Love

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'

I love this beautiful comment from Billy aged 6 years when asked by his teacher to try and describe what love means.

travelling

It is sad to see all the people being held up in airports and bus stations as the snow and frost play havoc with their carefully made arrangements. I am sure they will all arrive safely at their destinations in the end though not quite at the time they envisaged.  Being lost for a while can be quite an adventure if you manage to keep calm and go with the flow.  Some years back I caught a plane in Spain to fly back to the UK when the French Air Controllers decided otherwise and we promptly landed in Madrid with no given time for future flights - there was much panic and it was an excellent time for 'people watching'.   It took a long time for many to realise there was nothing anyone could do so it was best to just calm down and take it as it comes; it didn't help that most had no Spanish and all the instructions came in Spanish of course.  I really enjoyed the two days adrift in a smart hotel close to the airport but then I wasn't desperate to arrive at a given time as one lady was for a funeral and another for her son's wedding. Since time began -  moving around in bad weather has proved difficult whatever mode of transport you are using including your own two legs.   I hope they are all on the move soon.                                                  

Decorations

No 1 son arrived today and brought all the scruffy looking bags and boxes down from the attic and what a sorry collection they look - I almost asked him to put them all back again.   However as they contain our Christmas decorations they will all have to be opened and examined but where it not for the expense of buying more I would like to throw them all in the dustbin and and start again.   In my dreams all the new ones would be colour coded and the house would be full of real trees and holly and mistletoe as it was when  our sons were small and we lived in a large house with all the greenery we could want within picking distance.   Now we have a fibre optic tree and the crib scenes and all the baubles we have gathered over the past few years have memories for our grandchildren and cannot be changed.  Tomorrow will see us them putting all the strange mixture of lights, glitter, wreath of the door and the crib set in the same places they go every year, then they will stick the cards on to the glass doors and later help their daddy put the outside lights on the Fir tree by the garage.  When all that is completed we will be ready to welcome the Holy Season and the actions will be stored in their memories for later when they can tell their own children that Christmas's aren't the same as they were when they were young.   It was ever thus!   I will love every minute of it.

snow

How can something look as beautiful as snow cause such havoc?   We were covered in about 6cms overnight and this morning with the sun shining brightly on the glittering and unmarked surface it looked like a dream.
By the time I had cleared the back path to the garage and gritted it, staggered to the shops for my dear one's paper it became obvious that I was not going to get to my booked tour at 11.30am - the roads had not been gritted and I never saw a sign of a bus so in the end I had to phone and say I could not get in - 'Oh! there is a group waiting here for you' said the lady at the Cathedral shop making me feel dreadfully guilty and somehow inadequate.  It does sound pathetic to allow the weather to stop you from going anywhere especially just 6cm of snow.  When I was young and living in my home county of Yorkshire I would walk the 6 miles to work through whatever weather and when I worked on nights on the Delivery ward at a maternity hospital I walked through a blizzard to get on duty on time and found that everybody on duty that night had actually arrived!   Hey! but then I was young and now I am old - that's the difference I fear. I can now spend the day in our little warm den looking out at the snow which somehows appears beautiful again!

End of Term

I had a booked tour cancelled today as the school who had booked it long ago forgot it was the end of term and they had too much to do!
I went to school today to see my grandaughter in her year 6 Christmas play which was lovely.  It contained no recognisable Christmas music/carols but the songs they did sing had Christian content and the children were word perfect and sang with great gusto.   Just sitting listening to the young mothers chatting before the play is an education in itself.  Most of the teachers came in for some kind of criticism but then there was also great discussion about what kind of gifts their children were giving to the said teachers.  This is a new one on me - we never gave our teachers gifts - but then I was in school a long time ago but my children never gave the teachers a gift either so it must be a fairly recent thing.  Or are we just too stingey in our family?

Life in South Africa

I spent a good long time this afternoon chatting to my sister in law in South Africa via Skype. (It is sunny and very hot by the way!).  What a wonderful thing to be able to do....just chat for as long as you wish with someone on the other side of the world completely free of charge.  When she first went to SA some 40 years ago the post would take weeks that is if it ever got there, our Christmas cards to each other would reach their destination some time in February and phone-calls were like speaking to someone on the moon, so for many years our contact was intermitent but now we speak every week and know the details of each others every move.  Later this evening I hope to chat to friends in Spain.  Australia is rather different as my email friend and I have been emailing each other weekly/daily for more than 13 years which is easy but finding the right time to chat is more difficult as one of us is having supper whilst the other is just getting up to start the day.  By the miracle of modern day technology nobody is far from your side or your heart.

