Getting through the days

  After our half-Persian cat, Angel, had to be put to sleep when he became ill suddenly, David and I were bereft.  We agreed that we wanted to get a kitten as soon as possible.  We'd been very taken with Angel's placid personality, a characteristic of the Persian, and we decided that we'd like another Persian. After some searching, we found a breeder in Somerset who had two kittens for sale - a tom and a queen, and we were originally attracted to the tom - however, someone else saw the kittens before we did and they chose the boy.  Accordingly, we went off to Somerset to view the little queen with her family. David picked her up and she looked up at him - and from then on she was Daddy's Cat. Purebred cats are registered with an unique name, the first part of which indicates the breeder.  Mysti was originally called Callymicanti Bootylicious- however, the thought of the vet calling for Bootylicious Howell at her next visit persuaded me that the name had to be ch...

Well, that's 2020 over with and I think it's fair to say that it wasn't the best I've ever had. Her Majesty the Queen once famously had an "annus horribilis"  To quote Nev from the BBC programme The Call Centre, the past twelve months have been an "annus anus"  - I've had an arsehole of a year!    From the diagnosis of the first cancer in November, we staggered from shock to shock - we'd come to terms with one piece of bad news only to be hit with another blow.   This time I want to write a bit about David's illness and some of the dramas that resulted.  Perhaps I should warn people of a nervous disposition to look away now! In the week before Christmas, a colonoscopy revealed that David's large intestine was very close to becoming blocked.  David went into hospital for surgery on December 23.  He came through the four-hour operation well, and was discharged at the end of the week.  The following day we were back at the hospital at th...

Christmas this year is going to be a bit different for everyone.  A lot of people have had their plans disrupted by the pandemic and at short notice.  Many of the events we normally look forward to at this time of year haven't been able to go ahead, like the office Christmas "Do".  Perhaps next year will be nearer normal. Although the office "Do" is never the same two years in a row! I was unsure how I'd manage this year.  So far, I have to say, it's better than I expected, perhaps because so many of the things that David and I would have done together haven't been possible so I haven't had to face them alone. The highlight of David's Christmas was the De Marco's dance studio Fancy Dress party and he took great pleasure in planning his costume!  It was difficult to actually dance in some of the outfits and the year we went in Japanese dress he knocked my hairpiece off my head while performing a spot turn in the cha cha. David trying to be...

I was sad to hear that Dave Prowse, aka Darth Vader or the Green Cross Man, has passed away at the age of 85.  He was a regular guest at British Sci-Fi conventions.  His session was one of the first celebrity guest talks that I attended at the first "official" convention I went to.  He was a very interesting speaker and very approachable, and learning of his death has reminded me of the good times at conventions. Most  people like to go on holiday to somewhere warm and sunny.  David and I were not "most people".  Our idea of a good time was a long weekend at a Star Trek convention - or a sci-fi con, at a pinch.  When you factored in the costs of registration, travel, hotels and, of course, our costumes, it probably worked out the same as a week or two in Spain. In their heyday, the British Star Trek conventions were a weekend-long party.  There were two "official" cons a year, run by independent committees, and the profits went to a charity design...

David and I decided that we didn't want to have children together.  In my case I'd been there, done that, worn the T-shirt spattered with baby-sick and David said he didn't want to share me; he was very happy to be stepfather to my two boys, so our "babies" had to be furry and have four paws. With very little encouragement I could be a crazy cat lady.   So it was fortunate that David loved cats as much as I did.  He would always stop to chat to any cat that would talk to him.   When we first moved in together, we would see a majestic ginger cat patrolling the Bowling green opposite.  He had a military air, so we nicknamed him the Colonel.  There was a smaller ginger cat we called the Major.  Ginger cats were officers  in the Cat Patrol. Black & white cats were NCO's, the more black the higher the rank.  We often stopped to chat with the Lance Corporal, who was very friendly!   Our first cat was a half-Persian who ...

  We took up ballroom dancing as a result of David's need to do things properly. He didn't want our first dance on our wedding day to be just a shuffle around the floor.  He didn't mention this to me, though, until one Saturday after doing our shopping, he suddenly left me at the bus stop saying "I'll be back in a minute".  He soon returned and led me around the corner, into the Mond buildings and up three flights of stairs to a dance school.  He'd arranged for us to have a dancing lesson then and there. Our teacher put the shopping in the fridge and we took our first steps in the Social Foxtrot. We followed up with the Waltz, and then after the wedding joined the beginners' class. We took private lessons as well. And then we stopped going for a while;  I had some problems with my health, and was also working until 8.30 pm every other week which made it difficult to keep up with lessons.  We never missed an episode of Strictly, and often talked about t...

It's been a bit longer than I planned since last I updated this blog. Other things - nothing very exciting or dramatic - got in the way.     In the early days of our relationship I was trying to understand what David could possibly see in me; how could he be attracted to someone 15 years older than himself?  We were sitting in the pub (The Deer’s Leap, as I recall).  Was it, perhaps, that I wasn’t available for a permanent relationship?  He looked straight at me and said, “Keren, I’m telling you…if you were free there’d be a ring on the table right now!”   David was always very clear that he wanted us to be married.  While I wanted to be with him forever, I didn’t need to be married – I’d been there, done that, worn the long white frock.  I was happy to live with him.  David wasn’t having any of that.  As soon as I was free to do so, we were getting married and no messing about.   He had very firm ideas about the way in wh...