The past week / 10-days has again flown by – guess we must be having fun!?

Over a week ago now (which I cannot quite believe), on Thursday 8th May, lots of things happened… Firstly, it was actually VE Day and, although Keighley did apparently have something going on in the town centre to mark the occasion (including lighting the most feeble looking “beacon” I have ever seen, which we saw later in the day on the local news), I watched the VE remembrance service from Westminster Abbey on the TV whilst I did my ironing… As usual with this type of thing, I found it moving. It has made me think that I really should be brave and read through the letters that were sent between my Nan Brindley (Mum’s Mum) and Mum’s real Dad before he was killed in Sicily in July 1943… I just know that I will find it really emotional – partly because I wonder what my Mum’s life might have turned out like had her real Dad survived the war and whether my Nan would have been at all different… although she was a generous Nan in lots of ways, she could be quite stern with a certain sadness about her…

It’s also sad that, as poignant as these letters probably are, my Mum is unlikely to appreciate their signifiance to her now… one day I will definitely go through them as they are a part of our family history! I just gotta be brave but I fear they will be like the letter(s) my Dad left each of us (my Mum, me and my brothers) amongst his papers, before he died (well, he obviously thought he was going to drop down dead from his 70s onwards as there were a couple of letters for each of us that were dated about 20 years apart! But that was my Dad!), a voice from the grave so-to-speak which brings back a lot of memories… although I obviously didn’t know my Mum’s real Dad (or any of my grandads for that matter which is really unfortunate as, apparently, I had at least three of them!), I can weep for my Mum and my Nan (oh, and for Britain when I really get going! 🤣).

The second thing to happen was there was a lot of hype about the “trade deal” between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Trump with a big announcement and Live TV broadcast from the Whitehouse (with Keir on the phone, live from the Midlands – he must be knackered as he was in Westminster for the VE Day service first thing, then off to the Midlands, and back again to London after that for the VE Day Concert!)… which got completely over-shadowed (from a World News perspective, in my opinion…) by the third major thing to occur – white smoke coming out of the Vatican chimney and a new Pope (Leo XIV) being announced! So, Trump (& Starmer) got trumped by an American Pope! To be honest, on hearing the new Pope was American, we both thought that Trump would somehow claim it as some kind of deal he’d done with God… but he didn’t… not yet anyway! Did anyone see that image of Trump as the Pope – what a knob!

Last Friday (9th May), Louise, Lee & and the grandkids were coming for a visit so, after a little walk in the morning, making sure the house was ready (beds made, towels out) & favourite foodstuffs purchased, we sat in the garden waiting for them to arrive. In the evening, we had a great BBQ tea sitting in the dining room (the only time we use our dining table is when we have visitors so it always makes a nice change) looking out on the garden…

Saturday (10th May) was another stunningly sunny day and, after a leisurely breakfast / brunch, we all went for a walk up at Penistone Hill Country Park before dropping into Haworth for a snack & stroll around the shops… Strangely, despite it being a lovely weekend, Haworth didn’t seem as busy as I thought it would. It was nice seeing people strolling about in the sunshine eating ice-creams and having a drink outside the pubs… Haworth definitely has a lot of pubs! I reckon, in a half-mile stretch from the Old Sun Inn at the top of West Lane down the famous Main Street to the Haworth Old Hall at the bottom, there must be around nine pubs (many doubling as hotels) and probably more with restaurants etc… with an estimated population, according to the internet, of around 6,700 people, that’s a lot and probably one of the reasons Haworth relies on the tourist trade! Thank God for the Brontë family!

On Sunday (11th May) we had another nice relaxing morning with the family until they decided to hit the road around lunchtime. Once they had gone, we did our usual cleaning of the house from top to bottom, and enjoyed a sit in the sunshine to recover! Think we both even managed a bit of a snooze!

We have made arrangements to see the family again, for a walk out to Hilbre Island, in a few weeks time during Whit Week. I’ve never been to Hilbre Island before but it’s somewhere full of childhood memories for Pete so am really looking forward to it! Let’s hope the weather holds…

It always takes a few days to recover from any weekend visitors – particularly if there’s a crowd of them! There’s always a lot of bedding and towels to be laundered so we have appreciated the good weather this week and being able to get everything out on the line and dried quickly!

