🦞🦂 *What are we up to?*🦂🦞

Hip hip hooray Grammaretto!
🦴🦴

So sorry to hear so many of us have had bereavements so near Christmas. Mr Doodle, My husband's sister and mother, my father, my friend's husband.. so many anniversaries and sadness
Obviously we miss loved ones all the time but I think we miss them SO acutely when we "should be" happy.
I know the absence of my parents at my son's wedding last year (nearly 40 years since they had died) really unexpectedly pulled the rug out for me for a chunk of the day.

On Monday my mother-in-law had booked a family meal at a restaurant she liked near her home. There should have been 20 of us. It was her "Christmas treat" so very difficult to decide if we should go to be honest.

It's only a modest family run Italian restaurant with maybe 50 or 60 seats in total but so friendly and so accommodating. They don't usually open on a Monday but with it being Christmas I think they thought it might be worth it (as we guaranteed 20 people) - so I was reluctant to cancel because i feared they would make a loss! I confess my heart wasn't in it though.

...however, once we got there it was really lovely and we all felt warm and happy with our cracker-hats on. I took the chocolate Christmas coins she'd bought for her great-grandchildren to have on boxing day (when they were due to visit) and they had those at the end of their meal.
🪙🪙🪙🪙🪙
Everyone was in good form... I think she would have approved.

Coffee with your friend sounds very nice Doodle and tomorrow's church.

I took the orders in our community café this morning. It was good to see so many friends enjoying eachothers company over coffee and scones.

I got very cold again this evening. It is cold. Minus 3 or 4 and my fire refused to light.

The man didn't come for the toilet set either so that was annoying. He may come tomorrow. A woman has now written to ask me if the basins and toilets have all their fixtures and fittings.

While sorting through books today I came across one I had presumed lost as I'd not seen it for years. It was written by a gt grandfather of mine - a successful NZ farmer who came to Europe with his wife and some of their grown up DC in 1910 and it's his story of the trip! It's quite funny, especially when he talks about the sheep, cows and crops which is his main interest, comparing them with his own.
He also talks about Victorians. It took me a while to realise he means people from Victoria in Australia not old fashioned people.

He compares Scots farms with English, favourably.

Tomorrow is NYE the first anniversary of my new hip. This year has gone very quickly.

Night night Lobstars.

Grammaretto i find the passing of time hard too.
Pleased you had a good day out in Edinburgh. I’d love to go there it looks lovely in photos.
I met a friend for coffee in costa this morning and spent the afternoon knitting but didn’t get much done.
Church in the morning

I feel the same Doodle every day, however pleasant it is, is another day further away from my beloved.

I'm glad you'll be with DS1 on NYD.

I have no plans for Hogmanay but I daresay something will turn up.

I'm doing an extra shift at the community shop tomorrow and someone is coming to take one of the toilets and washbasins found in my cellar!

I enjoyed an exhibition in Edinburgh today. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to see such incredible works of art so close in every sense.

Drawing the Italian Renaissance: The King's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse share.google/G3nlkaLarIyV6Cw1h

I'm sorry you are sad, Doodle.
Sending hugs 🫂

Evening all.
Had a lovely afternoon with my friend and her friend. Lots of laughter and Christmas leftovers,
Meeting up with another friend for coffee tomorrow. dS1 has invited me for lunch on NYD. Can’t believe another years passed, it makes me feel so sad to think of how time is passing since I lost DH 😢

Pure linen weaving is a true skill.
To weave tight and smooth by hand it should apparently be woven slightly dampened.

I've not tried weaving 100% linen but have helped a friend spray her warp with a plant spray as she wound it on.

Evening all. Just a quick visit as it’s very late and I’m very sleepy. Church today and coffee duty for me. Three of us went for lunch and managed to chat for a good few hours, a bit of shopping in the sales and then home.
Ordinary Monday tomorrow. I’m all out of sync with the days.
Yes DGD was pleased to be reunited with her phone. Made me laugh when they said they could see it driving along the road at 30 miles and hour. 🤣

I understand NotSpag and it doesn't matter now.

