It’s my Nana’s birthday today. She’s marking off a fantastic 86 years today, an age I think I could only dream of reaching.
She’s a hugely important person in my life. I effectively grew up with her, being the first grandchild she had because my parents were building or house when I was born so I settled into Nana’s cosy cottage from pretty much day one. In the 25 and a bit years since I’ve learned so much from her.
She’s a fantastic woman and I love going down there to spend a few hours chit-chatting, giving out about the government and drinking tea (or something stronger if she could only convince you to) with her. Can’t wait to see her on Friday.
I stumbled over this on my phone again last night. I love the speed and efficiency that texting and tweeting offers but sometimes things just get so lost in translation or, as in this case, lost in context.
To set the scene: I had sent my dad a photo of a bunch of us having lovely creamy pints in the Storehouse and wishing him a happy Paddy’s day. It’s also important to point out here that he is a dairy farmer and the twins being referenced were newborns of the bovine variety.
Can’t wait to show it to him at the weekend after a few creamy pints
My beloved mam and dad are celebrating 30 years of marriage today.
For someone in their early 20′s (barely!) that seems like forever. That’s at least 10,950 cups of tea between them. Yikes.
It’s wonderful, truly amazing considering the ups and downs they’ve faced along the way.
They’ll probably kill me but mam was 25 and dad 22 when they tied the knot in the 70′s. It’s really comforting for someone of a similar age to look at them and think that despite being so young and still very wet behind the ears, I shouldn’t be afraid to make big decisions and leaps of faith.
While on the bus home, the chatter on Twitter about the 09.09.09.09.09 timestamp home sparked a memory of a blog post I had read. It was on Darragh’s blog, on 08.08.08 (and probably at 8.08am too knowing him) looking back on the year that had passed. I hope he doesn’t mind be borrowing the idea as a mould for a post that I’ve had lying around the nether regions of my head for a while.
So where was I this time last year?
Ouch
This time last year I was living in the apartment I’m now looking across the rooftops at. Luckily, this apartment was quite compact and all on a single level as I tore ligaments in my left ankle and was resigned to crutches for about 3 weeks, unable to stand or walk on it. It was horrendous for someone as independent in mind as I am. But it helped me learn a lot of things about myself and people close to me at the time that I thought I could rely on so not all bad
I had time booked off work to (finally) take a holiday for the first time in nearly a year but had to leave booking it till the last minute as I wasn’t too hot on the idea of spending a holiday abroad on sticks. Thankfully it all worked out and I got to book a trip to France sans crutches where my long-held romantic notions of the country were confirmed. The food, the wine, the landscape and cityscape of Lyon and the Rhone Valley, the lifestyle, the attitudes. I loved it. Lesson learned: holidays are really good for you.
In summary, things were pretty good – nice new place to live, job I loved, had started learning to drive and in the full of my health (well, from the knees up anyway!).
And this year?
Right now, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m thankfully still in the job I love, in the full of my health, living in a lovelier (and cheaper!) new place with a great family and group of friends around me none of which I’ll ever take for granted. And I’ve found my best friend.
It’s my Nana’s birthday today. She’s marking off a fantastic 86 years today, an age I think I could only dream of reaching.
My beloved mam and dad are celebrating 30 years of marriage today.
