19 Years and the Girls came too!!

We had this song sung by Dh's twin daughters on our wedding day 29th July 2006. It was a beautiful day and went absolutely perfectly.

The sun shone and I planned it with my best friend's help and we had a wonderful day. After the ceremony, with our 26 guests we sat down to a delicious meal in a restaurant we'd booked in Brentwood.  

I hadn't arranged to have any floral table displays, but my friend convinced me we should. So I went back to the flower shop, three days before the wedding and they were delighted to do them. I left it all up to them and they did us proud. 

I was very surprised and delighted, because they took the flowers to the restaurant, and with the restaurant staff set up all the tables with the beautiful displays. It was amazing, more than I could have hoped for. 

We ourselves,  enjoyed every minute and later our guests joined us at my house in Billericay for the evening, food by Mr Waitrose and a cake by 'him' too. We spent our wedding night there and the next day at 5:30am a taxi took us and the 'girls' (the twins) to the airport where we flew to America. 

Yes, we had a honeymoon with 16 year old twins, ummmm ?? They did have their own room! But apart for America I wouldn't change one thing. It was a perfect day and I married the best man in the world!!

And here we are still very happy 19 years later.

Chrisxx

Thank you,

Thank you for all the messages re:- not being able to access my blog by some people, nice to  know but it doesn't sort it out. 

My IT expert, aka Dh, has checked our anti virus and all is ok.. so I don't know how I can help. 

But nice to know I am still in the blogging world because where else could I post this.......,LOL

Chrisxx

What did I say?

 Thank goodness for this....

I don't know what I've done but I've lost some bloggers that always  used to leave a comment, but no more? I've visited their blogs and left comments, but none from them?

Did I say something they didn't like, or are my posts boring or is it their tastes have changed? Should I apologize or just move on?

Move on I guess, we are all different with different view points and beliefs. What ever I think you should be true to yourself and beliefs.

I have some one who keeps asking me to be 'friends' on FB,  but she blasphemes and I don't like that, so I give her a swerve.. and a blog I've  always read, which was interesting, but her language is 'ripe' so I've stopped visiting that blog. 

I've dropped writing every day, because not a lot has been happening, I'm not going to write about an 'incident' in my life and end it with 'and then I woke up!' Just the sort of ending my year 3 class would write! I'm a better blogger and writer than that I hope?

Today is our last Welsh session, thank goodness because being up showered and breakfasted by 9:30 on a Monday morning has been very hard.. and we've signed up for next year with the same Tutor and at the same time, well we decided it got us going for the week!

Will I ever be able to speak Welsh fluently? I don't know, 'ond dw i eisiau siarad Cymraig felli bydda i dal i ceisio!'

Chrisxx

Yes it is a holiday town

 You know you live in a seaside holiday town, when you have to stop for a line of donkeys lead by a pied ball pony as they cross the road in front of you. 

We weren't fast enough with a camera but they came out of a lane and crossed quite a busy road. All trotting happily behind each other with out a rope between them. They are the beach donkeys and well looked after

They live here in a stable with the field full of buttercups that we frequently pass on our way home from town.

To any one who might suggest that it's cruel to have them giving rides on a hot beach, they do have a shelter to be out of the sun and they look extremely healthy and well looked after. 

The owners have times when you can visit their stables and help feed, care and brush them, for a few pounds. And if you wanted you could help muck out their stables. There are even Christmas visits arranged which are proving quite popular.  When there was carol singing in town, there were two donkeys there looking very Christmassy.

They are very much the face of Porthcawl. When my granddaughter was small, a ride on a donkey was all she ever wanted. 

Chrisxx

An afternoon in the garden.

 Don't you love the quiet rhythm of the days when the sun shines and you feel happy with your world. 

Since 'Lockdown' Dh and I don't rush in the mornings any more. We drink our tea, hot with the news of the day, then breakfast before we shower and dress. Dh always goes first for no particular reason and I read blogs on my laptop, before I shower. Then we have a coffee break, some times quite a long one as we decide what to do or not!

