A Busy Weekend

I had intended that my Easter weekend would be relaxing but even the best laid plans are subject to change.

Over the weekend my Mum became a lady of a “certain age”.  Originally we planned to take her out for the day to Hardwick Hall so that we could meet up with my brother and after the visit return home to enjoy a nice evening meal with her.  Plans changed ten days before the event. Mum decided she wanted to stop overnight which meant that I had to work out somewhere we could stay that served a good evening meal because she wanted to dine in the hotel.

There were some difficulties working out if the hotel meal arrangements were suitable.  The hotel did not have their evening menu on line and booking through a website came back with “you are booked” followed by another email saying “sorry there are no rooms available!”

A quick phone call made to the hotel itself was transferred to the central booking line for the hotel chain. The two rooms were booked and so was with the restaurant (including places for the extra family members that were not staying in the hotel overnight).

Once the plans were finalised we could relax and so we decided to have a couple of friends round on Good Friday afternoon to play board games in the afternoon expecting them to leave in the early evening to enable us to have a good night’s sleep before the grand day out and an early morning departure.

Unfortunately one friend was running behind schedule and phoned up to let us know that he would be an hour late.  The rest of us chatted long past his expected ETA wondering where he had got to!  He eventually turned up almost two hours late!!  On his arrival he said ‘Have you played a game’?  Ermm ‘No we were waiting for you’.  If we had known that he was going to be quite that late we would have played a game.

The late game meant a late dinner and another unexpected problem.  The scallops that looked enough for four when raw reduced to a two person meal when cooked. Mr C was head chef and he beckoned me into his domain.  I advised him against cooking extra ‘frozen’ scallops, but had a brainwave. I remembered we had some salmon in the freezer.  This when added to the stock that the scallops had been cooked in, thawed slowly and cooked to perfection (thankfully).

The late arrival and late meal obviously led to a late departure.  At one stage I had them rounded up and they were about to depart after I said we would have a long day tomorrow.  Then Mr C got them talking again…  Eventually I got to bed.

 I didn't feel at my best on my journey to Hardwick Hall but I perked up after a bit of lunch and we enjoyed both our visit and the celebratory evening meal. We had to remember to put the clocks forward to BST before going to sleep; we didn't want to miss breakfast.  We had lunch with my brother before departing for home and cooking and sharing Easter dinner with my Mum.

Needless to say I was rather tired on Monday…

Anniversary

'The natural world is the refuge of the spirit...richer even than human imagination'. 

- Edward Bilson, Biophilia

'Time unused and only endured still vanishes, as if time itself is starving, and each day is swallowed whole, leaving no crumbs, no memory, no trace at all.'

- Elisabeth Tova Bailey, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

I found both of these quotes in Elisabeth Tova Bailey's book - The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating which I was given for Christmas (and am loving).  The first quote is almost self-evident.  Like many of us I  find serenity, peace and inspiration in the natural world.  However, I have often seen a sunrise (as this image is) or a sunset so vivid that if it were in a painting I would think the colours had been exaggerated.  So I nodded, and read on.

Then I came to the second quote and was forced to stop and consider.  Another truth.  Regardless of what we do in a day, how we feel about that day, time will pass inexorably on.  If we are to get the most out of our days, our lives, it is up to us.

January 18 is my personal New Year and each year I like to consider how best to use it.  This year I haven't had to think for long.  Medical issues mean that some things in my life are not really possible any longer and others are more difficult.  So.... I could listen to my body and have an existence.  An existence where time ticked past.  Or I can have a life.  I choose life - with all that it entails.  Messiness, chaos, tragedies and joys - but vibrant and there to be savoured.  And savour it I will, to the very last drop.

"WOW! What a Ride"

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow! What a Ride!" ~ unknown 

~~~~~~~~~

Thirteen.  Sixteen.  Twenty-one.  Each of those birthdays called for festive parties with much celebration; the twenty-first birthday festivities often leading to a little too much celebration, if you know what I mean! 

When I turned twenty-five my husband spent the entire day telling me I was ‘a quarter of a century old.’  The day I turned fifty my brother sent a huge bouquet of 50 black balloons to my classroom at school and my fellow teachers made me wear a birthday button all day that said ‘over the hill.’

Turning sixty came and went without much hoop-la…but, tomorrow – ah, tomorrow - I turn 65 and, truthfully, I am not very excited at the thought of being 65. 

Months ago the government started preparing me for the big day by sending me all the paperwork for Medicare.  Really…am I old enough for Medicare?   I thought Medicare was for 'old' people!

Not too long ago I over-heard my grandson saying to a neighborhood friend “Granny Sue’s old – really old.  She has white hair.” 

Do you remember when our parents would immediately turn to the obituary section of the newspaper first thing in the morning?  Yup!  You guessed it.  That’s now me.  Oh dear.

But I’m not throwing in the towel yet!  I’m thankful for each new day and each opportunity.  Like the piano pictured above, I’ve got a few signs of age, but I’m making sure that when my time comes I can ‘loudly proclaim,’ “Wow! What a Ride!”