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14.02.65 - 18.07.09
~ never forget ~
"who knows if the moon's
a balloon, coming out of a keen city
in the sky - filled with pretty people?"
E. E. Cummings
Today is the five year anniversary of my dad passing away, and these are his roses. His rose bush blooms beautiful pale to vibrant peaches, yellows, oranges and pinks every year, a beautiful reminder.
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Hello dear readers, I have missed you and your blogs so much. As ever, life has gotten in the way of my blogging with my first assignment having been submitted last week, my first night out in over two years (and it didn't make me ill or give me vertigo!), and me being me - being ill again! I'm currently doing some tests to return to the doctors this week, and then my doctor said it will probably be another hospital referral. I'm having a cystoscopy in June, which I'm so not looking forward to but gladly will be under anesthetic for! One day I might have no hospital stuff going on right? Haha I hope so!
How cute is Rufy in the cup?! And the little drawing Indigo did of him - ahhh!
1. Mark & I recently celebrated four whole years together :) I can't believe
it's been so long, and I can't wait for many more adventures!
2. This no oil hair oil is supposed to give fine hair volume, I don't have fine hair
and I don't notice added volume - but it works wonders on smoothing out those
flyaways and generally my hair feels healthier and looks more shiny.
3. I finished and submitted my first assignment on this module, and I passed!
4. Mark & I went for lunch at The Marina, and spotted this Rufus canal boat!
5. I've been loving taking film photos with my lomography camera lately, the
results are so varied (I'm still getting used to it) which makes it more fun
because we never know how they're going to turn out.
6. At some point during the big move, the majority of my earrings and my rings
went missing in my lovely new jewellery box. It made me so sad to lose all my
favourite jewellery, but I'm slowly trying to replace them with new ones.
7. My sister Phoebe gave me this pretty daisy chain bracelet she made for me
the other day when it was sunny (where have you gone sun?!).
8. I recently joined Twitter! I joined because someone recommended I'd get
through to a company with a complaint on there, but I wimped out! I'm still
not sure what I'm meant to do, but you can find me here on Twitter.
9. On Saturday I went on my first night out in over two years!! I couldn't have
had a more fabulous night with my besties & hope we can do it again soon :)
10. Sunday was spent in true hungover style, in comfy PJs watching rubbish TV
and eating toast and chicken noodles, as made by my lovely boyfriend!
I'll slowly but surely be catching up with you all over the next week - did you do anything special this bank holiday?
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Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy
This year, on the four year anniversary of my dad passing away, we decided to release four balloons. One for each year. Usually we do lanterns, on dad's first birthday after his passing we did a huge balloon release, but this year lanterns were out of the question what with the big fire that occurred. The words we chose this year for our newspaper memorial are an Eskimo proverb - such a lovely idea.
Our closest friends & family gathered at my mum's house on the evening of Thursday the 18th July to celebrate and remember my dad. I'll take you through the two photos, but there is one person missing from them and that is Phil. Phil was a good friend of my dad's and they shared many a happy time together (many times have I heard the story about my dad and the grenade? in the garden! Though I obviously need to hear it again - I have an awful memory!).
Photo 1 L-R: my boyfriend Mark, myself, sister Willow, littlest sister Indigo, dear family friend Bronwen, nephew McKenzie, sister Zenobia, mumma bear, littlest brother Phoenix, brother Josh, sister Phoebe (twin to Phoenix), niece Caitlin, brother Zach and his labrador Prim, friend and Josh's partner Gemma, friend Maxine.
Photo 2 L-R: Gemma, myself, Indigo, Willow, Bronwen, Zenobia, McKenzie, mumma bear, Phoenix, Josh, Phoebe, dear family friend Lynn (hidden behind) Caitlin, Zach and Maxine.
We had a lovely, fun and laughter filled evening with old friends and all of our large but wonderful family. I love all of these people very much, and I am missing them already!
14.02.65 - 18.07.09
~ never forget ~
Today marks the four year anniversary of my dad passing away (last year's post is here). Every year we put a memorial article into the local newspaper. I help my mum with finding the right words, but this year it was harder in different ways. In previous years the words have been undoubtedly of overwhelming sadness, but this year I felt like something a little more positive was needed. The sadness and the hurt never goes away, and sometimes it hits you when you're least expecting it and it could once again be that day. But it is true what they say, and it does get easier. Not easy in the way people perhaps say it might, but you find yourself starting to remember happier times as well as the hard and very sad ones. I find myself remembering random things about my dad, about the times our family had together, and funny little things sometimes that make me laugh at the thought.
