RECYCLED BIRTHDAY CARDS!

Mr. HCB and I are very mindful of the fact that cards can cost a lot of money - and to be fair, he always has problems buying a decent card with “Wife” on it during the Christmas season - so he tells me.  However, he has managed it several times, so we spoke about this some years ago and decided that to alleviate that particular stress, it would be a good idea to use the same card year after year - well do you remember all the cards you were sent from year to year?  I don’t either, so now he gives me THREE!!

One card contained some purple bank notes and with another there was a beautifully wrapped tiny box - as you can see - and there is a story behind this.  A few weeks ago I went into town and passed a little jewellers called “Iles” - sadly no relation to us - and as I have been looking for some “three coloured gold” knot earrings for sometime, when I looked in their window, there was a pair that I rather liked.  I went in, asked to see them, and they were just what I wanted, so when I went home and told Mr. HCB I had seen some his immediate question was “Why didn’t you buy them?”  I couldn’t answer that, except to say, I didn’t know and they were quite expensive!

A couple of weeks ago, on our way to the dentist, as we had to pass the same jewellers, I looked in the window and the earrings were gone.  Mr. HCB told me I should have bought them when I saw them, but I said I wondered if they had another pair, to which he said “No, of course not, small jewellers only have one pair of everything!”  Of course, what I didn’t know at the time was that he had already been in there and bought them!  So when I opened the little package wrapped in gold paper, it was a very happy day for me.

However, I must admit to having a little tear when I opened a card signed by Mum - she always signed her cards “Mam” although interestingly, I never called her that.  After I’d taken this shot, I realised that the photograph I took of Karen, her daughter, Mum and me is on the board behind us.  

There is another card that “does the rounds” too - in 2016 some friends sent me an “Eric the Penguin” humorous card, which I then sent to our next door neighbour, Mike in January 2017.  They sent it back to me at the end of that year so I sent it to him again in January 2018.  It came back yet again to me on Boxing Day that year.  In January 2019, off it went to Mike again, and today, it came back from them to me - and why not, it’s a funny card and it is a little card and joke that keeps on giving - and of course, we have saved another tree between us!

We have just got home after a lovely lunch with my sister, Karen, and all her family.  Whilst we were at the Toby Inn, Karen ordered a wine spritzer, a drink that Mum always liked and this was duly passed round the table and we all drank a toast to Mum.  We even managed to have a video chat with Jules, our son in Vietnam, and it was almost as if he was there with us - although he was in bed at the time, as it was quite late in Vietnam!

All in all a lovely day, with lots of cards, messages, phone calls and memories of Mum - so thank you to everyone who has remembered my birthday - I had told a Blip friend I was going to turn the figure round and be 47 instead of 74, but then I remembered that I would still have to go to work if I was only that age - so have decided to stay as I am and enjoy retirement with Mr. HCB!

“When all the dust is settled
     and all the crowds are gone,
the things that matter are
     faith, family, and friends.”
Barbara Bush