I go to Pemberley

It has been a little while since I updated the blog. So I thought I’d rectify that and try to round off the year.

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In fairness life has moved on in it’s own typical way. For a recent widower, the time of year is difficult to get through and in many ways I’ve absorbed myself in my work, which is made easier with the requirement to be working throughout the Christmas period.

As it happens I managed to get across to see my Gran along with the rest of my side of the family immediately after work on Boxing Day. She’s in her late 80s now and doesn’t remember much but enjoys seeing us all. And given the age I always want to get across to see her as there’s no guarantee the opportunity will be there in a year’s time.

Yesterday, in fact, was my Christmas. My direct family came over to stop for the weekend so we could do Christmas here. It meant I could do the catering and let them have a nice break from things as well. So we did the ritual exchange of presents, thankfully I remembered which present was for which person as I’d failed to label anything this year. But it all seemed to work out well in the end, and despite the use of candles, no pianos were set alight this time around.

I made a tactical error of trying half a glass of wine with my meal, which resulted in a splitting headache which was rather disappointing as it was a nice wine I’d saved for the occasion with the family. It does confirm that I must avoid it though. At least everyone else enjoyed it (and without ill effect!).

Having got the bread dough  proving this morning, we visited Lyme Park (world of Darcy). It was a bright and chilly morning but we managed to get there before the rest of Manchester descended so it made for a pleasant walk. ‘Pride & Prejudice’ was filmed there a few years ago, and judging by the adverts around the Park, the sequel ‘Death comes to Permberley’ was also. I didn’t see Darcy or any one in a period frock, but I did see some deer.  I’ll take that as a positive result.

After the family left me this afternoon I set about attacking the front hedge before pulling together the paperwork to send off to Myeloma UK with the offline donations. Hopefully I’ll get that all sent off in the next few days so that ‘the 13 Challenge’ project can be fully wound down within the next couple of weeks. I want to start work on the 2014 project now but I’ll only cause confusion if the two projects overlap.

ImageImageAnd come next year, the training will have to start again in earnest.

So that was 2013, a year of fund-raising and a year of trying to return to a level of normality, whatever that is. The year itself has rocketed through and it’s difficult to remember a lot of what has gone on, possibly because very little was there to report, outside of running in lots of different events. Saying that, I made an effort to meet a load of people I’d been speaking to over the years, visited some places I’d not been for a while and worked to get the house into the state we had imagined it to be as the marital home. Next year, I’ll start to make the garden look like the one we dreamed of.

Mark gave me a reason to live. And he’d want me to live it.

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