It's been an enforced quiet start to the year at the end of a Suffolk lane. December was spent dashing about here there and everywhere so it was nice to be peaceful with no rushing for a few days, although I would have preferred not to have had the nasty head cold,which seemed to take away every ounce of energy I had left after getting wood in, laying the fire and keeping it lit, feeding the cat, and getting myself a constant supply of hot drinks and some food.......The problem of being alone is no one to make you a cuppa.
The charity shop had been shut for a couple of weeks and I volunteered to go in for the morning of the 2nd, the first day open in the New Year. Hadn't got a lot of ooomph for going up and down stairs so stayed on the till while the manager cleared the windows of the Christmas stuff .
On Thursday, finally the cold had gone and I used onions, 2 cans of plum tomatoes, dried basil and a squirt of tomato puree to make some Pizza topping, used 1 portion for dinner and put 3 boxes in the freezer, then used the juice from the tinned tomatoes plus more onions, grated carrots and chopped celery to make some soup. Can't remember when I last made soup because I went right off it last winter, but it made enough for 3 lunches.
Then after just one day of feeling completely well again I spent a nasty and painful 24 hours with a stomach bug of some sort - heavens knows where that came from - surely too many days had passed to have got it from family on Christmas day, although they did have something similar after Christmas. I don't like the fact that after so many years of hardly ever being ill I get two things in a week, is it an age thing or the result of being out and about more to meet more germs? or more likely just bad luck.
Although the bug had gone on Saturday I felt rather washed out so it was another days rest ......at least some library books have been read (Books Read 2019 page has been started. I read 108 in 2018!) and the seed order sent off.
Looking at Sue's Challenging Myself Blog, I feel extreme guilt as some leftover food that I would normally have eaten or turned into something else and frozen just got put out into the compost or rubbish bin. There was just no wish or energy to eat it or sort it.
On Sunday, (feeling 98% well rather than the 50% of Saturday) I ventured out to visit Son, DIL and Willow for lunch. Their Uncle was there cutting down and clearing some tree stumps and stuff cut down last year from their garden so they were cooking him a roast as a thank you. Good to have lots of chat and lap time with Willow....now mastering the art of waving as well as clapping! I asked the family if they had been given any strange Christmas presents but no one had had as many as me................the strong smelling shower and bath stuff that I can't use, the book from someone else's Amazon wish list and a book called "The Almost Perfect Christmas" for the year of my first Christmas without Colin........I will read it but maybe next Christmas.
Yesterday and back to swimming. The pool was nice and quiet which makes it easier to plough up and down and I managed 32 x 20 metre lengths with just 3 x one minute pauses. 32 x 25 metres non-stop is what I used to do way back in the early 1990's, when I was much younger and a stone lighter so if I can just do a few more lengths I will be very pleased.
And Finally ...............How did I forgot to put this Christmas present photo on the blog? A pressie from Willow's Mummy and Daddy.
Already, just a few months after these photos were taken, the grandchildren all look so different.
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| Son and Willow. Me, Florence and Willow from last November and from a few months earlier last year Jacob and Willow. |
I do hope you don't think this is a post looking for sympathy for being unwell! it isn't and I realise I sound ungrateful for Christmas gifts.....it's another case of hating waste - even if it some other persons money.
Back soon
Sue
I think once one goes down with something, it makes us more vulnerable to whatever else is doing the rounds and it then feels like one thing after another. Hopefully, you will pick up again soon.
ReplyDeleteThat's an absolutely lovely present. As you say, they grow and change so quickly. It's great to have a reminder of how they were.
Take care and get well soon.
xx
I certainly don‘t think this post is looking for sympathy. Chatty, a snapshot of you, your thoughts, dreams and schemes. A salve for the pain of a life now spent alone. Wish I had a blog, when my man died in 2000. A diary to look back on. I visit you every day and enjoy your news, keep doing what you are doing.
ReplyDeleteLXX
I think Joy's right, a prolonged bout of something makes our defences low and our immune systems aren't at full strength. And being in contact with the public in the shop, and handling money which is filthy(!) and has been goodness knows where, it's not surprising if you catch something. I know what you mean about the presents, I've had a few in the past which have made me wonder whether the giver actually knew me at all?!
ReplyDeleteWell I have learnt with presents is to give money to spend how they want and it stops that initial disappointment presents sometimes brings, but of course it is not exciting as opening a paper wrapped present for a little one.
