186. First an anniversary - then getting hip.

AT HOME.
Concentrated effort.

My Leader shoved sheaves of paper into the shredder and the cat Shadow supervised. There was a surreal air of feline concentration about them and it did not invite disturbance. I disturbed not. Daughter Roz took the picture.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS.
An Anniversary.
Tomorrow, Saturday 22nd September, 2012, Maureen and I will celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary. It has been the one and only marriage for the pair of us and its longevity is due to luck, mutual stubbornness and strict adherence to the agreement made at the outset of our liaison: If you know you could say something that would really hurt, don’t say it.
There is to be a party (organised by family members led by Roz, so it will be a good one) to which friends and relatives will doubtless be invited and at which I shall probably be expected to say a few words. I am a poor public speaker so my darling girl may find herself enduring a gabble of awkward platitudes that miserably fails to convey how much I truly appreciate her.
That being the case and in view of the fact that I write somewhat better than I talk, let me express here and now, lovely Nod, in the presence of all the nice people who bother to read this, my heartfelt thanks to you for fifty years of love, laughter, kindness, understanding, three decent kids, everything that has ever mattered in my life and a marriage made in Heaven (well, in Pompey anyway).
You are and will always be the light of my life and what on earth has happened to the wedding day picture I meant to head this piece with?
An Operation.
Just over a fortnight after the anniversary celebrations comes the cold light of day reminder that we are all mortal, i.e. prone to wear and tear.
Mo has been suffering with increasingly painful left hip trouble for a considerable time now and will be undergoing a hip replacement operation at our local hospital on the 9th of October.
Whether you’re religious or not, if you can think of it on the day, offer up a little prayer for her, will you? I shall and I’m not much given to religion.
(See POST OP ACTIVITIES below)
AN AWAY EVENT.
254 OBA. A good weekend missed.
The annual reunion of 1943 - 48 Signals boy soldiers is back at Derby this year. My Leader and I decided after last year’s ‘do’ that we probably would not make it this time. To us the roads in England are an overcrowded nightmare, the cost of ferrying the car across, even at the slightly reduced Island rate, is increasingly prohibitive and the privatised railways appear to be a cash grabbing lottery. With all the goings on here at present it seems our decision to stay put was providential.
There are pleasant folk we shall miss, though, and the ambience of OBA get-togethers is total magic. So, health and the domestic situation willing, perhaps we’ll make it again next year. This year’s reunion will be a good weekend missed. We apologise and our good wishes go to all those stalwarts who do attend and to all those absent through ill health or suchlike.
POST OP ACTIVITES.
Expect me when you see me.
When Maureen leaves hospital she will spend a couple of weeks recuperating at Neil and Pauline’s home. They have a ground floor en suite guest room which will be ideal: our three storey pile would not. So I shall be doing plenty of travelling back and forth doing my husbandly visiting, grandsonly (from school) collecting and Shadowly cat sitting. I have no idea when I shall next be blogging.
Expect me when you see me.