16th October, 2011
I actually bought a Sunday paper and read it from cover to cover. Went down to the apartment to unpack boxes. We have to get a charity to take a lot of stuff away. It will be the second downsizing since we left our large house. This one will be painful – lots of huge, framed pictures, pottery we have collected over the years with lots of invested memory.
Lovely colours on the trees around our garden:
17th October, 2011
Big day today. After more box unpacking at the apartment, we have to seal a new doctor. Tomorrow, we go to Huddersfield and say goodbye to our doctor of over ten years. We have a present of Sifnos honey, Italian olive oil and French wine to thank her for her wonderful service. An excellent doctors’ practice that we have identified has rejected us because we live too far away – 1.85 miles. We are going to look at one which is just 1.5 miles away.
We have been to the Hillview Surgery and are delighted with it. It is newly refurbished and welcoming. Even better, it was the surgery of Sir Alec & Eric Bedser. They had donated a great deal of money to the surgery.
18th October, 2011
Up at 5.30 am – a beautiful morning but cool. Out of the house at 6.30 am and on to the M25 heading for Monsom Lane, Repton. Visited Mum’s grave and said, ‘Hello’. The beech nuts had fallen in huge quantities and were scattered everywhere but real signs of Autumn in the tree colours were hard to discern. It was a windy day. The winds of October are supposed to drive dead leaves from the trees. This October, the leaves aren’t cooperating. Someone had left flowers at Mum’s grave quite recently.
On to Oldham. Today is the first anniversary of Pauline’s Mum’s death. It is a painful time and we went to the Crematorium to view the inscription in the Memorial Book. On to our hotel near Brighouse.
19th October, 2011
Up at 7.00 am and down to breakfast by 8.00 am.. So unusual to eat bacon & egg. Off to Hepworth Honda to visit our friend, Chris Woods, who has sold us new cars for the past thirty years. On to pick up our pre-ordered prescriptions and then on to Sainsburys to pick them up. The novel part of this was that the prescriptions were all free because both of us are 60.
After a cup of coffee, we drove to Leeds to Barker & Stonehouse. We looked at a dining room table and a set of chairs and two cabinets for the lounge. We may order online. Back to Oldham and to our old house at Quarry Court to visit our neighbour, Jean. As we left her, we met our other neighbours, Graham & Margaret. It was nice to see them all again.
20th October, 2011
A day of meeting friends and relatives. After breakfast, we drove down to the Anti-Coag. unit at the hospital for the final test. Then we drove over to see Brian & Val in Shaw, Oldham. At lunchtime we drove to Bolton to have a cup of tea with Ruth and then drove back to Huddersfield to go out to Dinner with ex-school friends, Margaret & Viv. Finally back in our hotel room, we collapsed – full & tired – and watched footage of the killing of Gaddafi.
21st October, 2011
Early morning appointment with our wonderful GP, Judith, to have flu jabs, a final diabetic review and to say goodbye. We gave her a jar of honey from Sifnos, a bottle of olive oil from Italy and a bottle of wine from France. It was a lovely, final meeting. Back to the hotel and then off to the motorway for our drive back Surrey.
The motorway was great while it was called M1. As soon as it changed to M25 it clogged up. The last 30 miles to one and a half hours because of a number of accidents and one slow patch where we were advised that pedestrians were on the motorway. We saw one young man but have no idea why he was there. We called in at our aparment on route to Phyllis & Colin’s house where we are staying. Lots of mail had arrived including our updated driving licenses. While we were there, a lady from the council called to talk to us about Recycling. Fortunately, I was in the toilet doing my own recycling and Pauline had to deal with her.
Sanders Blog 