I am back from my travels to London to celebrate the birthday of a gentleman who has reached a certain age…
I spent this afternoon sorting out my photographs which are now ready for sharing along with my London adventures. Watch this space…
The past couple of weeks have been a bit hectic. I was due to visit Oxford for a few days at the beginning of November with my family (to celebrate my birthday) but unfortunately the day before we were due to go my Mum slipped on the stairs and broke her leg in three places. So the few days away turned into looking after Mum and getting her settled in back at home after her stay in hospital.
I did however take time out on my birthday to visit Hereford to see the Cathedral, the chained library and the Mappa Mundi. The cathedral was covered in scaffolding and in front of it were half dismantled stalls from a food fair that had recently taken place. This means I will have to go back again to get some photographs of the outside 😉
I still don’t know where all the time goes… It only seems like a few months since I was celebrating my nephews 18th Birthday and there we were yesterday celebrating his 21st.
All his family were gathered together for a lunch time celebratory meal, a good time was had by all and it was nice to meet his girlfriend for the first time 🙂
Last weekend I had yet another mini break in Nottingham. On this occasion it was to celebrate my brother becoming a certain age. Hopefully he won’t be looking in on this post so I won’t get into trouble 😉
This one was and even more of a last minute arrangement than the previous mini break there. We arrived at the hotel late on Saturday afternoon with plenty of time to get ready to go out for the celebratory meal in a local Chinese Restaurant. The food was delicious and so was the cake, although I only had half a very thin sliver of that.
On Sunday morning we called to visit my brother before setting of to visit Calke Abbey and have lunch before heading home. In the morning the sunshine was glorious, but unfortunately it had turned to rain as we arrived at Calke Abbey. This meant that the visit to the walled garden had to be called off. Oh well, an excuse to visit again…
…relaxing after yet another busy weekend!
I have had visitors to stay over the weekend. I was doing a mad rush round getting the housework done before they arrived on Friday. I didn’t quite get it finished because they arrived early. We chatted for a while before ordering a Chinese takeaway for dinner after which we had a small family get together. The get together was in advance of my mum’s official birthday lunch (with family and friends) which followed on from last weeks birthday celebrations. Following the lunch we took the scenic route (off road rallying springs to mind) to my Mum’s house where we spent the afternoon with her and stayed for tea which she had insisted on doing all by herself!!
We had a lazy start on Sunday and then set out for a ‘small’ lunch at Benthall Hall which turned out to be a very interesting place to visit. I intend to go back when the gardens are more in bloom. We were also told that the little church next door to the hall will be opening to the public later in the year, which is another reason to go back. After the visit we returned home for a pre dinner sherry and a roast pork dinner.
I have spent today finishing off those jobs from Friday and reading. A nice relaxing day 😉
On Saturday evening a good friend came round to visit. There was lots of chatting, board games and a demonstration of Japanese medical skills and the next thing I knew it was 4.30 in the morning!!
The result of this late night/early morning meant I was rather lethargic during Sunday morning. But I was forced to spring into action in the afternoon to clear away all the Christmas decorations. Following that there was the obligatory appearance of the vacuum cleaner to clear up all the little bits of decorations that linger on the carpet. After all this activity I was able to log onto my computer for a few minutes before getting ready for my Sunday evening meal.
When I got up from the computer and left the room there was a heavy clunk as if something had fallen over. When I went to investigate I couldn’t see that anything had moved and decided that it was the chair spinning round and hitting the desk. I promptly forgot about it, until this morning…
When I opened the door to that room (the room I am in now) there was a little bit of resistance and it wouldn’t open fully. When I managed to open the door and look behind it to investigate the problem I immediately noticed the word God glowing out from the dark and I could see a faint book outline underneath. I bent down to pick the book up and realised that there were also two CDs on the floor as well.
I discovered the word God was on a bookmark. It is one I picked up a few years ago from St Mary’s Parish Church in Whitby whilst investigating my family history. On one side of the bookmark there is a picture of the Church and on the other side the following quote:
God
Grant me
the Serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change,
Courage
to change
the things I can
and Wisdom
to know
the difference.
The other three things were also interesting…
The book was ‘Christy Moore, One Voice, My Life in Song’ – When I was campaigning against the moving of our work down south and the subsequent loss of skills, I used some of his songs in the campaign videos that I made.
One of the CDs contained photos taken by a colleague at a PCS conference a few years ago. Some of the photos on the disc were of an event where one of my campaign videos was shown – Tomorrow the first meeting takes place do discuss how we can raise awareness and campaign against the same issues.
The second CD had a few photographs that my Dad took of the flowers that I bought for my Mum’s 75th Birthday. She is 80 this year.
A message?…
PS: I was neither the sender or receiver of this card 😉
His journey’s just begun
Don’t think of him as gone away
his journey’s just begun,
life holds so many facets
this earth is only one.Just think of him as resting
from the sorrows and the tears
in a place of warmth and comfort
where there are no days and years.Think how he must be wishing
that we could know today
how nothing but our sadness
can really pass away.And think of him as living
in the hearts of those he touched…
for nothing loved is ever lost
and he was loved so much.Ellen Brenneman
Cherie's Other Place 