Bed Head...

Determined to capture an early morning sunshine-through-the-mist shot, I set my alarm (7.15 on a Sunday!) and was up, showered and dressed ready to head off by 8.30am.  

Unfortunately I didn't think to look out the blind in the bedroom before getting ready, otherwise I would have realised there was no sunshine or mist, just dull greyness, and I would have been better off having another hour in my warm cosy bed!  Sod's Law in action.   So the old clematis seed heads to my blip rescue again!  

I was determined not to let the day go to waste though and I have been fairly productive.   

First of all David and I entered the glorified cupboard that is the games room, and to my delight, I managed to direct him to the correct location of our old video camera and the pile of cassettes that go back to 1994.  They contain holiday footage of my niece and nephew when they were really young, as well as Alan, various family get togethers including birthdays and Christmases as well as a James Bond themed Hogmanay, a 1980's themed Hogmanay and a Big Brother eviction party we had in 2003.   There may even be a Eurovision party (or two!) in the mix as well.

My plan is to get the cassettes put onto DVD and get two copies of each,  one for us and the other to give to Ele and Kenny as part of their Christmas.  It will be a big surprise as I am sure they don't remember that any such footage even exists :D  

Spurred on by my success, I decided to clear out my old writing desk that used to belong to my Grandpa.  

 When we moved house, it was wrapped in layers of bubble wrap and boxed by the removal men and I haven't really touched it since apart from shoving things I can't find a home for, in the drawers.  An hour later and it was all tidy and I had a bin bag full of rubbish and a pile of old Christmas, birthday and Valentine cards, 2 address books and a hard covered note pad.   I made a coffee and spent the next hour going through these.

The cards made me smile a lot, especially a Valentine I sent David (sadly no year mentioned) that included a hand written note of Carol Ann Duffy's poem Valentine.   These days he's lucky if I even remember a card.  When did I stop going to such effort?  Rhetorical question :D 

One of the address books was from my early 20s and it stopped me in my tracks.   So many people whose names and addresses are carefully logged in my neat handwriting (whatever happened to that?!! )  but who are no longer in my life; some because our lives have taken us in different directions and more poignantly, some who only now exist in my head and my heart.  Email addresses and mobile numbers conspicuous by their absence.  

There is absolutely no logical reason to hang onto this address book but I found myself putting it back in the drawer, before I got firm with myself and took it back out and put it in the "to go" bag.  I don't need an old address book to remember the special people whose details it contained.

The note pad I found is most definitely staying though.  It is hilarious!   At the start are a few recipes then further on there are Christmas lists from 1994 - 2000 (I'm going to advocate getting back to 1994 Christmas budgets.  Ele got £15 M&S voucher and a box of Milk Tray!!  :-))) as well as notes of our 1994/95 household costs - £50 a quarter for gas!  Oh if only!

There's also a scribbled little note (I must have been bored :D) that states, "Diane was here on Saturday 22nd February 1997 at 5.35pm.  Alan is 6 months old and getting over the cold.  I've spent the afternoon making food for him - mashed carrot and swede, lentil soup and apple, pear and nectarine puree.  He had some of the puree with rice at dinner time and he ate the lot."

Good grief!  I would be over the moon if he ate that now!!!

So a bit of a nostalgia filled day.   Going to try and persuade David to link the video camera to the tv after dinner so we can watch some of the cassettes.   Hankies at the ready!

Oh and that address book spurred me on to getting in touch with someone I've been meaning to contact for over 3 years.  We are now getting together for a catch up in a couple of weeks.  

Carpe Diem!