What does a typical mum look like?

My grandaughter came home from school telling of her part in the Christmas play - she is to play the 'mum' of a family getting ready for Christmas.   Sooooo!  all she needs is to dress up like a typical mum!   What!
I see a playground full of typical mums every day but they all dress very differently so no wonder she rejected all my suggestions.   She doesn't have a mummy of her own to use as a copy as her own mummy died when she was 4 years old so she only has me and it must be said I look like her old nanny.   However! after going through every garment she possesses we came to an outfit and off she went today for the dress rehearsal.  She wore a dress (not trousers like all the mums do) with a cardigan, black tights with pumps and to crown the outfit she wore an apron - an apron! - do mums still wear aprons in the kitchen?   She got it right as her teacher who is a very trendy lady it has to be said told her she looked just right.   So come Thursday afternoon I will be there to support her, pretending not to cry and knowing that Julie, her mum, would have been proud of her.

Moving

All my friends appear to be on the move just now.  My email friend in Australia is moving down to Sydney this week to be close to her family - another friend is moving back to Bristol (yeeh!) from Brighton this week,
our number 2 son is moving out of his flat soon and maybe even further, long time friends in London are moving across the city and talking as though they they are emigrating - what is it about Londoners?
Just heard a new email friend is about to move to Canada (lucky girl) and our other close friend's daughter has just left for Brazil, where she will work for CAFOD, she is a brave and lovely girl and they are lucky to have her.
I think everyone should try to move whilst they are young as it teaches you so much.  We lived and worked in Spain for 5 years and are still boring all our friends with tales of our life in Espana - in the end I was happy to come home but Spain is deeply rooted in my heart.

empty nest

After a busy few days it has been a strangley quiet day at our house.  No 1 son is home after his R and R in Cheltenham, he collected his children and did not return with them until after Xfactor ended this evening.   No 2 son went back to Dublin this morning to think seriously about his future as home, job and country are coming up for appraisal.  My dear one and I had a quiet and gentle afternoon, me at the desk writing Christmas cards and he fast asleep behind the Sunday Telegraph.   Kids back tonight, clean uniforms, bags packed, lunch sandwiches sorted, hair washed and eventually tucked safely under the duvet.  Ayeee!

A good day

It has been a good day today.   The weather was much warmer than of late and actually reached +1 this afternoon.   I took my grandchildren Christmas shopping this morning - an adventure to say the least!   Childlike they chose everything they wanted themselves and found it difficult to get into the mindset of anyone who might not have appreciated an England Tshirt or a shocking pink lip gloss for example.   I really loved the experience but decided late morning that I could not survive much longer without a shot of caffine.   Now a visit to Costa Coffee has to be a lesson  of love and patience just to stop you killing one or all of the four young people who took about half an hour to serve a mere handful of us all gasping for our shot of Americano/Expresso or whatever - I lived in Spain for a few years and have often seen one young man or women serve treble the number present this morning in just a few minutes.   It was 11.45 before we eventually got our coffee.  I say I will never go again but of course I will as they are always situated just where you need a cuppa.

Good day today

Quite warm today by comparison to the recent weather - we actually reached +1 and the sun made an appearance.  One son in Cheltenham for the w/e and the other here from Dublin for a couple of days.
He had his picture taken this morning in one of the booths at the supermarket and I must say if I did not know him well  - I would not buy a car from this man!    I can't help thinking they are programmed to make you look as bad as possible and these are the official pictures on your passport.   After seeing his pictures I don't think he should leave the country as he might find it difficult to get back in!
Christmas shopping tomorrow with my grandson and grandaughter - it may take a long time!

reached zero today

Temperatures in our area got up to zero today for the first time in a few weeks though it did not feel any warmer it was lovely to see the sun.
I had a lovely swim in an almost empty pool - young mums are not coming in straight from the school run at the moment as they are obviously too busy so we oldies can make the most of it.   January appears to be the worst month as all the young mums have made New Year resolutions and flock to the gym like starlings - it never lasts to the end of February!
Younger son arrived from Dublin this evening for a couple of days - it must be warm in Dublin as he came in wearing a short jacket and no scarf - looking cool I suppose and feeling even cooler as the wind chill at the airport hit him.  Lovely to have him though.

