Winter Wonderland

Welcome home (almost) Hugh and happy birthday kate!

Wished y'all could have been here today on the top of the ventoux for sledging! We were remebering Amy and Beth and Jess a few years back. I had to drag Julian away from his computer where he has been installing a VERY IMPORTANT new thing for several days now. By the time he was up there of course he was already talking about coming down, dropping me, going up again and spending a day skiing, coming again tomorrow for the winter wonderland experience! It was very strange to come down to olive pickers and warmth....

Good to know Hugh and Margaret are in such good and loving hands, even if the space is cramped. We keep trying to ring but you are always engaged...good sign I suppose!

Love to you all.

Update

Dad was discharged yesterday afternoon and began his continuing course of antibiotics by tablet form. Consequently he now has no gut fauna and a runny tummy to add to his list of woes. The pain is basically under control but it is still there so he's continuing to take paracetamol to keep it at bay. I reckon on mum and dad staying till new year - or at the very least until the course of antibiotics is over - by then the pain should have gone I guess, but they'll be gagging for showers and home comforts. We'll play it be ear, one day at a time. If more medical consultation is needed later in the week then we are still on hand if the folks are with us, but hopefully no more hospital visits will be necessary in the short term...not until dad has discussed the whole scenario with his GP, any road.

We'll watch some films today and try tyo polish off a bit more of the turkey - and Steve is on his way over too. keep the calls coming in.

Pete

Welcome back!

This must mean you are more comfortable and that they have things under control as it's not the threatened 5 days in hospital,hurrah! Happy Christmas!!!
When do they decide about the long term future of the troublesome organ?
I suppose it must have been Mum and Dads only Christmas and Wedding Anniversary apart,in 55years. Thank goodness you where all there to support them.

This week I have mostly been cooking fowl!!
Goose on Thursday....Courtesy of Lidl.
Saturday bootiful Turkey....Local.
Today I will be dressing Pheasants found hang by the back door....Very local.
We have a surfeit of feathered friends.


Yesterday as you know was Kate's 13th birthday and after five years of longing is now the owner of a phone, so texts may be coming your way, but reception is still patchy here and she may have to go to the park and stand on the slide to get a signal and there could be a.....(line of people. Sorry I have temporarily forgotten how to spell that word)of fellow teenagers with new phones,Ha!Ha!
On her behalf..Thank you Mum and Dad for the W.H.Smiths tokens, I expect that she will be off to Aberystwyth next week with Lisa to spend their gift tokens as she also has one for New Look.
I shall be in the kitchen of Rhosychan for the week where my kitchen crew amuse me by snapping 'Yes Chef' when I ask then to do something.
After that I shall be free to come visiting, depending on how the land lies with everyone.
Thomas and Edmund have exams in two weeks.. Thomas, two AS level sciences papers.
And Edmund has to resit(Mrs Lewis is making the whole class resit as she was disappointed in them!!)one Physics paper.
And a Mrs Stevens says Edmund is very unlucky with equipment(I think she was being uncharacteristically kind,) so he has to resit his Chemistry practical as his equipment broke, and whilst he and Ms Stevens were trying to organize new working equipment for him, the technician threw away his solution. So she has had to make up a whole new Practical AS level experiment just for him.
And I see he also has a Maths resit which is unlike him but I think he had the flu that day. So we have a busy/serious January ahead.

My friend Nikki is still awaiting the arrival of her second child.... due 23rd no appearance.... Maybe Kate's birthday...no baby yesterday.....so now she's decided it will be New Year...Poor soul she was as big as a house when we last saw her in October.

Lots of Love to everyone thinking of you all, between oven temperatures that is

Hew's back, Hew's 'appy!

He's out of hospital, enjoying a nice hot cuppa and chocolate biscuit. All sitting round a blazing fire and anticipating a bit of belated Christmas cheer together! No dietary constraints apparently, which will make things easier. All callers welcome (by phone or in person).

Jan and Pete

Discharge

Dad just rang me and he's being sent home today about and around 13:00

Update from Forty Green

Hi Folks - and belated Christmas greetings to one and all.

What with one thing and another, only just managed to read all the latest postings and one from us is well overdue. Pete came back from taking Margaret to see Hugh again this afternoon a short while ago. It would seem that Hugh will remain in the hospital for the duration of the course of antibiotics - about 5 days in all - and seems a lot more comfortable now. He's come off the drip and only gets the intravenous medication when it's necessary and it only takes about 20 minutes so he's more comfortable in that respect as well. He took food by mouth today too, so things are generally looking up ('mushroom soup' not quite up to the standards he's used to though - the description made it sound more like brawn!). The outlook is that he will have his gall bladder removed at some time in the not-too-distant future. Two schools of thought on this: a) operation to remove gall bladder whilst inflamed, b) remove gall bladder by key-hole surgery once ok. Not sure who decides what or when!

