Have been really slack lately with blogging, have hardly looked at the laptop in a while. Life has been really busy this last couple of weeks and I must admit to becoming a bit disheartened by the whole getting online, social networking thing. I've only been on Facebook since November and it has put me back in touch with old friends from school, family I had lost touch with and other mum's I had known well, before we moved and our kids all grew up. However, it has also helped to cause a family rift between my little brother and I that seems to not have an end in sight and made me question what on earth was I thinking when I decided to go online. My SIL has messaged me and profusely apologised for the hurtful things that she said after my daughter died and for that I am truly grateful. My brother unfortunately has gone silent and ignored my last message.
I was kind of fed up with the whole internet thing for about a week. But then I realised how much better I had been feeling lately, because I had somewhere to talk about all the things that had happened to us over these last eight years. Things that I really needed to get out, to talk(or blog) about and had been unable to bring up for fear of upsetting family. RC told me that after Sophie had died he had blogged about dreams he had had of Sophie and memories of things that she had done because he wanted to tell someone but did not want to upset me. I decided to carry on with blogging even if it was just for the therapeutic effect it was having on me.
So to re-cap on the last week. Our broken boiler was finally condemned and went to it's watery grave. Hubby RC came back from Malta and brought a little sunshine with him even though the temperature was still freezing. It was so good to have him back, even though he would have to put up with no heating for a while, a bit of a shock after hot, sunny Malta. A crew turned up to fit a new boiler on Thursday morning and after a flood,(the dismantelling crew had not drained the system like they said they had), work proceeded. It all came to a halt when the new boiler was not delivered but resumed again in the afternoon with blaring fire alarms every time they had to solder a pipe. They were nice boys, very polite and seemed to want to do a good job. So I made sure they had the good coffee when I made one. The job took all day, but the house was finally warming up. The electrician arrived and did temporary wiring so that we could use the boiler over Easter weekend, he will be back on Tuesday to do permanent wiring. Everyone is having lots of hot baths and I am struggling to keep up with washing and drying so many bath towels each day.
Early Friday morning I walked into town with youngest son to look for a barber that was open on Good Friday. He had decided to get rid of his long hair and go for a very short style. A big decision I was hoping he would be happy with when it was done.I told him to be sure about it and reminded him of the haircut he had wanted at five, to look like Bart Simpson, that had left him crying for it to be glued back on. The first choice of barber was shut, but a couple of doors down was a unisex salon that a friend of his used, so we popped in, to see if they were busy. They were not and soon he was in the chair, the lovely hairdresser asked him about three times if he was sure before she took the hair clippers to him. There was a lot of hair, someone even came in and asked if it was being done for charity, or a bet when they saw all the hair coming off through the window. My baby boy with his long golden curls is now a smart, striking young man, with a George Clooney short back and sides. I cannot believe how much older he looks and that he has a neck! After watching how good she was and how unbusy it was, I decide to get my hair styled as well, while I was there. I have not had my hair cut by a professsional in years. It has been long for ages and mainly in a bun, sometimes loose or in a pony tail, however the bonfire a few weeks ago had singed a bit of my hair and I had had to lose a bit of it. Now I needed it to be shaped as it was a lot shorter. We both felt good as we walked home with our new posh hair
Good Friday was also eldest son's 19th birthday, he mainly had computer components that were ordered online, although I wrapped and paid for them, I have no real concept of why they make him so happy or what they are. We all went out as a family for the day and took him to some of the posher food stores to get supplies for home made chinese meal that he wanted for his birthday tea. He spent the evening using the big television in the sitting room as a moniter, as he tried out his new toys.
Saturday everyone was tired, probably as we had a whole day now with a lovely warm house. RC was showing no enthusiasm for getting out of bed, especially when I told him that we had snow again, so I took the dogs out, made tea for his mum and then made the ultimate sacrifice, for which I have told him he would have to love me forever. I left RC to lay in bed, while I braved the supermarket, on an Easter holiday weekend! I knew it was going to be bad, when the people at the pedestrian crossing were already jostling and arguing, because the people at the front were not crossing quick enough. I managed to get the last trolley and proceeded to the doors where there seemed to be a game of chicken breaking out, fuelled by profanity. By the time I reached the salad section, they were openly calling each other names. It was packed, there were staff trying to restock shelves and taking flack because they had run out Easter Eggs.As I inched my way round, it occurred to me that most of the items on my list were well stocked, I was in no rush and the mad behaviour of my fellow man was actually quite amusing.I waited patiently in packed aisles, smiled at the grumpy and queued serenely much to the annoyance of all around. Somehow, I dodged around the rude shoppers all trying to get in the doorway, without giving way to anyone and got lucky when a taxi pulled up straight away as I got to the kerb.
