One hundred years ago

April 1st 1950

My mother would have been one hundred years old this week. She died 25 years ago - a long time. Even Shadow, the dog, was given her birthday and now turns 12. She has spent more years of her life in the UK than she did in Singapore. I wonder if she remembers what warm weather feels like. Sometimes I forget, and it is just six months since I was in the Far East feeling warm.

Shadow

The passing of time speeds up as we get older. January is nearly over and, for the life of me, I can't imagine where it has gone. I have spent the month dutifully using up Christmas fayre still lurking in my cupboards. I am still not quite finished on that task. I am determined that I don't have stuff with sell-by dates that reach back to when I moved in. This is so easily done. At least I haven't tucked into the Christmas supply of plonk as yet!

One very big joy for this month was the birth of Philip. He is Nataliia and Nicholas' new addition born on 24th January. N&N are my Ukrainian guests who no longer live with me. They have landed on their feet and have a little place of their own in Brackley now. I am planning to visit them again this coming week. There is always such joy and hope that comes with a new baby and even though it is not strictly my family, I feel a bit of ownership!!!

There are many things that annoy and infuriate me about the internet, google, FB... Google especially gets singled out as a pet irritant for all the times it sends me the wrong way. However, I have been looking back at old photos that are selected by google and pop up on my screen. When I first came back to the UK, I went through boxes of family photos that had been in storage for 24 years. I photographed them and they now pop up alongside contemporary ones in the themed albums chosen by google.

Me

Being a retiree with time on my hands - especially as I am a little injured currently - I have taken note of these and, I have to say, they are quite interesting. For instance, I once had black, curly hair! I didn't spend my life in leggings and sweatshirts, but I actually reckon I look exactly the same as when I was a child - is that just my imagination? Oh how the years slip by"

Connecting

A frozen canal

 When the temperature stubbornly stays below zero it is hard to imagine that it might be warm elsewhere. I get FB pictures of people in sunny places - lucky them! My friend Sophie has set off for Barbados in search of sun this week - lucky her! Meanwhile in my part of the UK, the weather promises to be warmer from today onwards but with Storm Isha hitting tonight with 80mph winds and potential floods AGAIN it seems like we are jumping out of the frying pan - except that is a hot metaphor.

Sammi has moved into a shared flat in Brighton this week too. As his guarantor, I had to jump through hoops to convince a chatbot that I could pay his rent if he defaulted - errr. He moved in on Monday in freezing weather; but amidst water and electrical problems,  the boiler was also kaput. When I last spoke to him, he was using Lucky - the dog - as his personal heater. 

The swimming pool has been wonderfully warm and while I have felt a wimp and not done tennis, I have been swimming. Sunday looked good for tennis but my heel has suddenly developed a lump and has told me not to chance it. This twinge is probably a small protest that my body wants to rest. The wimpier side of me is OK with not being cold so it is a win-win.

The weather hasn't deterred the thousands who go out to protest the genocide that Israel is perpetrating on Palestinians. I am proud that I live in a country where people can stand shoulder to shoulder in the streets for what they believe in. This war is a horror that I see no good end to. I just want to remind Israel that Hamas is not all Palestinians and there is no Hamas in the West Bank so what is the excuse for killing Palestinians there too.

Nataliia in Brackley

As you know, I have been looking after a couple of Ukranians since last March and this week, I popped to Luton Airport to pick up Nataliia's sister as she has now come to the UK. Nataliia is about to have a baby so she really wanted to have extra support. I asked Ira, Nataliia's sister, how dangerous it is in Odessa. She surprised me. She said it is normal. You get used to the bombs. I realise how I get used to hearing the  rising death tolls and mention of the many conflicts that don't affect me directly. 

We went over to Brackley to meet Nataliia and Nicholas in their emergency housing. They have turned it into a welcoming home. At least the world is a happier place for them. Brackley, by the way, is a lovely part of England to feel safe in.

A trip to Rugby

I also popped up to Rugby this week to meet up with friends from Singapore who I last saw in Damascus in 2009. Lynne and Johnny came back to the UK around the same time I did. We had talked about getting together and it took quite some months to get round to it. When we met, I think it was as if we had not had those intervening years. It was lovely making connections after all that time. Natalie, Lynne's daughter, was at UWC with Laura was also there with her beautiful little girl, Bella. How small our world is?

So across the world, chatting with Pat in The Bahamas, friends in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia and seeing people face to face; it really is a joy connecting. Close to home, my beautiful grand daughter has just turned 3. We share a bond and that too is full of love.

On being vulnerable

Dear Reader,

There are times when things said on the radio stick in the mind and resonate. Before the current cold snap, Radio 4 put out a yellow warning that the temperatures across Britain will drop and for those who are over 65 and vulnerable others should stay indoors. That's me, I thought. I am in that category. 

