50 things

 

4 birthday cakes, 1 basket of flowers, 39 friends, 2 hours of candle-light in a powercut, 4 days of celebrating. Turning the half century has been good and has reminded me how blessed I am to have so many people I love in my life - friends as well as family.

All change!

So I turned 49 at the end of November.  Time for a mid-life crisis methinks.  49 is a sort of a key number I reckon - my "seven Sabbaths of years" - a "super Sabbatical" before the big Jubilee.  

Time to change a few things in anticipation of the next 7 years (and I have things brewing in my head on that front.....)

So a new year, fresh diary and the fastest way to get a bit of control over things was to allocate themes to each month.  

January = "deal with it" month - tying up urgent loose ends;  two tax returns (yes TWO) - the IR "misplaced" the 2010 return.  Then it was pantomime time at the Ulster Hospital (it's behind me...) I had a brilliant band this year - great music.  Looking forward to next year already.

February = "Dump it" month.  Dumping from the study, the wardrobes, the fabric stash, the roofspace etc.  One thing I hadn't quite factored "dumping" was my job...  (thanks auntie beeb).  They say it's "restructuring" - the same old same old.... we're all the same and too old....   10 of us in the pot to go and 6 have already gone. (i still can't work out how that adds up to the "7 posts only to go" thing... maybe I need fresh batteries in my calculator.....)

March?  "Technology" month... though it's started early - dad come over all technological on us yesterday and insisted on loading up a database for his choir.  Brilliant!!  March will be for gutting out the picture and video files, changing internet/phone provider here and up north and silencing the tedious talk talk - which apparently is all they do.  I'd be happy if it was "do do" although in childish language, it sums up their service.

April I'm planning to spend finishing all the UFOs so it's "Sew and Sew" month - though if I've been pushed off the shelf in the office, I may get to this faster.

Any lonely millionaires out there?!

And so, another year ends.

Happy new year! A few pics from the family album;

Christmas day was spent at my brother and sister-in-law's home - and featured a beautiful cake measured, mixed and wished upon by the l'il guy. (Wishes for a "real live dinosaur for Christmas" didn't quite materialise... wishes are a bit hit and miss these days.)

The cold polar bear (does such a thing exist?) looked great with his stripey blue scarf...

...though one blink later and a small person had nibbled all the bears snowballs.... and head!

The day after boxing day and we returned to the family get-together for lunch at a local restaurant then a toddle over to the beach to work up the appetite for deserts. Two small people who idolise another bigger cousin...

... and a lot of spinning and stone flinging into the waves, and everyone's happy.


I love the reflections on the damp sand.