Katie

 

Woody & Roddy

 

Little Stefan

 

Surprise Photo Card from Dos Torres, Cordoba

Today I received a surprise photo/greetings card from our friends in Spain. During the summer they work at their restaurant in Mallorca but during the festive season they quite often return to their home town to visit relatives.

Normally we just send ecards to one another but this year I was surprised to receive a beautiful photo of their young daughter dressed in traditional costume. It was such a lovely surprise and really made my day.

The problem with me is that I am English and still have that reservedness that goes along with it. I had only been saying to Mick the other night that we hadn't heard from our friends this year and I thought that perhaps we put more importance in the friendship than there really was.

So ok they didn't reply to my request for them to join Facebook or they never replied to my message when they invited me to join Multiply and they hardly ever reply to emails but then they are Spanish - and I should be used to the differences between us by now....

Mick always says to me that we would not have been invited to their wedding; to their father's 60th birthday party or to join any other family/friends gatherings if we were not good friends and he trusts them far more than anyone else we know.

I guess it's just my own insecurity.....

Goddamit it's about time I grew up :-)

Our family Christmas Photos

Here are just a few of our family Christmas Photos. It was great fun, very noisy, too much to eat, but then that's Christmas for you x

Christmas update

Well Christmas Day was fairly quiet and I struggled with my cold but by the afternoon I had stopped the sneezing and got the red nose under control :-)

We went to visit Ricky and Sarah and after all the other guests had gone we stayed and played on the Wii. I have to admit that after several cocktails my coordination was completely naff and they beat me hands down.

It was a good evening and we wandered back home on the stroke of midnight. I was surprised to see other people walking home at that time and felt like shouting Merry Christmas to them but then this is England and people don't speak to strangers!!!

Merry Christmas to One and All

Well a Merry Christmas to everyone and a Happy New Year. Let's hope 2009 will be a better one for all countries.

My Christmas started last weekend when all the kids & grandkids came over for the day. I think I put on enough food to feed an army but then at least everyone was satisfied :-) It was a fantastic day with the little'uns having great fun and it was a very noisy day. Mind you we might be getting old but we aren't stupid - we set the gazebo up in the garden and when we needed a break we nipped outside and sat and had a ciggie...

I'm at work today but we should be finishing lunch time and then I'm off until 2nd January. Wow am I looking forward to the break. My virus cleared up but now I'm down with a cold and I'd certainly give Rudolph a run for his money with my bright red nose!!! Unfortunately Mick wasn't allowed time off and as he used 3 of his holiday days when my Dad died (to support me) he will have to work. Still in the New Year he has to have a minor op so he will need time off to recover from the operation so will get a break then.

So once again Merry Christmas; Feliz Navidad; Joyeux Noel to everyone xx

More than a coincidence?

Today I had booked a day off work. For one thing I had a dental appointment and for another I had to do all the shopping for our family get-together this coming Sunday.

Now bearing in mind I'm still getting over the virus (although no longer contagious) I was a little bit concerned yesterday when the dental surgery phoned to confirm my appointment today and added that the dentist had been off sick but she thought he would be back in today but would phone me should he not turn up. My concern was that there are a hell of a lot of viruses floating about at the moment and if the dentist had only taken one day off (as she said) then perhaps he would still be carrying the virus around with him and me in my not too perfect health laying there in front of him with my mouth open might be a prime target for any pesky viruses!!

Anyway I got up and ready to go for my appointment, jumped in the car, turned the key and - nothing.... Completely flat battery. Damn, I dashed out to the shed and got the battery booster plugged it in turned the key and - nothing.... Damn, I ran indoors and phoned a taxi - sorry it's the school run so there are no cabs.... I then phoned the dentist and asked if I could go a little later and then I would have chance to walk there. No sorry I have to be there within 15 minutes or the appointment would be cancelled. It is a 30 minute walk!!! Keep trying the taxi firms she said. So after trying more taxi firms the time ticked away and in the end I had to phone the dentist and tell her to re-book me as I had run out of time now to get to them.

Now being in a position to not have to run out the door I prepared to put the battery on charge in the hope that I would still be able to do some shopping when I noticed an old battery at the back of the shed. I tested it and it showed some life left in it so I carried it (it was big and heavy!) out to my car, connected the jump leads, turned the key and - whoopee away it went!!! So I could do the food shopping/Christmas shopping after all.

Which leads me to the title - was it a coincidence that the car wouldn't start and I didn't find the battery until after I had cancelled the dentist appointment or was something else working to make sure that I didn't turn up at my appointment and catch another bug????

Strange but true.....

