Another Sad Goodbye.....

My bilA had been unwell for some time and from the start of this year he had been in and out of hospital and when home living downstairs only with carers coming in each day. Sadly last week he suffered a second heart attack and never recovered. His funeral was yesterday.

He loved his football and since his wife/my sister died often watched nothing else for days. The joys of sky tv and multiple sports channels ☺ His loyalty to Spurs was famous with all that knew him. He had been moaning recently about how badly they had been playing which is why on Wednesday night we knew he'd be looking down and cheering as his team won their semi-final game against Ajax in the Champions League, and amazingly the final will be played on bilA's birthday!

So it was no surprise when his three children and his sister all wore Tottenham Hotspur kit tops to his funeral.

Jewish funeral services, for me, are tedious with lots of prayer readings straight from the book, some in Hebrew and some in English, some spoken and some sung. bilA was far more than a regular at the synagogue, he attended everything, Sabbaths, holy days, social events, taught children at the Hebrew classes and did guided tours and talks to local children on school's visits as well as holding the post of warden for many years. So the Rabbi and congregation members were all good friends and this helped make it a lot more personal especially when the Rabbi did her own personal reading.

His son did a reading too, which was a perfect balance of emotional and humorous and although he was visibly heartbroken he'd written and delivered his final tribute beautifully.

We left the cemetry and drove to his house, odd being there without him, still feels odd after nearly seven years my sisterM not beginning there. M&A had bought that house when they got married 51 years ago, and we have had so many shared memories there, so it's really sad to think that it will be cleared and sold and we may never set foot inside it again.

They had provided so much food, determined not to run short like they'd done once before. There were family and friends and ex spouses and previously estranged family members who were all getting on together and supporting each other. Great to see and proof how loved bilA had been.

Evening prayers when the Rabbi returned at 8pm and the lounge filled again with synagogue members. Most of them left soon after the service ended. We left soon after too and was loaded up with trays of food to take home along with some paperwork that I need to deal with and my paintings of York I'd done as a gift for M&A as York was one of their favourite places. These had been on their wall at the top of the stairs since 1993.

Love a discount......

Hubby and I drove over (he's just over an hour away) to take bilA to lunch as he has had a recent birthday.

Whenever I eat out I first check if where we are eating is included in our AA membership discount voucher which gives us 20% off and as bilA's local favourite is the Harvester it was included yaaay!

The day before in my emails I received another Harvester voucher that was a £10 off if you spend £30......even better!

It's not that we can't afford full price thankfully, or that we specifically eat in only the places that offer us incentives, it's just if they want to offer I'm more than happy to accept lol.

When we arrived at the restaurant we parked and all commented on the new and improved exterior, then through the doors to discover the interior had been given the full refurb treatment. We were greated by a very happy welcoming waitress who instantly told us today was 50% off as it was the first day to open after its makeover!

The food tasted even nicer knowing we had a super duper discount 😃😆😉
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A year and a centenary.....

Hard to believe that my op was a year ago! I've just had another full body CT Scan and I'll get the results when I see the consultant on 7th October. Can't help feeling a bit nervous till then but so pleased that they are still keeping a close eye on me.

Daughter and E are Tudors again for a few days, it's Michaelmas at Kentwell Hall, and the other three children are staying at home with M so hubby is doing the taxi service for R to and from her drama group.

Saturday evening we joined our neighbours at a local quiz night/social evening and we won the quiz yaay! There was a huge buffet, a chap singing most of the evening and a couple of entertainment interludes. All good fun. 

Unfortunately I had stomach pains and very little sleep that night. I hope it wasn't anything on the buffet or others might have suffered too. 

Anyway not wanting to let down bilA we went ahead with our Sunday as planned.  

We drove to Newbury Park and collected bilA at about 11am (ish) then drove right into London as there is no congestion charge at the weekend, and parked at a multi-story right near Tower Hill station which is only £2 for the whole day! And just across the road from the car park is the Tower Of London, the most beautiful, powerful, historic site in the whole of London in my opinion. I grew up and went to school near here and we often chose the Tower as a meeting place for friends (it was mostly free then).

But today we came to see the poppies, displayed in memory of World War 1, one hundred years ago...

Sorry for the poor photos, the sun was right in front of me :o(

 

There are still lots of volunteers adding to the display which will keep growing until remembrance day on 11th November when they will be sent out to the millions of people that have bought one. 

 

The weather was really hot, see so many people in t-shirts, and it's nearly the end of September!

 

 

Of course we had a 'Costa' stop then a walk around and stopped again outside a tapas bar on St Catherine's Dock where the men had beers and a light lunch and I had a glass of water!

 

Unfortunately, not feeling my best, I asked if we could cut the day shorter than we hoped it would be, so drove back to bilA's where Hubby had another cuppa then off home.

 

I did just manage half a cup of tea and one slice of toast then had a really early night and had a late(ish) morning and felt a whole lot better.

 

 

In case there is any confusion I had posted this once and two comments had been added then blogger lost it......then I found a half saved draft version!!! I think I've remembered roughly what I put the first time. So with fingers crossed I'll post this again.

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Sympathies and celebrations.....

8th August 2012 - Was my sisterM's funeral. So very sad, however, so very calm at the same time. She had organised it all herself. As we are Jewish our funerals need to happen as soon as possible so we were relieved that it could happen just 60 hours after she died. The retired Rabbi that she'd already asked was available and her plot was booked in the very newly consecrated woodland area. SisterM had even written her own eulogy outlining how grateful and honoured she had felt for the life she had lived and she had included thank-yous and humour!  Love you sis, really miss you!
BilA had said there would only be the one night shiver (mourning and prayers) and he insisted that hubby and I together with sisterS and bilK were to go on holiday as booked and not cancel or even postpone flights. With heavy hearts we said our goodbyes and got home just before 11pm :o(

9th - 16th August 2012 - Portugal holiday
2am the alarm went off and although hubby and I got up, ready and out I'm sure it was all done in my sleep!  We met sisterS and bilK at the Gatwick check-in desk at 4am and our holiday started.

