A very Happy Christmas to all

margaretclare

Just to wish all moneysavers a very happy, peaceful and blessed Christmas and a successful and prosperous New Year.

I was in hospital from 5th to 15th December for second revision of total hip replacement, and I'm now at home convalescing in the care of my darling B and re-mobilising (still on crutches).

I'm thankful that I live in a country where the technology and the skills are freely available to us - even if we complain about waiting-times! There was a risk that I might not have a hip-joint at all if it appeared that the bone was too thin to build on, but all went much better than my surgeon hoped for.

I'm thankful that we get pensions and benefits paid direct into bank accounts - I don't have to go anywhere to get money, and all our normal household bills get paid by direct debit. I don't have to worry about little details like that, could just concentrate on getting into hospital and getting through it all. I successfully applied for Attendance Allowance back in July although I didn't really think I'd get it. Now is the time when it comes in handy!

I'm thankful that we have enough food to put on the table and to invite someone (who'd be on her own otherwise) to share it with us.

We haven't bothered a lot with many of the aspects of Christmas that many people were stressing about - can't get out to do the shopping, oh dear, and husband will have to cook Christmas dinner, the family expect it, and he's never done it, oh dear oh dear!! But I got a present this morning, completely unexpected, my darling B bought me a scientific calculator which I'll need when I go back to school to complete my GCSE Maths course. How many other 70-yr old grannies get a scientific calculator for Christmas!!! Also a lovely card from him, beautiful words 'To My Wife at Christmas'. He's such a darling and I'm such a lucky, lucky woman.

Have just applied for a Mint card to start stoozing again!

With very best wishes to Martin and to everybody

Aunty Margaret

elona

It is lovely to hear from you.

Hope you have a lovely Christmas and that you get a chance to do what you want.

good luck with your guest!!! You may need it.

Big Hug - we have missed you.:xmastree:


:xmassign: :xmassmile

libra10

Merry Christmas to everyone. I wondered where you had been, Margaret. Glad to hear you are 'on the mend' and improving.


You are right, although we might complain sometimes, Britain isn't a bad old country to live in.

Enjoy your dinner, mine's on autopilot at the minute.

margaretclare

Hi all

Thanks very much for your good wishes, Elona and Libra. Well, our guest was OK, brought us both a present - nice smelly skin-care things for me - and hearing what she said about her personal situation made us realise once again how lucky we are. B thought it was OK - but I shall not volunteer to do it again. He was busy cooking Christmas lunch - crown of turkey, sausage stuffing balls, pre-cooked roast potatoes (like oven chips) and steamed veg from the freezer, turkey gravy from granules. Then little Christmas puds with creme fraiche and cooked pears (this is an idea of B's).

We gave her the wings of the turkey to take home - turkey crown is gi-normous and I'm glad we didn't get the whole turkey!!

We tried to watch a bit of TV in the afternoon. I wanted to watch Darcy Bussell and the Royal Ballet in 'Sylvia' but when I become enchanted by beautiful ballet I do not appreciate someone sitting there saying things like 'She hasn't got any boobs, has she?' And bringing her dog - made me realise again why I never want another dog. He was just an attention-seeker, running to and fro, to and fro, with little expectant face, and we watched the special 'Songs of Praise' with the nation's favourite carols from the Royal Albert Hall, what a wonderful sound, but punctuated by 'Come here, Scamp, sit, Scamp' every minute. She's not a 'restful' or relaxed kind of person. If I watch television then I watch it, we're not the kind of people who use it as 'wallpaper', and I began to get very irritated by silly little comments punctuating beautiful music.

She decided to go home when we were in the middle of watching an old film 'A Shot in the Dark' - the jokes in those 'Inspector Clouseau' films are so obvious and yet you just have to howl with laughter. 'I didn't think Margaret would laugh at those kind of things'.

I made a point of saying that another Christmas we'll probably go away - I've seen several 4-night trips away, a cruise up the Rhine or something like that. 'Oh there is nowhere I can go, I could go to my son's and girl-friend but they live in Surrey (around the M25) and I don't like driving in the dark'. I suggested Saga singles short breaks at Christmas - 'but I have the dog, I can't leave him'.

She says the dog is a good guard-dog - he's a Yorkshire Terrier - and she'd feel unsafe without him, but she also admits to getting retirement pension in cash and keeping several weeks' money in the house at any given time!! We got on to discussing money - I said our SRP is paid 4-weekly and she said 'oh no, it can't be, it's paid weekly'. She 'likes to see it every week', doesn't trust the Government to pay it correctly! I told her we check our bank accounts online, it takes all of 5 minutes, and complete reassurance, everything runs like clockwork.

