January…you were rubbish

Well January was just rubbish…I have thought of many words to describe January and I think plain old ‘rubbish’ sums it up perfectly. The first month of the year is supposed to be full of optimism and new beginnings etc but January of 2019 has been a long slog, a month of sadness, problems and bugs (the ill type not the actual live type!!)

The year started well, we actually got to go out on New Years Eve for the first time in over 10 years.  I say out, I mean to a friend’s house…we were out of our house so that’s out enough for us.  It was our friends 10th wedding anniversary and they had a little bash which started with lovely, posh little canapes they had spent the day preparing and ended with copious amounts of cocktails being consumed and a way too late walk home with the kids (no one saw us so we are pretending it didn’t happen, although I was being the more responsible one!). So New Years Day was a long one as we were all tired/hungover but we had our usual family walk along the beach and ended up at our Nana’s house for a buffet of all of our Christmas left overs! Its always a nice way to start the year, altogether, just as our Grandad would have wanted. We also got to celebrate Mr Finn and Sam’s (the husband’s new name…ha!) Nain and Taid’s 60th wedding anniversary, which was lovely and a very special occasion, they were made up with their card off the queen (although, I was surprised it just had a picture of her face on the front…a little vain don’t you think!)

That is where the niceness starts and stops unfortunately, January went downhill from there on.  The first week saw us at a funeral of a lovely lad, our age. Both of us had gone to school with him, albeit in different schools and he was a very good friend’s boyfriend. It was with great sadness we were there as he had taken his own life.  Life had got too much for him and he couldn’t see a way out.  The church was full to bursting, it’s a shame he couldn’t see all those people together, for him, beforehand. It was a very sad day in our little village, and he will be greatly missed by a lot of people.

That week Mr Finn and Sam’s van decided it was a great time to stop working (again!) and so that was packed off to the garage and although it’s a great friend that does all of our mechanical work, it’s still costly and means that work stops, everything has to be rearranged and my poor mum and dad are called upon more and more. By the end of that week the van was sorted and everything was back to normal, which obviously someone watching over us didn’t like as then the car ground to a halt and so was also packed off to the garage (Three Point Automotive…you are amazing!).

January 14th was a very sad day. It was my aunties 63rd birthday, but it was also the day she passed away.  She had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease just 6 months ago. My best memory of Auntie Sue is when we were travelling South East Asia in 2006 and we had to stop in George Town, Malaysia, for a visa run into Thailand. It was pouring down and we were looking for a bar to take cover (and a drink!) we were about to go into one bar and I said that I was sure I could see my Auntie and Uncle ahead of us, low and behold, that’s exactly who it was.  They had stopped off there on the way to Northern Malaysia, as part of their holiday and so by pure chance we were both somewhere we hadn’t planned on being and on the same never-ending road in the pouring rain.  Needless to say, we spent the night drinking and talking into the early hours of the morning, it was a great night and one we will always remember.

Auntie Sue had a really lovely send off. The Church was packed, and lovely words and pictures were shared, her family all did her very proud.

Auntie Sue was our Nana’s main carer and so once she got ill, Nana had to go into a home as her dementia meant she needed more care.  So, this month my dad has had to start sorting her house out.  Seeing all of Nana’s worldly belongings, everything that meant so much to her all just left behind. Photos, cards, post cards, holiday gifts, birthday and Christmas present; her whole life moved into one room.  It makes you think, reassess and re-evaluate your priorities. Life isn’t about the materialistic things you leave behind for everyone to sort through, its about the memories you get to keep with you forever, the memories you share with those you love and those you get to talk about in years to come when the gifts have all been ‘stored’ away.

In-between all of the sadness and car trouble has been illness/injuries galore. Mr Finn and Sam dramatically thought he’d broken his toes in Kick boxing and could barely walk. After 3 days he took himself off to the hospital for an x-ray…no break just torn tendons (I think, sorry…I wasn’t really listening as I had Sam screaming for tea and Finn moaning that we didn’t have the wrestling channel for him to watch the 2019 Royal Rumble!)

In general, we are not an ill bunch and can usually bat off the common colds and the things that are ‘going around’…not this month though.  Sam has been full of cold pretty much the whole month, coughing through the night and generally just not right. Finn hasn’t had a day off school since he started 4 years ago…until last week. I had a phone call from school saying he had been sick all over the classroom carpet (his poor teacher!) and so he was officially ill for the first time. He spent the rest of the day lying on the sofa, watching Christmas films (I know!! His choice…is he too late or too early??) as bad as this sounds (sorry Finn!) him being ill was actually nice, as it meant we had sofa cuddles, calmness and some lovely time together.

So…January took two lovely people far too soon and ended with two poorly boys, a hobbling husband and the start of a cold for me…Goodbye January you were rubbish, hello February.