Christmas? What Christmas?

First of all may I wish you all a very Happy New Year. I can't believe it is nearly the end of January but I will try and let you know what has been happening. As you know we had to leave France early to take my dad back because he was so unwell. It was a very long....... long drive home because dad was so uncomfortable bless him. We made it and managed to get him to the doctors next day and basically, he has been through all the various tests, x-rays, consultancy with a back surgeon, physio etc. firstly, with him not getting any better. Since he has been home, he couldn't even go to bed in a bed, luckily we had a special chair which flattened out and he has slept in there until 2 weeks ago which isn't the best thing is it? After a couple of weeks with the physio, we realised that exercises weren't doing any good at all so we went down the route of acupuncture. What a difference, he is obviously one of the lucky ones who responds well to it and he is now walking without a stick and as I say, he is able to lie down in a bed. Fingers crossed he will continue because he is desperate to come back out here again.

Christmas was very difficult, poor dad was in absolute agony and I did think of calling an ambulance at one stage. Every time he moved it brought tears to his eyes, so instead of going to my youngest daughters, Clare and Kenny came round to mum and dads and cooked the most delicious meal for us all. Not the most exciting day for them but needs must. They were both wonderful and we just had to make the most of it. Very strange because Vicki and the grandchildren were away for Christmas in Guernsey, but as it happened, it was all for the best because it would have been impossible with the children and very boring for them and even more difficult for my dad.

On top of all this, .... yes, there's more...... I had the most awful cough and I just coughed day and night so wasn't sleeping at all. It would go for a day, then a cold, then back again. Three trips to the doctors later and a course of antibiotics and staying at Vicki's with the poor grandchildren wondering why Nannie was shut in Williams room, I thought I was getting better. I called my mum and asked if I could go back there as I wasn't infectious any more and they jumped at the chance of having us back. When I got there, my bed was made up with a water bottle in it, a bowl of grapes on the side table and she fed me with lemon and honey, and milk, honey and whiskey to go to bed on. Mums are wonderful aren't they, but I think I have the best. I have just got rid of the bad throat and cough and it has taken 9 weeks!!!!

We finally got back to France on the 20th January and as you can imagine, with being away for so long, the house was very cold and rather damp. The beds were horrid so we had to wait for quite a while before we could go to bed, giving the blankets time to warm it through. The fires were lit the next morning and we found out we have something wrong with the chimney in the kitchen, so back to one log fire in the lounge. This hasn't been out since we got back.

There's more.......As you may have heard, we had a tempest / hurricane come through here and we were pretty lucky with no damage to the house. Trees down all over the place, part of the roof off the church in the village, and majority of houses have lost a certain amount of tiles. The outcome of the storm was, no electricity for nearly 4 days and no telephone or internet for 7 days. We are now slowly trying to catch up. Reading this post, you have to laugh it's so awful, but needless to say we are glad to be back and are now getting into some routine. Oh by the way, did I mention we had a puncture which needed a new tyre. Oh and the cat has been bitten and we had a trip to the vet. What else.............................

I think I had better stop there just in case I think of anything else but again I would like to wish all of you a very happy new year and I look forward to catching up with everyone's blogs. It is going to take me ages but I will make it in the end. Hopefully I will be blogging on a regular basis again. Oh by the way, I found my first two snowdrops and some crocus yesterday.