Death Sue, its my brothers birthday meal, so as usual I have no idea what is happening!  I hope to be fed so have had a light lunch, I have a Betty Jackson Black dress which is calf length and has silver threaded through the black crochet so although it's six years old it's nice and I'm wearing that plus the birthday jewellery that my family  bought me. I've only just hung the ironing up that I did yesterday but I wouldn't have done it in your heat!  Crikey your friends daughter was very lucky, fate took a good turn for her.  I've just spoken to Faye, she's coming home half term and then Lisa will so the next weekend so not all together, I think Norman is quite relieved.  Annie has been Posting a lot on the chat forum but I know everyone has their worries and concerns but most need to see a GP and stop worrying unnecessarily.  I had an operation ten years ago and it has flared up this week,  I just wanted some medication but it was a trainee doctor who followed the guidance on my problem so I have to go with her recommendation, I wished I'd left well alone!  I would be quite happy to stay here with Norman tonight but I'm committed to going out now,  Karen is my brothers partner and I don't see much of her, the only good thing is she can't smoke tonight, bet she disappears half way through the night to grab a quick ***, considering she's had breast cancer you would have thought that she might stop. So you lucky thing, enjoy your warm lazy day and I'll let you know how it goes.  Love Carol x

Hi all.  Carol, you should have copyrighted your blog name as others are muscling in on it!  I was interested about the Moors Murders connection.  A friend of mine Charlie is the son of Mr Fitzpatrick, the solicitor who was allocated to defend Brady and Hindley when they were first arrested.  This was one of the things that I read about avidly  (no particular reason except my mate Charlie brought it back to front of my memory).  I am a bit like that - I often get obsessive about a subject and buy every book written about it.  Over the years I have gone to great lengths to read about the abidcation, studied the British monarcy from Tudor times onward - I can be really boring about that; who married who and what happened to them in fact I am a real pain.  Mountain climbing has been my latest obsession for about six years now; I read all about the Himalaya in particular and again can bore the pants off anyone on the subject.   Am off to see my niece's home at the weekend as my sister is looking after her two young boys for a couple of days and I am helping.  Following weekend back to see my mate without television or internet for a couple of days as  he has invited a few people along and I will eventually get to Prague.  Oh yes, that is another of my current obsessions - the assasination of Reinhard Heydrich in WW2 and its aftermath.  Longing to see the church where they were holed up and fought to the death (they shot themselves rather than be taken prisoner).  The place where they shot Heydrich has unfortunately been redeveloped now but a statue has been erected.  Hope you enjoyed your day at your brothers in your nice dress. I tend to post on the forum in fits and starts; when I get to the point where I am running out of sympathy - I am sure it happens to most of us - I stop posting. It's not that I don't care just that the sympathy meter needs time to recharge.  Annie

Hi my friends, Terry walked down on his own to meet me and he looked so smart in his penquin suit (he tells me that he got it in a charity shop in Richmond for twelve pounds but he's a story teller, so I'm never sure)!  We had our photo taken which was handed to us at the end of the night.  The executive room looked stunning, white table cloth, glass mirrors with glass lights standing tall with black and white feathers, scattered diamonds, pink champagne, good food and lovely company, guess what the charity event was for, the chemotherapy ward at Darlington Memorial!  I was taken aback by this, talk about fate, an awful lot of money was raised as there were 170 of us.  Hubby was brilliant and picked me up at the bewitching hour in what can only be described as a monsoon.  We've just had a drive out over the beautiful moors, despite force gale winds the sun was shining and we basically had the road to ourselves  even the sheep looked frozen and were huddled against the old stone built walls.  Annie I do check other posts but unless it's relevant I don't reply, when you're dealing with cancer it's hard to comprehend why you would log onto this forum for a problem that a GP could answer better than me.  I love reading and hate movies that are not historically correct, so once again we're in sync!  Sue, I am so admiring of your resilience after losing Neil, family and friends keep us going and life does go on, regardless.  A quiet week ahead, coffee with Margaret and the theatre on Thursday evening with Debs.  Take care, love Carol 

Hi Ladies,
Annie, Enjoy your visit to your nieces to watch her children with your sister, and the following weekend at your mates. Interesting reading choices.  After you and Carol mentioning Ian Brady and Moira Hindley, I did a search as their names sounded familiar to me.  I can't understand why some people commit horrendous crimes like these, it's just beyond me.  I was pleased to read they spent their remaining years in prison.  It's understandable that you need to take a break from the forum to recharge,  The posts of yours that I've read though have always given good advice, to what are often difficult situations. 

Carol, Your brothers' birthday dinner sounds wonderful.  What more can you ask for, good food, good company, and the venue sounds really nice.  Pity the weather wasn't so nice for the drive home.  I miss Neil every day, probably always will, but there is so much more still to live for, and enjoy, the grandkids, our own kids,  So I'm still going to enjoy a lot of things that we both enjoyed.  It's hard still but as the saying goes, life goes on.  

I've been invited to a "Pink Party" in March.  A girlfriend was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, had a mastectomy and treatment and is currently doing well.  She always said she would have a Pink Party to raise funds for the McGrath Foundation.  So finally she has organised one and hopes to raise $1500.  Not sure yet whether I'll go or just donate, but good on her.
Had a dead bird on the path outside the loungeroom, which I had to dispose of.  I was just in the middle of doing that when Deana and Nick arrived, said to them I should have left it a little longer and Nick would have done it.  Nick mowed the back yard again.  Eli is walking more now.  He did about14 steps while they were here. Won't be long.
I was talking to my brother yesterday and he asked if I wanted to visit for a few days as Tina has a week off, so I'm going later this afternoon.  Deana and Nick will look after my 2 cats.  Nick has Wednesday off and Deana has tomorrow off so no babysitting Eli.  It's unlikely I'll be on the computer until I come home, probably Thursday.