Momentarily I considered how this bad weather will change my daily rountine. Then I just got on and did exactly what I normally do. However, I must say that Wednesday night tennis at 2c wasn't the best decision I made for this week. I played for a couple of hours. By the end, my hands were numb and my thighs burnt from getting cold. I told the other players to be nice to me as I am officially vulnerable - not much joy there! 

Thursday I turned up for team practice. It was warmer but soon after we started a fine rain blighted our game. At least we were warm, if not a little damp. All was going pretty well until I hit myself. This is something I can honestly say I have never done before. I hit my eyebrow with the racquet. I lost the ball in the floodlight and swung the racquet into my face... ouch!! Now I really do feel a little vulnerable - silly me.

So Friday I set off for London to meet Diane and Jeremy. This was a shopping trip so we planned to meet up at Westfield Shopping Centre at Shepherds Bush. I put in 8000 steps trying to find the cafe we planned to meet up in. Google was at its very worst. It took me one way then changed its mind and then took me another. At one point I was outside the centre and directed to a vehicle only area. 

Carnaby Street

I had all but decided I was going to give up and just sit where I was - somewhere near a very big Zara shop. Google had let me down big time. I calmed down. I re-entered the Bikesoup Cafe into google and set off once more. I found it!!!!! Yay. If I had walked through John Lewis I would have found  it on my first circuit round this monstrosity. Bloody Google!

The actually cafe, once I found it, was wonderful. The bikes on display were top notch and I was tempted to do more than window shop.... There was an electric bike for £3,400  - much reduced of course. It looked lightweight and east to ride. I resisted! The coffee and sandwich were good too. And, of course I got to meet up with Diane and Jeremy. 

We escaped the shopping centre, headed for Liberty - the shop I used to buy cloth from - and oogled at how expensive everything was. Everything in the shop just looked so nice. Liberty is the sort of shop I could really waste time browsing through. 

My favourite shop

So having spent far too much on not very much we went for a lovely curry. Dry January went west... I will have to keep it up til the 1st February now. I fell off the wagon and had an espresso Martini. Then to add to this, I got home and sipped a G&T in the comfort of my home. So having compounded my sin, I have promised myself to be good from this day on. Hey ho.

Leaping into 2024

 

New Year's Day - Stony

New Year's Eve is so "yesterday" now. I have given up wishing people Happy New Year.  It seems an age since I was dancing my way into 2024 and I have nothing particularly unsual to report apart from my sticking to a "dry January" and it doesn't seem much different from my normal behaviour. I must remember to have a drink come February. I am back to swimming again so I am almost into a routine.

Sammi is now elsewhere and his friends who came to my place to see in the New Year with him have returned home. My life is very quiet once more. His friends were from his uni days at St Andrews but they are now settled in London, so for them, it wasn't a big hike to visit Cosgrove for a couple of days. My little house had Sammi, three friends and two dogs for New Year. It was bursting at the seams.

While I was off having a very tame celebration, Sammi stayed home, made a curry, drank copious amounts of alcohol and played games with his friends. They set off for the Barley Mow just as it was closing at 1pm and this is where their collective judgement rather let them down. We all know that a few drinks increases our perceived ability and so it was for Mish, who thought he could leap across the Buckingham Arm of the Grand Union Canal onto a dredger. Easy! 

He leapt and missed. He lost his glasses. He was sodden and his pride took a very big dent, no doubt. New Year's Day I got home to hear the story. We later all walked to Stony and onto Wolverton and back along the canal in miserable rain and slippy mud. Along the whole way the water was murky and mud-coloured from all the rain. The fields were all flooded. I know I am not selling this as a fun walk but it was! As we passed the place where the incident happened, the team decided they could borrow a fishing net to fish the glasses out of the canal.

So this is what they did. I asked a couple of friends in the village if we could borrow a net. They both came good and after another not incident free session on the tow path, they fished out the prescription glasses - who would have thought it? Clearly Lady Luck looked favourably upon Mish despite his previous poor judgement. 

This has been a learning opportunity. I would say for starters take your glasses off before you attempt to jump across a body of water. Secondly, consider whether you ability is up to the task, maybe. Finally, don't jump. It wasn't neccessary to jump. The dredger didn't need to be manned at 2am on New Year's morning.

Perhaps I am far too sensible in my old age. Now I have asked around for fishing nets this will surely make its way into village folklore. I am convinced with very little help I could embellish the story somewhat. This definitely has legs!

My village one week later

One of the little ironies of Christmas is that in January it seems to be all about recycling. I have taken stuff - stuff not gifted this Christmas - to be recycled. I visited H&M with Ezra-Mae to drop off worn out clothes. This wasn't without incident. She needed to say hello to and cuddle every manikin in the shop. This was really frustrating as I had so many more things to do and it isn't easy strapping kids in the car after every stop. She learnt a new word - Manikin... an educational visit at least. Hey ho.