curiouswombat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
curiouswombat) wrote2006-04-22 10:54 pm
curiouswombat) wrote2006-04-22 10:54 pm
New layout, and a few funny things from our hols., and a sad thing.
I've gone rather pink - or at least my journal has. I'm not sure it will stay like this for long, but I felt the need for something springlike and cheerful. The background picture is of the sweetpeas I grew in a tub last year.
No pictures in this post, but a couple of other things that amused us on our London break.
In Selfridges we saw a muslim lady in complete black from head to toe, including a solid black yashmak, in the make-up department encouraging her daughter, who looked about 18 and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, to have a complete make-up makeover. For some reason this struck both my daughter and I as funny.
At the Tower of London they were selling toy lances, about 3 feet (a metre) long - we were approached by a father pushing his toddler in a buggy, the little boy wielding the lance fairly correctly from within the buggy. D-d looked at me, then said 'Baby-cart goes medieval!'. You have to have seen a certain set of kung-fu type films to 'get' this one!
When she was 13 D-d could easily go to films for over 15s - no-one queried how old she was. Now that she is 18 she is regularly asked to prove that she is over 16, or occasionally over 18. To prevent any problems she took her student ID, and her passport with her. Mainly in case there was any problem getting into either of the gigs she was attending with friends. She was only actually asked for her ID on one occasion - when she tried to buy mugs of hot chocolate whilst they queued for the Placebo gig at Alexander Palace!
Many of you will have seen my husband's post about the rather sudden death of his aunt. Sadly he hadn't seen her since D-d was about six months old. He doesn't like travelling any more, and the family feud meant that he had an excuse to never go to Cumbria to see her, but I don't think it ever occured to him that if he didn't go he wouldn't see her again.
The only consolation that we have, I think, is that when S2C's mother and his aunt fell out, over their own mother's death, we kept in touch with his aunt to an extent as I kept her on my Christmas card list. So when M-i-L made efforts to get back in touch, and Aunt E.'s husband, suffering from Alzheimers or similar, threw the letter with M-i-L's new address in it into the fire, Aunt E. found that she at least had our address, and when she asked us I was able to make sure each of them had each other's correct address. After some letters backwards and forwards M-i-L spent time on her trip to Britain last year with her sister, so they were close to each other again before E.'s sudden illness.
It is so sad that it happened now, although there is not usually any good time for a sudden death, but M-i-L is coming back to Britain again in a couple of weeks time - and this trip was particularly so that Aunt E. and M-i-L could go back to the places they remembered from their childhood together - a journey now never to be made.
The moral, I think, is don't let family feuds go on and on - and keep in touch with people that you value - don't just expect them to always be there. This can be hard - it is so easy to do other things rather than taking time to visit, or ring, or write - but better to find that time now, than to regret that you never did. I tink I might take some time tomorrow to e-mail or write letters to some old friends that I haven't been in touch with for a while.
No pictures in this post, but a couple of other things that amused us on our London break.
In Selfridges we saw a muslim lady in complete black from head to toe, including a solid black yashmak, in the make-up department encouraging her daughter, who looked about 18 and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, to have a complete make-up makeover. For some reason this struck both my daughter and I as funny.
At the Tower of London they were selling toy lances, about 3 feet (a metre) long - we were approached by a father pushing his toddler in a buggy, the little boy wielding the lance fairly correctly from within the buggy. D-d looked at me, then said 'Baby-cart goes medieval!'. You have to have seen a certain set of kung-fu type films to 'get' this one!
When she was 13 D-d could easily go to films for over 15s - no-one queried how old she was. Now that she is 18 she is regularly asked to prove that she is over 16, or occasionally over 18. To prevent any problems she took her student ID, and her passport with her. Mainly in case there was any problem getting into either of the gigs she was attending with friends. She was only actually asked for her ID on one occasion - when she tried to buy mugs of hot chocolate whilst they queued for the Placebo gig at Alexander Palace!
Many of you will have seen my husband's post about the rather sudden death of his aunt. Sadly he hadn't seen her since D-d was about six months old. He doesn't like travelling any more, and the family feud meant that he had an excuse to never go to Cumbria to see her, but I don't think it ever occured to him that if he didn't go he wouldn't see her again.
The only consolation that we have, I think, is that when S2C's mother and his aunt fell out, over their own mother's death, we kept in touch with his aunt to an extent as I kept her on my Christmas card list. So when M-i-L made efforts to get back in touch, and Aunt E.'s husband, suffering from Alzheimers or similar, threw the letter with M-i-L's new address in it into the fire, Aunt E. found that she at least had our address, and when she asked us I was able to make sure each of them had each other's correct address. After some letters backwards and forwards M-i-L spent time on her trip to Britain last year with her sister, so they were close to each other again before E.'s sudden illness.
It is so sad that it happened now, although there is not usually any good time for a sudden death, but M-i-L is coming back to Britain again in a couple of weeks time - and this trip was particularly so that Aunt E. and M-i-L could go back to the places they remembered from their childhood together - a journey now never to be made.
The moral, I think, is don't let family feuds go on and on - and keep in touch with people that you value - don't just expect them to always be there. This can be hard - it is so easy to do other things rather than taking time to visit, or ring, or write - but better to find that time now, than to regret that you never did. I tink I might take some time tomorrow to e-mail or write letters to some old friends that I haven't been in touch with for a while.
no subject
Glad you like the pink - it is cheerful, cheerful, cheerful!!