I believe the Queen had old age as cause of death.

I have a death certificate for my 3 x gr grandfather who died in an extremely poor part of Port Glasgow in 1855 aged 97. That certificate gives cause of death as Senility 1 year.
Not bad for an Irish born linen weaver who had joined his children in Scotland in midlife.

Grammaretto
No death certificate yet as my mum-in-law was still being triaged in A&E. They hadn't established for sure what was wrong.

The nurse practitioner who called the ambulance team out thought she knew what was starting to go wrong and the ambulance team monitored her all the way to the hospital - but because nobody really knows it had to go to the coroner who may want an autopsy.

Sadly I think her body had just done enough. In the old days they would probably have written "frailty" or similar... and had she refused to go in, the GP would have known her well enough to fill in something that was perfectly likely

I accept that this is the right thing to do though... It could so easily be "foul play" when someone is already weakened. I know in this case it was not, but everyone, however elderly, should be protected so accept it. She will not suffer, and we can wait
❤️

Ooh Doodle - I love the idea you have had your stolen loot tracked! - and on the way to your house too! ...

It's hard being a thief these days Doodle with all the tracking devices.
I hope DGD was reunited with her phone.

I'll gladly have a drink with you but I think mine will be herbal tea. I seem to have given away or drunk any alcohol.

Cheers! ☕️

I'm off to bed. Bound to feel more cheery tomorrow.
I watched some pretty awful films and TV so nothing to recommend apart from a tribute programme to Patricia Routledge and some others which was fine.

Ixion i love your DGS présent idea. I wonder what his mum will think. 🤣
NN a beach walk sounds lovely. Even if it’s windy or rainy, nothing like it. Your time in your Mo Ho sounds a perfect way to celebrate Christmas. The dogs enjoying it too.
Kaimoana i Hope you get to your X-ray appointment soon. Silly about the transport situation. Not joined up thinking.
How lovely you got to spend time with Gubbins.
Grammaretto yes i found the chocolates. They were at the bottom of the bag I’d put in the cupboard outside and then forgotten about. Today was a lovely day with DS1 and family and their adorable cockerpoo who kept eyeing everyone with doleful eyes ever time food was passed around. We had a lot of fun opening our presents including the dog who fell asleep clutching his new stuffed rabbit toy.
Notspaghetti so pleased you have got to see so many members of the family and had a nice few days.
Jan wow that is early for daffodils. What a lovely sight on Christmas Day.
Grammaretto I’m like you in that if I have days of activity with others then am back on my own I go into a dip. It’s sort of like an anticlimax. I’m here on my own too. Shall we have a drink together ? Jeeves your services are required. 🥂
Well Ixion dyslexia strikes again. I was wondering why your DF was out trying to find bagpipes.!
After a nice day at our sons I was on my way home when I received a phone call from our son asking me to return to their house. I had apparently put our granddaughters phone in my handbag by mistake and driven off with it. Only when my son turned on tracker to find her phone did they see her phone driving along the road on the way to my house!

I'm sorry you have slumped, Grammaretto. It's not like you to have time on your hands. If you can find anything on the tv, do let me know!

It has been sunny here but desperately cold.

A potter out to the village found me enjoying coffee and cake with a friend I bumped into. We have lots of cafés and eateries of various persuasions, but we always support an 'independent', tucked away off the main drag, in a large outbuilding and owned by a young girl who works her socks off and bakes on her one day off a week. She has luckily been adopted by the serious dog walkers and cyclists in lycra, those of us people who are happy to tuck themselves away, out of the public eye.

It transpired that DF was also on a mission to track down bargains. Our shopping bags revealed half price Christmas cards, Christmas puds, tree decorations and mince pies. All will be welcome next Christmas- if I can remember where I put them.

Jan, we have our first camellia in bloom - with many more buds on the way😳

That sounds too early Jan although some varieties are deliberately bred to be early, presume those weren't.