As it's such a beautiful day today we are going down to the estuary where there's a wildlife reserve and all the migrant birds, winter visitors, will be foraging on the mud-flats. I dreamed of doing this while I was in hospital! The foxes have had a dish-full of turkey bits and they may end up getting the remains of the carcase when we can't get any more out of it or are bored with it.

Our guest yesterday had embarked on a second marriage late in life but 'he is such a liar'. She doesn't want to bother to get divorced again because she doesn't intend to marry again, so they just live apart and he has girl-friends in his late 70s. Again, we are so lucky!

Best wishes to all

Aunty Margaret

Savvy_Sue

Glad to hear the op went well and to see you back Margaret. You're right, it is a good country to live in, I wouldn't be anywhere else!

As for your friend, are there no Christmas 'singles lunches' in your area? As a family, when we were teenagers, we always helped at one, it wore us out but it gave us a focus! Mostly older people there, but not exclusively. DH was suggesting we should go out for Christmas dinner next year, I want to know where's the fun in that? So my counter suggestion was that we should send the boys to help at the homeless shelter, and the two of us can go out! Unfortunately I expect all their volunteers have to be over 18, and since we'd meet many of our regular clients there we really do need a break!

I, unfortunately, bought not only a whole turkey, but too large a whole turkey. I'm not sure what got into me, I think I was seduced by packaging which said "feeds 5-6" and bought one twice the size, on the grounds that I wanted it to feed 5 of us at least twice! Never mind: it's done us twice, there will be gallons of Christmas soup from the stock, and there's at least two more meals if not three ...

And our eldest boy has really got the hang of this Christmas lark. I instructed him to buy something for me, his father, each grandparent, his brothers, and one of his uncles. Although I had to give him a fair bit of help with ideas and DO IT NOW instructions - how did he expect to buy a calendar of his university town in his home town? - he ended up scouring the shops on Christmas Eve and has made an INSPIRED choice for one grandfather: '101 things to do in a shed'!

The lads are now downstairs watching some scifi thriller recorded from the early hours of this morning. Well, it was described as a scifi thriller, and I usually enjoy them, but I only lasted five minutes before decided this was NOT my cup of tea!

elona

Aunty Margaret

Glad you had a reasonable time but I feel for you being subjected to digs about having a sense of humour in your own home.

As someone said "guests delight us twice, once when they arrive and once when they leave."

I get the feeling that she only delighted you once lol:snow_laug

Have a good time and laugh as much as you want!

Lillibet_2

Hi Aunty Margaret

Good to see you abck again & hope you are recoverign nicely.

Have a good new year as it's now too late to say happy christmas!

Lillibet xx

elvis_bloggs

All the best for the New Year when it comes Margaret.

MrsMW

Nice to see you back Margaret and glad your op went OK. I had to laugh at your description of Christmas Day, sounds just like the ones we endured for years with my first husband's mother. She always managed to spoil our day. We went to a restaurant this year and can thoroughly recommend it, we did the going away thing a few years ago but didn't like all the forced jollity or the people we had to share it with.
Hope you had a nice day yesterday and all the best for the new year.

margaretclare

Hi all

Thanks for the kind words. Well, there are things that single people can do on Christmas Day. One of the pub/restaurants around here was going to be open for Christmas lunch. But you see, one of the things she said was that she 'didn't want to go home again after lunch to a cold empty house', that was when it dawned on us that she expected to stay for the whole day. It was after 8 in the evening when she finally decided to go, and that was when we were both falling about laughing at the Peter Sellers film. She asked 'what time do you go to bed?' and we said 'well, we don't live our lives to a timetable, we go when we feel tired'. And I think she really wanted to stay until our bedtime!!!

There are places she could have gone for Christmas lunch, but then there's the dog. Same with going on a Saga short break, there's the dog. And yet she wouldn't be without him, she feels 'safe' with him there knowing there's all that money in the house!!! It's a way of life that I just cannot comprehend.

We didn't go out yesterday because the traffic was just manic around here. Today, snow overnight, bright sunshine, and we don't need to go anywhere - there will be plenty of days when we can go out.

B cut all the remaining meat off the turkey carcase, and put the carcase outside for the foxes - it has completely disappeared, the bowl licked clean, not a sign of it! I am not all that keen on turkey, I don't think we'll do that another year even if we stay at home.

Best wishes to all

Aunty Margaret