Yesterday after a quick tidy round, a short walk, we had an omlette and salad lunch with our own tomatoes, then I sat in the garden and enjoyed the quiet and the beauty of it all.  

I see this burst of colour from the French doors, to greet me each day.

All our annual flowers I grew from seeds,  potted on and we planted them out together to fill our flower beds. I love Nicotiana and their scent is exquisite.

Lots of dahlia's because I love those too, 

Shasta daisies are the spots of white through several beds, I only thought of spreading them around last autumn, a tip from Monty Don! 

It was very pleasant, I watched several pairs of cabbage white butterflies, doing their 'courtship' twirling around each other, there were even some small brown butterflies. I heard a robin's song and watched a large magpie on a neighbour's extension roof drinking from the guttering, and dodged some wasps! And here once again are my lovely Angels Fishing Rods!

An afternoon to be happy with our lives here in Wales. We don't even mind when it rains, always saying 'at least we're not on holiday!'

Chrisxx

 

An Amazon business in the making!!

 My eldest son loves photography. He was always very artistic at a very early age in school.. He wanted to do art and design in school but, his best subjects were the Sciences, so that's what he did for his 'A' Levels and went to Uni to do Chemical Engineering.

In his second year his exam results weren't too good and he started being really ill. Each time we talked on the phone he kept saying he had a stomach upset. I put it down to the food he was eating.. but by the next year he had lost a lot of weight and I insisted he came home and saw a Dr.. he was diagnosed with Chrohn's disease and he had to drop out of Uni. A year later he had major surgery and his fight to get back to good health started.

By this time I had gone through my divorce and bought my own house. He got an easy job in the town and gradually got well, but he was still very thin. Then he wanted to do his first love, something arty! We found a year's course in photography and I managed to get the money with extra teaching jobs.. he did the follow up year. He was always saying he'd pay me back when he made his first £100,000!

He did several jobs on the way, selling in a big home furnishing store; started his own furniture shops, but with the opening of IKEA his business folded. And then working as technician for a catalogue firm, doing photo shop work, rather boring he said.

So it has taken a few years to do a photography job that pays enough for him to live.. he is now a successful photographer taking photos at race tracks.. motor cycles and racing cars.. but when there was lock down, the work stopped. He got income support but it hardly paid his living expenses.

So he started selling stuff on ebay. First it was just stuff and a couple of old cameras that he no longer used, then he found an auction house that sold old and broken cameras and other stuff, watches and electronic things. 

This has taken off in a big way. He cleans the cameras, gets them working with new batteries and now is making enough money to turn down some photography work he doesn't fancy. Things are really looking up for him. Last week when we talked on the phone, he was complaining that his kitchen was full of boxes that a neighbour had saved for him, for his ebay sales. We laughed and joked that Jeff Bezos had started his Amazon business by selling books from his garage and packed and posted them himself!

But now he has time for some leisure and has joined a photography group that meets up for a walk in different places, to take photographs and then they display them and talk about taking them.. and just chatting in a pub.  He is so much happier and has free time for himself. He might be on the way to getting that £100,000 but I don't want any money from him hearing him happy is more than enough for me and that he is well. 

But he is my entrepreneur and he's very nice with it. 

Chrisxx

Claustrophobic!!

 In  my news feed today I read of a man,  who was wearing a big metal necklace and was sucked into an MRI machine in Nassau.. I'm so glad I didn't see anything like this a few years ago, because I had to have an MRI scan. It was horrible I thought I'd have to press the emergency button to say I wasn't ok after just a few minutes.

The clanking noise was very, very loud so listening to music wasn't possible, but what I hated the most was not doing or listening to anything at all. I thought I'd go mad. That might sound extreme but I was struggling not to panic. Being slid into the opening was horrific, I was a bit claustrophobic and I reckon this procedure has made me worse

So I played word games in my mind, nothing very clever, but naming flowers going through the alphabet, then girl names, boy names and then a list adding an item each time, eg start with ..loaf of bread, add butter, add jam etc.. each time starting over with ..loaf of bread. I think I got to 15 items and then forgot some. 

