Spring

I always time stamp thoughts with pictures .... Lady Edith's wedding in Downton... 1925, my Mum was one and a half years old.  Hard to fathom really.

Well, I survived Christmas, it wasn't that it was bad, it was just different and stressful.  I spent it with family that I haven't spent Christmas with for a long time, and it was lovely for that reason.

New Year was quiet, just me and Bryan, Bryan Adams.  OK, I was here and Bryan was in London sounding spectacular.  I went out, as per usual with my coal, salt, bread and silver, let time tick over, watched a few fireworks then let myself back in.  Sounds a bit pathetic I know, but, it's just tradition, even if I'm the only one who knows that I do it.  No phone calls this year and the mobile network seemed to be on the blink so lots of messages could not be sent, but it was still good.  I was in bed shortly after midnight and it didn't take me long to drop off.

January was a bit of a blur, it's always hard work trying to get back into a routine after the Christmas break.  The break makes me realise that what I normally do, is not normal.  For instance, I didn't wake once naturally, before 7am the whole time I was off.  My usual waking time for work is 4.40am, by alarm.  I rest my case.  Work is busy but I'm taking that as a blessing.

For Christmas, I treated myself to a book by Jillian Michaels, (you know... "The Biggest Loser" coach,) it's called "Unlimited" and I absolutely love it.  I love how it makes me think and I love her writing style, I can hear her voice in my head as I read.  She has helped me recognise things in myself, she has helped me to see how to make my life better.  I can tell you now, I'm going to read it, again and again.

On TV at the moment is the carnage that is...'The Jump' and the reason I am watching this is that my crush of twenty plus years.... Mr Dean Cain is competing.  That is the one and only reason I'm watching this.  25% of the celebs can ski and are competitive, 25% have never skied but genuinely want to give it a good go, and 75% are attention seeking desperadoes screaming 'look at me'.  I'm kidding, that was a joke, I have one friend who hates with a passion anyone using over 100% in total, you know the drill, giving it 200% etc.  I did of course mean 99% of the celebs are desperate attention seekers.

The Monday before Valentine's Day, I started to feel unwell, Thursday, my eldest sister turned 70.  I haven't quite got my head around that yet, in fact, I'm probably going to park that for a few years.  I continued to feel dreadful for the next couple of weeks, terrible cough, aching, no energy, freezing cold but sweaty.  I was getting home from work at 5.15pm and was in bed and asleep by 6.30pm, night after night.  After a couple of weeks, I got a Dr's appointment and as suspected, I have a virus with flu like symptoms.  Doesn't help me but I feel better knowing that it'll pass soon-ish.

The nights are drawing out thankfully, most nights, I now get home before it's pitch dark, which makes such a difference.  A couple of weeks ago, I got home in time to open the curtains because I still had about 30 minutes light left, it was wonderful.

I don't have much appetite but I'm eating bits and bobs, it won't do me any harm and I'm not going to starve.  I got to see my darling Great Niece a couple of weekends ago, CJ told me I was hired as I managed to rock her to sleep.  She is so beautiful and I know I'm expected to say that, but she really is.  God I hope she likes me when she's big enough to decide.

Really wishing I could hop on a plane, sleep for 24 hours and meet you at the other end, we'd then head to Raglan so that I could have the plane air and the cobwebs blown off me while we walked and chatted with the sand beneath us.  What do you think?