Somehow, in this tiny gap between Christmas and New Year, we have made a little progress with things today.  Having now been given the go-ahead by the Coroner, Mum and I visited the funeral directors this afternoon to begin planning for Dad's funeral.  It will take place on Tuesday 20th January at 12 noon with a service at Mum and Dad's beloved Church, St Luke's, before a short cremation service in Colchester.  I've also started gathering together all the paperwork needed for Dad's will, as I am co-executor.  I will be helped enormously in this onerous task by my brother-in-law, my late sister Kaye's husband.  I know he will be very thorough going through everything with me, and hopefully by working together we won't miss anything.

More flowers for today's blipfoto.  These are from a good friend of my sister Susan who has known our family for about 40 years, and who was very sad to hear that Dad had passed away.

2014 had one more sting left in its tail.  I learnt this evening that one of my union rep and studio manager colleagues, Phil, was killed in a car crash four days ago while in Canada.  He couldn't have been older than his early thirties, and was possibly even younger.  Life is cruel.