When a voice came through the head phones .. 'just 6 more minutes Christine, are you alright?' I nearly said 'No' but I stuck it out and it was only 20 minutes altogether, but felt so much longer. I was wet with perspiration when they got me out and I cried and cried with Dh in the little room afterwards. 

Never again, you can't imagine what its like, till you have to have it, I couldn't do it again. Have you had to have one?

Chrisxx

Moon walking!

 If you read anything about keeping healthy as you age they all say exercise and walk. Somebody I know through SW, the slimming group, walks everywhere and she is only a year or two younger than me. She was told by a health adviser.... while you can, walk! So she does. There are several members who tell of doing 10,000 steps each day.. what??? Don't they go to bed? But it seems they wear their watches, step counters,  all the time and only take it off to shower. I don't even remember to put mine on!

 I do acknowledge I need to walk more, but I am paranoid about tripping up so I avoid some paved areas and do as a physiotherapist told me... pick your feet up higher than you think. I sometimes think.. do the moon walk... as I walk along. The main street here in town is pedestrianised, but a lot of the block paving making up the road is broken or dips dangerously, where heavy delivery lorries have driven along, so I am very cautious walking there.

The best places to walk are Shopping Malls, but there aren't any near us. But yesterday I found the perfect place to walk. The new B&M, its instead of Homebase. It is huge, with shelving sited,  so you have to snake around and go down and up different aisles. We went for a new lavatory brush, they didn't have the one I wanted, but I did 25 minutes of walking, albeit slowly. We didn't come away empty handed, and bought a new kitchen compost bin and some teeth interdental brushes. I think this is going to be a weekly place to walk.

We'll still walk along the promenade where there aren't pavers, but not near Booths or Mama Frans, they sell ice cream so I daren't go near them for the obvious reason, too tempting!

Chrisxx

What's in a word?

 When my grand children were little, my daughter and son in law insisted that I didn't use phrases that weren't correct, eg not to answer them ' in a  minute' because it wouldn't give them a sense of real time. So I did as they asked and usually said,  I'd be ready in 12 and a half minutes, when really I'd be a minute!

But also not to use euphemisms, so when my grand daughter was in the bath age about 4 and we'd been to the beach, I wanted her to wash her 'lady bits' other wise she could be sore. Well what could I call it? I couldn't say what I called 'it' as a child and in fact all Welsh children called it this..... 'a tuppence!' Even now I think of it as a rude word!! So I said it was a 'Miffy'  How was I to know there was a Rabbit book, whose name was Miffy!! And even worse a new family joined their church and their daughter's name was.... Miffy!

But I had told my grand daughter it wasn't a word you said out loud, and that was was frowned upon too, because it might give my grand daughter a sense of shame about her body.. I sometimes thought was my daughter my actual daughter?? 

Well fortunately in spite of her granD ma,  as she always called me, my lovely grand daughter who is 31 next month, knows what time is, is confident with her self image and is amazingly successful as an Accountant, and happy and engaged to be married, some time next year. Grand mothers can be ok I reckon.

(What did you call it?)

Chrisxx

 

Just life I suppose??

I've had a miserable few days, once again my prescribed tablets weren't available and although I don't appear worried, it affects my sleep and I spend some waking hours unable to sleep. 

And for some unknown reason a couple of days ago, I woke so hungry I could have eaten a 'horse' So of course I ate more than I should have, then hated myself for the rest of the day!

Some precious plants in the garden just dried up before the buds even opened. Then Tuesday the wind and the rain nearly blew our runner beans over. Dh was out there trying to prop them up.. be a shame if we lost them because they're loaded this year. He managed to pull a huge pot of French beans to them, to stop them falling over.

I did get a Dr appointment and got some different tabs supposed to be as good,, but then Wednesday morning I walked into a chair leg and now I have swollen toes! So I'm limping, but an ice cream helped with the pain and 50 different swear words!

Hope the rest of my week will be better!

Chrisxx

Striking Drs again!!

 I was sad to hear that Drs are threatening to strike again and Robert Winston the pioneer of IVF has resigned from the BMA, he is so opposed to them striking.

