It seems I shall live

Wednesday - and today I feel as though there may be light in the tunnel ahead.  It's been pretty rough but still not an ounce of weight loss.

I haven't been to see a doctor but I'm now wondering whether those sneaky Singapore Airlines people snuck some mushrooms into my "NO MUSHROOMS" meal.  It is certainly in keeping with my normal response, but because I didn't have the proper medication, perhaps it lasted longer and I know that the Chinese, particularly, don't understand the word "no".

We shall never know.

Suffice to say I feel as though I need another holiday now.  Perhaps not quite so far away this time.  And perhaps without the earthquakes that heralded my return.

It's been great - thanks to everyone for the great time I've had ... thanks to friends who seem to have enjoyed this form of communication in my absence (and told me so).   And thanks, if you're reading this, for being part of my life.  I'm indeed blessed. X

                                                    OVER ... and .... OUT !!!!

Home again

This won't be a very long blog ... but just to say I'm home and in my own bed again.  Probably the worst trip I've had - diaorrhea and vomitting began 2 hours out of Heathrow and still continues.     Awful stomach cramps and wouldn't wish this on anyone!

Will write again when I feel more robust.  There was a 4.9 shudder within 4 hours of my arrival.  Didn't feel it!

Nice to be home - sunny blue skies.

PACKING PERHAPS

We (well, I, to be honest) had a lovely quiet day yesterday - Steph roasted duck for supper.  I managed to get 3 more geese and 2 more hens knitted towards Hannah's "12 days of Christmas" but still have an awful lot to do.  If I'm getting weary, I can't imagine how she'll feel after having to stuff them and bring them to 'life'... so on that basis have decided that I'll wait now until she tells me they're completed, before I knit any more.

I'd been under the misapprehension that I fly out on Friday evening and that's what I've been telling anyone who asks. I was still calling it 29th (that being the actual date) ... it was lucky that Steph overheard me telling one of her sons on Christmas day and she put us right.

So today's Tuesday and tomorrow (28th) I will drive over to Philip's for lunch and a few more farewells.

My suitcase LOOKS as though it might hold everything I need it to hold so that has to be a plus.  I'll try not to worry about how much it weighs.

So it looks as though the move is on ... I've had a lovely time - been spoilt rotten - and am not looking forward to renewing my acquaintance with tthe vacuum cleaner or cooking responsibilities.  But it will be great to see everyone again.  If only all these earthquakes could organise the two countries to be closer, it would make life much more simple.

I probably won't write here again before I leave - but I'll put a comment on as soon as I get home, so that the full circle is completed.  Hope I don't get dizzy.

SPEECHLESS ...!

This silly voice of mine is letting me down again - I had about 24 hours of 'cold' and extensive use of tissues, but today I've woken much clearer in the head but still (normal) voiceless.

I've also woken to the news of the 6th and 4th strongest earthquakes overnight, at home.  And that renders me a bit speechless too.  I expect that has nicely set everything "back" and the main topic over Christmas Dinner in Christchurch at least, will be relief that Santa still managed to get his sleigh to touch down.  I hope "my" pilot will be equally capable on 31st.

Meanwhile, I'm looking at my suitcase and its contents with some doubt.  I'm glad it's expandable (like my waistband) but you can't help wondering ... and 6 days ahead is a bit too early (in my book at least) to start trying to make it fit.

I'll be back on the 31st - ready to do my share of spadework again ... and I'd already got my head around portaloos and chemical toilets, with the news that "they" were scheduled to dig up our road and sort out the water and sewers, anyway.

Take care out there, you Cantabrians ... and happy Christmas to all.

Christmas - winter style

As one who normally doesn't leave the house in the last week before Christmas, it has come as somewhat of a shock to do the exact opposite over here!  Coming to Reading this week has always been so that I can take Steph (still not driving after shoulder surgery) wherever she needs this week.  I THINK most of the grocery shopping has been completed and now it's just a case of taking her three granddaughters for a shopping spree for mummy and daddy today ... and doing a food parcel for a friend ... and collecting the turkey ... oh and baby sitting all five grandchildren on Friday night whilst delivering the turkey to her daughter in law.

Remind me next year not to be so neurotic, trying to keep out of all the traffic at home.

Today is the shortest day - which means the exact opposite in NZ I guess.  It also means that by the time I leave in 8 days' time, it will be 4.30 pm when it gets dark, and not 4.15 pm (I'm told it improves by 2 minutes a day).

The decision has been reached that I'll spend Christmas day here - I'm hopeful that I might get across to the family in Cirencester on 28th (the day before I leave) for a few hours, but am not over keen about driving after dark on roads that I don't know and in weather that I can't be sure of.  Time will tell.

Happy last minute shopping!  May the queue that YOU join be the fastest in the store/bank.

 Oh dear, oh dear ... they've changed the way I do this so I hope I can still make it work!  Only 10 days and I'll be home - why couldn't they just have waited until the new year?

It's been a flurry of farewells really yet in so many ways, it feels as though I've only just arrived.  I do find myself wondering how I'll cope with 'running a house' again after all this five star treatment - and the eight boxes I filled and put in my loft so that I could rent 34A out, are rather playing on my mind.  At least I shall have something to DO when I get back - it sounds as though most of my NZ friends will be paying me back and going on holiday themselves!

