When I turned 65 I was offered a one-off anti-pneumonia vaccination as well as the annual flujab, then a week later the next lot of Covid.
Tales of Chateau Midden
Life with Fester, Ferretfingers and Thunderthighs: an obsessive entomologist turning mining historian and our two autistic sons. This blog has been prompted by family and friends reading facebook posts and saying "You should write a book". But I don't know how to go about that so they'll have to make do with this.
Thursday 17 October 2024
Overmedication
Wednesday 16 October 2024
A Bad Influence
66.6% of The Coven were flatmates (July 1977) |
E-mail to the Coven 21/8/24
Comfortable in the belief that no-one would take me up on it.
On Wed, 21 Aug 2024 at 16:15, Dr E to the Coven
On Wed, 21 Aug 2024, 16:20 Dr D to the Coven
On 22/08/2024 06:42 BST Dr E to the Coven
On 22/08/2024 08:45 BST Dr D to the Coven
On Thu, 22 Aug 2024 at 08:53, Bentonbag to The Coven
And so it transpired that at, just after 5am on Sunday 29th September half the Coven crept out of the Premier Inn Ashington and drove to Druridge Bay to join the hundreds of people dashing into the sea at dawn.
It was a beautiful sunrise.It was the first time in their seventy years that Dr D and Dr E had skinny dipped.
Today is Dr D’s birthday and last week I sent her a card which had a picture of four older ladies and the caption “We’ve been friends for so long I can’t remember who is the bad influence.”
The other day she texted me
Happy Birthday Dr D
Tuesday 15 October 2024
Big Sister's Big Birthday
Today is Bigsister’s 80th birthday, and we are all just as surprised as her that she has now reached the age our Grampa was when I first remember him.
Fifteen years ago I posted this blog on the Newcastle Journal website.
SISTERS
One of the perks of being involved in a Parents Teachers Association is that you get your pick of stuff left over after the summer fayre or Christmas bazaar. This summer I picked up a copy of TheAccidental Time Traveller (by Sharon Griffiths) at Woodlawn Summer Fayre and enjoyed it so much I passed it on to my Big Sister.
This autumn Bigsister and her husband were invited to a wedding in India and decided to make a holiday of it. Just before flying she rang me to ask if I wanted the book back as she wanted something to read that she could leave there when it was finished so save weight coming home. I said fine, no doubt someone in India might pick it up and enjoy it too.
When she got back last weekend she rang to tell me all about the trip.
She lives in East Finchley, they do things like that there.
Big Sister (just turned 65) was particularly impressed at how evocative of life in the 1950s the book was.
We discussed how it was the little details that made all the difference. Like putting the kettle directly onto the coals on the fire; a kettle singing on the grate was the background music to my childhood. Or using the fire to make toast using the long toasting fork; toast under the grill or from a toaster just doesn’t taste the same.
"And there were things I’d forgotten all about” she said “like the Gibbs toothpaste in the little pink box you had to rub the brush on."
Bigsister turned 12 about three weeks after I was born and she was just the right age to be besotted and make a huge fuss over a new baby sister.
I remember Bigsister singing to me in my cot; my favourites being The Ugly Duckling (she made a great squawk noise) and What do you want if you don't want money? (Adam Faith). She also read The Wind in the Willows and Black Beauty to me well before I was five and could read for myself (I cried at both and still do).
Bigbrother, 'The Baby', Bigsister, Middlesister 1957 RAF Netheravon | |
Monday 14 October 2024
Concertina Time
During the pandemic LD:NorthEast organised a weekly zoom meeting of all their service users to keep people in touch.