Christmas

I do appear to have done a lot of preparation toward the festive season but every day I think of something else.   It does not help the fact that I don't know exactly who will be with us and for how long!   My family all carry on as though it doesn't matter that they come and go according to the plans that they have made and no one else knows about yet.   I have obviously brought them up wrongly or does it happen in every house where there is a mixture of old and young?   I suspect so.

Nothing changes!

I read this today and it made me realise again how little changes over the eons.  It was written on a papyrus
letter c2000BC  'Dear Mother, I am all right. Stop worrying about me.'    So mums stop it!

Christmas Shopping

I attacked a few shops this morning and managed to stagger back to the car with a bag full of presents.
I have to try not to go too often as I just keep buying and negating on my promise not to spend too much on presents.  I like lots of small things and go for them in a big way then find myself being tempted by gift tokens and huge scarfs etc., which send my budget out of the window.   Thankfully it is only once a year!

Sunday - with no snow

It was very foggy first thing and not made any easier with black ice underfoot.  I slip slided my way into church and was quite shocked to see so many had done so before me.  Sun shining by lunch time but frosty again tonight.  I wrote all my Christmas cards for abroad this afternoon so as they can be posted SAP haven't enclosed my usual greetings this year as I haven't much to report...or is it just that I can't be fussed just now.
They are all in my heart and that's the main thing.

cricket

There is a very important game of  cricket going on in Australia at the moment between our national side and the Australian national side which seems surreal as the only way to keep up with the game is to listen to a radio broadcast during the night hours - No!
I do like cricket very much but not that much.
I have though gotten into the habit of waking up at about 7.00am as usual and wanting to know immediately what
the score is; I can't wait until later in the morning.  This is a bit worrying because during the breaks between
tests I still tune in to hear the score and find myself cross and disappointed that there isn't one.
How easy is it to get into a habit?   Too easy for me obviously.   Bizarre- yes certainly - but it's good though especially as we are winning at the moment.

A bit scary!!

In the middle of my tour this morning a young man came into the cathedral and was obviously very mentally disturbed and totally without 'care in the community' - he was being gently escorted out of the cathedral by the vergers when he suddenly turned nasty and smacked one of them in the face; there was much shouting, threatening, screaming and scuffling and it all became a bit frightening.   Just outside the door on College Green a large group of policemen were standing around looking bored and cold waiting to escort a student demonstration against the government so when someone called they all rushed in like the 'Keystone Kops' - elbowed the vergers out of the way and wrestled the young, troubled man to the ground, he went strangely quiet as he was escorted out through the door and into a Police van.   Meanwhile I had ushered my children into a chapel just about as far from the action as it was possible to be and only know what happened as I was shown the CCTV
footage afterwards in the vergers office.   The children remained unfazed and at their request we sat and thought about the people who loved him and might be worried about him - kids are truly amazing and wonderful.  .

Poets

I went to a meeting at the Cathedral this morning and afterwards strolled into the library to have a read
whilst I waited for my next meeting at 1.00pm.   I grabbed a book and a cup of coffee in the refreshment area and prepared for an hour or so rest and reflection but I was soon accosted by a lady who asked if had come to the poetry reading; I said no I was just passing time and would move along if she wished but she did not want me to do that so hence I found myself in the middle of a fairly large group of people who took turns to read
poems they had written, to each other.   I don't think I actually realised so many people wrote their own poems or would be so good at doing so.  I really enjoyed the hour listening to such a varied collection of people and poems who ranged from a young and very pregnant lady to a sprinkling of oldies.   They were so friendly too - one lady even offering to share her sandwiches with me!   Lovely!

FIRE ALARM

Well at least we know the fire alarm works in our house as we were deafened this evening when  the two outlets began to scream;  only when we opened the door of the den did we see the house was full of smoke.
Potatoes in the microwave were black and the door was peeling some sort of inner lining.   It took about half an hour to clear the house of acrid fumes with the aid of 2 fans and many open windows but at least we know the fire alarm work efficiently.  Perhaps I had better put 'a microwave' at the top of my Christmas list.