February. 10

 Family gathering 

Help at hand

My family again turned up trumps today - by turning up to help clear the flat ready for the move.Brenda Ivor Jim and Val what a difference. 

February 9

 

I think Amazon’s share price  is due to drop. My avalanche of spending is subsiding. I cannot count my purchases but it runs into  hundreds.

 I started  from scratch when I went to Sunrise four years and  it has continued at a mad pace  as I stocked up a huge range, from food to clothes,  radios to sweets. 

A non stop procession to Bedroom Two  with only one error in four years. 

 Amazon.You have been brilliant. 

February 7

Long tales 

They’ve got legs. That is what reporters call stories published and broadcast for a long  time like  Maddie McCann missing 16 years ago as new theories arise. And it is happening all the time.  the latest Nicola Bulley who disappeared three weeks ago with a reporter at the scene explaining how she disappeared from a river bank, her dog loose and phone found. The verdict from the police-she fell in and drowned.

The same story has appeared now daily for every day A reporter always  at the scene A distress to the family. Far too much. The only change, finding one witnesses who saw nothing that happened.Today’s report complains about tourists trampling the area. 

I agree it should be published as ‘ breaking ‘news” but not s?slavishly "If there is no development that is not necessary a sentence or two would enough. Just 

Think of the families distress.

The media do not care. They regularly carry on despite the stress,

The latest involves ……l last seen two weeks ago with daily reports, all speculation, after a few days a ‘witness’ was reported to have seen her On a river bank, her dog roaming and mobile phone.

Day after day,  the same story is repeated d@y after day with a reporter at the sce

February 8e

 Hospitals 

I hope this will be my last time in hospital. I have had more than enough not just for the past seven months but over the years.

The first was simple..

 I broke my arm falling off a wall in our front garden  in West Ham when I was about seven and a week later I was back there when I broke it again while paddling in the sea with Dad.

The next was a long stay after injuring a leg in the army I spent weeks at Aldershot army hospital making rugs and tapestry. Very embarrassing when I was transferred to Chepstow military  hospital.

En route, in full uniform, lying on a stretcher, cap and a large rug on my chest, I was  left on the floor of a crowded Reading station. 

I looked like a wounded soldier but the war was over.

I was at Chepstow for weeks. It was the end of my army career.

Since then I have been in hospital regularly for operations, coronavirus, and two serious illnesses, and now. None easy, the latest an ordeal hut at last coming to an end. About time too.

And to think mum in her 112years spent just one week in Cardiff Infirmary when she was 100.

After weeks s

February 5

 If

If - and it it is still a big iff - I will believe it only when it happens  I am wheeled out to the ambulance on my way home next Monday as Social Services tell me, I have so much  to do.

Clear out

A mountain of packing. My room is cluttered with boxes, tins, bottles, cases shopping bags and a walking aid,  the window sills covered, seven month of muddle, all out of my reach.

Two  walking sticks are hiding somewhere and I cannot lift a finger.

Once again it’s family to the rescue. Karen says she will do it all. 

Brenda and Ivor also volunteered.

How fortunate I am.

February 9 an

Fishing .

When I was young one of my favourite pastimes was - fishing.

Not in a stream, lake or in the sea but in a cardboard  box.

Cardboard fishes of different sizes with tiny magnets attached were placed in the box, having to be caught. Often tricky and time consuming.

It reminded me that recent political antics are very similar.

This time instead of fish it is the government trying to catch cheats, fraudsters, and bullies  among ministers and high power members with the chairman of the party the biggest recent catch. 

It is proving a problem for the prime minister accused of being  slow in making the catch and others too slow.

I’m 

February 2

Mum and me This year my mother and I would have clocked up 200 years. She was born in 1891,Iin 1926. Quite an achievement, There are many other examples of her busy earlier life.It was after her father died and her mother Fanny could not cope with looking after six youngsters, including the baby Mabel Mum took charge, with her eldest brother, Walter. She made a perfect job of it, even managing to become a bookmaker for many years in Cardiff, at first in a Cardif butcher shop and later at the Avana cake company and Western Mail. Dad's sudden death in 1942 at 16 changed her lifr; she became so seriously ill that Dorothy gave up her job to look after her. It turned out to be a lifetime task but Dorothy and her husband George did it so well Mum recovered and lived so long. Her health was mostly good but when I started to lose my mobility about eight years ago she was much fitter than I. Even at very old age she came to Bert and Jean, Dorothy and George and Rosemary and me regularly.She used to get up and down the steps outside their flat much better in all wrather and came for the day and on holiday regularly having her firs trip in a plane when over ninety. She was wonderful with all the family children and children generally. i remember her as always being cheerful When she finally became ill a few weeks before she died she was angry as she was still enjoying life so much.