Margaret is, as you may have gathered, still with us at Forty Green and will (all things being equal) remain so until Hugh is discharged at least. Feeling a bit brighter herself today after a bath and hair wash before going to see her beloved. Considering everything, we've had a pretty fab time of it and the girls have been great too, rallying round and helping keep spirits up. Amy and Nana are great at 'I Spy'!

Thanks for keeping in touch with everyone Steve, and thanks to all those who have succeeded in phoning - Margaret has enjoyed being able to speak with you and, now that her concerns over Hugh's condition being life-threatening have been allayed, is much more content and far less anxious generally, as you can imagine. Christmas Day and wedding anniversary have not been what they would have wished for themselves, but Margaret has put a very brave face on it and it's a delight and pleasure having her here with us.

Love to you all
Jan and Pete

message from babu

poor dad and how's mum?

we are so very sad to hear about patrick. we spoke to him this morning. the nurse was very sweet saying he had had a restful night and she put us straight through to him. it must be so miserable spending christmas in a ward, and with strange women....poor thing..... i was wondering if these pics of babu, the beautiful kitten he and margaret sent us when they left here last autumn, might cheer him up....? our thoughts are very much with him.

...and, we are wondering how margaret is doing? are you all at peter's? anyone around to skype?

we got a very scrambled message from you nick, i think...? couldn't figure out a word, but the thought was lovely.

it is snowing lightly here and we are very slowly preparing a mallard and listening to the carols from kings college and kate rusby's christmas album. i have talked to my mum in her italian trulli and my brother in bangkok. we did the traditional french christmas eve last night with crustacea and presents (babu was more interested in the presents than the tree this year. typical teenager!). this year, in the spirit of the credit crunch, julian and i agreed just to get each other things we could make - which put him at a distinct advantage! - so i got six (as yet unfinished) home made frames for all the unframed small paintings in our house that have hitherto been perched amongst cookbooks, and i took courage in both fingertips and mastered excel just enough to make him a jolly database with pictures 'n all for his print editions - which illegible data had previously been sellotaped on to seventy five empty boxes under my desk, so all the boxes have gone to the dump and hopefully the paintings will soon be on the walls not inbetween chocolate soufflé and lemon tart, and the house will be a happier less cluttered one. this morning poskie came to say happy christmas in bed and made himself into an excellent furry pillow for our sleepy heads.

all our love to all of you.

current state

Dad wants a hairbrush but apart from not being very chatty is ok.. he has seen doctor at 9am and there are 3 other patients in the ward at the moment not all males.
Whether there are gall stones or not they can't be sure even with the scan because there could be small ones which can be troublesome and not show up.
Either way there will be no operation procedures until the inflamation has settled and we don't know yet what's required.

Ward telephone:
01296 315797/5798:

Visiting times:
3pm - 8pm

Policy on cut flowers and plants:
Not allowed

Dad...

...we're around all day for skyping.. although maybe out for a short walk at some point... poor dad, have you seen him this morning?

Best Place

Grandad was admitted to Ward 6 at Stoke Mandeville shortly after midnight this morning after having 3 large doses of IV antibiotics and will be in hospital for a number of days.

He has been suffering with abdominal pain we know, but not quite how bad.
The CT scan revealed an inflamed gall-bladder or Cholecystitis
for which he will be on painkillers antibiotics and a low fat diet.

Click for Visiting Info

forum

Now we're feeling Christmassy

Clive has decorated the tree with the new tinsel, I've finished the wrapping and we laughed our socks off to the 1977 Christmas edition of 'The Good Life' titled 'Silly but its fun'. What good year '77 was....enjoy family.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Forty Green is home for Christmas

Brought Mum and Dad over this affy and we are snuggling in with a cup of tea and I am about to light the fire. Unfortunately it is water only for Dad and Jan has had similar tummy problems so pray that we are all back to normal by Thursday or it will be a bit of broiled fish all round.

Happy Birthday Pete

Happy Birthday Pete! And get well soon Patrick! Here are some snowy olive branches for peace and wellbeing.

We are doing better after three weeks of the lurgy. Just kept going round in circles...but today the sun shone (another first in a while) and there is christmas cake snow on the top of the mountain, and I have cleaned the house almost from top to bottom and we are just about to get out the twinkly lights. We will miss you all at Christmas and wish we could be with you. Must get the heating sorted out in this freezing house!

Meanwhile the adoption news has taken a small turn. We were not selected in the last commission in Mali so it will, if we are selected in the next, be at least two more years before we meet our baby. So we are looking into adopting a sibling group from Haiti, where I hear you can get a couple of kids practically by return of post, so maybe this will be our last christmas à deux after all...who knows. We so hope so. We always feel the absence very sorely at this time of year, though of course we count our many blessings too.

