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"