At the end of the holiday we all agreed it had been brilliant and we must holiday together again......Sorry I jumped right to the end without saying that transport wise it was easy getting there, a bit of a delay on the flight home, we used the local tourist train

and hired a car for three days (phew so grateful for the air-con). Temperatures were around 30-36C and reached 38C a few times so all air-con gratefully received!

Our spacious self catering apartments were in the Vila Petra hotel in Albufeira and we took full advantage of the facilities and restaurants and bars there as well as finding great places to eat on The Strip including the very traditional Cataplana, twice in fact, I shared a chicken one with sisterS and a seafood one with bilK, on different days of course as they are very filling and very yummy! BilK with his assistant sisterS on toast and tea, cooked us breakfast twice too in their apartment and afternoon tea and cake was usually in ours. Actually this started because I had a birthday and was totally surprised by a fabulous celebration cake being presented to me courtesy of the hotel,  how lovely eh? So started our tea and cake break :o)

We got out and about every day bar lazy Sunday. We did a lot of walking and the route to the nearest beach was known locally as "cardiac hill" which thankfully we all managed (slowly). We visited Portimao and ate grilled sardines on the harbour overlooking the marina. We had a very long walk round the fort at Segras which was really interesting but would have been better for me if there had been a few shady places. Within the fort there seemed to be a special art exhibition and dotted around were a collection of very large sculptures of very curvy and very colourfully shiny nude women reclining on plinths, no we didn't believe what we were seeing either!

Other places included Lagos (pronounced Lahgosh apparently) and Vilamoura and we all really liked the Old Town Albufeira.

We found a lot to laugh about. Not totally sure how it started but the main joke was ice-cream being called "licky-licky" and our requests for licky-licky were frequent then it progressed to a difficulty becoming "tricky-tricky", fingers "sticky-sticky", cameras "clicky-clicky" ......you get the gist?

So we all had a great time but most importantly of all was having plenty of time to talk about sisterM and how we're feeling without having to put on a brave face for anyone. It was a good place to heal a little and return stronger to help each other heal too.
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Castles, Tudors, friends and relations....

Make a coffee first this is a long one  :o)


Friday 6th - Hubby and I had planned a day out with SisterM and her hubby. Sadly SisterM's cancer is progressing and she is now feeling a bit too weak in the legs for much walking around so we borrowed a wheelchair from our local Community Charity Shop. The weather was not good so there was no rush but hubby had assured me it was going to clear later and if we headed into Kent we had a better chance of staying shower free, so that's what we did, choosing Hever Castle as our destination. Still raining when we got there so had a lovely pub lunch first then as forecast the sun came out, the puddles dried and we had a really lovely afternoon in the castle and the gardens and even sat outside for afternoon tea. Got them home and didn't even stay for a cuppa as Friday evening traffic is always terrible coming east. We all really enjoyed the day.

Saturday 7th - When FriendsL&K wanted to arrange a day to meet up I told them of our plans to visit Kentwell Hall for the Tudor re-enactment and they jumped at the chance to join us there. We picked up M and D at 10am then met our friends in the carpark at Kentwell at 11am. Hubby changed up some money to Tudor groats and pennies so we could buy things inside then we walked through the time tunnel into 1556. I've been there a few times now and still totally amazed at being immersed in living history with every resident  having so much knowledge to pass on, we talked at length to the washer women and the alchemists and the woodchoper and watched the players rehearse which was so funny. We stopped in the alehouse so the men could have some ale and of the games drawn on the table I played Nine Men's Morris and Horseshoe losing both games to a Tudor maid expert. We ate in the modern cafe but sampled Tudor marshpane, biscots, sweetmeats and men-of-ginger. O had been a Tudor all week but had missed his dad so changed back to modern clothes to be with his dad and come home with us, this also meant that Daughter, R and E could really enjoy the last night party and pack up their camper without the help of a 3 year old. It was so hard to be there and not hug my daughter and grandchildren as they had to stay in character which they all did really well. Again another dry day for us thankfully. The day ended with the fair which was brilliant. D won a candle on the hoopla stall, lots of Tudor children took part in the play dressing up as chickens (ours included). There was wrestling for the boys and 'arse pushing' for the maids and musicians and dancers too (including daughter) while the gentry walked around admiring the show.
When a very tired O flopped on granddad's shoulder we decided it was time to leave. We dropped off M, D and O at their house and went home to meet again with FriendsL&K who were staying the night. After a very much needed cup of tea we relaxed a bit then out to the pub for dinner. Late(ish) to bed and so lovely to have plenty of time for a good catch-up chat.

Sunday 8th - Up for breakfast but no-one was rushing although they had to get away before lunchtime. Very soon after Hubby's brother M and his partnerJ arrived bringing back hubby's laptop that they had borrowed and telling us all about their planned house move. Out to the pub for Sunday lunch which was yummy and all the nicer when bilM paid the whole bill, thank you :o)
They left quite early and hubby didn't have bowling for a change on a Sunday which was lucky as Daughter turned up about 8pm still costumed and with the girls all looking really tired, wanting help with the trailer camper to leave here before they could head home.

Monday 9th - Daughter arrived with the children to open up the camper and clean it and dry it out and to scrub all the children and their very muddy Tudor shoes. Unfortunately she is now full of cold and aches and pains and is very tired, not surprising after working hard all week and being out and camping in some horrid weather for 9 days. Slow going but all achieved. I fed them all both lunch (bacon butties) and dinner (lasagne)...definitely not potage!
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