How was your Christmas?
Vee and I spent Christmas with her twin sister Mari and brother-in-law Derek at their home in the village of Felpham on the coast in West Sussex, just outside Bognor Regis. Now Felpham may only have a population of around 10,000, but it is well-endowed, having a community hall, two post offices, and no less than five pubs.
As soon as we arrived on Christmas Eve, it was obvious that Mari was not well. She had real pain in her right shoulder and had to take pain killers. Nevertheless Derek took me to one of the local pubs – “The Old Barn” – to meet his drinking mates. It was a rough and noisy place that was not my idea of fun, but it did give me an inspiration for a short story provisionally entitled “Dying For A Pint”. Afterwards Mari felt able to join the rest of us in visiting some of their friends for drinks and nimbles. But she had a terrible night, suffering a lot more pain.
Consequently Christmas Day morning involved an early call to NHS Direct who recommended a hospital visit for Mari. Vee drove her over to Chichester – where we were married 30 years ago – and, after some waiting at St Richard’s Hospital, Mari was diagnosed with some sort of infection, given antibiotics, and sent home,
As a result of this drama, Christmas lunch – cooked by Derek – was turkey and all the trimmings (delicious) around 3 pm and a special Heston Blumenthal pudding (yummy) about 5.30 pm with Mari retiring to bed again in between. In mid afternoon, we had a call from our son Richard in Montreal where he is staying with his wife’s relatives (it is -17C there) and we finally opened our Christmas presents (mine were books).
On Boxing Day morning, I took Derek to the sea front for a ‘big breakfast’ at “The Lobster Pot” by the sea front. But Mari had had a terrible night involving repeated nausea, so we had to make another call to NHS Direct who recommended another visit to the hospital which resulted in a different course of antibiotics.
We had all been due to travel up to Egham to see Mari & Derek’s two sons and their families but, following all this trauma, Vee stayed with Mari and I went off with Derek. So now I’m back home and Vee is still at the coast.
Not the Christmas we had expected and an utterly miserable one for poor Mari.
December 27th, 2011 at 3:40 pm
Sorry to hear of your not too merry Christmas.
I hope Mari is soon free from pain and feeling better again. You’d think with 365 days in a year it would be possible to be sickness free for a couple of days in December wouldn’t you?
It is possible though to learn a valuable lesson from these unexpected evens in our lives.
I had occasion in August to realise how quickly our lives can be turned upside down, when I suddenly found I could no longer urinate. Its only now, four months later that I realise how lucky I was to have suffered an enlarged prostate rather than cancer!There were a few weeks when we didn’t know! I now I’m well again look at everything differently.Even going for a something as simple as a pee is enjoyable.
Hope the New Year brings you good health a fortune.
December 27th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Hi Roger,
sorry to hear about all the ups and downs of your big holiday. Glad you and Vee are doing well and..wow..married for 30 years.
I bought a house in the country earlier in the Spring and I had had 6 people over for Christmas dinner. Fun. Also I went on a holiday earlier this month to Hong Kong and mostly Thailand. I will go back to Bangkok in April since I met this wonderful Thai woman. Big plans for the future. We talk every day and email daily with skype on Sunday mornings. Maybe marriage in 2012??
I will keep you posted. Augusto
December 27th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
We spent Xmas night with our 30-year old son and his “significant other,” and hosting Laura’s family which consists of four sisters, two brothers-in-law, Dad, Mom, 9 nephews and nieces, 5 of their spouses and significant others, 8 of their children and two new babies (all of whom live in the D.C. area), her Aunt and cousin from New Jersey. (We had every body but the Partrige in a Pear Tree–we requested that pets be left at home.) They ate through a 22 lb. turkey, 4.6 lb. roast, ham, stuffing, assorted side dishes and the dessert table. I can report that a jolly ole Christmas was had by all.
December 29th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Dear Roger and Vee. we are so sorry about Mari hopefully everything will be better soon. We send you our love thinking of you a lot.