Getting through the days

I've been neglecting this blog lately, and for that I apologise.  Apart from my day job (I'm working from home) I've been doing my best to keep myself busy with creative stuff ( I hope that mask wearing remains a fashion even after the pandemic is a distant memory, I've put so many images and slogans onto masks, I've now got some that are double-sided).   I had my first Covid vaccination a couple of weekends ago, at the mass vaccination centre in the Orangery at Margam Park, and I couldn't help thinking about the time we went ghost hunting in Margam Castle.   We were both interested in the paranormal and the popularity of TV programmes like Most Haunted led to the set up of companies offering ghost hunts - so of course, we signed up for any we could find within striking distance.  The actual itinerary varies slightly from company to company, but generally, you get taken on a tour of the venue and told the history and legends of the place, before being let l...

We had a few excursions to A & E over the years we were together.  Once it was on my account, when I cut my hand on a broken glass.  Mostly, it was David who was the patient .  There was the time when he tripped over an uneven paving stone on the first day of our summer leave and broke  a bone in his ankle, only the hospital said it wasn't.   We duly went  on our few days away and walked (or in David's case, limped) all round York.  On our first day back at work, David got a phone call from the hospital - "We've had another look at those x-rays and we think you've broken a bone in your ankle".  When I went to collect him at the end of the day he was in a plaster cast from the knee down. Our next run-in with the NHS was when he managed to put his kneecap out of joint while turning off the TV. I should say at this point that he had hyper-motile cartilage in his knee - in other words. the "elastic" holding his kneecap in place was loose...

  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 ...