I suspect lots of us are in similar positions: we were incredibly lucky with the grandchildren, who grew up about 15 miles from us, and spent a lot of time with us. However, things change and move on – quire rightly: those grandchildren, and their families, live in this country, but a good drive away in different directions, so we see much less of the ggchildren than we’d like Our offspring, now in their 50s, live scattered around the UK and Spain. But it’s less about distance than the sheer demands of modern working and living: not all drive, not one does a ‘normal’ 9-5 job – all work hugely long hours, with on-call duties both weeknights and weekends; and we no longer drive huge distances without an overnight stay – which in turn is complicated by health problems (he needs his special bed) and a bank account which is far from bottomless. I remind myself regularly that we brought them up to have wings, as well as roots, and that I wouldn’t dream of wanting them not to spread them, but…..We managed to get (almost) everyone together to keep last Christmas on January 15th; some we saw two weeks after Easter, and some, we haven’t seen since last summer. As for Mothering Sunday – they all phoned and sent messages etc, but I actually saw one of them a month after the event, while another combined it with the post-Easter visitation, and one hasn’t made it yet! That’s not a moan or a criticism: none of that was through choice or indifference, we’re in regular contact with multiple daily messages, and nobody complains of feeling unloved. And I know I have it easier than those of you with children overseas.. It’s tough in so many ways – but I guess the balance is that I’m proud of the people they’ve all become, and the positive things they’re doing, which I don’t think they would have been, or could have done, if they’d stayed round the corner.
Carolann, you have a real dilemma, and there’s no one right answer – I know what my decision would be, but I’m not you, so I shan’t tell you!! . All love and luck to you as you go on pondering it. X

Hi, Fast and Happy.

I like the wings reminder. Happy, I hope you’re getting support after your surgery and that you will feel better soon.

Pol.

Thanks Pol and Purple,

The surgery went better than expected, but recovery is rougher than I expected/ hoped! I am being well supported, which is good as I’m pretty much still at the baby bird stage of helplessness.

crimino mushrtoom

Speedy recovery Happy! Take it slowly, healing after surgery often takes longer than we expect. 💐

Possibly not an ideal weight loss idea though, Happy. Hopefully you are on the mend now. P

Enjoy every mouthful, Happy, and get well soon x

I will repeat that I wish there was a quick method of responding to posts on this site. I second all that’s been said to you, Happy. You’ve been through the mill over the last few years. Take care.

Absolutely lovely day on Saturday for the wedding. Daughter and now son-in-law in raptures and loads of their close friends there. Otherwise just husband, me, Scott’s mother and son, plus my niece, who counts as daughter’s friend anyway. Sunday was also lovey, we took them out for a lovely lunch in the garden of an independent Italian restaurant. Calories well over TDEE, of course.

Sounds lovely Polly!

Oh Herm! What a tough time you’ve had! It’s a mixed blessing that the end result was weight loss.🙂
I too, after over 10 years, can’t understand how upset people get about the “need to eat” as if a few hours without stuffing your mouth will kill you.
Don’t get me wrong…I still ADORE good food. But I DO know I don’t NEED anything like as much as I’d love to eat. 😏
Are you managing to do the translation now? Don’t push yourself too hard as it does take significant time to fully recover in our “later years”.
Wishing you all the best.
Purple 🙂

How lovely to receive good wishes from kind Australian friends.
In reply to both, I’ve been extremely lucky with the job, which is all about tree houses.
The kindly clients encouraged me to start work very gently, which I did, and slowly but surely delivering batches I got right up to date last week. Plus the first invoice has been paid.
Sadly, the most important piece, the German introduction to be translated both by me and the French translator, has been somewhat underrated and the author has been ordered to go away, behave himself and don’t write rubbish. So here I am twiddling my thumbs.
Again, the controlling editor, a very kind and sensible lady I’ve often worked alongside, has reassured me there will be plenty of time to deal with the entire book.

Yes, it does have it’s moments, Purple. These guys also step in when an author starts throwing toys out of the pram and screaming that my English translation provided so far is appalling.
This did happen once and of course I was glad to see the back of him but nonetheless somewhat scared. The publishing editor very swiftly consoled me. My work was absolutely fine but the complaining so-and-so often appeared on German TV as critic of a variety of art forms who never failed to talk unadulterated crap. 🙂

Michael totally changed our lives in 2013. We will be forever grateful to him for his skill and caring.
So sad for Clare and the family and send our love and sympathy.
Vale Michael

It may seem a wee bit odd that I’ve taken over a week to join you, Pollypenny, Purple and Barata, in sadly remembering Michael as a man of powerful intellect, kindness, bravery, all added by a delightful sense of humour.
The reason for my delay was first to watch again his 2012 BBC Horizon documentary, Eat, Fast and Live Longer, which I did on Friday. I wanted to check that this was partly featured on Michael’s trip to Chicago. There, he took part in the ongoing study led by Dr Crista A Varady of the University of Illinois at Chicago, focusing on the promising possibilities of following this new approach of the theory of Eat, Fast and Live Longer.
The programme was broadcast in early August. My ears were well pinned back and eyes wide open since we were due to travel to the same great city in mid-September 2012, first to explore Chicago before hiring a car to head southwards to Amish country and on to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (with a mummy and baby bear carefully crossing the road ahead of us) and eventually turning to New York. I joined the Fast Diet on 1st February 2013.

Just a final quickie. Back on May 24th 2024 I and my Other Half spent a delightful meeting with Purple and Mr P in Cambridge and their kind congratulations.
All four together we celebrated my long, slow journey from 1st February 2013 to a pleasing arrival to 52.3 kilos (8.2 stone). This was helped by a rough ride following a comfortable appendectomy op in July 2023 with complete loss of appetite and living on healthily filled sandwiches and/or carefully-mixed soup. Still not perfect but on the mend.
Mustn’t grumble. Especially when it began with 13.35 stone (2 stone directly due to 2 years of a quack’s continuation of corticosteroids), i.e. 85.77 kilos, with a doubly lethal BMI 35.2.