Repeated Patterns In My Life.

Yesterday Harry and I had a lovely day. We got on a bus using our free bus passes. We travelled a long way. We ended up in a lovely place with beautiful scenery and picturesque houses and old buildings and I took a photo of a gargoyle and we laughed at the pigeons sitting on the heads of every statue. We sat in a shady place while we ate sandwiches, because it had turned out really warm and sunny and I felt for the first time for a long time that I was bordering on happiness. It has taken me over a month to get over the sudden exit of the Japanese family and to come to terms with the various ways in which the big C has affected all our lives. The way it waits to pounce on us when we least expect it to. Harry's hospital appointment is not for a couple of weeks yet so we have a respite before the worry of what the blood test will reveal.

The afternoon turned out to be ideal. We eventually headed back home and had a take away meal, a surprise visit from my brother and we stayed up to watch a thriller film, "Flight Plan" which had us both gripping our seats! A really good day from start to finish!

Until, I suddenly remembered to switch off my mobile, that is. A text from my daughter, with the news that her husband had been rushed to hospital again. For those of you who don't know the present situation, I will just do a quick recap. Son in law had a brain tumour removed about three months ago. It turned out to be linked to his malignant melanoma that he had in a mole on his leg twelve years prior to that. He thought he had got over it. Now it seems he has all the symptoms back from the tumour. Could another one have grown that fast? We will have to wait and see. It sounds a pretty virulent, nasty type of cancer.

My daughter is distraught and the boys are obviously going to be disturbed by seeing their father screaming in agony. The eldest is possibly autistic and waiting for tests. Harry is fighting prostate cancer. My brother's wife has bone cancer, following the return of her breast cancer that she had twelve years ago. Twelve....... a significant number.........again. As well as all this, I had to cope with the sudden departure late one night of the family who had left in anger over a dispute about dripping washing in the loft. They had been with me for 11 months. All this has taken its toll on me, but yesterday I was happy for the first time for ages.

This has happened in the past when I have dared to declare myself to be happy.

Going on an outing with the children and finding my husband's motorbike on the front path and a note saying, "Don't worry, Harry is suffering concussion in hospital."

A day when I'd gone on a painting course for the day and daughter, who was twelve then, had to have my mother sign an emergency form so that she could have surgery for a broken elbow.

Six times at different points of our lives, usually holiday time, my husband has collapsed on me, while I had dared to be in a happy state of mind.

Maybe it would be better if I didn't let myself get too happy in the first place. That way I wouldn't be opening myself up for another knock to the floor.

Sorry for being so pessimistic today. I had a funny post ready to publish but that seems inappropriate now. Once again, you will have to bear with me. I will rise again as I always do, but I wish daughter didn't live so far away............

A Last Minute Find!

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Not long ago on a Saturday, Harry and I used our bus passes and went a long journey! We arrived at a suitable place to take photos. Well I wanted to take photos and Harry was happy to just be there and admire the scenery.

Well, I was happy as a sand boy snapping this, that and the other, when all of a sudden my camera jammed. The zoom wouldn't go in or out and that left the lens open, which I gather is not a good thing. I found a camera shop and explained what had happened. They examined it and took out the battery and the zoom snapped shut. I had got a flat battery. Feeling rather foolish, I thanked them and was a bit annoyed that there was so much to photograph and my camera was dead! Blast!

"Never mind," Harry said, "We can come again next weekend when the camera is all charged up." I thought that was a good idea and that was exactly what we did.

Only this time it was raining! Not possible to take all the lovely photos! Oh well might as well go into the shops and look through the second hand book stalls out of the rain. I bought a book and when we were on our way home we passed a stream and I felt something had moved on the edge of my vision. I went to investigate and saw baby ducklings. They seemed to be on their own. Then I looked closer and saw the mother with about six babies. She let me get quite close and I zoomed right in and took the photo. I felt that was worth waiting for. 

Harry and I will try another weekend and see what else we can snap when the weather is better.

We might even be able to take photos of the ducklings when they are bigger, if they are still there.

This is my true story and photo produced for Photostory Friday, hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside!

"You have to be over sixty to get on here, mate," called out a cheeky male Pensioner to a youngster trying to get on our bus.

Harry & I were upstairs looking down on the unfortunate young lad who was waiting to board the bus packed with senior Citizens, who were going on an outing using their free bus passes for the first time. We were heading for the local seaside which was an hours ride away.

I expect the youngster felt as uncomfortable getting on our bus as I would feel walking through a group of hoodies. A bit intimidating with a fear of the unknown. We must have looked as though we had all been let out of some institution for the day without a carer! Of course most of them were much older than either Harry or me! 

Being able to hop on a bus for free, opened up new horizons and we started to make these trips most weekends using the money we saved to buy a meal in a restaurant or a pub lunch with a drink. No need to worry about driving!

Trouble is that we must get to the bus stop by 3.30 in order to get a place in the long queue for home because dozens & dozens of pensioners are in a similar situation & do not want to be caught in the rush hour. The buses go from half hourly to one hourly after that time. Sometimes there is a real stampede when the bus arrives and people are ticked off for queue jumping. Our age group was brought up to queue properly and wait our turn & will not tolerate that sort of thing. There is always some one who breaks the rule though & needs to be "put in their place"!