2017

13 January 2017

A quiet Christmas until the two grand-children came for a visit and oh, what joy that was! The little boy was just a wonder to watch with his interest in the train layout, although he really needed a nap and deomstrated some belligerence when not allowed to touch or keep playing with them! Totally understandable at nearly 3 of course and they both had a wonderful time playing in our big bed and hiding things.

The noise level is something which came as a bit of a shock and we were shattered when they left!

5 February 2017

It is hard to imagine that buying a new car would be anything other than pleasureable but of course, nothing in the Songsinger household ever goes smoothly. We both changed our cars in February 2012 and for the last year the reminder of the unhappy as well as happy times I have had in that car made me try to persuade OH that it was time to change. He was most reluctant, having spent some £1500 on it last year but as servicing and MOT reared their heads he was finally pursuaded.

We selected the make and model with some care and agreed a pretty good deal with our local dealer who fortunately, (but not for him I am sorry to say) has a disabled son with an electric wheelchair so he was clued up on what we needed for my mobility scooter and all was arranged, only meaning that an MOT was needed for the bigger car.

Mine will still need both service and MOT as although I am anxious to change although it will be a last link to my lovely boy, the model I would like is being re-launched in the summer so I will wait until then. A small reprieve.

All going well until OH came home last Wednesday in a white van! The clutch had gone on the car and the transport people at his company had sucked in their teeth and pronounced that it was too dangerous to drive home! Oh, how we laughed. The wretched thing has only done 32,000 miles and I was noble in not commenting that it was perhaps the style of driving which had contributed but it is really not good enough. I blame him for getting a black car which has caused an immense amount of money to be spent on it!

The next morning I was handing our lovely young gardener his morning tea when I noticed that the white van, safely parked on our sloping drive, had a wonderfully flat front tyre with a nail in it.

"You won't be going anywhere in that" I said and that meant that a repair man had to come out to fix it and OH had to work from home.

I just hope that the black car passes it's MOT.

24 February 2017

Well, thanfully both cars have passed their tests so all is set for the new car although the dealership has closed and re-located some 14 miles away but living in a village means that this kind of thing happens!

Having become disenchanted with the cleaning company I had used I looked around for a new lady and thought I had found one. I spent a lot of time on wednesday afternoon chatting to her and she seemed really nice and positive. So I was more than a little miffed to receive a text yesterday evening saying she had had a long think and decided she could not cope with the house.

Why didn't she say so when she was here? And as for wasting my time then yes, she certainly did!

28 May 2018

I cannot believe it is so long since I updated this but my only excuse it that there has been a lot going on.

The death of my foster-sister, Chris, although expected, was a huge blow and the ensuing funeral, a bit odd we thought, was certainly something to be coped with and I could not have done it without the help of my OH who is stoic through all my troubles.

At least my cleaning is sorted out and I have the most delightful young man who occasionally brings his partner to help and I cannot be happier with that outcome, having in the interim had some disasters! He is a joy and so is his young man, Joe.

Another bright spot in the last few months has been the discovery of a church nearby, with a suitable service time who welcomed us with open arms and fully understood the difficulties which I have been through in the last few years. The joy of attending on Easter Day and being given a chocolate egg by a smiling Down's syndrome young man was just brilliant. The bonus is that as a trained singer I am not regarded as someone to be looked at and everyone just accepts me as I am and I cannot ask for more than that. They are a lovely bunch and both OH and I feel really at home with them. The uplift in my spiritual health has been wonderful and I look forward to going to the Sunday services with the bonus that OH is by my side, not smiling at me from the congregation whilst I am in the choir pews!

The events in Manchester earlier this week have shaken me; only those bereaved of a child can really understand the rawness of the loss and to make matters worse yesterday was the anniversary of my Dad's death and I was advised of the death of a friend so all in all a horrible week.

Onward and upward.

30 October 2017

The end of August, all of September and October are really difficult months for me with Si's anniversary, the wall disaster and his birthday and this year has been particularly difficult as I feel beleaguered by various matters and as well there have been domestic issues to be sorted out. This is not to mention the major roadworks which have been on-going for the last couple of years and have resulted in the trunk road through the village being closed on at least three occasions meaning that our lovely church had to cancel a couple of services. Of course that doesn't matter as we are only Christians!

Anyway, on Sunday we had a permission slip from the Clerk of Works which allowed us to drive through the road-works in order to attend an important service. What amazed us was that although copious signs had been posted all over the local area there were still motorists who thought they could get through and then caused a queue whilst they argued with the man given the unenviable task of telling them they could not proceed! Our ride to the church was hairy both coming and going along a dirt-track with cars parked and only room for one and although OH obliged with the instruction to have hazard warning lights flashing (which we could not quite see the point of doing) we were still a bit shaky when we arrived for the service. It was even worse on the way back and compounded by a cyclist who overtook the line of cars waiting to be allowed to go forward and headed straight for us! The filthy look he gave us still lingers as he was definitely in the wrong - but I forget, cyclists are never in the wrong.

When a lovely plumber does a good job and then lets you down it is upsettting, not to mention expensive. Our burglar alarm keeps going off because it's batteries are running out - and I can relate to that! - and then the fridge/freezer died which being a built-in cost arms and legs to replace. However, the upside is that we had forgotten just how good it is to have really cold drinks as it was obvious that the other one had been going for some time and we just hadn't noticed.

So all in all, and with other matters in the background, I have felt not quite right, so last Thursday my good friend A and I went off for lunch on a glorious autumn day and took a back route, away from all road-works, through glorious panorama of green, gold, russet and purple in the trees and moors and then had a super meal with long chats and lots of laughter and that meant all was right with the world.

22 September 2017

I have been making many small items for Preemies Uk since the death of my friend Pam for about eighteen months now so have collected a vast amount of small bits of wool, both left-overs and tapestry for decoration on octopus and teddies but the wicker and plastic baskets I was keeping my bits in were a bit damaging to the furniture. Over the last year or so we have been steadily replacing cheap Ikea/B & Q furniture with solid oak so I wanted to protect these precious pieces and started to crochet baskets. I am so thrilled with them as they have the added advantage of being squashy in drawers and cupboards and this is just a few of them.