Keep calm and carry on

I haven't written for ages because, quite frankly, things have been so b-----  miserable that I would just have moaned and been a misery.     Families !!!  You never stop worrying about them.   On top of that, I went for my flu jab and nurse sent  me off to see the doctor because I have high blood pressure.  Not surprising.

Anyway, like the curate's egg, life  has been good in parts.  I did the church flowers for Remembrance Sunday which I was quite pleased with, then just before the cold weather really hit we had a new back door and the kitchen windows replaced.  The double glazing had broken down and we have looked at the garden through a glass darkly for a couple of years now.

This was mid-day and I was really nervous that they would not get the windows & door fitted before nightfall.  George had gone to London for the 150th anniversary dinner of his Rowing Club, Twickenham, and I was on my own for the night!  However, the wonderful Roydon and his son got me all nicely padlocked and secure and I am delighted with the result.   It is so bright!

Then on Friday we had our Rotary Charter dinner at Selwyn College - it was SO COLD even the men were eating dinner with coats over their dinnerjackets. One had a great deal of sympathy for mediaeval scholars dining in hall (yes, I know Selwyn isn't mediaeval but it is a large, lofty hall).  Even a vest underneath my evening dress and a cardigan on top of it did not keep the cld out.    I took lots of photographs and then asked George to take one with me in it.   He did  .........

We made him take another one but that was not much better - I think I prefer the first one.  Ah well.

Unable to sleep at night I have been reading like mad to stop the worries circling round in my brain.  The Return by Victoria Hislop and Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope have been  read in quick succession, both of which we are discussing at a book meeting in January - I hope I haven't forgotten all about them by then!   I enjoyed both, althoug I was not impressed by the beginning of The Return but it gathered pace and it was really interesting to learn more about the Spanish Civil War.   Friday Nights was the sort of book where you begin to really care about the characters although JT does use inordinately long sentences with loads of commas and clauses.

Every year George does a quiz for Christmas and sells it for a pound a go at the church bazaar and elsewhere.   There are always 100 questions and it is VERY hard, with cryptic clues, anagrams etc.  He allows two months before the papers have to be in and people just seem to love it.  He markets it as one to do after Christmas lunch, and for the sake of copying off 100 or so sheets it is an easy money spinner.  We have covered so many subjects over the years, food and drink, clothing, entertainment etc. and this year the subject is The Sea, all that is on it and in it.  The hysterical thing is that he has lost the crib sheet with the answers on, and as he started to do this quiz back in August the old memory is really being tested with the result that both of us are poring over the questions and complaining about how hard they are!   What is the betting that just as we solve the last clue, he will find the answers !!!

So now we have a funeral this week of a dear friend in the village, sadly struck down by Motor Neurone disease at the tender age of 62.  A great patchwork and quilter she produced exquisite work and was very active in the village. What a tragedy - and it has all happened so quickly.     Then there is Christmas to get through - and I am afraid for the first time ever that is how I am thinking of it.  I am even dreading doing the Christmas tree, usually one of my favourite tasks.   I just hope the Christmas spirit manages to break through somewhere along the line.   Doom and gloom all around I see.   I don't think I had better write any more,  I'm going off to count my blessings.