A Very Many Happies for 2008

So 2007 is nearly gone and I'm reflecting back on it. Was it a good year for you? It was a hell of a good year for me! I had two ribs removed to make bone grafts for my hip replacements. I had 2 new hips and three new knees, MRSA and cellulitis.

I sent back the despised wheelchair and have had two zimmers (the 2008 model works very well thank you) lol:-D

I seem to have spent more time in hospital this year than anywhere else and I am so grateful for all the help and support of the staff at Chesterfield Royal Hospital, without them I would still be vegetating in front of the telly unable to move. I know that next year I have another large surgery looming but at the moment I am grateful to be up and about for the first time in over 6 years.

I became computer literate (well nearly), I got this confounded machine in March, it took me four days to work out how to open the lid to turn the silly thing on! I wouldn't be without it now though. All my friends are in here and I don't think I could go back to the silent, monastic, lonely life I had before. It would drive me totally round the bend.

Everyone has noticed how I have altered since I started to communicate through it. Have I met some special people this year via my lappy - you betcha bottom dollar I have. I am going to mention a few, in no particular order so please don't be hurt or feel neglected as, amazingly I have got loads of friends out there in Cyberspace!

I wouldn't have made friends with Sir Chicksalot, who has my vote for being the most intelligent man on either Multiply or Yahoo. His words of encouragement following my operations helped me so much, and I always have a smile on my face when I pay his page a visit. The Nigel Diaries should be in print - I have told him this on many occasions, and his latest Thinking Back series was a moving insight into a world most of you are too young to remember.

Mr Mad is another of my favourite people, his adventures with Mr Tiddleywinkles leave me in hysterics most of the time, he too ought to be communicating with publishers, as his secret bloggy thing is way better than the Mr Bean Diary which was released a few years ago here in the UK!

Balavan - this lady is flippin' awesome! If you aren't reading Sh'mai, why the heck not? It is brilliant and I can't wait to get my daily fix! Penny, I've said it before and I will say it again - get chasing those publishers up!

There are other people who I try to make a point of talking to nearly every week, Bertie, Destiny Camel, The Boho Hobo, Loubie Lou, Larry Luggage, Kee, Cute1Lori, Fire and Ice, Stargazer Richard, to name but a few. You may not realise it but you have all enriched my life so much and from the depths of my heart I thank you all. I may not get to write to everyone every day but I do think of you all, and I sneak onto your pages for a little read. I sometimes am struggling with the pain in my neck and shoulders which is why I don't leave a comment, yes genius needs encouraging and I try to reply to blogs, but anything else is sometimes too hard for me, and I know you all understand this.

I'm now going to mention a friend who most of you will never have heard of before. Karen, on Yahoo she was known as Zevvie1. She died on 7th July this year of metastasized Breast Cancer.It went into her brain and she suffered so much, but never complained. When she died she had gone blind, and was partially paralysed but was so cheerful every time we spoke on the phone. How much I have regretted that my operations came too late for me to go and see her, she would have loved to see me up and on my feet again. We were both diagnosed the same week with Breast Cancer and had our operations the same day, went through chemo together and that made us closer than any siblings.

I have missed her so much and her sons came to see me today which I thought was very kind of them. I will be raising a glass to her at midnight - if she was here she would be raising the bottle and not just the glass! lol:-D

When you're having a really bad day and it seems like people are trying to piss you off, remember it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4 to extend your finger and tell them to fuck off.

Remember though do not drink and drive. Ever!

Zero alcohol if you are getting at the back of a steering wheel. An example of what could happen is here. It is graphic and awful, but, it is usually someone who is innocent who suffers at the hands of drink drivers! Not that I think any of my friends would drink and drive, but someone may just fall on this and it could make them think on what they had planned to do!

http://www.lenet3000.com/saburido/index.html

Right enough of this reflecting lark, it's a bit too morbid and that is not what I want to remember this year for.

Think of a number.

Multiply it by 3. Now add 5.

Take away the number you first thought of.

Now add 7.

Subtract 2.

Add back the number you first thought of.

Now, close your eyes.

Dark, isn't it?

