Sunday 3 February 2008

friends indeed

Hi all, well yesterday steve and i went along to Manchester to meet up with some friends that wwe made whilst out in India on our travels, we were working in the local community in Jaipur and the four of them were all working on a conservation program also in Jaipur,
Every 2 weeks we would meet up in a co ordinators house for a meal and a chat , we actually only met up a couple of times but kept in touch through mark in Manchester , yesterday Trish flew in from Dublin and Colin and Matthew came up from London and we crossed the Pennines from Huddersfield to meet up with them .
It was a great social weekend and we had a great deal of memories to chat over , photos to see and it was really a lovely time,
we ate out and visited a few really quaint and unique old pubs and then went back to an apartment that they had rented , it was a short walk from our son Chris and his partners house ,
this morning once again we met up and had a stroll around the city , even going up on the huge city wheel for an amazing birds eye view of Manchester and its surrounding areas, all too soon it was time to say goodbye , with promises to all meet up again soon, i hope that we do , it was strange as it all happened 14 months ago and yet meeting up again was all like it only happened a short spell away, good to have met you all again and thanks for a truly great weekend !

Saturday 2 February 2008

winter blues

Well my goodness i have been so remiss in writing anything on this blog for a good 3 weeks, time flys by and before you know it we are into yet another month, february blew in with a vengence, it is cold and wintery,this week i have been on shift by myself as i have been on the rapid response shift, basically i park up and wait until the computer alerts me that there is an emergency for me to attend.
It was a busy week last week and i started my shifts at 4pm until 2 am, lots of chest infections and asthma attacks due to the severity of the weather, a few road traffic accidents and of course the inevitable sudden deaths, went to two in one evening and one poor chap was dead for at least 12 hours before he was discovered, its always a bit sad but a common factor for us ambulance folks to have to deal with..
Finished my shift at 2 o clock this morning and hit a white out on my way home . i have 12 miles to cover across country to get home and the snow blew in like i havnt seen for years , i was panicking worrying if i would make it home or not, i slid down turnshaws road almost careering into the butchers shop window, put my car in 2nd gear and limped up the hill in the driving snow, when i reached my road i turned the engine off and literally slid down to the level of my house before just managing to just level with the drive otherwise i would haver ended up at the bottom of the hill!!
Woke up at 9 am to see lots of snow , a real pretty picture but deadly cold, but the sun is out this afternoon so hopefully it will melt away.
Sat watching Ireland v Italy in the 6 nations rugby , i have a friend who is true Irish so no doubt he will be either over there or holed up in a pub somewhere enjoying the match and the craic!"
My lovely mother phoned from Malta where she went the other day for a months holiday, sun was shining and she was sat watching the yachts in the harbour , lucky her!!
We shall be off ourselves before too loong as we wend our way to Sri Lanka for a 3 week break, we love it so much out there and the local folk are really lovely genuine people
Our youngest son moves in with his girlfriend today , they will live in a flat in north london in Hendon are very excited about it all, he has just done a newsroom stint with the BBC at Manchester and has a placement fixed up soon with sky news so he is well chuffed (pleased)/
Other son is with his partner upin Newcastle for the weekend, to see a show and some good nights out , he just sent me a photo of the Angel of the North, the giant rusted statue that dominates the skyline from the A1 i think
We are meeting up soon with some friends that we made whilst out in India, we are having a meal and a night out all of us , one is coming over from Ireland and a couple from London , whilst one iis more local like us and is from Manchester, should be fun catching up
anyway thats a bit more news from me so i will say bye for now.