So here are some happier times, I was rummaging through family photo albums at 7am looking for these. Last year my post was scheduled, but this year with not knowing quite what I wanted to say until now, I woke up early in a moment of clarity. My dad was the best husband, and the best dad (to eight of us, no less!). My dad was caring, he would do anything for anyone at any time they asked for help. He was also fun, he would tickle our feet until we couldn't take anymore and play fight with us until someone inevitably started sulking because they lost! You can see in the last three photos, my dad made the most of his life until he couldn't anymore. He came on family days out, he took his photographs, and he rode his motorbike with slippers on his feet and a tea towel on his head (he was always one to overcome any obstacle). So today my family and our friends will be remembering, not only the sad times, but the happy times too.
14.02.65 - 18.07.09
~ never forget ~
Today it has been three years since my amazing dad passed away. My dad was a wonderful and kind man, who would do anything for anyone. He loved and treasured the things precious to him (like his family, his motorbike, his camera!). His motorbike, which he rode in his slippers when he really shouldn't have been riding it! This made for some interesting home videos, partly us saying no you can't do that, partly us thinking what the hell, enjoy yourself while you can.
I won't go into all the details, but my dad had cancer of the larynx (throat). It was a long and tough journey, for both my dad and my family. My dad went through an awful lot for us (literally awful), but it turned out that when the consultant had told us the cancer was 'all clear' after the surgery, he had lied. So after a second opinion at Royal Marsdens in London, we ditched the terrible hospital visits and their terrible advice, and we made the most of the precious time we had left. When things were at the worst, we cared for my dad at home.
So today has been about remembering my brave dad, not just the bad times, but the good times too. I am so privileged to have had such an amazing dad, and I count myself lucky that I had him in my life, even if I wish he was still here today.
Today involved a bouncy castle, food, family, friends, and light-up balloons. I will be here tomorrow with photos of our lovely day.
Tomorrow (the 8th) is mine and Mark's two year anniversary, but sadly we're both working for it. So we decided to celebrate today by going into Liverpool and taking in a bit of culture! Beware - this is a very picture heavy post!!!
But first, I painted my nails last night with Topshop's "Gypsy Night" and I love it! I did one coat of black polish underneath it, it has gorgeous flakes of glitter in it and it is very eyecatching.
Our first stop was the World Museum, one of our favourites, we've visited a few times now. Our favourite floors are the Space floor, and the one with the fish! You can't use a flash on the fish floor, so unfortunately I don't have any photos for you.
It's a lovely place to visit, especially if you have children. There are lots of interactive areas for children, there is also a cafe and a gift shop (surprisingly cheap!). There is even a planetarium!
Our favourite floor!!
I love this wall of children's pictures :)
Next we went to the Walker Gallery, which is everything you'd expect it to be. Airy, beautiful, and very grand! It was lovely to wander from room to room. It was, of course, no flash photography. So my pictures may be a little blurred - but you can get an idea of how beautiful it is.
There were lots of wonderful figures in a bright, airy room.
It really was breathtaking!
This circle we're standing by is a hole in the floor, so you can look down at the entrance hall from above.
The last piece here I particularly liked, "Cross" by Mary Martin.
This piece was one of my favourites, "Metatopia" by Nick Fox. It is part of a series inspired by Floriography, the Victorian cultural phenomenon which used flowers as tokens of romantic longing, commitment or rejection to communicate hidden or forbidden pleasures. Fox's mirror-like polished panels are built up gradually over periods of up to 18 months by layering acrylic colour with erotic and floral drawings.
This was my other favourite piece, and also Mark's absolute favourite. It is "The Exiled Forever Coming in to Land" by Ged Quinn, a Liverpool artist. The colours were amazing, it was stunning.
More beautiful rooms - I was a bit reluctant to take pictures in these rooms as it didn't feel right! But rest assured, the paintings were unbelieveable. When we'd finished here, we decided to go and get some lunch before travelling home. We were going to go down to the front and visit the Tate and the Maritime musem. But as it was a pretty cold and miserable day and we'd spent so much time in the World & Walker, we decided to save those for another day.
We walked through the gardens into town :)
We stopped in a cafe for chips, beans, sausages, and vegetable pasty.
We couldn't resist the American sweet shop, and as my mum had sent us some money to enjoy the day I picked up the above bag of treats to take home for my family :) and you might recognise the picture on the 3 postcards - my favourite from the Walker Gallery! I bought 3 so I could send one home, one to a dear family friend Lynn as we've been meaning to do art gallery trips for a while, and another to keep. We had a very lovely day celebrating our anniversary, and are spending the evening chilling out together. I hope you've all enjoyed your bank holiday!