I remember their strike in 2016 because I was caught up in it. I had requested to move hospitals from Colchester to Basildon, as we had spent so much time driving to Colchester, where I was admitted after I broke my arm in April 2015.. Basildon was only 4 miles from where  we lived. 

The new Consultant was very nice and thought he could operate on my arm to get the bone to knit together. The first op in May 2016 failed the bone had gone soft and the screws had fallen out of the plate, which was meant to hold the break together. So he suggested he thought wiring the bone top to bottom would work.. A date was booked and I went through all the pre-op tests again, and the scrubbing myself in the shower for 4 minutes with stuff I was given, The day before I had a text to say because his Registrar was striking, it was cancelled and I'd be contacted when a new date could be arranged. When I saw the strike was over, I phone to find out when I'd have the op because my arm was swollen and I was in a lot of pain. I had a message it would be the following week.

I had the op even though the Consultant didn't have his Registrar, but the he assured me his op. team of senior nurses were very competent. It went ok although I was in a lot of pain after it.. a post op. appointment was for the following week. And you've guessed it was cancelled because the Drs were on strike again.. I was very upset the wound was weeping bloody fluid.. We got dressings from Boots. 

After 6 days I phoned and spoke to a secretary, who was very nice and understanding and I was told to go to the clinic the next day at 4 and I'd be seen. I arrived just before 4 and waited and waited till nearly 6.. By this time the weeping fluid had leaked through the dressing. My blouse and cardigan were saturated. The nurse was horrified so was the surgeon.  The 28 stitches were embedding in my flesh.  Even  though the nurse was very gentle taking them out, and took her time it hurt, I cried a lot, Dh was upset too and there was another nurse, who came to hold my arm still. I was given a hospital gown to get home.

I went to my own GP later that month, I was in so much pain, he advised to get a second opinion. In February 2017 I had my first appointment at the Royal London Orthopedic Hospital, nearly 2 years after breaking my arm. Then I had 2 more operations there, my last follow up appointment was November 2019. I still haven't full use of my arm

So I'm not a bit sympathetic that the Drs want more, it seems 29.2% wasn't  enough for them!

Chrisxx

Childhood playtimes.

 

After over a 100 years the fair ground at Porthcawl is to close this coming October. A very sad happening, but the County Council want the land for houses! No need for me to say, Porthcawl people are very upset and there is a group set up to oppose it.

I visited this fair as a child with friends, we used to spend hours here. My Aunty Rene, my father's sister,  worked on the cash desk of the Water Chute so I had loads of free rides. School friends who had parents working there shared toffee apples and doughnuts and I had many a Ghost train ride free too.

My own children loved it too. One summer my Aunty Glad, who brought me up wanted to have the children visit by themselves. So I left my daughter and eldest son there for a week and they and Aunty Glad had a lovely week..so then she asked could the two youngest boys stay the next week. They were 12 and 9 years old.. The third evening she phoned to say they were missing! They went out after lunch and then at 8 pm they hadn't come home, and she had just walked to the end of the road to the main road, and an ambulance had just gone past! 

Of course no mobiles in those days and so I phoned the chip shop, as I had gone to school with the owner's son. He said he'd go and look for them, I suggested they were probably in the amusement arcade and had lost track of time. And that's where they were, happily winning and losing pennies. eating sweets. My school friend said, he knew it was them, because when he asked them if they were my sons, they were full of  'sorrys'  because they thought I was there and had driven the 232 miles to give them 'what for'!

My Aunt was very pleased to see them and relieved.. but surprised to see my school friend shepherding them through the gate into the house.  

 They did stay another time, but with strict instructions to be back at 6.  Did I stay out till all hours when I was their age? Of course I did, we all did in those days! Did you?

Dh and I walked past the fair ground the other day, still the loud music, the screams of people on the rides and the smell of doughnuts and chips, happy days.

Chrisxx

Life ???

We have lovely flowers flowering in my garden, which is my love, but I'm in the depths of despair, all by one thing that happened last week. 2 that's what it said.. 2 pounds on!

How did that happen we had stuck religiously to the SW plan, didn't even have a cheat Friday after weighing, so how? Its not like we had a Chinese Take away or even fish n chips. 