For any of you who haven't had a look through my video clips, here is Mummy Woodentop, my lads reckon I was walking like her before that nut tried to off me!

Reasons not to exercise

It is well documented that for every minute that you exercise, you add one minute to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursing home at $5000 per month.

My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. Now she's 97 years old and we don't know where she is.

The only reason I would take up exercising is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

I joined a health club last year, spent about 400 bucks. Haven't lost a pound. Apparently you have to show up.

I have to exercise early in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

I have flabby thighs, but fortunately my stomach covers them.

The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier.

If you are going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country.

And last but not least:

I don't exercise because it makes the ice jump right out of my glass.

So 2008 is knocking at the door, let it in joyfully. Have a wonderful year. Don't do anything you don't want to do - you are a grown up now and perfectly capable of making up your own mind!

Try and make someone smile everyday - I do and it makes me smile back!

I hope you all have a happy and healthy year and that we will be back here this time next year. I love you all a lot,

Kerena xxx

A Different Christmas Poem

SANTAS CHRISTMAS PICS

So are we all ready for Chrimbo then? Chrimbo - Christmas as defined by The Beatles many, many moons ago! I am. My presents are wrapped, the food shopping is done, not much more that I can do until the big day now.
I got to thinking earlier about Christmas all around the world. Some people dislike all the hype, how much it costs, the religious connotations etc. I love Christmas as it gives me a chance to treat each and every member of my family to a gift they otherwise could not have afforded for themselves. I am not religious, and really I should have said are we all ready for Xmas. This spelling was devised for atheists but as with most things it now crops up all over the place.

Anyway as I said I got to thinking, (yes that was the creaking noise you all heard), and whilst thinking I was as usual surfing the net, and I came cross this. It reminded me that there are thousands of brave men and women, in uniform not only from the UK and USA but from most countries, and these people are striving to ensure that we have the freedom to celebrate Christmas, Chrimbo, Xmas however we wish to. These soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines all love and cherish their families as much as we love ours, yet due to a sense of honour and duty they will be many miles away on the big day.
This poem is published anonymously and all I ask is that you all take moment to read it, and thank whatever deity you worship that you have the freedom to choose.



SANTAS CHRISTMAS PICS

A Different Christmas Poem
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?", I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here.
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve.
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me."
"I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,'
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
"My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile"
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
"I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home."
"I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother."
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long."
"For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."



SANTAS CHRISTMAS PICS

Olympic Games London 2012

I don't know who I told and who I've missed cos I am quite excited,

 but, tonight my youngest granddaughter Kirsten (commonly known as Curly) aged 11 has been told to get training in earnest as she has made it ito the UK gymnastics back-up team for the 2012 Olympic Games!

Kirsten is on the right of the awful picture at the front. Roll on new camera!

 

My Village

I thought I would tell you all about the village I live in. I ). The original cottages are now part of a landfill site. The area I live in was not built until 1974 under the guise of regeneration and it knocked the guts out of the village spirit (apparently). The full official title is BarrowHill Model Village, but for many years it has just been Barrowhill. It was built by Richard Barrow between 1853 and 1856 to be a new model community. Originally he built 247 cottages, a school and a church. Since then the village has had quite a bit of modernisation (unfortunately> I do know that there isn't much community spirit where I live. Everyone keeps pretty much to themselves and it is extremely quiet.

We do have one claim to fame and that is we still have a working Roundhouse which is home to over 60 trains. This is the only one left in the UK and our Roundhouse Society worked very hard to raise funds to keep it going. If Chesterfield council had been given free rein it would have been demolished and a new housing estate would now be there. Thank gawd for the Roundhouse Society!    

http://www.barrowhill.org.uk/

We used to have a pub, surprisingly enough it was called The Barrow (I wonder why?). This however is no more as it's last occupiers were apparently running a huge counterfeiting ring from the upstairs rooms!

We still have a social club so there is somewhere to go for a drink at night. I haven't been in there as a regular for many years so I am eagerly anticipating our little shindig next weekend.

    

I know I can make it there and back under my own steam as I ave been practising walking up there and back every day!