Your Christmas sounds highly charged and very active NotSpaghetti . Isn't it unusual not to issue a death certificate soon after the event?
I know that film well. Our Swedish friends introduced us to it. It is very funny!

I am in a bit of a post 🎄 slump today.
It's cold, dark and raining and nothing planned.

I began to work on emptying the bookcase but it's no fun by myself.

🌧 ⛈️ ☔️ 🌩 🌧 🌂 ⛈️ ☔️ 🌩 🌧

Can Jeeves cheer me up please. Is there anything worth watching on TV?

Me again - briefly! Forgot to mention but on Christmas Day on the way to our local pub we passed our village green and the daffodils were out! They are always early but never seen them on Christmas Day before. There are lots more too flower but very cheering to see quite a few out aleady.

Hello, at last,
We had a lovely (if exhausting) Christmas Day in the end, thank you for thinking of us. Our lovely daughter and husband (with the three boys) asked us to share our day with them.

She drove an hour with her 15 year old to meet us at an earlyish church service and after driving home with us - to collect contributions towards dinner and their Christmas presents of course - she drove us back to her home where her husband was already busy cooking a huge dinner.

It was a lovely day - with yes, some tears, but lots of laughter. We had way too much to eat, (all the usual Christmas things and more besides) played games, exchanged gifts, watched Dinner for One.

Our Swedish relatives watch this short piece as a traditional part of their Christmas- apparently it's watched every year in Sweden and Germany - but we have never seen it before.

It's a British stage act that in 1963 was turned into an 18-minute black-and-white film, it's performed in English by comediansFreddie FrintonandMay Warden.
"A butler, a lady, plenty of alcohol, and a tiger skin rug"

www.ardmediathek.de/video/dinner-for-one/dinner-for-one-das-original/das-erste/Y3JpZDovL2Rhc2Vyc3RlLm5kci5kZS80NDM3XzIwMjAtMTItMzEtMTUtNTA

We had a long WhatsApp video with our son and his wife in the Philippines - which was very nice - and we heard about the funny things, trials and tribulations of their recent life there.

She has been working for her family's hotel business over there and has recently been renovating and upgrading a restaurant- bringing in great local chefs - but recently only those who have worked substantially abroad. This seems to have finally made a huge difference and everything works so much better.

At last they can offer something that is closer to "fine dining".
They have been open only about a fortnight now and one customer has dined there on eight occasions apparently! They expect once he's tried everything he will maybe pace himself better!

Yesterday we spent the day at our middle daughter and family's house with our youngest son and his family.
At least we got out as far as a village park with the little ones yesterday after a Christmas day entirely inside - so today I'm intending to extend my "strolling stamina".

on another note - I have booked to meet a funeral director on Monday... still no death certificate though

So lovely to hear that we all seem to have had at least a fairly happy time... and Kaimoana a real fairy story day!

Sending warm wishes and lots of love

Nice to see the scene inside the MoHo Naughtyneine it looks comfy although perhaps crowded with 2 dogs?

It's such a shame there is a lack of suitable transport for you to get to the hospital Kaimoana .

I hope you had a lovely time at your son's today Doodle and that the chocolates turned up.

Sorry about your DD's dog Jan 😔

I was invited to the other DGP today. She's a fabulous cook. It was also a chance to see DD and the DGC. I never see enough of them

Tonight's order was hot chocolate. Very good it was too.

What wonderful, hopefull and happy posts. Just what we all needed at the end of what has been a rather challenging year for many of us.

Here's to a smoother 2026.

I wonder why post get lost so often?

I sometimes write mine in Word, due to my poor eyesight and then paste them here.

The Xray on my fractured spine which I should have had 2 weeks ago has been re-scheduled but still at a time when the Health Shuttle, my only transport, is on its hols.

I would have thought with so many (hundreds) of people a week, using it, schedulers would have some way of seeing from our records that appointments MUST be within the shuttle times. Especially easy now its all digital.

