silence....

its been quite a while since I posted, many things have been happening. My Nana, who (as you know if you have read my blog previously) had been poorly for a while and was in Blyth hospital recovering from pneumonia, became quite ill and on 19th March was moved back to Wansbeck general hospital, where she died 4 days later after a very distressing last 24 hours. I was called by the nurses at 11pm on the Monday evening and arrived at hospital about 11.30pm and stayed her with overnight and began calling family in the morning to let them know it was very probably time to say goodbye. Over the following day all of her sisters, nieces and my mam visited - Sister Maureen, niece Wendy and my mam and me were there until she slipped away about 11pm. Not actually her lung problems that caused it, but a gastric bleed which they couldn't stop. Her final 24 hours were very distressing and traumatic but she was very dignified throughout despite being in a lot of pain and discomfort and knowing what was about to happen. Her funeral was 1st April, a very fitting send off. Since then I have been dealing with her estate - sorting out her house ready to be sold etc -  and also have been on holiday - the cruise we had booked over a year ago turned out to be just at the right time to help ease away some of the stresses and upset from the previous month.

So - things are slowly returning to normal - although I have to say I am still very busy and have very little free time with work, college work, Nanas house to sort, teaching this weekend in Otterburn, visiting friends in Bristol at the end of May, Petes doing the Edinburgh marathon somewhere in between.... so how much blogging I will actually manage in May is anyones guess!

here are a few photos from our cruise on Thomson Dream, 16th - 23rd April visiting Genoa, Livorno (for Florence), Calvi, Toulon and Barcelona - it was a fabulous week, lovely weather, calm seas (mostly!!) and the ship was beautiful.