Saturday 2 November 2013

Forgot what winter was like!

I know November 2nd, and a mild one at that, isn't exactly winter but we do find it it odd to be putting the lights on in the house at 3.30 in the afternoon.  Yup - you guessed it we aren't in Naples - or even Philadelphia!  

Right now I should be settled in a nice hotel and on my second day of trawling round one of the largest dolls house shows in America.  We had arranged our trip back to Naples for the winter via a three day break in Philly so I could 'do' a three day show. I can't tell you how miserable I am not to be there.

I left you in my last post in September with my aunt having a fall and dislocating her hip - the saga has ground on since then.  To condense it as much as possible she fell on 11 Sept - had two operations, got fixed, moved into a care home, three days there and was settling in nicely with a couple of days to go before we were due to fly out to Philly.  She fell and, guess what, dislocated the other hip and as of yesterday underwent surgery on that one and we are starting the rounds again, having already wasted a week just getting to the surgery stage.

We cancelled our flights and are just doing a 'wait and see' exercise right now before we try to make any other plans.  As it took nearly two months to sort out last time we are praying this one moves a good deal faster than that.  We have family visiting us immediately after Christmas in Naples so we really have to be back for that; not to mention Ken will have burst a blood vessel by then being trapped in Bury in the rain.

To add insult to injury (literally) on the 22nd October, shopping in Bury, a solid wood sandwich board blew over on the back of my leg and has either bruised the calf muscle or maybe bruised the bone (yes, you can bruise a bone).  It is INCREDIBLY painful and seemingly very, very slow to mend.  There is very little change since I did it nearly two weeks ago. In fact I am reluctant to fly with it in this state as it is as swollen as my overstretched skin will allow which doesn't bode well for someone who has ankles that puff up on long haul as it is!

Chez Ormson is more House of Usher right now.

I have trawled back through my diary to where I left you about mid September to see what fun and japes I could share with you and pretty much can't find any.  

I did do the 'meet the youth' for the garden project I am doing.  Unsurprisingly they turned out to be the usual mixed bunch of kids 8 - 14 from a fairly poor estate - good at heart but don't 'sit quietly' !!

I have worked out all the projects and delivered the necessary kits for when I am away so it should go on without me.  As if anything could.



We had a great two days in Birmingham - yes that IS possible!!! if you are going to Miniatura - a whacking big show at the NEC.  I had a complete brain explosion and spent a small fortune on a half scale (1/2 inch = 1 foot) house.  Absolutely no sensible reason other than it was lust at first sight.  It is based on a real house which turned out to be just across the water from my daughter in Scotland and was designed (in real life) by a lady with the same name as my poorly aunt.  Talk about Kismet.

The real one is also for sale around £200,000 - seriously if we had the money...........  I so love it.

On the 25th I sold my last project Bentleys to a lovely local lady who would have bought it complete but sadly I'd already sold some of the pieces from it.  She did buy a lot of what I have left though so it will remain Bentleys at heart.  She is even keeping its name.




We squeezed out the last four days of September in Ludlow (ish) with my daughter and her partner which was a delight.  We think we have wrung the last drop out of Shropshire for a while but spending time with my favourite daughter is always good.

We spent what should have been our last month here pretty much going demented running around trying to sort out the aunty problems knowing we had an absolute  deadline.  Alongside this I needed to get my writing filed and sorted to give me a breathing space to settle into Naples for a few days before picking up the quill again.  The last month always holds a few visits and meals hither and yon to say farewell to folk before we decamp and then there is the process of closing up the house and garden and fitting in any dentist, doctors, hairdressers etc; add to all this one gammy leg and you can see what fun October was.

In amongst all that though my dear friend took me to see the wonderful Ballet Rambert - sigh of relief - an evening off doing something I really love and, guess what - even that was not to be.  The evening began with something like a twenty minute fire alert which does wonders for Mrs Nervy-about-fires-in-crowds (must get a shorter nom de plume).  Finally we nestled into our seats only to be battered by 'modern' music and wonderful displays of athletics.  We left at the interval. Traditionalist - moi?  Certainly am.  I am quaint enough, when at a ballet performance, to want music which doesn't hurt the brain and some floaty dancers actually dancing in time to it!

My daughter and other half squeezed in another weekend trip to us which turned out to be another clutch of mishaps one way and another - the phrase it never rains but it pours comes to mind.  Seems like one thing after the next right now...... and here we are... where we began.... still in the UK and still hobbling round sorting the aunty.

Next time I write I hope I will be full of the joys of spring and in the sunshine, until then .... bye for now