It is almost the end of the year and that funny time in between Christmas and New Year, but I am back at work already yet still in slop around and eat too much mode. It has been in many ways a fantastic fantastic year, especially with regard to trips. It started early as I went to Luxembourg for a weekend in the cold and then went to Malaga for a weekend in the warm to see if if I could find somewhere to live nearby. I enjoyed both trips but did not find a home. Then I went to Portugal, then I went to Portugal again, still looking but failing to find a home and more recently I have been to Portugal again. I also got to France twice, though my French does not seem to benefit and loved visiting Genoa on route to Nice, and Cannes. There have also been more trips than normal up north again trying to work out if I might want to live there, and to Brecon partly for the same reason. Yet here I still am in the south and having to work to keep living here, but it does mean easy access to the delights of London including my friends who live there. There have been trips to the theatre (On the Town for example) to see musicians e.g Cambridge Folk Festival and Barbara Dixon in Brecon and rare but interesting visits to the cinema e.g. Portuguese film at the film festival, the Olive Tree up in Berwick and Barnum which is my type of indulgence this Christmas in London. There was even a trip up to Warrington and Manchester for a lovely wedding. But this year has also had great moments of sadness but also of memories. Four special women have died this year. Sheila Powell, Nathan's grandmother, Greta Brunning and Jacky Francis. So the year is dedicated to them. Sheila and Greta both matriarchs who welcomed the whole family into their hearts for example weekends away, holidays etc. Nathan's gran who I could not talk to but who nevertheless welcomed me. Revisiting Kenya to say farewell to her was a fantastic opportunity to reconnect with the rest of the family and to feel so proud to be with them. And of course Jacky who was Nathan's second child minder and a great friend if mine for the last 28 or so years. WE used to live on the same estate in London, I have had holidays with her, in Spain and in the UK, we went to see Celine Dion together and at the millennium we stood on Highgate Hill together to toast and pray she would make it into the next century. Yet she did, and we managed to enjoy a lot more time together despite the death sentence than hung over for the last four years. She was buried just before Christmas just after her 58th birthday. I will miss them all and dedicate this year to them, and their surviving families.