After a relaxing Sunday, I went to see Mum on Monday morning (12th May) with the intention of taking her out in the car with, perhaps, a stop somewhere for tea and cake… unfortunately, despite help from a couple of staff members, I couldn’t get her in the car and, in the end, I gave up as she was getting quite distressed about it… she has a bad knee (always has had after dislocating her knee cap a few times in her life, the last of which was when she was demonstrating how not to land when approaching the ground from a parachute jump… she was due to do the jump as a fundraiser but, unfortunately, demonstrating how not to land when pissed up in the bar at work (civil servants, with their own bars in the basement – they don’t have it all bad, or at least they didn’t in the 1990s!), she dislocated her knee before she had a chance to actually do the jump itself, and ended up in plaster from her ankle to her thigh! Our Andy ended up doing the jump on her behalf! Happy memories! 🤣) and was saying she couldn’t bend it to sit down… she also couldn’t grasp that she needed to put her back to the car seat and lower herself onto the seat and was quite frightened by the prospect of doing this… it’s such a shame and horrible to see her become so scared of doing something most of us do without any consideration.

I’m also a bit sad that our days of going out for a drive / tea & cake might be at an end as, even if the staff could help me get Mum into the car (which I think, after Monday’s experience is unlikely, although I do know that Mum, like many people with dementia, can have good and bad days), I am not sure that I’d be confident of getting her out and back in on my own, if we went anywhere… I might give it another go in a few weeks as even a drive out might be better than nothing?

Although where Mum lives is nice and the staff seem kind, I hate to think of her stuck indoors most of the time… although they do have some regular trips and, fortunately, as their minibus has a lift they don’t have any problems getting her in and out!

Unfortunately, as I thought we were going out for tea & cake, I hadn’t brought any goodies for us to scoff in the garden so we had to do without… instead, after a few minutes in the sunshine, discussing how big the trees in the garden are and waving at the the various staff heads that appeared in different windows, we headed back in to join the Monday chair exercise group and had a bit of a dance when it got to the final tune of the session – Que Sera, Sera by Dorris Day! Although Mum cannot remember the words to sing, she definitely recognises the tune and it’s always emotionally touching to sing it to her, swaying backwards and forwards in our slow, sort-of waltz, whilst remembering the times when, as a child, she used to sing it to me! 🥹

Pete and I have managed a number of good walks over the past week or so – including one to take a look at the bluebells in Low Wood (which is next to the canal in Riddlesden, just outside Keighley) and, our main walk of the week, a 7.5 miler (half of which was uphill!) near the Barden Reservoirs (there’s an “Upper” and “Lower” reservoir here!), just a few miles past Bolton Abbey, where we didn’t see another soul and had a nice picnic lunch on the hillside, trying to keep out of the very cold wind!

We have also spent a bit of time on the allotment, Pete more so than me as, when he goes down there on his own (as he did yesterday whilst I did a bit of shopping and had a lone-walk around “the block” here at home), he loses track of time… I am not quite sure how he does it as I know my internal food clock (Feed me, Seymour!) would most definitely tell me when it was time to go home and perhaps eat some lunch whereas he could go for hours and hours without thinking about food or drink! Anyway, now that we have committed to getting the allotment going whilst we wait for the house to sell (still no movement there 🙁), he’s had a lot to do and I know, although when I go it helps get some of the jobs done in half the time, it’s something he likes to do on his own which is fair enough – after all, we all need our own space every now and then don’t we!

What else have we been up to…. Oh, we have booked another 8-week stay in Goa from 8th January 2026! Woohoo! 🥳 Some might ask why we keep going back to Goa but, to be honest, we know we will have a great time when we are there – we know the weather will be fab and we know that we do not need a lot of money when we are there too! This time, we will be staying in the same place we did earlier this year (although a different apartment) but will be flying from Heathrow as the flights with Air India, including luggage and seat selection, was about £1k less than we paid to fly with Qatar from Manchester earlier this year so we feel that we are quids in already! Something to look forward to even if it is still about 8 months away! It also means that we can enjoy Christmas and New Year at home in the UK – hopefully, in a nice new house in a new area!

Today, we have been for a walk in our local woods (Holmes House) which was nice… we usually avoid it to be honest as it can get very muddy in there but, thinking we haven’t had any rain for yonks, we thought we would give it a go through the whole wood… fortunately, although a bit sticky in a couple of places, it was mostly dry… Pete has been to the allotment to water the plants (Yorkshire water have texted everyone to ask people to consider their water usage this weekend!) and I have baked a cake… tough this retirement lark!

And so, another week / 10-days has passed by… It hasn’t yet rained, although the “Lettuce Man” at the allotment (no idea what his name is but he used to be the main buyer of lettuces & veg for Sainsbury’s or some other big supermarket!) told Pete that there’s a big storm heading our way on the 20th??? 🤣 We shall see… much as I love the warm weather and sunshine, we definitely could do with a bit of rain!

Have a good week if you are reading this and enjoy the weather whilst it lasts! 😘