Skip to main content

2016 and all that

It’s easy to write off a year and be glad to see the back of it but, even the worst years will have added something to our life experiences and made us who we are. What we do with those good or bad experiences shows everyone what we’re about. Not bragging too much about the good, not overplaying the bad. Coping when we can cope and accepting the help when we cannot.

For me perhaps ‘interesting’ best described this rapidly departing year. One of highs and lows both of which have been heavy on the emotion.

Serious issues with Zoey resulted in her finally moving out. That was a very unpleasant experience for many involved.

Me and Dennis getting stronger in our relationship, becoming engaged, failing to get a visitors visa for him to come here, succeeding on getting a fiancé visa, huge highs and lows. Dealing with some huge trust and betrayal issues along the way and coming through it making us stronger. My getting close to the new family over in the Philippines

Setting in motion getting Dad moved up to Northampton. My terrible choice of solicitors and all the headaches which came with that choice. Relatives getting too involved, an ex wife not stepping away as she should and making life for Dad and those around him more unpleasant and, in October his dementia taking a turn for the worse and his ending up in a home and me effectively becoming a landlord of his Northampton flat.

I’ve been really fortunate and done some amazing travelling this year and travel remains a passion of mine.

So many celebrities died this year but, if I am honest, it makes no difference to me, their work lives on and none of them were people I knew personally. It’s sad for their loved one but for the rest of us, we have our own people we need to think about.

My health has been reasonable I guess.

One thing I know my mind wanders to is seeing my Dad how he is and realising, when he’s gone, I become the older generation. I think our parents cushion us from the realisation that we have become our grandparents. I am a granddad and yet, I don’t consider myself anything like the grandparents I remember and, perhaps that was because they didn’t have parents, how can we ever really be old if our parents are still alive? I do remember my nan at 50 and ‘knowing’ she was old. My mum never managed to get as old as I am now. It doesn’t help when I hear the question … ‘what were things like in your day’ like, today isn’t my day, I’ve had my day!

As I say goodbye and thank you to 2016 what does 2017 hold?

Let’s be honest, much of what happened this year I could not have predicted in 2015! The plan was always to bring Dennis here in 2017 but, that meant not applying for the visa until June of 2017 with his arriving perhaps in September and, knowing Dennis, he’d have extended that until 2018 anyway! I didn’t imagine Zoey would be moving out in 2016. I honestly thought Dad was fine in Wickford, certainly had no plans for him to move to Northampton and never expected he’d be living in a home.

So, my flimsy guesswork for 2017 … me and Dennis get married in March. We succeed and get the next stage visa and we’re both working by July. We go Disneyland Paris in November. That’s as far as my thinking has gone with what I hope is likely.

I have some wishes … I’d like some resolution to my allergy issues. I’d like to be financially secure, no more money worries. I would like anyone who currently has depression to be better able to manage it.

So, not a vast, in detail appraisal, the tiniest of summaries. There are blog entries throughout 2016 for anyone wishing more detail.

Be safe, be healthy and love yourself

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Budget Day

So, we have the ‘Let’s buy a whole host of gullible voters day’ with George Osborne. No doubt we’ll be told how employment is rising, how the deficit is falling, how we’re all so much better off now than we were (compared to what?). We’ll be told that there are still tough times ahead but that only a Conservative government can steer us through them. It will be pointed out how inflation remains low, how not raising duty on fuel has helped everyone as is seen by the current lower prices at the pumps (it’s going up again George). In short, I should listen to this budget later and decide to vote Conservative in May but, I won’t. Labour certainly did nothing to avoid the mess the country got in but they didn’t cause it. They made the mistake of trying to be too conservative, allowing high finance the freedom to cause a catastrophic cock up for which they took zero responsibility. They made the mistake of allowing Gordon Brown to take the job of Prime Minister, one for which he is totally...
2 comments
Read more

Not a good day

Today is a very emotional one for me. I have no idea why that would be the case but apparently it is. For a day that had nothing pre-arranged this one has turned out quite busy. First, I agreed to take Matt for breakfast though I wasn't really hungry. He was being quite argumentative in the morning about some thing or other, I don't recall what exactly but some matter of politics where he was going to argue the toss whilst knowing little or nothing about it. But, even so, I was quite upbeat as Jermaine had gone to school on time ... no, scrub that, i was upbeat until I yet again had to tell Zoey to get her arse out of her room, downstairs, do her chores and get to school, that is when this day started to go downward. I spent way too much money on a new doorbell, true, we needed one but not one that cost nearly £50! This too has not helped. I went to see a garage that can fit parking sensors to my car, all well and good but they needed me to supply paint to match the circles up ...
Read more

Understanding the British

As a nation we are a funny lot. We get through the worries of life with humour. Not always good taste humour and the words 'too soon' are often mentioned! Now, this is not unique to us, many other countries adopt humour to get them through. I am going to show some ideas of humour here, don't shoot me, we're just musing this topic. Moment of silence for the people who agreed to live with shitty roommates because they "wouldn't be spending much time at home anyway" There is going to be a lot of pressure over the next few days to talk to friends and family. Fight it. Stay positive Anyway, you get the picture. Actually, most of those came from the USA. It's terribly British for one person to cough and a whole host of others stare and one person shouts, 'we're all dead now, he's got the virus'. Obviously it's not a joking matter but, without keeping our sense of the ridiculous we would go quite potty. Estimates c...
Post a Comment
Read more