Goodbye 2012!!!!

What a year 2012 has been and in sharp contrast to 2011 where Andy and I both lost our Mums. This year has been full of vibrancy, celebration, laughter, travel a whole lotta’ love.

Of course the big occasion was our May wedding and we couldn’t have wished for a more beautiful day….full of friends, old and new. It meant the world to me that Julie and Janet came from Florida. Charlotte was my bridesmaid and looked stunning and Tom gave me away wearing his tuxedo in a very relaxed manner together with his converse sneakers. Even my second cousin Caroline came who I met for the first time in 2011. Everyone looked lovely, happy and full of support for our wonderful occasion. We spluttered through our heartfelt vows and as our tears subsided Andy kissed me BEFORE he was told he could ‘kiss the bride’.  Phillip Need, the reverend was wonderful and his words of warmth and love were welcomed by all.  The reception was a mass of hydrangeas and alcohol and gave Andy an opportunity to tribute his father for his selfless contribution to country and fatherhood over the years with such humility and honor. The weather bestowed the best weekend of the year with brilliant sun, a light breeze and we were left with stunning photos and perfect memories.
 

 

The lead up and planning was a doddle with the Internet and the stress was minimal which gave us the chance to enjoy many other occasions. One of Andy’s favourites was Cirque du Soleil’s Totem which is always a breathtaking experience….but there is nothing like the first time!!!!! The colour, the choreography, the human feats of balance, manipulation, and grace leave you in absolute awe and wonder. One thing we did note is that The Royal Albert Hall is much closer to Gloucester Toad tube station than Kensington and so next time we will get there early and not forfeit the first 10 minutes (Andy).

Of course whilst the lead up to our wedding was brewing so was the Olympics although we did not pay to much attention to the buzz. Somehow when July came, our wedding had passed and we suddenly became caught up in the occasion and loved every minute. What an incredible event was put on by London and tried as many times as we did, we could not get our hands on tickets for the Olympic Village. We did manage to join in the festivities at the ladies swimming marathon in Hyde Park and then later to Paralympics’ events at the Excel Centre. We were stunned by the Opening Ceremony and were not disappointed by the Closing Ceremony and felt almost bereft that we would unlikely share in such an occasion of this magnitude again. We will never forget Super Saturday with Mo Farrah, Greg Hungerford and Jennifer Ennis wins. So we went, we participated and we even bought the t-shirts.

 

 

Our summer was also interspersed with a couple of lovely holidays. The first was our Madeira honeymoon that we booked on a whim and were then later became concerned when we learned that this is typically a cloudy time of year and also boasted a very dangerous runway. We were pleasantly surprised with an uneventful landing and a week of lovely sun that awakened us every morning was our rather spectacular honeymoon suite. A lovely way to spend our first week of marriage other than the day when Andy literally had to talk me off a cliff. We decided we would take an eight mile walk in the mountains from one village to another. When we began it however, we were not aware that much of it was balanced on a ledge on the side the mountain. This is where Andy would learn that his new wife has vertigo which would be revealed through bursts of profanity and then tears. Unfortunately it was one of those occasions where you feel you have gone to far too turn back…..but we made it and we lived to tell the tale.

Our second holiday to the New Forest was nothing short of delightful. We rented a small cottage on Kentford Farm, an abode for race horses to holiday for a few weeks. We enjoyed the fact that we had Sophie in tow and scoured most mornings for mushrooms although they were a little thin on the ground other than a surprise showing of Chanterelles under the Kentford Farm Rhododendrons. Another highlight was our last night, drinking champagne under a full moon while several of the horses raced each other up and down the field…..completely magical. Another lesson for Andy about his lovely wife is her obsession to take photos and I think I drove him half mad with my requests to stop the car the very five minutes to take a shot with my FABULOUS iPhone camera.

 

 

Our last shared holiday was Cyprus where we spent the first part of the week hunting for fungi with Andy’s rather obsessive colleague Michael. The highlight for us were the Troodos Mountains and with a rental car we managed to spent a fair bit of time exploring the picturesque villages. A day to myself exploring whilst Andy was mushroom hunting also gave me the chance to realize how much I love sharing my life with my husband and how I would never want to be without him. I have done so many things by myself, experienced so much, seen so much yet, I realize so very strongly that a life not shared is simply not the same.

And shared we have…..not only holidays but we have become members of The Tate and enjoyed countless exhibitions on both the South Bank and Tate Britain. We have seen a number of plays and become quite the Shakespearians with The Winter’s Tale and Henry V, although we bought tickets to Taming of the Shrew we somehow overlooked the date and missed it….grrrrrrrr!!! We have enjoyed some wonderful movies this year too, early on it was Hugo and The Artist, later it was Killing Them Softly and The Life of Pi…..so many good ones.

Andy is still going strong with Blue Zoo. The first gig of 2012 (and last)was the Underworld in Camden. It was projected to be a great gig with several other bands supporting but alas with Blue Zoo being the last to play,  the day Sunday with the trains stopping early, the audience was thin on the ground - it was rather a disappointment. That being said, in attendance was a diehard fan, Angel from the Philippines who monopolized Andy after the gig with photos and autographs.  As annoying as he was this has now transpired in to a gig in Manila and we are now going to the Philippines in February…..Andy even packaged me in to the deal.  Very exciting! This is just one of several things in the pipeline for Blue Zoo as they have rerecorded some tracks, and there is a potential re-release on the horizon. Neil and Graham have opted out for now so the band has a couple of new guys working with them in rehearsals. The keyboard player has been difficult…the first one looked like Father Time or Dumbledore and had to go…the second is a giant and will take up half the stage…..however, of the two the giant is the nicer person so he will be in Manila……that’s if he can fit on the plane!

