Fond Farewell

Today we attended the funeral of a friend who died far too soon at the tender age of 62. His wishes were to have a Humanist celebration of his life as he was not a religious man and his family followed his instructions. The funeral had one of the largest attendances I have seen over 200 friends and family. It was incredibly moving, the music was perfect, the readings very thoughtfully chosen to reflect the man we all knew, and the tributes from his son and his oldest friend reminded us of the reasons why we had all come to say a fond farewell.

He fought his illness so bravely that until very close to the end many of us did not realise how ill he was, his sheer willpower kept him going to see his son married and to have the joy of being Father of the Bride last year when his daughter married. Both his daughter and daughter-in-law are both pregnant and it is truly a tragedy that he will not be around to be the full-of-fun grandpa he would no doubt have been.

But he lived life to the full, he was full of good humour, a born raconteur with an endless fund of stories. He was truly a good human being and will be sadly missed.

Twits on Twitter

I am officially beginning to act my age - I hate text speak "CU@4" will get the short repost "not if I see you first!", I have no desire to be on Twitter or even follow anyone on Twitter, the minute insignificant details of my own life bore me let alone reading about others.

I am just about staying on Facebook but this is mainly to keep my grandchildren happy but frankly this may go soon too. No, I am not turning into a Howard Hughes style recluse but I am beginning to think all this information and personal detail sharing is going to backfire.

I like getting hand written letters, cards even - am I alone?

I like actually talking to people on the phone not just leaving a voicemail.

It's raining, I am on antibiotics for a chest infection and coughing for Britain so perhaps the above rant is an extreme reaction or then again maybe not.

Winter Blues

Winter has arrived with a vengence in London, no snow as yet but very cold with what my American friends call the "chill factor".

I am trying to decide if I can face going out again tonight. I should be going to a rehearsal of a Comedy Sketch Show I have been helping to script over the last few weeks. I have contributed generally but in particular supplied lyrics for four songs which I want to make sure are performed well. So...... cold or not I suppose I better get myself to the rehearsal. The trouble with Winter is it encourages me to hibernate.

I will cheer myself up by looking through some new photos we took at our place in Spain at Christmas.