Category Archives: family

But will we fly back..

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My youngest and me are flying to NYC on 22 January, returning 26 January. It is just because she has been bugging me no end to go to America so it’s weekend charging round all we can see there. We got the trip just after the $:£ rate got really good for us and before everything financial started to crumble. And we got it before I knew when the US Inauguration was going to be. Hmm. So Obama takes the oath on the 20th and 2 days later I’ll be in a plane heading for what would be a prize city. If you google ‘Colin Powell January‘ you will see Jan 21/22 mentioned and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that doing something spectacular just after the 20th would make all the headlines. I know Powell was the one who gave the Iraq WMD presentation but he is a guy who would know stuff too. This makes me nervous.

Skimming over the week

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So this week I’ve had the worst asthma in years but seem to have turned the corner on that thankfully. Finally persuaded J to watch the LOTR trilogy (Fellowship was slow, Towers was good, Return was okay, too much fighting) and we both agreed that the end was supremely pants. J found out a bank card of hers had been cloned in London – luckily she had just taken the money out. Thomson actually agreed that the holiday we went on had too much rubble so they sent a compensation check. P has come back today with a mass of homework (she’s predicted A / A* in most subjects) but D has come back for the weekend so all is good, very good.

It was on a Saturday

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in 1986 that Jacq and I got married. And here we are on a Saturday 22 years later still married and happy to be with each other. (And if anyone deserves credit it’s Jacq for putting up with me).

200 miles.

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Earlier today we drove away from some flats in Sunderland and we left D there to live in one for a year. She is now 200 miles away, over 3.5 hours by car and sitting here now writing this that is a very very long way away. She chose Sunderland University for the BSc. Psychology (Hons). She could have chosen Leicester, or Derby, probably others. The creeping inevitability of yesterday (the drive up) and today (the farewell) has been evident here for a few weeks. In some ways the fact that we have now crossed the event is a good thing because we can now all get on with what we knew was going to happen. But right now everyone is feeling a loss.
No-one has yet moved into the flats with D so she’s alone. J has lost her eldest daughter and a best friend. P has lost one of the 3 constants in her life, lost her best friend, lost her sister. I’ve lost my little girl. Of course we’ve lost nothing because we have IM, email, phone, texts. But we’ve .. she’s not here and we aren’t there. This is how it is meant to be. She was always going to go to Uni, she was always going to leave home.
But it was always in the future.
Never today, always tomorrow.

The last..

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And so begins a week of lasts. Nothing morbid, nothing bad, all very normal in fact, but the list of lasts has started.

And in matters unrelated J could be in for some bad health news this week so we are hoping that the results we get are unremarkable.

A late post

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The house is stressful in a hidden sort of way, has been for a while now. It’ll be around for another couple of weeks too. Jacq isn’t so good but isn’t so bad either, just a bit worse than normal. Though what she says is a bit could well be more. It’s hard to tell and she rarely does say just how much. And I saw the doc today and it looks like I’m rundown though quite how that happened is beyond me. Life is normal unless it’s that stress thing. 14 days of that to go.

The ipod touch hasn’t crashed since. That said I’ve put no more apps on, just the ones J plays, I use and Frotz and Metasquares. Got some Sennheiser CX300′s today which should enhance the listening pleasure while tramping around fields with the dog.

And Miro. Need to find some good viewing there.

NYC Jan 09

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P nags me about wanting to go to the USA. Jacq found that Thomson have offers on right now so in January myself and P are heading to NY for a 4 night stay. She could have chosen SF but she opted for NY instead. Her job now is to plan that time to fit the best places in with ‘the best’ being entirely her choice.

Tears

Sometimes the reality of having MS and the disability and the future outlook and the effects it has not just on her life but ours gets too much for J. Today was one such day. Upsetting.

My girls

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P was at stage school this week and Friday night was the performance. As much as I dislike this sort of thing and even though I was duty bound to attend it was really good. So much so that I sought out the teacher and praised it and one of the actors in particular.

D was asked out by a Leicester City footballer. She declined, she declined again, she didn’t give her mobile number and her friend with her didn’t pass it on either. I think she’s really cool for that.

Yes!

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D passed her A levels. Got the grades needed to get to University.

So she is happy and we are incredibly proud of her. Big smiles all round.