Easter came a bit quicker than we thought, as we had forgot to change the clocks. But RC loved his Easter egg that I customized for him. I bought a giant hollow egg, managed to cut and prise it open, fill it with his favourite creme eggs, reseal and decorate with melted chocolate, add a couple of his favourite chocolate bars and tie with a ribbon.I love to spoil him. The kids said they were too old for eggs this year and chose other treats but my RC will never grow out of anything, he is forever young, part of the reason I love him so much.
Love you for ever? Yeah, I can do that!
ReplyDeleteI know you can (smug smile).
DeleteFrom your title, you had me wondering. I'm glad the loss of hair was voluntary! And I'm glad you've got heat!
ReplyDeleteHappy Easter weekend. Your 19-year-old son sounds so much like our 19-year-old son. I don't know how computer parts can make him so giddy, but they do.
It's funny how these computer parts make Arthur happy and how he knows what to do with them when they arrive. He now has connecting cables from laptops to kindle fire to little box thing that all the excitement is about.Then there is the two different keyboards that he required, the tiny one has a laser pointer, which is cool apparently.
DeleteFacebook definitely isn't everything it's cracked up to be. I use it more or less to keep track of my daughter. Blogging is more my style, and I'm glad to see you didn't turn away completely from it. I love reading your posts. They're so real and come straight from the heart.
ReplyDeleteI hope things will settle down for you this week. And now that you have heat, the weather is sure to become warmer!
Congrats on surviving the Easter shopping excursion. I think it's your turn now to be spoiled. Or at least be able to eat ONE of the 17 creme filled eggs. ;)
I think I will be quite wary of facebook from now on, but I do not want to give up on it. I am in touch with cousins that I have not seen since we were children, it's wonderful.Blogging has helped me so much,there have been many times that I have wanted to talk about Sophie,or tell my mum or dad something the kids have done. My mum would have loved hearing about Ira's haircut.
DeleteI'm waiting to see what this week has in store for me. I have to travel a bit on Wednesday,to a town that is really hard to get to on public transport,for an interview. I applied for my first passport for our honeymoon,but the passport office want me to attend an identification interview to prove who I am.We cannot book anything until I pass the interview and they give the go ahead for my passport to be issued.I'm worried I will get a detail wrong and have to reapply.I will be blogging to say how it went.
You two are so sweet! Glad your SIL apologized finally - and seeing your Easter present for RC, I can see why he loves you ;)
ReplyDeleteI was so relieved when SIL apologised. A bit sad I haven't heard from my little brother.RC just has this way about him that just makes you want to spoil him.He appreciates all the little things so much,it makes it such a pleasure giving him gifts, or making things for him.
DeleteYou have had an eventful week for sure! I'm glad RC is back home with you and all is right again.
ReplyDeleteYes, the internet has its ups and downs. I too love the therapeutic effect of blogging, but tend to be much quieter on Facebook where everyone is someone I might run into in "real" life. I'm glad you decided to stick with blogging. I would have missed you if you'd called it quits.
I must admit, I would miss blogging if I did stop. There are times when you just want to say something or record a day. Having good people, who have known and been friends with RC for a long time, encouraging and supporting me,has helped me so much.
DeleteGlad to hear you've got heat again, even if it took a whole new saga to get it fixed. You really don't miss that little convenience (like hot water) until you don't have it for a while. Good to have RC back home to help.
ReplyDeleteNice to hear that SIL finally apologized for her hurtful comments. I hope it goes to mend some of those fences. Still sad that your brother is still being pigheaded about it, but you shouldn't lose sleep over it. I agree with you on the internet, facebook and blogging. I sometimes slack off on mine on occasion just because I get busy, lazy, or just cannot find anything meaningful to say. SOME people are able to post up some real funny/insightful stuff every day (not me). I find there's no real hard rule - post what you want, when you can.
When my mum was alive, I would call her up each week and give her a bulletin on all the events that had taken place over the previous week. Blogging fulfills that need to recount to someone how hard,good or sometimes maddening a week has been.
DeleteIt's so good to have RC back and hot baths and warm radiators.I'm so happy SIL apologised and will just let it go now and hope my brother gets over it soon.I am going to try and look forward and not think about the next disaster waiting around the corner.