ReplyDeleteAs for being ill, it is your blog and will remind you in years gone by, just like a proper diary would ;)
Aww Sue I am so sorry that you have been ill. It's a horrible time of year for bugs and viruses. Let's hope it's the last of them for you.
ReplyDeleteI've had a few odd Christmas presents in my time so I know where you are coming from.
Hugs-x-
Glad to hear you are feeling better, we asked our grown up children to stop buying us gifts, often we got things we felt we had to use, but not what we liked, this year we got lovely tins of biscuits and bottles of wine, much better, like you I get irritated when a gift is give which is liked by the giver, not not by me.
ReplyDeletePlease you are feeling I lot better, I have had a cold about 4 weeks it just kept starting and stopping. I usually give money and this year I gave my grandson tickets for a adventure ticket. I also give a few little bits and pieces. Please to hear you are swinning again.
ReplyDeleteHazel c uk
I think you're right being out and about makes you more susceptible to picking up germs. It's like when your children first start school they bring everything home from colds to headlice. Glad you're feeling better now. The photo gift is lovely.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s being out and about, having small children around and also the fact that you have had such an emotional year, will all have contributed to your lingering malaise. Hope that’s you on the mend now and the lighter days will mean you’ll be out more in the garden and generally building up your strength. Pace yourself and don’t fret about a little bit of waste this once.
ReplyDeleteHope you continue to feel better and brighter and get back to your normal self soon. The photos are beautiful what a thoughtful present. Perhaps your 'unwanted' gifts will make someone else very happy -I think sometimes in the rush to get presents bought and off the list we perhaps lose our ability to choose a suitable gift and good judgement goes out of the window when we are caught up in the Christmas frenzy. I must say I had some lovely bits and pieces this year but I have had some odd ones in the past too. Take care.
ReplyDeleteMuch as we adore them, the little ones are germ spreading machines. I have 2 boxes of biscuits and a tub of chocolates that I really won’t eat. The framed photograph is the best type of gift.
ReplyDeleteI think it was Ilona who suggested using any bath stuff that you can't tolerate the smell of to clean the loo! I know what you mean about inappropriate gifts. My sister died in September, and I got quite a few cards with 'Have a wonderful Xmas', or words to that effect, on them. I think people are in a hurry, and just don't register what it actually says. Gald you're feeling better.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteGlad to hear that you are feeling so much better. Strange as it sounds, one of the things Infind about feeling under the weather is that it really makes me appreciate health when it comes back.
ReplyDeleteAs to wasting money. They say it is better to give that receive. So,as long as you thanked the people who gave you the gifts and they think you are happy with them that is more than half of the game. Regarding the bath stuff, I am sure that you can find someone who will appreciate them. same thing with the book from someone else Amazon list, I am sure someone else will appreciate it. Again we all have different tastes in books. Based on your reading list of 2018 there are a few books that I would enjoy but most of them are not for me. You are right the Perfect Christmas book is the most difficult. If it were me, I would pack it away with the Christmas decorations, maybe next Christmas you will be able to read, maybe it will take a few more Christmases but, for me, it would mark the distance of my journey.
Have a wonderful 2019
Pru
Don't worry Sue, I think just about everybody has had this bug. Trouble is it takes longer to clear when we are of a certain age, lol
ReplyDeleteIt wiped both of us our and I had terrible stomach pains for a week, actually thought I had something wrong.
You'll soon be up and kicking, lol
Love the photos of you and the grans.
Briony
x
It makes me appreciate my one present, socks, all the more. They were useful and I am wearing them now.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear you weren't feeling well! Glad you're better now. Seems like there is something going around. It doesn't sound like those people who got the gifts knew you very well. I was really lucky with gifts. Nothing strange at all.
ReplyDeleteThe photo is a beautiful gift! Makes up for anything funky. I'd donate them or give them to someone else.
We're all entitled to a moan when we're ill - and being on your own when you aren't up to par is rubbish! I've been single for ages and all my friends are married/have children - they have no clue how miserable it can be when all you want is for someone to make you a coffee, or give you a hug when you've got aching joints. I empathise completely!.. and no, I don't need to be told by said friends, how lucky I am to have the freedom to do what i want?!!?!?!!....
