The Way of the Wombat

I don't seem to have written much about life in general here for a little while.

It has been proceeding. I wrote about my day on Wednesday in monthlydiaryday here - it was a fairly ordinary day.

I have written about 6,000 words for my Back to Middle Earth Month story - but I can't post it here yet (or any of the other places I post stories), as it hasn't been revealed on the community yet. It has slowed down the next chapter of The Valinor Trail, but that is under way now, and the B2ME story is a Returnverse tale as well.

Yesterday D-d and I went up to Mum's and took her for lunch for the first time in a couple of months, as her arthritis and gout have been playing up so badly she hasn't felt like coming out. Then we took her for an optician's appointment. Fortunately the disabled parking space outside the opticians was available, and she had her rollator, so this went fairly smoothly.

The optician is, however, very worried about the blind spot that has developed in the middle of Mum's right eye (which was why she made the appointment), so she is asking Mum's GP to refer her to the ophthalmologist. It is one of the vagaries of our local services that the consultant ophthalmologist will only take referrals from doctors, not opticians.

My sister told me today that Slightly-goth niece has just been told she is to be made redundant later this year, a month or so before her wedding.

Brits who have been hearing so much stuff on the news about whether Big Banks will stay, or not stay, in Scotland if it becomes independent, will be somewhat amused, or possibly bemused, by the fact that this is because 'Barclays Wealth and Investment Management' are transferring her entire department's work to Glasgow.

Also - I've just been at our fortnightly on-line meeting to organise WriterConUK's event this year.

And people, friends of mine, if you didn't already know that this year's event will be in Coventry in September - then you do now - just GO HERE and sign up!

You get to see me! And these wonderful people - we are a really friendly bunch - why not just go for it? :)

You know you are getting old when your daughter is adult enough to be asked by her best friend's father to ratify his new passport photo.

Also - you know you are getting old when an e-mail to said daughter receives an automated reply telling you that, if your e-mail is urgent, you can contact her secretary.

On the other hand she is still young enough to want to come around tomorrow for pancakes...

I said to someone I would post a picture of the birthday card from my daughter - and I promised the_winterwitch I would show her what 'a set of Isle-of-Man specific cookie cutters' looked like - so - card -




and inside it -



And now the cookie cutters from my niece -



There is a Manx cat, a three legs of Man, and a map of the island (which is upside down in the packet).

I think the three legs one would be difficult in actual cookie as the legs might easily snap - but it would look good on the top of a cake...

I've just been putting all the tree decorations away - Christmas is officially over. I meant to count all the crystal ones - but forgot once I got to forty-something. Next year I'll count them, honestly!

Thank you to everyone for the birthday greetings, gifts to my journal, e-cards and hard-copy cards that I received yesterday. I really do love that my birthday gets so much more celebrating since I joined LJ.

S2C bought me the Blu-ray mega extended boxed set of Lord of the Rings - this should keep me occupied for a month or two. D-d gave me a beautiful new jumper and also took me out for afternoon tea to celebrate properly.

And there was a bracelet from my Mum, a very, very, nice silver and grey scarf and some black and silver glass earrings from dougalsservant, and a couple of other bits from a couple of friends.

Afternoon tea was very good - just the two of us as S2C had just had his first shift back at work and was in bed asleep.

Fist came a selection of sandwiches served with crisps and a good, mustardy, potato salad.



And then came scones with jam and cream, mince pies, and Victoria sponge;



I know I look a bit worried in the background there - I always do when someone else has the camera!

So - a day well celebrated.

We are just coming to the end of a very major storm.

The wind picked up last night so that by about 10pm we had steady winds of over 45mph, with gusts up to 80+mph. And it stayed like that until mid afternoon today.

I had a phone call from my mother (who lives about 20 miles away at the northern tip of the island) about 9.30pm last night to say the roof had blown off her garden shed. This is the shed in which she keeps her mobility scooter.

Fortunately a neighbour had spotted it, rung her bell, and then gone to get a tarpaulin and a rope to cover the scooter and tie it down. But I really didn't sleep very well with the combination of the noise of the wind here and the worry about how she was coping.

I rang her as soon as it got light - the storm still raging - and she said the shed had almost completely disappeared, she had hardly slept, she felt all sick and 'churny' inside. I have to say the idea of driving up, with trees down all over the place, was a bit scary, and there was no point is asking S2C to come with me as he is still not allowed to lift anything - but then came word that my brother-in-law and his mate were on their way there, I didn't need to go. I have to admit to being relieved.