 

 

The mushroom season gave is the chance to launch our first Fungi Boutique. A workshop, walk and luncheon for ten people from our home. My concern was that we could actually sit ten people let alone feed them but it was an enormous success and we are planning two next year. I also convinced Andy to let me help him in a survey for Home Park at Hampton Court which was interesting and gave me a chance to build my fungi knowledge a little further. The park was remarkably unspoiled and other than the 300 deer has little traffic. The mushrooms appeared to be on steroids with parasols being the size of platters…Agaricus the size of footballs and large rings of Blewitts……Andy was in heaven and in total he (actually WE) found 175 species of fungi!!!!!

Despite the distance I have managed to stay close with the children. Charlotte and I Skype several times a week and Tom and I chat via Facebook or Facetime once or twice a week. They are both focused on their lives and happy. Charlotte has Ian which keeps her feet on the ground and heart in the clouds. She is back in school, working and enjoying her life. Tom is focused on his music, in college and has just got in to a relationship with Cassidy which means he has someone to share his massive heart with. I have been lucky to have visited them twice this year and am going over again at the end of this week and of course they were here in May. I could not handle these breaks without the miracle of technology and realize how lucky I am. Of course without the computers we would be absolutely lost and a major triumph for Andy and I this year was replacing the hard drive in his MAC computer……it was not an easy task but we worked as a team and succeeded AND if we can do that, we could even replace an engine in a car...maybe even build an engine!!!!

Of course technology is something I have stayed on top of over the years with my work and half way through the year my employment with Alinean ended and I now work for them as a freelance. This has given me so much time to enjoy my new life, my surroundings, my home, my husband, my dog and my friends. I know I have to work more in 2013 but struggle with the thought of leaving the home on a daily basis and have to find something that works for my new lifestyle. I refuse to give up our lazy start to the day with biscuits and coffee in bed, my long walks with Sophie, visiting Andy at Kenwood, my lunches, shopping excursions , social engagement planning……etc. etc.

I am not someone that has an abundance of friends as quite frankly, I like to enjoy the friends I have. I have had countless lunches with Tish this year as fulfill on our plan to lunch at all of the ‘Cote’ chain in London. Tish and I have known each other since we were fifteen. She is a remarkable woman still dealing with the loss of her grown up son Oliver two years ago yet finding the strength to keep going in a positive direction. We have so much fun laughing and gossiping about our husbands, our plans for facial surgery, exercise regimes and diets. I have also had some boozy fun with Elaine, our last day out being spent entirely in Selfridges and bouncing between the two restaurants and many glasses of champagne AND time for a quick makeover in between to minimize the alcoholic flush. I have also managed to spend time with Anita in Braintree who is like a sister, has a huge heart, a lovely son David and surrogate parent to Sophie when we holiday. I may also have a new friend that I met though Elaine’s step sister….Cas….chatted to her for hours, have lots in common so by year end of 2013 I may be at my quota of five friends…..five friends per region that it.......I have my irreplacable friends in Florida....Julie, Jill, Janet, Ruth, Chris, Kathy & Jim and my lovely Michelle and Clinton elsewhere in the USA. Regardless, Andy is the best friend I could ever wish for so anyone else on UK soil is just to be a bonus.

The weather has been miserable and we have had an abundance of rain after the drought at the early part of the year. Thank goodness for comfortable wellies. Sophie refuses to go out in the garden if it’s raining yet is impervious to the rain if we are going for a walk. She comes home sodden with mud but jumps straight in to the shower fortunately which spares the flat getting filthy. I love our walks and with Hampstead Health on our doorstep I feel quite spoiled. That being said we did have a bit of drama with an attacker on the loose who hurt several victims. An attacker that Sophie rooted out of the bushes in the Elms one day although we were not sure it was him at the time. He was crouching down but Sophie found him and he jumped up. Andy was nearby and with Sophie there I was unlikely to be a victim. When he was eventually arrested we looked at his picture online and without a doubt, it was indeed the man in the bushes……DRAMA!!!!!

One of the down sides of the last four months has been Jacks health. He had a stroke on which he had a remarkable recovery and after extensive rehab of six weeks was finally home. Once he got home he got a kidney infection which set him back further and he had to return to hospital. All of this resulted in a massive weight loss and loss of motor function and all around confidence of his ability to take care of himself. He is now recovering for the second time and we have been astounded at his resilience and steady improvement. We have visited him at every opportunity and spent some quality time where he has shared his war stories which still seem to be very vivid for him.  For Christmas he gave each of us a Christmas card with money and he signed mine ‘Dad’….very touching. He is a wonderful man.
 

So Christmas came and went.....it was quiet and I silently missed the children. I also found it difficult to shake off the tragedy of Newtown Connecticut and the loss of twenty young lives. My heart aches for these poor families and I hope that they have the strength to tell the world who their children were and drive home the need monitor weapons and mental health more carefully. I feel so lucky to have seen my children grow up and look forward to the continuance of their lives evolving and maybe eventually grandchildren.....no hurry tho'!

And today is January 31st, the last day of our special year and I am awaiting the delivery of Henry.  I love our small family and have been toying with getting a puppy for Andy, possibly a Jack Russell. I want him to have that experience of a new little life, vulnerable, dependant on him,  complete unconditional love….but that is hold for now….Henry is not to be a dog this time but a vacuum cleaner…..this time!!!!

 Happy New Year!