Back again...3 years since last post!!!

So, how has our life been since November 2020? 

Well, we survived a pandemic !!! 

I'm going to direct anybody who reads this to my Facebook  page to catch up on most of our life, the walking, the holidays, the Veg Nest, family et al...it's all there.

I wrote this in me last post...

"So, as this second lockdown comes to an end, a vaccine is in sight, what of our future?  

Me...going to walk from Westminster to Tower Hill eating and drinking it all back in again...Pepys, Boswell & Johnson, Shardlake...🚂🍺🍱

Suzie, dancing. Lots and lots and lots of dancing!!💃💃💃

Mother, tea, sandwiches and bingo with her friends, before its too late.  She's 93 next month"

Did we?

Yes, and, no...our life has changed, we've grown older. Mother hit 96 at Christmas !!

No more Bingo, she stopped going to the coffee mornings ( can't be bothered!). She heads off to Bucks Blind Club with Nigel. They lost Pat from their trio in the Autumn :(

Suzie dances, lots of dances and is thoroughly enjoying herself xxxx 

I walked...and walked...then lost the urge. I enjoy the wandering I do - its focused, public transport led, mainly, but the urge to just walk anywhere, any time,  disappeared  - had a period of depression, then poof, gone! But, I enjoyed it whilst it was there...Wandered from Charing Cross to Liverpool St on Saturday, nice pint (#beeroclock) in The Punch Tavern on the way...

 I will share on here future wanders. 

The Veg Nest!

is going okay...and it's probably the reason I am going to write on here more again. Been sharing on Facebook, but time to stop. 

But, I do LIKE sharing, or chatting into the ether as such. So, one will bore anyone who can be bothered to find me here with my mutterings and musings 😇

Cheers...

Been away from here again...

I used to enjoy my blog posts...

Looking back it was a form of boring the guys in The Naafi orThe  Malcolm Club ( long gone institutions), sharing without the need to actually chat in person to somebody!! Then your mates just looked at you and said 'aye', on here anybody who could be arsed just scroll past the crap and look at the pics!!

Pretty same on Facebook, which has taken over from this little blog...( here FACEBOOK ) 😀

I pretty religiously put up logs of my walking, follow loads of strange people in wierd and wonderful groups, such as lost shopping trolleys, The Dull Club, Steps we love, park benches, weather around the world right now...football obviously! Pared down the crap over the years, it works for me..

Then there's Twitter! Been a trifle stressed time on there!!  

Politically I'm disctinctly Centre Left, and right now its hard to really come out and say "I'll Vote For Him/Her"..but that's bye the bye, Twitter has gone from a fairly relaxed chatty newsy place to a something resembling The Spanish Inquisition, complete with Heritcal Burnings!!  Again, I've just spent time paring down who, and what I follow...There seems to be none of that middle ground, eg if you have a tendancy to Boris, you must be a raving Trumpite as well, and if you think Biden is right, you're a raving Corbynista, of which I'm neither...I suppose being of the Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan generation of Labour, well, bring their kind back.

I do find it hard to socialise.

In The RAF it was easy, walk into a Naafi anywhere in the world and you already had a connection, something to chat about, a commonality of cause, be you an airframe fitter or (as I was) a "blanket stacker"...logistics, supply etc... Now, Ive been here for heading towards 20 years(!!!) and I see people I know, but with a couple of exceptions, still haven't a clue as to their job, profession, history etc...in our local Club, there's always the same group in there when I go in, who've been that same group long before me and know each other intimately, I'm always the outsider, and I admit I sit by myself and tend to only add the occasional comment to the conversations - often because its a very parochial and insular conversation !!  Right now Social Distancing suits me!!

The other half of this blog, Suzie, has had a much harder time of it than me. Made redundant just before lockdown, actually on her way to an interview when they pulled the plug as such. A couple of interviews since, always pleasant reviews, but no job. Now no dole, only available for 6 months, so we are relying on my pensions...which I spend at a rapid rate.😓. 