Anyway this is just to say we will be thinking of you and toasting you all over the next week, and sending you lots of love.

'appy burfday to Pete

Many happy returns of the day Pete, I hope you're celebrating in style!

Ouch dad that sounded like no fun - Ruh and i are just finally getting over nearly three weeks of coughs and sore throats.. just in time for the big eat.

Lots of love, Julian

Sorry, Nic - my fault

In time you start to forget things and I had thought you and Julian were nearer, but it was at the time when I was working at Lloyds bank and Mum was having words with our District Nurse, who didn't want me home, to get in her way. She was a funny old thing, but now we have confirmation from you that it was in 1960, so now we will remember!! Love from Dad

Grandad's been poorly

Something to do with eating out of date food, but on Thursday night 18th, I had the most terrible gripes. Mum was in bed, but it was more than I could stand and I did a 999 at 11.20. After a while, an ambulance turned up, with a young girl ambulance 'man' who had come from Brackley and was apologizing for being on her own as her male partner was off sick. Did i think i needed an ambulance to take me to the hospital. Yes I said as I was in awful pain and she called an ambulance from Towcester, about 15 miles away,, with two men, who set about getting me ready for hospital. So I wakened Mum and she wanted to accompany me to the Horton hospital in Banbury. Bumpy roads at 1 AM Did me no good at all, but in due course I was in the A&E, where things took their course, ECG's etc. After what seemed hours, I saw a young Asian doctor, who prodded me about and eventualy sent me to X-ray, to make sure that my stomach pains were not something dreadful. We left A&E at about 0320 and got a taxi home and for the next day or two I had to suffer these awful stomach pains, until this morning when I was able to get rid of what was causing the upset. Mum was being great and Steve also turned up to give me his moral support, on Friday and Saturday and even today. Well that's about it, but I do not want a repetition of food poisoning. By tomorrow, I hope to be my old self, able to fulfill the programme that you have mapped out for us. Love to you all, and especially to Pete on his birthday. from Dad

More on Birthdays

Just noticed the birthdays calender thingy on the right, well as my 50th is coming up, you should all be a ware that the year I was born wasn't 1961 as stated; 1960 will do nicely please mod.

Happy Birthday Peter

I'd like to be the first to wish you a happy Bithday Peter. It's 8.00 am on Sunday, 21st, nice bright sunny day too.

So what do you give a man who already has all that he needs? I'd like to give you a big hug and wish you a very happy birthday, and as I can't be there, I'd just like everyone to give you one more hug, from me. And here's a picture of a puffer for you.

Busy Day

Arrived for MOT at 11am, deposited car at JayBe garage and walked into Banbury as far as Sainsbury's - sat down and had a coffee, bought some pants for Mum and hitched a lift in a Jag back to JayBe .
Mot'd but needed to replace ball joint in front nearside as there was excessive play. Taken home while work was being done and collected at 5pm when job was completed. Mot'd for £128.10, which was not too bad. At least we are safe for another year. Now I can tax it on line for £145.
Watched Royal Command on telly and enjoyed most of it, except for girl singers and ?Geraldine, as I expected some comedy from HIM. I am still waiting to be convinced about Peter Kay, but the Welsh comic was cheeky/funny, I thought. See you all soon. Love from Dad

MUM & DAD REPLY

Message received, read and understood. Willco if poss.
Mum is, naturally a little concerned re her toilet , but we will
just have to try and adapt. Thanks for all you pre-planning.
Our immediate programme is to get the Renault MOT'd tomorrow,
buy Mum some sloggis in Debenhams and wrap up one or two presents.
On Friday we are both going to Brackley Health Centre early a.m. for
some blood tests as it is time for our six-monthly check-ups re unspeakables.
(heart and bum check ups for Mum and blood pressures and related things for me.)
Looking forward to seeing you all. Hope we are no trouble!!

Mum and Dad's itinerary

Hello family

Mum and Dad are invited to Forty Green over Christmas and Peter will be going up to Kings Sutton on the 22nd to collect them. Dad won't need to take his car as Peter and Steve will be doing the ferrying.

Mum and Dad will be zipped off to Oxford by Peter for a celebration meal at Hertford Street on Christmas Eve, and again, Peter will collect them at a reasonable hour that same evening and take them back to Bledlow so they can wake up in their own time on Christmas morning and enjoy the festivities of Christmas with our young and easily excitable children. Steve, Clive, Gemma and Will can also wake up in their own time too, which may be a welcome respite depending on how late they stay up....

On Boxing Day Steve will come over to Forty Green and miraculously transport Mum and Dad to Wales where I expect he will stay overnight. Cathy and John have invited Mum and Dad for the rest of that week, but Cathy is working as of the 29th. To finish off this part of Mum and Dad's week, Peter will go up to Wales with the older girls on the weekend, probably Sunday the 28th, and return to KS on the Monday after what I hope will have been a fun night in Wales, especially for all those young cousins.

