2008!

Life seems to be settling back to the usual routine, after a rather odd month, which started in mid December with the manic rush to complete everything for the school Carol Concert in Worcester Cathedral.

Worcester Cathedral is amongst the oldest in the country and to me, has a very special feel, it’s soaring arches defy gravity and to hear it’s colossal organ being played, is to be mentally transported to a higher plane, the bass notes reverberate through your entire body, making you feel part of the music.

The Carol Concert was just over an hour in length and Carols and Readings were punctuated by a four minute ‘performance’ by each year group, even the Nursery Class, how cute were they!

There were over a thousand people there including the Mayor of Worcester and other local dignitaries and celebrities , Mike being one, LOL!

It was a wonderful success, enjoyed by everyone. While she was getting everything set up, The Head was approached by a visitor to the Cathedral and on hearing what was about to happen, he decided to stay and watch. We had a lovely letter from him saying how much he’d enjoyed it. Praise indeed, as he was formerly the Head of Drama at a large University.

Once the Concert was over, my time was taken with completing end of term tasks and wrapping 60 small presents for all the children in my year group.

My last entry covers the time from when we broke up until after Christmas.

New Year’s Eve we had a small, late Christmas, with Catherine, Flo and Isabella. We had dinner, with crackers and opened all our presents to each other. Catherine had wanted to wait until I was well and we could make an occasion of it and Isabella had already been overwhelmed with presents.

 

Isabella was so funny as she came here a few times between Christmas and New Year, she would look at all the presents under the tree, point to them and then look at me with a questioning smile on her face and said “More?” I’m sure she thought I hadn’t noticed there were still some lying there and she obviously found present unwrapping a fun thing to do.

New Year over I then had to start thinking about returning to school but mainly I had a quiet time, trying to get my strength back after being ill. I have to say, I still don’t feel 100% but I’m getting there.

I’ve spent a lot of time at home and it has been a period of reflection, there are certain areas of my life I’m not happy with, either due to my own inaction, or from pressures caused by other people. I often think I will make changes but this time I know I will. I’m getting too old to spend my life making compromises. I’m going to start doing what I want and people can like it, or, do the other thing.

We are seriously looking into getting another dog, I know it will be a tie but we do miss having the company of a doggie person and walking is something I need to do, to help keep me fit. I find Mike is usually booked for work for most of my school holidays and now Sundays will be a lonely day, as Mike has just been given a contract to do a Breakfast programme in Shropshire, then he returns to do an Afternoon programme in Worcester. I’m not going to be inclined to go walking on my own but a doggie companion will give me the incentive to go out.

Catherine, myself and a dear friend will be starting on our allotment soon and I’m really looking forward to that. We decided to wait until the New Year to get started, as over wintering vegetables doesn’t seem to have any great advantage.

I won’t name the friend, but I would like to say, she had an awful shock before Christmas. Without warning, her husband had a Stroke. Luckily, he appears to be making a good recovery but he was typical of so many men, he never felt it necessary to get himself checked out at the Doctor’s. He felt fit, so what could possibly be wrong? As it turned out, quite a bit. Hypertension, known as the silent killer, doesn’t usually show any symptoms until it’s too late. So if your husband is of a ‘certain age’ and is being stubborn about going to the Doctor’s, you can buy an excellent, easy to use monitor from Lloyd’s Chemist for £9.99. I’ve bought one myself as I suffer from ‘White Coat Syndrome’, which means whenever I have mine checked, it’s an artificially high reading. So with my Doctor’s agreement, we checked I was using it properly and I am taking it daily and keeping a dairy. Veryinteresting, it’s actually quite low when I take it here. What was really interesting is that I started drinking decaff coffee about two years ago. If I go out and have a Latte with Catherine in town, I feel really queer afterwards. This never used to happen but I started thinking I must be reacting to the caffeine.

I’ve found that if I test my blood pressure after a real coffee, the reading will be really high and that lasts for a few hours. So, you real coffee drinkers, let that be a warning to you. (Dawn, this means you. LOL!)

My father suffered a devastating stroke in his mid sixties, so this a problem I feel very strongly about.

We should be going out to lunch today with Mum, Wilf, Catherine Flo and Isabella, only after the torrential rain yesterday, I’m not sure if the roads are passable, last night it was flooded just before the pub we are going to. Hopefully things have cleared now and fingers crossed, I think we’ve escaped a visit from the brook, it’s just managed to remain in its banks this time, although the flood barriers have been erected alongside the river. Worcester can be a very wet place sometimes.

I’d better go and let the chickens out now, they had to stay in their Ark all day yesterday due to the weather and they are clucking their displeasure, loudly, which might annoy the neighbours.

It’s a bit late but Happy New Year!