So I wasn't just disappointed I was devastated and could have cried,  of course I didn't.. the previous week a young woman had tears, because she's at her target weight, but wants to go down another half stone. Honesty if she stood sideward in front of you, you couldn't see her, she's that thin! 

So I'm battling on and what's even worse, going up in the Surgery lift on Monday, the mirror showed me full length, I'm grotesque, fat isn't a good enough word to describe me. How did I lose 3 pounds 2 weeks ago and gain 2 pounds last week! I'd planned to lose 4 stone by my birthday in December, so at the moment I'm not going to do it.

I've arranged for a blood test to have my thyroid checked, is it that? And I've been walking, but I've struggled my arthritic knee is very unpleasant, so I have to take my time. But I am trying.. isn't life hard sometimes?

Chrisxx

Could this be you?

 A couple in their nineties were both having memory problems. 

During a check-up, the doctor said they were physically fine but might want to start writing things down to help with their forgetfulness. 

Later that night, while watching TV , the old man gets up from his chair.
“Want anything while I’m in the kitchen?” he asks.
“Yes, a bowl of ice cream,” she replies. 
“Sure,” he says, heading to the kitchen.
“Don’t you think you should write it down?” she asks sweetly.
“No need,” he replies. “I can remember that.” 
“Well, I’d like strawberries on top, too.  Maybe write it down?”
“I got it,” he says. “Ice cream with strawberries.”
“And whipped cream,” she adds. “Please write it down!”
“I don’t need to write it down! Ice cream, strawberries, whipped cream!” he shouts from the kitchen. 

Twenty minutes later, he shuffles back with a plate of bacon and eggs. 

She stares at it and says,
“So… where’s the toast?!

*************************************

I sent this to a friend similar age to me and her response was..

'Could be me if I got to 90.'

I replied 'no way, you're too on the ball and would get your own ice cream, strawberries and cream!'

Me??

I'd say 'where's the marmalade?'

Chrisxx

20th Anniversary

 Thursday July7th 2005 started as an ordinary day for me and for thousands of other British people too. I had gone into work and after making sure all was set up ready in my class room, I popped along to the Staff room for a quick cup of  tea and a chat before the bell rang at 9 o'clock. There were quite a few members of staff there, then Ann one of the Teaching Assistants.. said, ' Listen everyone, something's happening in London, I've just had text message from my husband to tell me he's ok. He's never done that before.' Her husband was a police officer working in London.

We learnt later it was the terrorists' bombings, which killed 52 innocent people all travelling to work that morning, either on a bus or the underground. It was the 20th Anniversary of that horrific event yesterday. Hundreds of people were injured, many losing limbs.

One of the people killed was Jenny and this book 'A Song for Jenny' is written by her mother Julie Nicholson, a C of E priest who was on holiday in N. Wales at the time. The story starts with her watching the horror all unfold on TV, and then her traveling to London to find out what had happened to her daughter. It was 5 days after the bombings, when she learnt Jenny was a victim and dead. 

It was heart breaking reading this book as Julie takes us through the agonizing struggle of grief from the moment when Jenny doesn't answer her phone, to the anointing of her body.

Devastatingly honest and courageous, Julie tells of her love and loss as only a mother can.

I don't need to tell you but I sobbed reading this book.. and was sad to learn that Julie resigned from being a C of E priest. 

Chrisxx

The on going Blue Badge story!

 I think this handsome fella ears must have been burning this afternoon because of the number of times he was mentioned! I can't walk confidently without him and hang on to my Rhett Butler for dear life!

I actually had a phone at 08:00 this morning offering me an appointment to see a Dr this afternoon!

I reckon it was because of the mess up of the Friday afternoon appointment with the Physio out of town! Anyway the outcome of the appointment was the Surgery like the physios don't do assessment for Blue Badges, but he is willing to write a letter with his views on my ability to walk according to what I had told him.

Anyway I have resubmitted the form and if I get it or don't I've tried!

What a palaver!