Take care till Thursday, Love to all.  Sue xx

Dear Sue, have a lovely time and look forward to hearing from when you return .I hate dead birds it's the one thing that makes me gag when I have to dispose of them!  I was just a teenager when the Moors murders happened but it shook me then, such evil people and Brady played his game until the end.  Eli will be running soon, they turn into little boys then and the change is amazing.  I remember when Alfie was little crawling on my hands and knees pretending to be a lion who was hungry and was looking for little boys to eat, Faye came to see why he was Screaming so much and running around, she said I was scaring him but he kept shouting, again Grandma. Again!  Kids love being scared, I read the Peter Rabbit books to Ella not missing out the bit where the babies were in the oven, she snuggles in closer and her eyes were round with what was going to happen, in comes Mummy and I'm now in trouble with her for reading the proper words!  This is why we have a so called snowflake generation!!  So I have ordered new non slip lino and its getting laid on Wednesday, Norman is losing his car tomorrow to repair the pheasant damage and its still blinking cold. Terry and Karen stole some of the large feathers off the table, Kevin put it on social media as she had put them in her hair, my brother then got a text asking him to return them!  He said to me that you couldn't get away with anything nowadays as its all over Facebook, I did laugh, because he's right, in our day you could get away with murder and no one knew it was you, now we're plastered all over the place, much more fun in our day!  So have a good time, I would miss my hubby if he wasn't here, So I will count my blessings. Xx

A blizzard this morning but I braved the weather and went to my class.  There's a new lady joined she's very tall and thin, no coordination and is like a gangly giraffe, she's in front of me but takes such big steps that she ends up two inches in front of me, so I have to keep moving out of her way!  We are going to have a rock and roll afternoon tea and get dressed up, it will be fun.  We took the car in for repair but poor hubby looked green around the gills at my driving as his new tablets make him queasy.  So he's housebound until it is repaired.  Debs popped in and Norman is driving us to the show so we can have a drink.  New lino being laid in the morning so hopefully no more falling over by anyone.. Oh and I have to go to Durham hospital for my consultation as all the other ones are fully booked, there must be a lot of ill people in this area, a new place for me to find.  Hope you are all having a good time and speak soon. Xx

It's like the petrified forrest here this morning and we have to be up and ready for the lino fitters, it's a shock to hubby as he normally stays snuggled up until the house is warm, but this morning he has to rough it.  It's all done and looks good we even have enough to do it again should we need to, but if it lasts as long as the other I'll probably be dead!  My other lovely Norman has come in and put what's left in the loft plus a large rug that was in the way, a load of coins fell out of the deep pile, it's Ella's play shop money that we gave her, I wondered where it had all gone.  I'm going to have to get my nails done before Saturday as my thumb nail has fallen off!  Hope you two are having a nice break, my nephew and Sue are off to Canada this week  to go skiing, hopefully they will come back minus Injuries but going on past experience that's highly unlikely.  Xx

Off to town in minus 2.5 degrees to get nails done, the lady is Chinese and her English is a little lacking in understanding (better than my Mandarin!) so I come away with beautiful nails with a cats eye design in the middle of them, well that's different.  Norman picks me up and Debs and I go to see Simon and Garfunkel  a sherry beforehand, once we found the bar, we kept going upstairs and back down again, we decided we at least had got our ten thousand steps in for the day!  The show was amazing, right back to the late fifties through to last year, a big screen behind the singers showed JF Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the hippie chick culture and the film Mrs Robinson.  Having lived through the whole history it was so bitter sweet.  The guy playing Art had the voice of an Angel and was mesmerising (also very young and good looking even with all that hair!)   I was woken this morning by the sound of a snow shovel, two inches of white stuff greeted me when I opened the curtains but once again our lovely neighbour was clearing our path as well.  Despite the cold hubby has gone on his bike as his foot is swelling up with sitting down so much.  Its too cold to go for fish and chips, if the sausages defrost we can eat them.  Big night out tomorrow and hubby is going, hurrah.  Xx

Hi Carol, 

Got back earlier.  Had a wonderful time, didn't do much of anything but it was so nice catching up with Greg and Tina and Tina is such a good cook.  I stayed an extra day to what I originally planned.  It is such a long drive to their house, about 2 1/2 hours, not as far as you drive to your daughters but still quite a distance.  I had a chuckle when I got home, I was thinking Cookie would take a day or two to forgive me for disappearing, but she is fine and has barely left me alone, she is currently asleeep on my knee and does seem very pleased that I'm home again. Mr Higgins on the other hand is his usual aloof self.

The cat's eye design for your nails sounds good.  I currently have white roses over a sparkly teal.  The show sounds wonderful.  I loved Simon and Garfunkel back in the day, actually still listen to analbum of Art Garfunkel quite often.  We still have pleasant weather although it it warming up over weekend, Sunday when I go to Melbourne for Stevies birthday dinner it's expected to read 38, She is mad on unicorns at the moment to I managed to get a unicorn birthday card and and gift bag for her presents.  She had her first day of school today and loved it.  The twins started yesterday.  I was talking to Bree earlier and she said that Stevie was ready when the bus came for the boys at 7.30.  (The boys travel by bus to the deaf school, Stevie goes to the local primary school which starts at 9am).

I'm tired after my drive home, so will catch up on the rest of the posts tomorrow.

Take care and keep warm.  Lots of love Sue xx