ReplyDeleteThose grandchildren must give you such pleasure Sue - they are absolutely delightful.
ReplyDeleteWhat a difference a few months make, such a thoughtful gift. Although I have seen my Grandchildren through Skype I was amazed how much they had grown when I saw them over Christmas. Hope you are feeling better there have been some rather nasty bugs doing the rounds.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about odd Christmas presents, a few years ago we stopped exchanging them with various family members because their gifts to us were getting odder or less useful and were just heading straight off to the charity shop. It wasn't that we were ungrateful in the slightest, but it seemed such a shame for them to spend money on things we would never use, and it wasn't as though we wanted for things we could ask for instead. I hope the Christmas book turns out to have some circumstance that pertains to your own so was meant as an encouragement or positive thing in some way, but I am sure you will not take it too much to heart. Also, just to let you know because a lot of my blog traffic used to come from your blog - well your previous one actually - I am now back blogging, only one post so far, but trying to come from a base of seasonality. Hope you are back to 100% very soon.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear you are back blogging but for some reason it won't let me access it to be able to read it or add it to the sidebar.
DeleteThe profile is hidden so reveals nothing when clicked on.
DeleteI can't access your blog either. I so enjoyed your blog before so I hope you will let us have access
DeleteHello, it should be back, I have had comments from others. I will investigate!
DeleteI have adjusted the settings again on my blog so hope that you can now see it! Please let me know somehow if you can't! Thank you - lovemademyhome on Instagram to get in touch in that helps!
DeleteIf it makes you feel any better, both DH and I were sick around Christmas, and neither of us had been sick like this (a very bad cold) for some years. And there were SO many people sick with it and some with a stomach virus, too. I pray we have escaped that! So maybe it's just been a bad season for bad bugs.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the unwanted gifts. If I can't return them, I just donate them. Someone will use them.
Love your grandchildren photos. (Always the best presents, in my opinion.) They do grow and change amazingly fast!
Happy New Year!
It's true you seem to pick up everything going when you get run down. You are a stalwart to drag yourself in to the charity shop. I'm sure the manager felt blessed to have you. One very odd gift this year, so not me, bright green PVC apron with pink flamingos. I do wear aprons but gentle floral things, the giver actually said, "when I saw this I thought of you", what?
ReplyDeleteI hope you feel better soon and that you stay that way!
ReplyDeleteSorry you started the New Year with the cold and then the tummy bug. Perhaps it is one that lingers on surfaces and you touched that particular area after they had gone home?
ReplyDeleteI love that photo from Willow's mummy and daddy (especially the middle pic!) I guess sometimes people "guess us wrong" when it comes to presents and I have to say very strongly scented toiletries would get recycled here too . . .
Well done with the swimming - I am back to walking again now and feel SO much better for it.
I hope you are properly mended now.
Keep smiling x
ReplyDeleteThe soup went straight through you!
ReplyDeleteGet well soon. I can't see the books you have read in 2019. The link doesn't seem to be working. I love following your book list, I discovered Ann Cleeves this year, thanks to you!
ReplyDeleteHello Sue, I'm new to your blog. dropped in via Rachel's blog. I've been blogging for many years but inspiration had left me for a while recently (last couple of years in fact ! ). I'm trying to get back into it now as I have enjoyed the contact with people from all over the world. Lots of my previous buddies have also given it away so I thought I'd look around for new people to follow. Off to catch up on some of your previous posts. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteWhat a start to your new year. Hopefully you are well on the mend.
ReplyDeleteLove the photo gift.
God bless.
You are more likely to get sick and have accidents when you are grieving. That's what I read and that was my experience. Now is the time to pamper yourself. And be careful when you are walking. Don't fall on your face like I did- I'm serious! That really happened - no broken bones- just some bruises. Sometimes it was really hard for me to pay attention to what I was doing.
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean about unwanted or unsuitable gifts ... even that sounds harsh but you know what I mean ... making you feel guilty. I feel just the same, I am coming to terms with the idea that the giving of a gift by someone is what makes them feel good, so I am now trying extra hard to settle my face into a 'little ray of joy' look while I enthuse thanks at having received their gift, even if my mind has already consigned the item to the car boot sale pile for later in the year.
ReplyDeleteEven our asking for 'ABSOLUTELY NO GIFTS THIS YEAR PLEASE' didn't seem to work. I don't know what else to try.