Its Christmas!!!!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hopefully you are all set for a good break and have all your presents bought, if not yet wrapped, and your meals planned if not yet bought!

Well what a busy month it has been!.  As you can see I can still type, even if it is with extra large text and a lot of squinting and lifting my laptop up.  Where there is a will there is a way I believe they say.  Anyway first and foremost, thanks to all of you who responded to my last post and sent me my christmas present of some memories to include in my book.  I have had a great response and some of the responses I have had, have been hilarious, sentimental and on occasion a bolt from the blue as you obviously remember things I dont.  In addition to this it is surprising to see not just what people remember but how they remember you.  I was never sure how I came accross to others but its encouraging to see that in a lot of cases you remember me fondly, professional (well not always) and more importantly someone you could have some fun with, so thanks to you all.

Health

So update for you all on the health front.  Well the new drugs are great, in that they work and I am feeling 100% better than I was feeling.  I am taking 20 pills a day and have little reminders on my phone to make sure I don't forget which to take when, but as you would expect at this stage swallowing pills is no problem for me...I'm used to it.  I have had a reaction to these pills (still having) in that I am bizarrely itchy and have red skin (more on this later) but other than this I am fine and have been very busy...hence the delay in giving you all an up date.  So....what have I been doing?

Kids

Well Christmas is about the kids and we have had nativity plays and end of term parties to go to as well as the usual birthday parties and trips to see Father Christmas (more on this in a mo...), and now that the kids are off school we have also had them at home making a lot of noise and taken them out to the cinema and play world....so all very busy.

Our trip to see Father Christmas was special as we went up to Yorkshire and climbed up a big hill with Katie's best friend and her family (they are our friends too..) and then ventured into a cave to see the man himself.  I thought it would just be a little scene in a cave in the woods but it was a fair old trek up the hill and then even further into the cave (brought back a lot of memories of my caving days I can tell you, those of you who used to come caving will remember that getting my boobs through the "cheese press" was an achievement.  Ha Ha).

After a trek through the cave with our hard hats on we finally got to see the man himself and each child told him what they wanted and for being so good got to choose a present to take home.  I have to say it was great, some of these things can be a bit ropey but this one was good and it got us outside in the fresh air.

The day before this I had a visit from an old school friend, Clare, who drove down to see me with her two boys.  Now this visit was planned for ages but an hour before she arrived I realised I was having a reaction to something, which isn't good when you are about to have visitors.  The day before I had a bizarre itching between my frups (bust) that I thought was down to my bra, this was followed by an itching of the ankles which I thought was an insect bite but when I got up with a bright red face I realised this wasn't normal.  Now Katie had had a reaction to what we think was colouring in sweets over Halloween and had come out in a rash all over in November, so my initial thought was that I had this, but the last thing I wanted was to have something contagious to pass on to Clare's kids, so I rang the hospital  (Doc shut at the wkd).

Clare arrived before I had an answer from the Dr so I stopped her outside to explain that she could come into to the house but nowhere near me.  Luckily the Doc rang back and explained this was a reaction to my new drugs and therefore wasn't contagious but I have to say being constantly itchy is annoying.  I did have a lovely bright red rash all over my face too but luckily this has now faded and as our trip to father Christmas involved a lot of walking I just looked rosy.

So what else.....well keeping up the same old theme we have also had another party last weekend, (yes we are still cleaning up).  This time with my side of the family, which was great as we haven't all been together for about 15 years so we had a really good time and as usual had the music, the lights, the games and for some too much to drink so it was yet another great and memorable weekend.

So as you can see, this retirement life isn't quiet and dull.  I am looking forward to a break over Christmas before we start again in January but wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  I hope you all have a great time and I will be back in touch soon.

Toni...