Counting my blessings

We had a wonderful day on Sunday in the New Forest with our two youngest grand children. They are so very adorable. they are funny, and keep us entertained all the time. They are also very very beautiful, very different from each other but equally beautiful. Wavelett the eldest one at 5 1/2 years old is very confident in herself. She has a musical talent which her parents will try to nurture. She gets that from her Dad and Grandpa! Then there is Bluebell a vivacious, funny 3 1/2 year old, already taller than her sister was at that age (so could end up being model material)!

We all went for a very long walk with their two dogs on the heath in The New Forest and they fair wore me out! But the girls wanted to go further and further! Although a little chilly, it was a bright autumn day and there was lots of healthy fresh air for all. Walking along looking at The New Forest ponies is a wonderful past time.

Once back at their house, there was hot tea and cakes for everyone and this was swiftly followed by a display of songs from the children's Harvest festival at school. With Bluebell trying to be as big as Wavey and copying absolutely everything her big sister did, we were hard pushed not to laugh! Lots of lovely songs (I suspect some were made up on the spot!) it was a pleasure to be part of it all.

They are such delightful children and certainly make me think...........Someone shone on me the day those two children came to this family.

I am so very blessed.

Flights the hard way

It is my intention visit my sisters next October. I thought of swapping my timeshare apartment for one in San Francisco. Then I would be central to two of my sisters, one would hopefully fly down from Washington and the other one would manage to drive down. Then for once we could all be together.

I really need to do this because as time goes by and we all get older, who knows how many more times the long trip can be achieved.

As its such a long journey from the UK I thought maybe of extending our holiday by visiting somewhere else first and then finishing with the week in San Fran.

So, its time to start planning the journey, making enquiries as to prices of flights for that time of year.I started today on the internet. I searched several sites for return flights to and from Uk to San Fran or a return trip to Canada. That side of things is easy!
My other alternative was to fly from San Fran to Canada to see a cousin for the second week.
Or we could fly to Canada, go down to San Fran and back to Canada to come home.It doesnt matter which way round I looked it was all so awkward.

I want to book an internal flight to another part of the USA. I have been told its cheap and easy to do so. Oh NO its not! At least not from here!
If you live in USA its fine and very economical. But to book from England, they hike up the price! How annoying. So now I am thinking I must look further afield for help with the flights.

So I called a travel agent and a flight specialist. Well the prices they want! HUH!

Its now down to emailing my sisters and seeing what they come up with. Maybe thats the only way, for them to book it over there and if so, i have to arrange a money transfer to get the cost of it to them to enable them to make the booking. Its all so very complicated now.

All I want is a simple journey to culminate in a week with my sisters and a weeks holiday somewhere else, one after the other its not too much to ask is it?
(Apparently it is!)

I am not giving up though, I will sort it out but its going to be a long week in doing so.

A Proud Moment

My husband Don and I have just returned from a magic convention in the North of England. It was the International Brotherhood of Magicians British Ring convention which is held every year in September. One year it is held in the north of the country and the following year in the south.

It was 5 days of eat sleep and breathe magic. We saw some fabulous acts and lots of brilliant close up magic. I always look forward to the conventions, even though I know it is full on and very tiring.We meet up with friends we havent seen for some time and coupled with staying in a hotel and not having to prepare meals, its great.

I belong to The British Assembly of Magigals. Basically this is the wives of magicians for want of a better description. I have been a member for around 20 years and always enjoyed meeting up with old friends at the conventions. We have a couple of meetings one of which has entertainment arranged by our current president.

Well this year when it was time for the outgoing President to announce the new incoming president I was delighted to find it is none other than yours truly. It is nice to be recognised in this capacity. My duties are not too bad really. I send out birthday and Christmas cards to all our members on behalf of the Magigals. I also arrange a Presidents Day and this will be on 25th April in Chelmsford Essex. We will have a lovely 3 course lunch, followed by a cabaret that I am currently arranging.Magigals come from around the country to be with me on my special day and hopefully some close friends and family will be there too.

Then at the convention next year, I am in the chair at the Annual General meeting and then at our Saturday meeting I have to have some form of entertainment arranged. But thats in the future, plenty of time for that.

I am quite looking forward to the year as generally you make new friends through holding the office of President. (You never know, I may get invited to be guest of honour at a clubs dinner of something!)

So a sort of 'fame' at last. I intend to enjoy it.

Dirty little fingers

Following on from our fantastic weekend it was back to earth with a bang!

Beau my 11 year old grandson was so looking forward to starting his new senior school and we had prepared for this, we went shopping for new pencils, pens and school bag bits. He had his new uniform all ready and was getting very excited at this new phase in his life.

BUT just 2 days before he was due to go off on this big adventure his knee was hurting, it was quite badly swollen and so his Dad took him off to the doctors. The doctor took one look and sent him to A & E. They in turn took swabs, xrays, blood tests and decided to keep him as an inpatient.

Beau had scratched a gnat bite on his knee and as with all boys dirty fingers, he had infected the bite.

That led to an operation later that day. The surgeon had to make a large hole in his knee to dig out an abcess and drain lots of nasty poisonous fluid away.Poor kid was in hospital overnight with pain killers.

When he came home the next day he was told he wasnt allowed to go to school. He was devastated! So plans were put in place to carry him to his tutor room in school on the first day of the new academic year. The school agreed he could be present for just 2 hours to meet everyone, get his registration and meet his new class friends. Well that didnt work out either!

Overnight the knee became even more swollen & painful and so a phone call to the hospital meant a drive back there. He had got MRSA! a very nasty highly contagious disease in the actual wound! In fact the whole family and his friends who were with him during the previous 48 hours may have to be tested too! So more blood tests, more pain killers, more draining of the poison in his knee and more bandages. Luckily, it is a mild case and self inflicted and is just in the wound so we dont need testing. Now he is off school for at least 2 weeks, he can use the leg/knee but has to have it cleaned and dressed every few days by a nurse who comes to the house.

He has to go back to the hospital next week and get a further prognosis. So the moral of the story is this..........watch out for dirty little fingers, think before you scratch.

Family Reunion

We have just returned from a great weekend in The New Forest. Present were our 3 sons, Gary, Mark & Stephen and 6 grandchildren and of course the 3 dogs. We had 3 fab days and 2 nights with the children ages ranging from 3 to almost 21 years. We stayed in a hotel but everyone else stayed at Garys, camping in the 8 man tent! Rather them than me! It worked though.

A very mixed age group but wonderful to see the 6 cousins all getting along and each of the older ones passing on skills and help to the younger ones and making sure they were all safe. Each and every one of them having fun with the others.

To see Wavelett (5) taking guitar lessons from Luke (17)and learning quickly. Luke is so musical and so patient with the little ones. He in turn learned a lot from Gary's musical expertise. Luke also showed Beau (11) how to play the piano a bit which gave Beau confidence.

Autumn (14)helped Bluebell (3) with her constant dressing up as a princess! Such girlie girls together.

And Mike (20), well he helped the younger ones learn tree climbing skills the day we spent in the forest. To see The New Forest ponies just wandering around is a wonderful experience.If you havent been there you absolutely must go, its free and is so calm in the forest, its definitely a back to nature calming journey.

The evening BBQ was a great success with Mark acting as chef and the jamming session was super! Even Wavelett got on the microphone to sing! Combine this with the dogs barking in tune and great fun was had by all.

Its not too often we can all get together so each moment is a moment to treasure. We should never forget that time is free and to give of it freely is a great gift. You cannot replace time and it goes so quickly so use it wisely and give others great memories.