on your Sat Nav to your local police station.

Check your iPod – remove all identification – but keep find my phone coz you may b e able to track your car the way.

Keep your car service books in the who (painful I know) or remove your details.

You get the idea.

Be smart.

Keep safe.

Luv,

Isabella

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Family.

I don’t want to be the spinster cat lady.

Family. I don’t want to be the spinster cat lady.

I love my cats immensely and have had many over the years – Siamese, tabbies, black cats, adopted teenage cats from rescue programs and older mature cats. I’ve also had an assortment of dogs – boxers, greyhounds and a Maltese terrier.

At the moment I have three and that’s one too many and wayyyyy too close to me being the living, breathing spinster cat lady.

The first two cats are adoption failures – I specifically went to a rescue cat program website to see if they had black kittens. Each time I was on the website swooning over 12 weeks old black kittens, arranging to meet the foster carer to view a female black kitten, I was drawn to a tabby teen (18 months plus) who seemed to be calling my name. To be choosing me – “saying take me home” which I was adamant that I wanted a black kitten.

Fours years ago, I was holding two fluffy, glorious bundles of black kittens when I was introduced to “Crystal” – she was all wrong! Her name for a start – she was not glamorous, she was 3 years old, a tabby and extremely confident and owning her space. She walked straight up to me purring and stood on her back legs demanding attention. Being the soft touch in am, I picked her up – she immediately head butted (also know as headhunting) and licked me. Yep she owned me from the start – she turned out to be a little thug who loves attention (she’s a tart) and keeps me in line. I renamed her Candy – wrong – I should have named her Queen coz she keeps us all Under her control – all loving, cuddles and head butting. Candy sleep beside me when Im distressed, will run to me to stop me crying – tough love with head butting and licking my tears until I stop (I know – gross – but she’s owns my arse).

Next failure -12 months later in 2016 – same website with black kittens – yet another tabby teen caught my attention. NO NO NO – black kitten not a tabby teen – I thought I had it sorted when I went to the foster carers house – only black kittens. Then she bought out the tabby teen and I could not resist – she was glorious. So home I go with no black kitten – again a failure. This darling little girl was 18 months and completely scared of her own shadow. Candy totally and utterly ignored her – she seemed to be saying “yo harden up you soft princess – toughen up” – yet again another female in the house was dominated by Candy. This teens miaow was so wonderful I called her “Mia” – short for Miaow.

That was it for me! I had failed and I refused to have three cats – waaaay too close to the crazy cat lady. I would not look at pet rescue sites and, anyway, black kittens are so boring……….

Christmas 2018 I had some bad, devastating news, January 2019 saw me feeding my addiction – same pet rescue website, most like yet same bloody black kittens. Coz they’re all the bloody same.

Yet again I fell for one photo and name – Phoebe – timid, shy, runt of the litter and always hiding and refusing to come out of her hidey hole or picked up. 13 weeks old, despite my continual protestations, desperate avoidance of having three cats I ended up adopting her. She was so weak that she almost didn’t survive her operation from desexing, a tiny bundle of bones and glorious black, soft fur. True to the description Phoebe hid for the first three to four weeks and I let Candy and Mia show her the ropes, encourage her to come out and basically be big sisters. I truly thought it would be Mia and Phoebe who bonded. How wrong was I??? The tiny, black, petrified kitten gravitated to the Thug life – another arse that Candy owned!

So. Mia and I are owned and controlled by Candy with her little bitch offsides Phoebe. We never stood a chance. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Jokes on me. And unfortunately little Mia – she gets thumped regularly but is starting to standup for herself which is good. Phoebe attacks Candy and they roll around on the rugs play fighting and practicing their conquer and control techniques.

They are all different personalities (very fitting) and each give me different types of love, affection and support. Weird huh? Candy is my emotional thermostat – she knows before I do when I’m upset and comforts me. Mia is my baby who calms my heart beat. Phoebe is the clown of the house – she’s slowly letting me pick her up and snuggling into her. It takes time.

Each cat has forced me to be mindful – careful and quiet as loud noises startle everyone but Candy. Each cat gives me different support and we all stand together as each other’s pillars of strength. I am often reminded that, before they died mum, nana and I used to call us the Three Warriors – Pillars of Strength.

I’m absolutely grateful for these gifts. Next I’ll tell you why it’s dangerous to be one of my pets or anywhere near my inner circle. 🤣🤣🤣🤦🏼‍♀️

Thanks for listening.

Luv, Isabella

Candy

Mia

Phoebe (Thug in training)