As for New Year, Pete and Jan are out with Pam and Steve on the 31st but they have invited anyone who wishes to to come round for a New Year's Day meal at Forty Green. Steve says he is coming, Mum and Dad will be coming of course and all others are welcome. This will be a bit more of a bring and share, with details to be finalised once we know what left-overs we all have from Christmas!

Roll on the festive season and Merry Christmas to all. Hope this makes it all clear.

Thanks for the kitten post, Gemma. Have you seen the talking cats on u-tube. They are very good for a laugh too!

The University of Oxford on iTunes U

I had a few emails at work telling me about the university teaching materials now being on itunes, thought may be of interest to bloggers, and it is completely free of charge to the public.

The University of Oxford on iTunes U

Gem xx

You wait for ages for a bus, then three come together

Nic, thank goodness you were not aware of the awful attacks in Mumbai, too close though! It must have been very scarry for Jen. Clare and Daniel sound on good form and I'm glad to hear you had a good holiday.
Edmund has been teaching himself Japanese(I only found out last month, he says he has been at it for about a year)And for Christmas he says he would like some Japanese langauge flash cards, he is interested in Japanese cartoons, and I thought you may know something about flash cards. And as Clare is into Pocamon you may know something of this kind of thing, as you see I don't realy understand what he's talking about, But any thoughts?
Monday morning 8.30 there is a phone call from the residential centre up above Penrhyncoch where I will be working the week after Christmas, to say that their chef has hurt his leg and could I fill in for a couple of days, a couple of days turned into a week and then on friday it became apparent that it would be two weeks, this is abit awkward as the days are long with a 1hr 15min journey at each end of the day and at home we haven't yet done any prepetation for Christmas.
And next week John is on a course in Litchfield, he has opted to join an organization that will look after his insurances and legal obligations to the FSA, and although they won't be bringing him any work, at least he won't have to worry so much about compliancing. He's happier already!!Hallilulah!!
So Christmas is going to be abit intense, just like for proper people with real jobs!! Kate is feeling the lack of Christmasyness, its easy to forget that she is only 12yrs, cause she looks about 16yrs. But I hoping Steve and Mum and Dad can manage to get over here for a few days, weather premitting and it will all come together.
Dad how are your ribs after that prat fall, not too sore I hope. Thank you I got your post but I'm a bit puzzled but I will speak to you later today.

NEWS FROM NIC

Dear Folks
Sorry but I’ve been away from the computer for sometime time. So here’s the full update.
I went to India, Ahmedabad, on Saturday 22 November arriving back in Singapore on the Wednesday morning. The following day we learned of the terrible events in Mumbai, which is a short distance from Ahmedabad. Anyway, my trip to India was very interesting and we were well looked after and all fine.
Then on Friday morning (28th) we were scheduled to fly out to Phuket on holiday with the Arsenal Soccer School the kids attend. That was also touch and go but the events in Mumbai took over from the concerns in Thailand and although the entire Sng family was advising Jen not to go because of the potential of a military coup, I persuaded everyone to get in the taxi and go to Changi and take it from there. Now Phuket Airport hadn’t got caught up in the whole affair so our plane left on schedule and arrived without fuss, the airport was as per usual. The Kids enjoyed some fine weather for football and Claire played admirably, developing over the two days into a sterling defender. Her team topped the 3 Arsenal teams but the Thai teams were really very fast and strong and we saw some unbelievable football from their under 9 teams. We stayed on in Phuket when the others left on Sunday, swimming, snorkeling etc. and we arrived back about midnight last night.
We have had a wonderful 2-3 weeks and have plenty to post on the blog.
Claire received her book thank you; she’s up for learning a few girly things as long as it doesn’t involve Barbie dolls and stuff. The book is OK she says, so that’s an affirmative. Daniels present was also here when he got home so he opened it this morning. Daniel’s looks forward to throwing the flight ball to me but our street outside is pretty much a building site these days we we will need to go and find an open space.
Glad to hear you are all well, we will speak later today.

Love from Nic, Jen and the children

Visit to The Fleece

We had a nice ride out last week, to look at the place where Gemma is to hold her wedding reception, through all those lovely north Oxfordshire and Warwickshire/Gloucestershire/Worcestershire villages to have a meal and a pint of Hooky.
We all had a good time. We went via Shipston-on-Stour, almost to Chipping Camden. Steve drove, in my car, which held us all comfortably.
Nic
We hope you are all OK as you are often offline when we try to Skype you. You are now 8 hours ahead of us so it is a little more difficult to judge the times, as either you are at work or the children are in bed. If I phone you at 12 noon CET, it is 8pm in sg and vicky verky. We are both well, after our flu jabs and we hope you are all well. Lots of love to you 4 from Mum and Dad

Pete - one for the new kitten?