Oh my God Norovirus!

I'm now on the mend - but have suffered from the above virus. I won't go into details but it has to be one of the worst viruses that I've come across so far in life!!!!

It certainly knocks you for six and at one point there I just wanted to curl up and die....

Where do these viruses come from? How is it that an unseen bug is able to creep up on you; invade you and make you so downright ill?

Now anyone that knows me knows that is unheard of for me to go 24 hours being unable to eat, drink tea or smoke - and I couldn't do any of these - all I could manage was to sip water and I only did that to stop getting dehydrated.

But as already stated I am on the mend - well the smoking and drinking tea is back to normal - the food is being taken gently.....

Might keep my weight down tho' :-)

A Little Bit Down

Feeling a little bit down today. It could just be the over-indulgence yesterday :-)

However a few things did come to light which have caused me to feel a little bit sentimental and sad. At the Xmas do our boss and owner of the company handed over the reins of the company to his newly elected MD. I got the impression that he has had enough of working now and is backing away from the company. Well fair enough but it has always been a 'family business' but since last Xmas when his son stood down as MD and went and worked elsewhere and they sold off several agencies it has been a niggling thought in my mind that they would be giving up on the business, and it seems I was right.

Now don't get me wrong I like the new MD but once you move away from a family business and get into a 'business' company you tend to lose that little bit of personal touch.

It just seems that so much is changing just lately. Life as I knew it is changing to something 'new' and uncertain.

Over the past couple of years so many people I have known have left this life; so much of life as I know it has moved onto something different and people I thought were friends turned out to not be.

Change in itself is not bad but it does take some getting used to - and who knows where we will be by this time next year? I do adapt to change but I do have to get used to it...

So today I feel uncertain; unsure of life; sentimental over those that have gone and a little bit scared of the future....

Manana is tomorrow so why worry about it today - I must remember that!!!!....

Works Xmas Do!!

Today is our works Xmas do - it starts at lunch time and finishes whenever so I won't be blogging today :-)

Will update on how it goes later.

Teaching Spanish!

A friend is trying to learn Spanish by using Michel Thomas Cd's and is having problems. She has suggested that we spend some time together at lunch times and I can help her (as I am more advanced and she is still beginning).

That has led me to thinking about how I can help her and I think it will make me re-focus on my early Spanish language courses.

Mm must think about that one - and dig out all my old books.....

Dora

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of the death of Dora my stepmum. My Dad was never the same after she died and really didn't want to go on without her. Again this was a sudden, unexpected death.

Bless you Dora, hope you are both happy and together now xxx

Where did the last 8 months go!

My daughter popped over yesterday with Katie & Stefan and he is trying to get up on his feet already! At only 8 months of age....

It is rather sad really that his birth (2 days after my Dad was killed) seemed to pass by amid the confusion of that terrible time. Whereas the early days of Katie was watched with fascination and lots of visits poor little Stefan has had to make do with occasional visits in between everything else.

Bless him he's a lovely little lad and I guess he won't hold it against us :-) xxx

Thanks for the Snow Effect

My thanks to Kurt Grigg via Blogger Buster for the widget creating snow on blogs.

I think it looks great and makes me feel quite Christmassy :-)

Well it's been a cold one today

Winter is definitely here with temperatures during the night getting down below freezing. Part of the UK has snow and this morning when I left home it was the first time I had to walk carefully because it was icy underfoot.

Not my kind of weather at all but hopefully if the winter is bad we might actually have a summer next year!!!

Little Things Mean a Lot

Like receiving a phone call at 10pm from my 12 year old grandson who just realised what the date was and couldn't go to sleep before he had phoned to chat to me and wish me happy birthday :-)

The problem with being a mother

The problem with being a mother is being able to stop being a mother!!!

After you have spent years and years worrying about your children; trying to protect your children and putting them at the top of your list of priorities you have to realise that you have to let them go - mentally not just physically.

For example - as you all know if you have read my blog - I really do wish to live in Spain. Now the problem comes with my mental ability to 'let go' of my kids. You see I'm not a clingy mother and I never interfere in their lives but 'I' know that I'm not far away should they have a problem. I can be with them within half an hour max or visa-versa. To move to another country - albeit one that is quite close - it would still mean that it would take several hours, if not a whole day, to get to them should they need me.

Ah!!! that is the crux of the matter. 'Need'....

Because another problem is the realisation that as a mother of adults you are no longer their priority; no longer the most important person in their lives and they no longer 'need' you.

But it is very hard to let go mentally - however easy it may appear physically......

Damn being a mother - it can hurt at times....