I left Christine and Alan's on Thursday morning and drove across to Sutton Valence for another two days.  Ingrid and John have spent time at 34A so certainly know my weakness - pate on toast for breakfast - and  the unknown - pheasant casserole for supper.   Both were catered for but I can report, now I'm back to Steph's scales, that after losing that first half stone (while I was a bit poorly I suspect) my weight seems not to have risen despite all the fabulous fare.  I expect that with a little effort on my part, I can wipe out that deficit over the next 8 days.

The Christmas trees are out and there was a really white frost this morning.  We did have a short snow flurry on Thursday (in Kent) but apart from some whiteness on the hills beside the motorway yesterday, there wasn't much to show for it in the south, at least.

The car has done well - we're discussing the need for antifreeze in the radiator and then I expect it should go on the market.

We won't however, discuss the fact that my suitcase has definitely shrunk.  I shall put off the evil hour for as long as I can, but I rather suspect I'll be using a second suitcase for the overflow.

Today we're off to see Father Christmas - I think I'll ask him for a win at Lotto.  It would certainly make these farewells a lot easier.

AND SO IT CONTINUES ...

Still with Jill and Tom, after writing the last blog, we went along to the local church on Sunday for a 5pm 'Carols and Lessons' by candlelight service, followed by the lighting of the tree on the village green and then canapes in the local village hall.

Sadly this photograph didn't turn out very well.  I'd like to say it was the dim candlelight and speed at which it was taken (in case I got caught!)  but I fear I simply wasn't "up to" the challenge.  This picture is MEANT to show the Squires Box and some beautiful panelling, but misses badly.

It was a lovely service taken by a retired Irish clergyman who referred to Jesus as the bairn in the stable   - but the 12 members of the choir sang valiantly, with gusto and all the readers were under the age of 15 or 16, at a guess.  I  was particularly interested to learn that the King James Version was completed in 1611 (400 years ago) and we stood for the reading of John 1: 1-11 because it was the first scripture to be read in a service (evidently) at that Christmas.  I guess all you good Anglicans at home already know that but it was news to me.

Tom later told me that he had attended an exhibition to mark the occasion earlier in the year and he had found it very interesting - certainly a large contrast to having Mary's fiance Joseph mentioned in one reading, and the babe in strips of cloth in another.

I'm now in Sevenoaks - still in Kent - spending a last few days with Jill's sister and niece. (2nd cousins by marriage, on mum's side)  Yesterday Julia (whose wedding I attended a couple of UK visits ago) and I had a lovely day with Darcy (whose 3rd birthday was held last time I was in Kent)

... and watching a spot of Pepper Pig.  Thankfully I managed to thrash (well, scraped in) Julia in a game of Phase 10 in the evening, thus managing to even the score from the game we played when I was last in Sevenoaks.

Today I moved to the other side of the town, to Christine's where Darcy entertained us with memory games on granma's computer ... and then we three, plus Julia, went out to lunch at St Julian's (see Darcy's 3rd birthday) to meet up with Christine's friend Jenny.

Jenny is a lovely lady who is a "blue badge guide" in London and it was she who took us (2 years ago) into London to visit the London Eye and walk through Westminster Abbey.

So it seemed only right for Jenny, Christine and me to board a train and travel into the Tate Gallery where we saw an exhibition by Barry Flanagan.  Christine is particularly enamoured by his bronze castings ... particularly his hares (though he also did elephants and dogs).  Unfortunately the exhibition was of his earlier works (pre hares) but it was lovely being able to wander around such a vast building sited on the Thames embankment.

 Jenny and Christine cunningly disguised below the pillars - like me, Christine is a bit camera shy!

Ever the blue badge guide, as we left the exhibition Jenny pointed out the side of the building which is pocked with shrapnel damage from the war.  I'd never have noticed it in a million years, but it really was amazing, though not very obvious in this picture.  I take the view that I take a photo and if it comes out it's a bonus.   It was pitch black, though only 5.15 pm, so use some imagination, perhaps? 

 From there we went to Westminster Abbey - this photo was taken with our backs to the Abbey, towards the Houses of Parliament with the (blue) London Eye in the background.  Look hard enough and you'll pick out a Christmas tree in front of Parliament too - and the fact that the light is glowing above the clock, in the tower, indicates that Parliament is in session at the time.  (more Jenny info!)

We were in that vicinity because Jenny had invited Christine and me to attend the Blue Badge Guide Carol Service at St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey.  (move over Wills and Kate)  It too was a lovely service - I couldn't help realising the enormity of it all when, during the first carol it occurred to me that this most definitely was a "once in a lifetime" opportunity ... little old me amongst all these London guides and much pomp, singing carols with the best of them!

For the second time (the first one being in West Peckham on Sunday) Silent night's chorus was sung in german and there were 'performances' included - one from Shirley Valentine about her son's Nativity Play performance and the reading of  'Christmas Truce 1914' by Captain R J Armes.  Both relevant and thought provoking, but not something I've ever experienced in a service of that nature before.

It's been an amazing day.   I was so keen to share it, I'm sitting up in my bed at 12.45 a.m. writing it up.

This trip keeps bringing up more and more unexpected amazing moments - I have indeed been very spoilt - from the first outdoor concert I attended with Steph and Ray at the beginning of my stay (when 'my'  portaloo door flew open, revealing me to an astonished audience) to a very luxurious "ladies" in the Tate Gallery with automatic taps in the hand basins and very posh hand washing liquid.

This retirement lark has a lot going for it!