They found as much of the shed as they could, and tied it together and to something solid, to stop it blowing away and causing further damage. Then they rounded up as many of the contents as they could, like the lawn mower, and the charger for the scooter, sorted out the electric supply so there was no longer any danger - and volunteered to put a new shed up as soon as possible, before heading off to the local pub for lunch, as if, Mum said, it had been a welcome jaunt out for the two of them.

Fortunately the wind is now down to a more manageable 30mph, and we have survived unscathed. In fact, amazingly, we didn't even lose the wreath off the front door which I had forgotten to take in as the storm broke!

Also, of course, there have been no ships or flights in or out of the island all day - good job we had no intention of going anywhere - but difficult for those who had been home for Christmas and should have been heading back to other parts for work...

I hope everyone who celebrates has had a lovely couple of Festive Days, if you are lucky enough to be in a country that regards one day off as much too stingy, and a good day if you are one of the unfortunate ones!

If you are interested in how my Christmas went just click the link to

( Read more... )

After talking yesterday about tree ornaments some people asked for some pictures. So here they are ( under the cut... )

Oh - and a final picture - everyone should have a flashing santa pen to write their cards...



Not to mention a Christmas jumper with black, dalek-like, snowmen on it!

And here, just to prove it -is ( A screencap... )

I was invited to a book launch last week but, sadly, couldn't take time off work to go.  The book in question was This Terrible Ordeal written by Matthew Richardson, a social historian who works for Manx National Heritage.

Why was I invited?  Because I contributed to it!

Back in June last year I saw a request in a local paper for any information families held about members who had fought in WW1, or had been in one of the women's services, such as the FANY (Female Army Nursing Yeomanry), or munitions or whatever.

My great aunts had both been in one of the women's services and so I contacted Matthew, saying I had a family photo showing them in uniform - along with their older adopted brother/cousin, Charles Augustus Christian, in his uniform.  I actually posted the picture in this post, along with a little bit about him.

I got a reply almost straight away - yes he would like to add the picture to the Manx National Heritage archive but even more exciting to him was the mention of Charles A Christian...

( Read more... )

As I had missed the launch, but am off work this week, I went along to the museum to buy a copy of 'This Terrible Ordeal' this afternoon.  I mentioned to the gentleman working in the museum shop that I was really sorry to have missed the book launch, and he asked my name.  When I told him he took out a large sheet of paper, found me on it, and handed me a free, signed, copy!

And Great Uncle Charlie's picture is on page 6, with some quotes from one of his letters home.

The great aunts?  Their pictures will be in the exhibition next year, but they didn't make it into the book.

Oh dear - the weekend is almost over, and I currently feel so tired I could do with a couple of days off work.

Yesterday I was doing Mum's shopping, cutting her grass, and walking the dog, before coming back to do Messy Church at 4pm - which was fun, but tiring! Then I spent time in the evening resizing all the pictures so that they can go onto the church website - and also to church this morning to be loaded onto the vestry computer for people to look at after the service.

Cutting Mum's grass made my shoulder sore again - and so I didn't sleep well - especially as S2C was off work so the bed was hot, and whenever I woke it took a while to be lulled by his snores rather than kept awake by them.

S2C brought me coffee in bed, then I got up and hung out the washing I'd put on on timer over night, before church. Church was nice - two young men were confirmed as church members. Watched the German MotoGP over lunch, then took our broken garden chairs to the recycling site, went to B&Q to get a couple of new ones, then to Tescos to do the week's shopping. And then flopped - I'd have been happy to have a nap, but never quite got around to it. I mentioned this, and S2C must have thought it a good idea as he disappeared upstairs and is currently sprawled across the bed!

Seasons' Greetings? Yesterday S2C picked the post off the mat and noticed one from his mother in Australia. When he opened it he was a bit surprised to find Season's Greetings' facing him. it turned out to be the Christmas card that she posted to us on 18th December....

It didn't have an actual 'air-mail' sticker - so perhaps it came by dug-out canoe, camel train, and cyclist - but even then you would have thought it would have taken less than 30 weeks.

He rang her this morning to let her know it had arrived!

And picspam - there will be pictures of messy church, but for today there are just a few I took of the inner harbour in Ramsey ( under here... )