Chrisxx

A wild goose chase

 We went walking late Thursday afternoon, it had cooled down and here by the harbour there was a sea breeze. We often ended up here when we had Nell.. she hated us sitting down for too long, even though we used to share our ice cream with her; we shared a small tub Thursday between us, bearing in mind Friday was SW weigh day!

So what happened on the scales Friday? I was 2 pounds up! I know I've lost weight because my clothes are loose but my feet have swollen, a combination of my tablets, the heat and not so much walking. I was so disappointed,  but I'll try again this coming week.

But then my Friday got even worse. I've reapplied for my Blue Badge, but had been told I needed an assessment from a physio.. My surgery had arranged an appointment with one, but not at our Surgery but Kenfig Hill?? Off we went, having had to look up where it was, parking was difficult, and the car park was away from the entrance, so I had to walk along a side road.  Then when we got there??

The physio said they don't do that and couldn't understand why I was there. He was very apologetic and said he'd email my surgery to tell them.

We drove back home and called into my surgery on the way. They were so unhelpful. A prissy receptionist said she couldn't give me an appointment till September to see a Dr,  as the manager was on her lunch break, so she'd phone me at home later. I didn't get a phone call.. so a complete waste of our afternoon. I was annoyed, tired and fed up.  

They have no idea what its like for people, who don't know the area, I know I was born here in Porthcawl, but had never been to the surrounding towns, we didn't have a car when I was a child. I'd never been to Kenfig Hill before and won't go there again! 

The new head of NHS England Sir Jim Mackey has said, the key parts of the NHS appear built to keep the public away because its an inconvenience. Phones are never answered or are only answering machines, (I can vouch for that as I have only ever spoken to a machine at the hospital) And to see a GP there is the 8 o'clock scramble... and that's certainly true.

I also have no evidence of my knee, or shoulder operations because I had them in another country... England!!! 

Chrisxx

Such a beautiful young woman,

On Wednesday the Princess of Wales visited a Wellness Centre at Colchester Hospital. She spoke openly about her own cancer diagnoses and that although she was now in remission, life was still not back to normal and that the fear was still there.

Although looking very thin she was radiant and her usual beautiful

 self.

She planted a rose there, actually planted it herself, down on her knees getting her hands in the earth and getting them dirty.

It's a rose named Catherine after her., a floribunda and with a fragrant scent.

I'm tempted to buy ir, such a lovely colour and I could  say I have Princess Catherine in my garden!

Chrisxx

The face of a woman yesterday in Parliament!

 When the PM was asked yesterday in Parliament about his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, he didn't actually state that she was to stay as a minister, so what did that mean? And sitting behind him her face crumbled and there were notable tears. Is she for the chop, we don't know, but what we do know is that she has caused misery in many  peoples' lives. Those who had their heating allowance stopped, and those who have lost their jobs, because of the increase in the basic pay and increased National Insurance, which many firms found they could not afford. Hence they had to let some people go.

    Her policies have forced the Government into their U turn on the heating allowance and down toning of the disability allowance. Should we saying 'Poor Rachel' she was only doing her job or join the protesting crowds and the back benchers, who want her gone?

Were her tears that of shame because of her policies, or because she was the cause of the Governments' fall from favour (did any one hold them in esteem?) or because she knew she was losing her job. Who knows?

Well one thing we do know, is she won't be short of a penny or two!!

It's not easy being an Member of Parliament even with their generous pay, that they voted for themselves.

Chrisxx

Just some pics of the garden

 Just some garden shots... everything is beginning to flower at last!

I'm loving these and we have three,,, all in  a pot which we'll keep in the pot, as they are supposed to flower better.. Agapanthus.

And the clematis survived that gusty wind from a few weeks ago.

And the blue geranium will soon be joined by the orange flowers of the crocosmia, buds are there,

We have been sitting on our bench in the cool of the mornings, too hot later on.

On one of the FB gardening groups I belong to, a member had written the joys of retirement, was sitting on her patio with a Magnum.. there were a few comments asking her for a glass, but of course she wasn't talking about champagne, but a chocolate covered ice cream!

But I agree, it is lovely being able to sit outside in our garden and admire all our hard work.

Chrisxx