30/11/2025 November – a month of appointments
This month has been ultra-busy as predicted at the end of the previous post and frankly I’ll be glad to see the back of it…although I suspect next month will be busy too as we head towards Christmas. Talking of Christmas….it seems the build up to that starts earlier and earlier. Already I can see Christmas trees twinkling, Christmas wreaths on doors and don’t get me started on all these Christmas adverts on the TV at the moment, although they do make a welcome change from the funeral plan adverts, I am sick of them already! Needless to say, I haven’t had much time so far to start any of my preparations…although I will confess to having bought a few Christmas cards last week! Yes, I still send cards my friends, even if it costs me a fortune! Before I get too “Bah Humbug” on you all, I’ll get back to telling you all about our busy month!
It has been a month of lots of appointments for us both and our family. Some of these have been pleasant and some not so nice. My first appointment was to get my hair cut. I had meant to get this done before we went to France in September but never managed to fit it in somehow and I was beginning to resemble a shaggy dog! However, despite having it all done, lots of hair cut off, and parting with mega bucks for the privilege, not many folk noticed it! I give up! Later appointments towards the end of the month have included a much-dreaded trip to the dentist (I’m dentaphobic remember) where I escaped yet again without any treatment (youpi!), but a lot poorer, and another long overdue visit to the eye clinic this week where I had my usual injections and actually met my new consultant at long last. He has scheduled a whole raft of further appointments over the next few months as he is not happy with progress (or lack of it) with my condition. Not entirely happy with it myself really, but hey ho! Our family have also had appointments to fulfil over the month. Hazel has continued to travel to Penrith three times a week with the baby but we are hopeful that this will slow down or maybe even stop very soon. I did get to go with her one day and we had a nice mother and daughter lunch together. Our son and daughter in law have had some not so pleasant appointments recently due to a health problem and we are still waiting to see how that progresses.
Before you all start thinking that all has been doom and gloom this month, we have had some pleasant “appointments” or rather meet-ups throughout the month too. I spent a very happy afternoon with friends at a nearby church where we made up lots of shoeboxes for the Operation Christmas Child appeal. I still love doing this and am always amazed at how quickly all the stuff, which we had bought with donations from our churches disappeared into those boxes! The pile of completed boxes at the end of the afternoon was very satisfying and I was very pleased to get my living room at home back to its normal state!
We enjoyed going to a fireworks display at our granddaughter’s school where all the children (and adults too!) had great fun oohing and aahing and eating hotdogs 
I also enjoyed attending a rather fun, if a little messy, crafts afternoon with her, at school too one day. We have had a couple of nice meals with friends during the month. We were invited to lunch with some friends from church one day… (and got totally lost getting to there house as usual), and we enjoyed eating with a couple who we know who live in our flat complex one evening. It is nice to have others cook for us! I met up with my nursing friends one day in a pretty snowy Corbridge, which was lovely. 55years on for us first meeting up, our friendship is as strong as ever even if we don’t see each other so often these days…grandchildren tend to take up a lot of time it turns out! Geoff also enjoyed meeting up with someone from his old college who was visiting Carlisle one day. We were a little worried that he might be expecting Geoff to give the college some money (not a chance!) but it was really just a friendly coffee to say thank you for the books which Geoff donates to Freshers each year…something he has done for ages and really likes doing. Phew!
I did my stint for the Talking Newspaper for the Visually Impaired one Monday. Our local newspaper is not very enthralling really and trying to find “happy” news to read proves to be very difficult…especially when one of my days includes the paper covering all the houses for sale supplement! Fortunately, it’s only once a month that our group does the session.
Geoff really enjoyed being Santa at our church’s Christmas Fayre once again and was ably assisted by Hazel as his lovely little elf. The three dozen mince pies which I had made sold very quickly as did Hazel’s lovely reindeer cakes. The church has taken up a big chunk of our time as usual and we had a very good turn-out for the last café Church session where we managed to feed about 90 people with hot dogs during the relaxed service! These sessions are really winning in the way they are getting the families to come along with all the cubs, beavers, rainbows and brownies to this parade service, so we will continue with them, but they are hard work!
I had a great night accompanying Hazel and Phil to a very hard Rotary Quiz night at the Fratery in Carlisle Cathedral. It was a good night but that room is always freezing! Our team came an honourable 5th out of 25 teams so we were pleased with that. Geoff was left in charge back home with the 2 little ones…and he coped very well That was just as well, as two days later we both were left in charge of both Layla and the baby for the whole afternoon and evening ( 2pm until 1am) whilst Hazel and Phil went to Leeds to meet up with some friends and attend a concert, which had been booked for ages…well before the baby arrived! They had a great time and so did we…until the baby decided to wake up in the evening big time! It turns out that she does not like being put down and so we spent a lot of the time walking around with her! Somehow this all seemed to be a lot easier when we were younger than it is now! Anyway, both children survived and so did we…but we were pleased to get into our own bed that night!
Both of us enjoyed attending a talk by Jenny Uglow as part of the Borderline book event, which takes place each year in Carlisle. She has written a biography of Gilbert White, a vicar who wrote a book many years ago about a year studying nature in and around his home in Selbourne, a book which Geoff has always loved. It was a very interesting talk, which we both enjoyed…and yes, we did end up buying the book! It has been confiscated for a Christmas present! Geoff finished off the month with a trip to Sheffield (not an easy train ride from Carlisle I have to say) to go to a football match with a couple of his old school friends. He didn’t get home until after 10pm though, as the train trip home turned into a total nightmare, with cancelled trains, missed connections, packed trains and no seats, so he had to stand for the vast majority of the trip. The British rail service at its finest! Personally, I thought he was mad for going in the first place, as it was a very wet day but the boys all seemed to enjoy it, (Preston won btw!) but given the train chaos I don’t think he will repeat that match again! I am hoping I can have a reciprocal day out with Hazel soon in recompense!
Well as another busy month comes to an end, I suppose I’d better try and stir up a bit of Christmas spirit now. Looking at the calendar for next month it looks like being lively again, as we organise carol singing sessions, church events, Santa gigs and other meet ups with family and friends. I realise that the next blog will be posted after the big event so I’ll wish you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas and I’ll “see” you all at the end of December.
Stay safe and happy
A bientot mes amis
