It’s been a while since I have posted. We have lived through a period that could be referred to as “interesting times”. In the last two months, my cousin died unexpectedly, my elderly aunt was placed on end of life care and subsequently died, my son was admitted to hospital for a day surgery on kidney stones, which developed into a longer stay as he went into kidney failure. He had 4 operations in two weeks that were supposed to put things right, but made things worse. He recovered, thankfully. He has a final op on the 7th and then he should be ok. Meantime, I discovered that I have a half-sister from my late dad’s teenage romance. He died almost 30 years ago and never knew about her. They had split up and her mother, or more accurately, her mother’s family, decided not to tell him and put her up for adoption. It’s funny to think that if he had known, given the era, he would have married her. Then he would not have met my mum and my brother and I, my kids and all my grandkids would not exist. We haven’t met, I’m not sure if we will. Wait and see. Then my other son went on holiday with his family and got stuck in Greece when their flight was cancelled last minute. They couldn’t stay in the hotel they had been in as it closed for the season. TUI were great and sorted them alternative accommodation and promised to reimburse them for their extra expenses. They got home 24 hours later on a plane TUI chartered for stranded passengers. It wasn’t long in the scheme of things, but it was stressful for us all. I was feeling that I needed to sit under the table wearing a hard hat after all the drama of the last few weeks. We needed a break and went on a cruise along the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal. With storm Babet behind us and another storm coming in from the Atlantic, it was rough going across the Bay of Biscay, which can be choppy at the best of times. We couldn’t stop at Spain because the captain decided it was safer to skirt the weather system. Lisbon was nice. We got the grandkids some presents and had a smooth ride home. So far, since then, things seem to have calmed down and no more drama has hit us. I’m feeling ready to remove my hard hat and come out from under the table.