I am starting to parcel up a couple of things of W's to send out as mementos to friends elsewhere and his family in NZ.
There is his old flat, which will need cleared (sometime, eventually, no rush); it's full of him, and stuff.
Stuff that preceded us as a couple (African wood carvings, his backgammon set, music); stuff that we generated as a couple (South American rugs, Thai and Indonesian carvings, books, music); stuff that he gathered after us, (souvenirs of the last trip to NZ, pottery, music and DVD's he and the Cherub amassed). And photos, photos, slides, prints, albums.
As he said, not long before he died, we were both hoarders.

By August and September of last year he was already giving a lot away. Because he would have known who he wanted the individual items to go to. But, deep down I think he was expecting to see out Christmas at the outside. And he loved his home, and, well, whatever, it falls to others to actually break it up now..

So I stand in the flat, and focus, and wait for ideas.
His cousin Moira is getting his backgammon set, a couple of small carvings, NZ CDs and a notebook - on the basis that that last one is personal.
El Rocko - who gave such a great thumping memorial at his funeral, and as his long term cohort on real ale trips, needs to get all his real ale mementos, and the photo of Rocko himself framed, dancing on ice Iceland, New Year 1994 (THAT was a good new year!)
Bruce, has already specifically asked for the CDs played during his last visit to W.
His uncle was a minister in NZ. W had previously never shown any deep attachment to any church. But in his last weeks he did ask for a minister at his funeral. He was visited here by Cheesetown's local minister, and I did find a bible in his flat. So Uncle Von will get that bible, plus the photos he had inside it.

The first of my parcels is ready. So on the 12th day of Christmas, I trudge through the snow to dispatch to NZ, Spain, and Glasgow.

Like everything else in Cheesetown, the PO is small and the service gets personal.
"This you been buying your presents in the New Year Sales then?". Oh let's not go into that old chestnut about Scots being Careful with Money...

"Ha ha! No not really. This is just me doing someone elses posting for them!"

I've noticed a bit of a tendency to look on the dark side lately.

Like this morning. Most mornings Ned and I end up having a chat with old Mac, on our way up to the woods.

This morning old Mac is hunched down in his anorak and thermal hat. "Two more weeks tae go, and ah'm away yi know."

Two more weeks to go???? And he's gone? How? How does he know?? Pancreatic cancer? Liver cancer?Emphysema? MS? Angina? Kidney failure? Is he planning suicide already? But he looks fine, or as fine as you can when you're over 70 and standing in sub zero temperatures.

I'm composing the appropriate sympathetic response here.

"Aye, two weeks till ah'm gone. Gone! Har!"
"Gone?"

"Aye, gone tae Australia!"

"Oh, oh! Great! ha ha, yes, oh you know I thought....oh never mind. No that's lovely"

I'm hoping this ongoing assumption of doom, death, bad news and disaster is going to be temporary.

I know, I know. As any pedant will point out, the school year runs from August to June - well at least for those pedants talking about schools north of the border it does.
But I have a new diary to update, and, assuming that I will be back working sometime, I've been putting in all the school holiday dates.
School holidays...
All 72 of them. Ignoring weekends.
72 days holiday a year.

This is the first year I've been looking to cover all those holidays by myself. The Cherub's dad would always have had him at least half the time.

Right up to the last holiday - the October break, W was still having holidays with the Cherub. Camping at Easter, France in June, Dublin in August..and, well, for the October break we all stayed put at home, so to speak..

Devil's in the little stuff. The ongoing, everyday, little stuff.
How good is a holiday without your dad?

Yes, it is a very small and straightforward puzzle. And because it's so easy there's no prizes!!

All you have to do is identify which one of the tiny beauty contestants below went on to win first prize, and (much later) to settle in Cheesetown under the pseudonym of Macy.


Remember your job is not to correct the original judges' decision and decide on who you thought should have won. You have only to spot the actual winner (ME !!)

Yes, for it is a little known fact that I am indeed the furstdottir of the furstdottir of the seers of Hamilton. And although I have, till now, been focused on the world of commerce, I do indeedy have the power of second sight.

Here, since it's the first day of a new decade already, are my predictions for the coming decade. You read it here first.

By 2012 sightings of George Clooney will be reported around the Cheesetown area. The noted international playboy actor being photographed walking a Border Collie by the name of NED. Repeated requests for interviews from Grazia and Hello magazines with him and his new companion Macy are turned down flat.

Rumours that Brangelina are to adopt the Cherub are proved groundless; they were just visiting George and his new pals at the Cheesetown Bowling Club.

The landslide election of the TORY party in Britain leads inevitably to a Declaration of Unilateral Independence on the part of North Britain. A moat is dug as north Britain secedes from the union. Unfortunately Alex Salmond is trampled underfoot in the last minute rush north.

Sparkle's new holistic art centre continues to draw widespread acclaim as artists and writers flock worldwide. Inspired by his time there, Christo announces a new project - he will wrap the Forth Bridge in tartan ribbon.

A major row breaks out as the new North British government announces plans to nationalise all royal palaces and castles. These are to be turned into luxurious old folks homes, with a staff ratio of not less than 3 staff to each pensioner. Conversion costs are to be funded by the Fred Goodwin Philanthropic Fund

As the pace of climate change continues unabated, North Britain becomes used to four months of deep snow and endless balmy summers. The economy booms through the export of water south and the manufacturing of solar powered skis.

Towards the end of the decade, scientists (Scottish, natch) will finally understand the meaning of the 5th dimension - and develop a means of transporting individuals back through our apparently linear time. Macy and Cherub will be first to be transported back to the first days of our millennium, bearing with them details of the New Cure for Cancer....

Which, by clever sleight of time travel means that I can safely predict in 2010 that there will be no deaths from cancer in 2009.

Ha! I know.. I know...but nobody understood Nostradamus or the Brahanseer in their time either.