Catching up

Quite a long time since the last post, due to several goings-on.  First of all, our 60th birthdays which we enjoyed - went to see trains for Paul's birthday and went up and down the line to Minehead.  For mine, we were going to go to a museum in Bournemouth but daughter invited us to her house instead and we found out that she'd also invited my brother (and sister-in-law) and my sister for the day, so that was a lovely surprise.  It's been a while since I've seen them and it was good to have a chat and catch up.  A couple of weekends later we went to Kent for a visit to Paul's family which ran its usual course, except that his father is noticeably worse than the last time.  Not surprising really - you're never going to get better from vascular dementia.



Next up was my OU graduation in Torquay, which was a family weekend there.  Great day and, just for a change, I felt the centre of attention - loved the robe!  I now feel that I really am a graduate with a degree!   The following weekend we went to Cambridge to my sister-in-law's 50th birthday party, combining it with a visit to Bletchley Park museum and also a trip on the (Mis)guided bus in Cambridge.  The museum was really interesting and enjoyable, and the trip on the bus was memorable, if only for wondering why on earth they didn't put trains or trams on the route instead of diesel buses!


Following the graduation our daughter and her fiancé decided that rather than wait till the end of September to get married, they'd fix a date of 19 May instead, and get married in Bath rather than Sherborne.  So they did - and it didn't rain!  Everyone had a good day and the newly-weds are now settled back in Trowbridge.


So it's been a busy couple of months or so, especially when coupled with the ordinary day-to-day business of life!  I'm now looking forward to starting a new job within POPP tomorrow (gulp) and to a lovely Jubilee bank holiday at home with a village bbq here on Sunday (weather permitting).

Winter Weather

So that was the snow in North Dorset, was it?  About an inch after a couple of days of freezing cold weather, then it rained overnight and there's nothing left!  I didn't even have time to take a photo!  Compared to the rest of the country we've got off very lightly I suppose, but even so ...


We've now acquired daughter's car as it's gone wrong - again.  Paul's ordered some more parts for it as it's probably the same thing as last time.  And ... son's just rung from Shaftesbury to say the head gasket's blown on his car so we'll have two poorly cars on the drive.  At least daughter's car is just about driveable, or we'd be in deep trouble transport-wise.  As it is we'll have to do a bit of juggling.  Nothing new there then!


Nice meal last night with C&P, and I think the veggie dishes went down OK.  Quite tasty really, though I need to think of a way to use up left-over basmati rice...


Just two weeks till we go to Madeira.  Can't wait.

Jubilee stuff

2012's going to be a good year - as well as Samantha's wedding in September, I'll be attending an award ceremony in April for my OU degree, there'll probably be a school reunion in Ely ... and now there's going to be a Jubilee celebration in the village.  How do I know this?  I went to a meeting this evening to discuss what people want to do and found myself heading up a small group to organise the event!  Coffee and cakes in the village hall where people can pick up a list for a scavenger hunt (for 60 objects, of course) then some sort of gathering in the pub in the evening where the entries will be "judged" and prize(s) awarded as well as some sort of food.  First meeting of the planning group next week but it bodes well that nearly 20 people turned out on a bitterly cold evening to talk about the idea.  And for those who think that 20 people isn't many, that's quite a lot for a small village like ours...

First things first

My first attempt at a blog!  Well, having done some "training" with Dorset Fiftyplus, I thought I ought to put it into practice so here I am.  Where to start?  Um... er ... I live in a small village in North Dorset where there's about 90 houses, a pub and a church and a garage.  We've lived here for nearly 28 years now and until recently knew everyone in the village - but several new people have arrived in the last couple of years so we've rather lost track!  Two cats deign to share our house with us - Hettie and Bernie (not related to each other) -  although they only share one brain cell between them.  Our son lives with us at the moment as he's studying for a Foundation Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Somerset College in Taunton for two days a week, and makes lampshades for the other three days.  As soon as he gets his Foundation Degree he and his girlfriend will be making tracks for Plymouth so he can do his final year of an Undergraduate Degree at the uni there while she (hopefully) works as an Accountant in industry somewhere.  Our daughter lives in Trowbridge with her fiancé and manages one of the JD Wetherspoon pubs there.  They're getting married at the end of September this year.


So what do we do?  Well, my husband works at Thales in Templecombe, which is why we moved down here, and I work for the Dorset Partnership for Older People Programme.  I also do some book-keeping locally as well as keep an eye on my mother who lives in sheltered accommodation in Shaftesbury.  We try to keep quite active socially both in the village and with friends elsewhere, and our relatives live in Kent and Cambridge so we're on the road every now and then.


That's probably enough for first things - to be continued if I think of anything else!