Time To Celebrate.......

 
Last Saturday, 14th February, is a double celebration day in this house

Valentines day when we give each other a card and Hubby gives me flowers

And Hubby's birthday and all the rest of the cards are his. 

I suggested he gets a new shredder as his birthday gift from me rather than use friendA's that he often complains about.  He thought that a great idea, however, he had to do his own research and do his own order as he has the online account, and of course he paid for it, then collected it and finally put it all together. 

We know it works well as he has been hedge cutting and shredding and already made three trips to the tip this week. 

Saturday afternoon Son&fiancé came round and brought him a new jumper and cake to share. 

It was also a Doggy Day Care day so she was very pleased as Son&fiancé are her favourite people too. 

Tuesday pancake day didn't go unnoticed, but nothing special as our favourite is our childhood traditional of thin crepes with sugar and lemon juice mmmmm

Wednesday evening our usual pub shared their new entertainment of music bingo.  Each bingo card is filled with song titles and their artists then it's luck what tracks are played. Out of our group of six only friendP won a dishcloth hahaha

We were very recently told of an old fried Charlie who had been very ill for a couple of months who had just passed away. Thursday was his funeral so Hubby and I and Son joined a huge crowd to celebrate his life. . Charlie and his family were good friends of ours way back in the days when Hubby and Son were heavily into 10 pin bowling but we had all lost touch for far too long. It was a pleasure to join everyone and remember the good times with these good people. 

I was hoping Friday's hospital appointment was also going to be a celebration but unfortunately I'd had to ask for my annual Cystoscopy to be a month earlier than it was due and unfortunately my suspicions were confirmed they had found another tumor mass in my bladder and it will be surgically removed as soon as possible. As this is now the seventh time I'm not panicking and we even managed to find it funny when the nurse was doing an update of my online records and when commenting on the shear extent of my heath records asked if maybe I was being sent in as an NHS Secret Shopper hahaha 

Maybe give each other a hug or kind word more often eh?

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Pick n Mix.......

 
Early Saturday morning I get a WhatsApp hello from my children who are out on one of their walks. The view behind them is The Orwell Bridge (I think). 

The next pic I received was the empty mugs and plates inside an eatery of some sort. 

My beautiful orchid has been naked since Christmas and now it is full of buds all taking their time to gradually try on their new dress and show it off. 

Schlumbergera often called the Christmas cactus  or Easter cactus depending when yours flowers. This one has never made up its mind when it wants to flower and most years doesn't bother. So that was why I got excited when I saw a bud, a single bud but a promise of a flower. 

Long before Christmas we bought the stuff to clean our ovens with. It never happened. Every time I used either oven it was a poke to my conscience but it still never got done. 

Finally I got round to it when I knew the ovens would be redundant for two evenings running. I have to confess that I started it all off but when I stopped (too early in the proceedings) Hubby took over and did a great job as he always does. 

Monday evening we were out to eat at a really lovely Italian restaurant, 

iI Palazzo, Chelmsford. 41 miles away from home but worth it as it's about the same distance from the friends we were meeting. We met friendsL&K and friendsL&M. Always too long a gap between meeting up and catching up with each other. 

Wednesday night out again as our usual group of six, in our most frequented pub..... The Grosvenor which has recently been refurbished. Last week was my first visit there. It's mostly OK but we were reserved one of those horrid booth tables which isn't really big enough for six and both friendT and I had difficulty sliding along, also the backs are very high which made seeing round the room and the entertainment tricky and a couple of dinners even had to be served over the seat back. I was at the wall end and just above me was an opening/window that was covered with a wire grid, I felt like I was inside the rabbit hutch!

This week when we arrived it was quite empty and we noticed they had replaced the small round table in the far corner with a large round table, the way it used to be years ago. Made us remember all the fun social things we've done as a group and friendM and I found our old coach trip holiday photos to laugh at. 

Sadly another horrid thing to report about our NHS. On Friday our neighbour,  the one that had suffered hours and hours before getting a hospital bed two weeks ago, then caught noro virus while in there which got passed to his wife and daughter. He was brought home by hospital transport and was home for less than two hours when his wife had to call an ambulance again as he was sick and then passed out and did it again when the ambulance was there. Apparently the paramedics said it was definitely a failed discharge as their tests showed he had low magnesium and low potassium and was dehydrated. We all need to worry about this! 

Back to happy things, today is a celebration day and a Doggy Day Care day so I'm off to get ready.

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Getting Springy.....

 
While Hubby was looking out of our lounge window this little chap was looking in. 

Around the garden so many of the spring bulbs are now showing through.

It's still cold and quite damp most days. 

Cuppa at Daughter's and we were there as Hubby had to help her get her broken dishwasher out of the back room and removed to the tip ready for the new one to arrive the next day. Hubby was there for the new one to install too. 

I hate moaning about our NHS as they have certainly given me all they have over the years, however there are now so many problems! Last week our neighbour had to leave home in an ambulance. It arrived with three paramedics from Colchester as Ipswich didn't have one to spare. We heard later he had to spend nearly eight hours on the ambulance as there was no room inside A&E. That stopped the ambulance and three paramedics able to take more calls!  He then spent 24 hours in A&E before there was a bed on a ward for him! For me two things this week. On Monday I ordered more prescriptions online and left a message on the answerphone of the urology consultant's secretary. Tuesday the NHS App showed my prescriptions had been issued direct to my chemist. Thursday I still hadn't heard back from urology so asked my Oncology Nurse to chase for me, she did and rang back to say I can't get a more urgent appointment than the end of the month. Friday when Hubby called in the chemist they had no meds for me, so I rang the surgery who said they had been predated for next Monday..... they have never predated meds before and she didn't know why these had! 

Friday was the funeral for Jo Carrick, owner and director for The Red Rose Chain Theatre and R's boss. I knew the town centre church would be full and I joined them online at the live stream. The front choir pews were filled with her theatre performers, including R, who all came out to the front four times and performed songs Jo had written, with Vincent on guitar and R on accordion. Her husband and son both gave very emotional tributes and poems were read. It was a beautiful service. 

Enjoy whatever you have planned for the weekend. I'll see you next week.

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