But that's only a small niggle, I am grateful for free health care at my age.
I wonder what, if anything, can be done for a fractured spine?

Maybe they'll inject some epoxy resin into the cracks !!

My DGD has some amazing polymer-based substance which is maleable to any shape and bounces.

I'd quite like the ability to bounce again.

*Hello All... I'm so happy to read that Christmas has been good in so many ways for you all. Kaimoana a real Christmas wish come true for you especially, time with your DS and Gubbins, just perfect. I fulfilled a dream yesterday, a walk on the beach, it was absolutely blowing a houli and freezing cold but the sun was shining. I didn't manage very far and DH held onto me very tight to make sure I didn't fall. Then back to MoHo Maeve for a fabulous duck in redcurrant sauce. ( It's a Rachel Allen recipe and so easy) Roast potatoes and leek, cauliflower,shredded sprouts gratin. The sprouts have to be hidden so DH doesn't realise they are there.....he ate the lot). The dogs are loving their beach and fields walks and sharing Christmas goodies too. The picture is Storm helping to prepare said sprouts!!!!!
Today we ventured into Tenby...it was rammed with people who had come to watch the hundreds of nutters who were doing the Boxing Day swim. Next year maybe I will.
Enjoy your evening whatever you may be doing.

So much 🦞activity at the GN waterhole despite the various Christmas activities.
Lovely to hear from everyone and of your doings, both fun-packed and contemplative.
Especially for Kaimoana, whose guardian angel transported her into a true family gathering❤️.

It's been lovely here too, with DC connected at various times.
A lovely FT chat in particular with DGS1 (10), conducted sotto voce as the rest of the family was around.

I've got a lovely present for Mama.
Tell me about it!
She does the cleaning in the house, so I've bought her a pair of those slippers you wear on your feet which work like dusters, so you can dust as you walk about ..

And, he added triumphantly, they only cost 3 dollars from Kmart.

DS has always reckoned he is a mercenary little s*d chap.

Mamissimo lovely to hear from you and what a smashing photo of Spud. Lovely looking young man. How he’s grown.
Oh Kaimoana I’m so pleased you spent Christmas with your son and family. How wonderful to see Gubbins again.
What a lovely day you had .😊
Grammaretto sounds like you had a lovely time with your friend’s friends. Lots of jollity and from what I read on the GM thread perhaps a little imbibing? Lady asleep on the floor with her dog! Glad you had fun.
Jan lovely to hear from you too, sounds like you had an enjoyable day. Shame about your DDs dog. Pets mean so much and it’s a great loss when it comes time to say goodbye.
Notspaghetti sorry you keep losing your posts. Hope otherwise all things are ok although a difficult time for family.
I’m off to the hospice soon for some quiet time with Dh . DS2 is coming too. He often goes there on his own to sit for a while. Tomorrow I’m going to DS1 . Now if only I could find the chocolates I bought 🤔
Have a good day all

Here I am - late as usual! Hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday! DH and I went to our local pub and had a great meal. I was looked after very well as usual - poor old soul hobbling around! - came home and went to sleep! My youngest daughter had to have her so much loved 14 year old dog put to sleep a week ago and rgere have been so many tears. Its sonhard when you lose a pet isnt it? My eldest daughter will be here next week for New Year. I have never been one of those mothers who insist their grown up children attend everytime I click my fingers!! Too many memories of my mother in law doing that!
Today is a lazy day with an unfortunate amount of chocolates lying around! You can tell what I will be doing!
Anyway hope everyone has an enjoyable Boxing Day with lots of chocolates and delicious foods!

Oh no! "Not another one!
Will write later... sorry

I meant to add, sorry your post vanished NotSpag because I wanted to hear about your Christmas which will have been peppered with sadness this time.

The all female lunch was great fun. I only knew a couple of my friend's friends beforehand but they were lovely, one an ex neighbour of hers just popped in to see her and was invited in. She was most appreciative of my veggie Wellington and the cosy welcome and crazy party game.