Two Birthdays in one....

Raspberry and meringue with coulis for both

You all probably know that the British queen has two birthdays on two different days and to be honest I have have never been that much of a fan of UK royalty to be bothered to ever find out why that is, but there you go.

Well I too, now have two birthdays to celebrate but, unlike old queenie my birthdays fall on the same date so it's double celebration time for me.

10th May is my official birth date and so yesterday we celebrated me reaching the grand old age of 58 (I think) and I spent the day chillin' with the gorgeous one, Ishbel.  Mind you after a cock up with a security company this week I thought it was going to be a day spent at work but Sharon who works for me and who herself celebrated her birthday eight days before me and was officially still on holiday yesterday, passed the workplace came in and sent me home covering the shift herself ... bonus payment next month I think!

So, got home, promptly fell asleep for an hour and a half and then woke up and went out with Ishbel.  We didn't get up to much as I have this problem that we assume is linked to the problem in that if I am on my feet for to long or walk for any distance I start to get a pain right across the top of my back that soon spreads to the whole of my back and quickly begins to feel like, I suppose, a sinking submarine would feel as it got to depths that would soon begin to crush its hull and it implodes in on itself.  I imagine if that happened to such a vessel and it was capable of feeling pain it would be extreme and excruciating, well that's how I get.

It happened last week too when, with my Big brother Jim and wee wifey Marie up from Liverpool and I decided they, me and of course the visiting angels, Mollie, Shannon and Lacey May along with mum and dad Jennifer and Steve would all go for a walk through the local woods and then to the park and I just barely made it home before collapsing in the kitchen in agony, it wasn't nice and it's the first time that my family had seen it this bad and I felt more sorry for them having to witness me blubbering, than I did for myself.  I know although it is bad and I crave for it to end that I also know that as soon as I get sat down with a glass of water and a few painkillers it doesn't take long for me to make some sort of recovery.......

Yesterday, we decided to do a 'little' bit of retail therapy as I received gift cards and vouchers in cards, so we headed over to Bluewater across the Thames via the Dartford crossing. It got a bit much for me and I could feel Ishbels' arm stiffen as we walked around holding hands as she attempted to stop me from going down, so we curtailed the shops and headed to the restaurant and spent an enjoyable two hours in there recuperating and eating a damn fine meal with me chomping on meds throughout to prevent one of the gastric attacks I suffer from, no one stared, so it worked.

All in all it was a good week and day

The second birthday I was sharing with myself was of course my wee tumour.  It was the 10th May 2013 that it was officially confirmed that I indeed did have cancer, so, although the prognosis hasn't been great, who cares, life still goes on and here is to sharing many more birthdays with my symbiotic friend, because as long as we celebrate it WE ARE LIVING and one really can't ask for much more than that on a birthday

Granny Ishbel and Grand Aunt Marie teaching Mollie ball tricks

Lacey Mae and Shannon with Grand Uncle Jim

Super Mollie foreground Super Jim background

Mummy Jennifer outdoing Mollie

Pink Veal and salad for me 

Sewing machine shop front that doesn't sell them!

New outfit!

Sea Bass for Ishbel

Mollie, will I sit on Grand Uncle Jim?

Yes I will

James Adam Wilson Stronach aka JAWS, but I'm better looking!

A Fathers Love

Saw this on twitter and just had to share it with you, beautiful, moving, touching.  An elderly father and his grown up son, sitting in a garden .....

It reminds us that patience and love are two of the core essences of our being, or at least it is for some!  Personally, I hated my father and was glad when he died and there is not a forgiving bone in my body towards him, I still do not miss him today.

For me, it is a reminder that some dads can be loving and thoughtful and still have patience when their kids get a bit grumpy, like we all do from time to time.  And I hope that my kids think of me in that way even although I recognise that at times I was not the best father in the world......

Another Dream

Just woke up with a pounding headache it's 3:50 AM

I wonder if it was the weird dream I was having? It was about Mollie and I. Mollie our 11 year old and eldest granddaughter, you know the one, the tiny little package of beauty and intelligence with the most gorgeously sweet and arm twisting smiling eyes that it has ever been a grand dad's misfortune to look upon, purely from the perspective of that she just has to glance up at me with those almond eyes and I would walk through hell where no demon could lay a hand upon me until I reached her, standing outside on the other side of it, as she wouldn't actually be in there!

So, it's just Mollie and me. We are in Spain, no idea where in Spain, no idea where her sisters or Mom and dad are or Ishbel is for that matter. But Mollie is attending an English School and is getting ready for a great event. She has a boyfriend, not Ewan, English too, attending the same school, I don't take to him at all. During the course of the preparations we need to attend two different places in the local town and need to get the bus there. Because of the argument Mollie decides to go to one place on her own and I am told to go to the other place.

Her 'boyfriend' is also going to the other place and so he accompanies me there on the bus, he translating for me, still didn't like him. I don't know where we were supposed to be going, or for what but I'm sure it wasn't the place where we ended up.

It was an old building with many floors on it, it had once been an elegant very large home with wide stairs and many reception rooms, it was very bohemian and there was preparation under way for a large social gathering with tables being laid with all sorts of wonderful food and people arriving all the time. William Hurt was there, as was William Shatner, Martin Balsam was also there and many other famous faces too.  As you moved from one room to the other, deep discussions were going on on all sorts of subjects, and there was music and poetry.

I was on my own as Mollies 'boyfriend' had abandoned me. I was approached by a woman who sat me down on a window ledge, it was one of those deep ledges where you could comfortably sit on and gaze out of the window or back into the large room. She asked me when I was going to die, before I could reply she got up and left!

I bumped into Mr Hurt on the stairs and asked him to have a photo taken with me. I have no idea why I did this as I have met many famous people in my life and never once asked them for a photograph or an autograph! As the woman accompanying him started to take the photo I started doing back flips of the stairs, we were going down them at the time.

I kept going down the stairs and found myself in an outdoor swimming/leisure area with pools and slides and water rings and fountains and I saw Mollies 'boyfriend' here .....

I woke with a pounding headache .....  and now I'm going back to bed at 4:35 AM.

Hope you are having a better night than I xxxxxx

I had to share - A Dream

"I just woke up from a nap about being lost in South Ockendon. You lived at a house at the top of an enormous hill which required traipsing up a bajillion steps to reach you. After being lost for hours, I'd finally reached these steps and knew I was close. I then had to battle an intricate arrangement by one of your psychotic neighbours:
In order to pass their house, you had to squeeze between a wall and a cemented-down wire fence, behind which their 2 enormous rabid hounds prowled. To make your way through the dogs you had to delicately reach (without losing your arm to aforementioned mutts) and trip a system which automatically shot hedgehog prickles at them, dropping them instantly like elephant tranquillisers. I was in the middle of manoeuvring this last task when I woke up"

One of our beautiful gorgeous nieces had this dream,  Iv'e no idea why she was finding it so hard to get to our house for gods sake ever since my impending death was announced EVERY BLOODY PERSON ON THE PLANET WE KNOW HAS BEEN VISITING AND I'M NOT BEING ALLOWED TO DIE IN GOD-DAMN PEACE ......... ;))))

And doesn't she have a fine turn of prose? In fact this was her latest Face book entry and all I will say is, if you are tempted to comment on this post, beware of the warning .....

Lesley Scott

3 hrs · 

Please. Everyone. Just...learn to fucking spell.