Missing Mum - 35Yrs

 

So 30th November saw Dad and me visit the Crematorium to pay our respects to Mum, gone 35 years ago.

This is a collage of the entry in the Book of Remembrance, my entry in the Chapel notebook and the new memorial for both Mum and Margaret which Dad's had installed this year.

Nice to have somewhere to leave flowers and somewhere more tangible than her tree.

Can't quite believe it's been this many years, not quite sure where the time goes to be honest and it still grates how much she's missed out on because of the stupid cancer.

Missing you now and for always Mum xxXxx

Busy Weekend!

 

So this has been a busy few days...

Thursday evening was late night shopping at Dobbies, went along with Dad and met Julia and James there, also took the opportunity to pay for the Christmas Day Dinner at The Honourable Pilot 😋 Bought a large LED candle (larger than I expected) for the hallway windowsill - takes just 2x AA batteries which is a far cry from the 9x AAA batteries that the three individual ones take 😱

Saturday tea-time saw us all head over to Leeds Castle for their first ever Christmas Lights Trail. In a word awesome - I've been to Bedgebury and it's very similar to that, think they are done by the same lighting team. Really good wander around the grounds and only a little rain towards the end.

And Sunday has been a day at the Royal Engineer's Museum for their 2nd day of the Wartime Christmas weekend. Really good to chat with the stall holders, Dad reminisced over the guns, reminding him of his National Service days. The museum has a lot to see so as the ticket is an annual one we'll no doubt be back again at some point. A good place to visit on a rainy day - which today was!

And Friday evening Dad and I visited Rochester Cathedral for the Lights for Love service by the Wisdom Hospice. Wrote out our messages on some stars which will be hung on the Christmas trees in the Cathedral. Re-lit the candles for loved ones lost and had free tea/coffee and mince pies in the crypt before heading home.

So yeah a very busy weekend, the collage above is a few from Leeds Castle and the Wartime Christmas event. Seeing as how financially the country is supposedly back in the 1950's poverty levels we could do worse than take a few tips from them in the make do and mend, keep it simple ways of living.

Satisfying Weekend

 

So have spent some time today (Sunday) fishing out some easy Christmas decorations for the office desk ready for tomorrow. With only a few weeks left before I pack up for the festive holidays and doing just 2d in the office each week I have to make every day count!

Found a small crossover tree, a little LED house, wind-up Santa and some glass decorations along with a set of blue USB lights from Poundland.

No doubt the Scrooges will be like Bah Humbug it's too early, but it's never too early for Christmas - they should think themselves lucky there's no music involved!

🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻 🎄🎄🎄 🤶🏻🤶🏻🤶🏻

Christmas Shopping @ Bluewater

 

So this week's Off Friday was spent up at Bluewater with my girl doing some Christmas shopping - mainly toys for a charity collection for a local hospital in Ashford for Julia's work. She did well, bought loads of things, The Works came up trumps mostly with their various deals. Ended up with a couple of large bagfuls of stuff for varying ages. Always a real good feel factor when you are doing something good for someone else!

This is one of the Bluewater Christmas decorations, as usual around the T'was the Night Before Christmas poem/story. Probably saves them money reusing the decs each year!

I'm going to be doing the usual Crisis charity donation this year again and probably the RSPCA. We have so much between us and usually buy what we want so it's good to pass on some of that to those in need be they animal or human 💓

Missing Me 'Ol Mukka

 Missing my old boy Max again today, 20 years ago we lost him and I still miss his company and quiet support. He was my shadow always and life has felt so much more empty without him, always just that little piece missing  🐶 😭

Friday Mooch

 

So Friday morning saw me take a mooch out along to Friston Way with the TG-6, not a bad morning mooching around the field looking for Autumn detail shots.

Struggle with the AF Macro mode but the microscope SCN mode works awesomely well :-)

Used it for the little mushroom (Pleated Inkcap) that I saw peeking out from the grass. Difficult to get down that low and especially with a non-moveable LED screen (the camera is waterproof so no obvious moving parts) but got there in the end. Really pleased with these images.

Spent the rest of the weekend shopping on/off at the Savacentre and Ashford Outlet Centre with Dad and Julia respectively.

Back to the office grind tomorrow, gonna be trying out the latest new bag to carry my stuff in with:

A mere £13.99 on Amazon (where else?) and big enough for a 15.6" laptop and the rest of my bits and pieces. Hopefully not too heavy, and bought a lovely short, rectangular scarf from the Demelza Charity Shop to act as a chest strap, at 50p it was a real steal!

Firework Weekend!

 

Friday evening saw Julia, James and me head down to the local Scouts Hut/field for this year's fireworks event, first time it's been back since 2019!

And what a feel good evening, good company, excellent show and burgers/hotdogs to munch on whilst we waited for the fireworks to start.

This is us waiting for the show to kick off and testing out the phone abilities to take decent people photos at night!