Four Birthdays and Two Funerals

I am afraid that I have been absent from Blogland yet again, but on this occasion it has not been due to problems with my laptop computer. Sunday of last week found us packing bags, yet again, for a brief visit down to Sussex, which involved a family reunion. It seems as if almost every weekend husband has either been getting bags out of the loft or putting bags away in the loft. My husband tends to be a throw everything in the suitcase at the last minute sort of person whereas I like to be organised and work from lists. So I dislike intensely having to pack at the last minute as I have to when husband does not get the bags out of the loft until shortly before we are due to leave. Although in some ways I have had to get used to it, but it does not stop me sitting in the passenger seat of the car and worrying about all the things that I might have forgotten and the constant need to be rummaging in bag which sits on the back seat of the car, to check that I have not actually forgotten anything. In the past we have between us managed to forget comb, hairbrush, toothbrush, glasses, sandals and shirts. Now that my navigational skills have been replaced by a satellite navigation system I need to keep the old grey cells active somehow and there was also the desperate need to take my mind off the tragic affair that we were to attend the following day.

So far this year we have been away six times for one or two nights. There was the lightening trip down to Sussex to collect my mother and bring her up to Cheshire. Then there have been two funerals. One for my aunt in East Yorkshire and the second last week for a child. It was the saddest thing that I have ever been to. Husand and I have been to three funerals in the last nine months, so I am hoping that as things are said to happen in threes that, that is now that. The other three trips away have been to celebrate three of the four 'big zero' birthdays that are happening this year in our family. The fourth is next month when my husband will be celebrating and for a change the family will be coming to us.



On the journey home from Sussex we stopped at RHS Wisley, for a quick walk around, where I photographed these lovely blue agapanthus which will always remind of the events of July 2009.

Three strikes and you're out!

Not long ago I posted about computer problems which resulted in my absence form Blogland when Vista brought my laptop computer to a stand still. Unfortunately I have had more problems which once again have lead to my absence from Blogland.

A few hours after struggling to post Eros in a Small World my laptop collapsed with a high temperature (it had over heated). I poked it, prodded it, swore at it and nearly threw it out of the window. Husband was out at the time. When he came home he cast his consultant's eye (computer not medical) over it and phoned A&E (the local computer shop), who said to bring it in straight away which he did. I had expected that it was going to be rushed to ITU to be monitored overnight (they have some sophisticated monitoring/diagnostic equipment), so was surprised to find, when husband phoned the following day, that my laptop was still waiting, on a stretcher in A&E, to be assessed. It was not until the next day that a diagnosis of it needing a heart and lung transplant (a new hard drive) was made. Surgery was scheduled for the following day and after a speedy recovery, we had the laptop back home. It then needed a few days recuperation to build up its strength (while the necessary software was installed), before I could have it back to use.

I have told my laptop that to let me down once was unfortunate, to let me down twice was a mistake and that if it lets me down again I shall be replacing it with a newer, younger model.

In the mean time I have been using the desk top computer, in our study, to try to catch up with my visiting, when I have been able to get to it. Every time that I have nearly caught up with my visiting, several bloggers publish posts and once again I slip down the greasy pole. So I have given up trying to get my visiting up to date. Rest assured that if I normally read your blog and have not done so recently, that it will be on my list of blogs to read.

And now for something different - an award!

I was given this One Lovely Blog Award sometime ago by the multi-talented Janine at Sniffles and Smiles and have not got around to doing anything about it, because of being in and out of Blogland, at the whim of my laptop and a few other problems.


I have decided to give the award to fellow bloggers who are my neighbours here in the north west of England.So you see there are a few small benefits to living in this area and the recipients are as follows:

CG - the compulsive worrier who is also a librarian and photographer and mother to two lovely daughters

Helen P - who has recently ghost written the biography of local millionaire Rob Lloyd

Scriptor Senex - who rambles from his chair

and

A Brit in Tennessee

who is a Cheshire expat living in Tennessee.