We've spent more time enclosed together in our little nest than ever - I resented the intrusion for a while - missed my solitary life of seeing Suzie off to work, breakfast, walk, or domestics, or visit Mother, then home after a pint at the above club, sit in big chair, sport on TV nap, prepare evening tea, welcome home the worker...bed!! But we've worked it out - I get up early, she gets up late  :)

Mother has spent nigh on 2/3rds of a year stuck in her little flat, no social life at all - at least we've been out shopping, holiday in Norfolk, gone to pubs etc..she's had nowt, with the odd exception of me twice a week, a visit from Janice for a week or so, odd phone cll from Grandchildren and her friends, who have been the worst at this!!

A rare lunch out...keeping her safe

So, as this second lockdown comes to an end, a vaccine is in sight, what of our future?  

Me...going to walk from Westminster to Tower Hill eating and drinking it all back in again...Pepys, Boswell & Johnson, Shardlake...🚂🍺🍱

Suzie, dancing. Lots and lots and lots of dancing!!💃💃💃

Mother, tea, sandwiches and bingo with her friends, before its too late.  She's 93 next moth.

Hightlight of past 8 months...Suzie's birthday feast :)

Mother...

Well, there we were, up a Tuscan hillside enjoying a lush meal with fab views when my phone rang...'unknown caller', so, as you do, I ignored it.  Txt - voice mail...rang it - Centra here, your mother has activated her lifeline after a fall...

She had fallen backwards putting out the washing on the balcony, broke her hip and was promptly, well not quite promptly, but more in a sec, whisked off to hospital and headed for a partial hip replacement op!!

The not quite promptly bit is because, broken hip and all, she managed to drag herself to the loo and then sat on the chair nearby for a couple of hours chatting to the lovely lady on her alarm box!!

New hip on the Monday, we arrived home on the following Sunday, and my life has lost its rhythm since then!!  Hospital visits daily for 4 weeks (she caught c-diff)...then when she came back to her flat, she fell over at 5 in the morning, so the idea of leaving her alone sort of disappeared...Sis came does for 10 days or so, which has given me some respite, but then mother was offered a one bed sheltered housing move...

After getting over the shock of the downsizing...she's moved.

Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing!  Instead of doing the obvious, paying for a mover and house clearance company to do it, I ( and it was me...) decided We can do this...well I have, everything that has been moved ( and thrown out out) has been done by me...and Ryan, a very nice lad from man with a van co that helped move the few big items we could keep!!

Old flat being handed back on Friday - so three days to dispose and clean everything left there...oh well, back to the coal face!!

Old and New

Autumn update..part 1!

Well, last post was in March promising lots of updates...oh hum:))

So, (as i seem to often say), what's occurred then in the Fazey-Wood household then over the past 6 months?

Veg Nest... not actually sure because I've basically abandone it for this season.  There are pots and onions in there, and when i begin again at the end of this month, perhaps they'll be some unrotted!!! I have given myself various reasons for the abandonment...mother's operation, other interests, but, all,-in-all, laziness must take a big part of the blame.  The little garden in front of the nest has also taken a  hit this year...

Work...  Suzie is loving hers!  Recently got a surprise bonus, her small group of co-workers are all mature, sensible (ish) people who get on well in their particular environment...sigh :))  Me, well it is my last school year.  I will stop next summer..cant wait!!  VERY nervous about what will occur afterwards, but, hey ho...onwards we go.

Family... Mother's health and quality of life had been getting worse.  Ever since her radiotherapy on the cancer of the womb, there had been a tear/hole in her bowl, creating mayhem inside.  She was sore from leakages, had 'explosions' and generally not good stuff at all, so opted for an op...a major 3 to 4 hour op!!  Well, it worked.  Her health is much better, although she won't walk farther than a taxi!!  No more nappies or rubber pants - (yes, it got that bad) - and her life is generally much better.  Except that her pals are falling away around her :((

Part 2 to follow...(hopefully!!)