Christmas and other things in Diary

I went up north for Christmas, straight after work on Friday 23rd and I came back on Tuesday 27th. It was nice to be with my family but of course I was also thinking of Jay as it’s the first Christmas without him. We played some games, drank some booze and basically just enjoyed each others’ company.

Me and Sonja gave mam and dad their Christmas present, after booking it about six months ago, it’s been so hard to keep our mouths shut. We bought tickets to go and see Black Sabbath! They went to see them a couple of times when they were first dating in 1971 and Sabbath were a small band just starting out. Now, 45 years later, they’re playing some of the biggest venues in the country and are going on their farewell tour. So we thought they would enjoy being there for the end as they were there at the beginning, and we can have a family outing at a heavy metal gig. Sonja had put together some clues for them to guess what the main present was, such as Aussie shampoo (Ozzy), sheets of black card (prints of darkness…prince of darkness…!) and War Pigs on DVD. I think they’re happy with it, I can’t wait for February 2nd now :o)

Have some Christmas photos.

Some of the people at Nana and Granda’s house. I think someone counted and there were 30 people there at one point. It’s a Christmas tradition, everyone goes down after their Christmas dinner to exchange gifts, eat more food and say hello to everyone. It’s a shame though because my Nana was ill and was obviously struggling with a house full of people, even though she was just sitting on the sofa the whole time, bless her.

Granda with a big smile on his face. Someone had bought him some toilet roll with pictures of Santa sitting on the toilet, and he was laughing so much he had tears streaming down his face. He used to be the life and soul of the party but has had some health problems so we hacen’t seen him smiling all that much lately, so it was lovely to see him laughing. He’s going to be 90 in February.

Lord of the Rings Monopoly. We played for about 3.5 hours until everyone got bored and just counted up all the money. I had £13 and Isabel my 14 year old niece had about £4,500. So I don’t think I’m very good at Monopoly.

At my sister’s boyfriend’s sister’s house. I don’t know what that makes her, my sister-in-law-in-law? My brother-in-law’s sister? My sister’s sister-in-law? Who knows, her name is Katie anyway. We played lots of parlour games such as Blockbusters and Would I Lie To You? (Turns out I’m quite a good liar; or a good actor? I’ll go with actor.) Much merriment was had by all.

My beautiful sister with a bit of facial hair.

Mam having a moment with Tilly the dog. While I was there, Tilly was acting rather strangely. She was being very possessive over her toys. She wouldn’t settle at night, kept crying and running up and down stairs. At one point, she went into mam and dad’s room, buried herself in the blankets, then growled and tried to bite my mam when she went to get her out. Well, mam sent me a text yesterday to say she’s been to the vet and she’s having a phantom pregnancy! So that explains all of that, the poor girl was trying to make a nest and thinks all her toys are babies. They’ve only had her a couple of months but they’re going to have her spayed as soon as they can.

I also went out for lunch with my old school friends, some of whom I haven’t seen for a long time. The last time I saw Richard was Christmas Eve 2008! He’s always worked weekends and bank holidays so we’ve never been up at the same time, but he’s just got himself a new job at the National Portrait Gallery and will be moving to London, so no more weekend working. So I might get to see him a bit more often than once every eight years! Apart from Richard, all my friends who were there now have children. Sarah doesn’t have any but she turned up with a rather large baby bump, which was a surprise. So much of the conversation revolved around that, but it was nice to see everyone anyway.

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The estate agent came round today to get the house on the market. He took photos, I signed the paperwork, agreed a marketing price and the “For Sale” board will be going up within the next few days.

I’ve started sorting out some of Jay’s things but it’s really hard every time I pick anything up so it’s going really slowly. I’m going to have to start sorting it in earnest now, try and make a big dent in it all. Jay’s best friend Rob came round the other day to take his music stuff. He took his old guitar, amp, basket of cables, banjo that I bought for him years ago and he never picked up, effects pedals, mixing desk etc. I’m keeping the guitar I bought him as an engagement present. I can’t play, but it was expensive and Rob said it’s too special for him to play so he wouldn’t want it. Maybe I’ll learn to play one day. So all the stuff that Rob took has made a dent in the pile to sort, and I’m more than happy for him to have it, I can’t think of anyone else I would rather take it. As music is just as important to Rob as it was to Jay, I know he will use these things and really appreciate what they are and what they mean.

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And finally, I’ve booked me and Sonja in to do a skydive! I just have to wait for confirmation that the date and location we want is available, and then we can start getting sponsored to raise money for the mental health charity Mind, in memory of Jay. I’ve requested 28th April as that was meant to be our wedding date, so I’m hoping they can do it so I’ve still got something to look forward to on that date. I’ve never wanted to do a skydive before, the thought of it terrifies me, but Jay mentioned a couple of times that he was thinking about doing it, but he never got round to it. So I’m going to do it for him. And it’s also part of my life plan of taking the bull by the horns and doing as many exciting things as I can without worrying about tomorrow.

Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m going to be jumping out of an aeroplane next year…

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Last updated December 30, 2016