I have decided under the circumstances not to bother with my photos of the snow i had in England before i came home yesterday... it looks like frosting on a cake compared to wha'ts happened since i left!

so above a pic on Pippa yesterday on one of our new cushions, she finds it extremely comfortable as do we!

what weather back in the UK! Sky news... Luton airport where i flew from is closed this morning still! i know from when i booked the next available flight was on Saturday, so that would have been fun, i would have arrived home a day after Barry gets here!

now just have to hope he can get out of East midlands later today, luckily its not till later, so lots of time for runway cleaning and its not even mentioned on news today... so far!

our plane yesterday had to be defrosted once we were all on board and doors closed... they had all these guys running around it up by the windows with de-icer and they came back round scrapping off all the ice!

just kidding about the guys, but a big machine did the job, whatever that meant!

i am glad i got Mom all stocked up with shopping before i left! not sure if even Tesco will be out today?

only other photo is a last one from Berkhamsted Castle i took last week....

yesterday i got up at 3:15am... *second* thought was, hope the taxi driver is up?

he collected me at 4:15am and said he was still actually up from the evening before, not sure if that was goods news to me or worse! he still had another couple of jobs to do before home time, one of which was another tip to the Luton airport! cashing it in...

time went by quick enough read one of my on line books... then it was boarding time, which turned into a bit of a circus, looked like nearly everyone had a suitcase the size of a...a... well a big suitcase! so no space up above and people were complaining they couldn't get their feet comfy because of theyre case! oh dear dear!!!! one woman who had paid a tenner more for extra leg room complained to the steward about it! well maybe if she had paid that tenner to put the bag in the hold she could have put her feet under the seat instead!!!!

flight was packed too, which is good for spain, come on, get back out here tourists! especially as its not snowing here! well apart from where you want it to snow on the ski slopes and they have lots of snow up north, much more than Britain!

Franco picked me up from airport, he was a bit late as was the couple picking up the son of a friend of mine! had i known i would have shared the ride to save Franco having to have the day off, but never mind, too late in retrospect... so, traffic problems on the road, no change there then!

we had lunch at Ikea... my yummy favorite of meatballs of course, Franco tried the Chritmas lunch.. it was more money and less food? and nothing like one would expect, a few slices of cooked ham, some potatoes cooked in a sauce and a red sauce! oh sorry, nearly forgot he got a free yoghurt chucked in for good measure!

.... and from there we popped into Las Lagunas and then home... and Pippa! i always forget how fast and wriggly she is!

i then kept busy.. couldn't stop! i think it was the early morning and lack of sleep, as despite having gone to bed about 9:30pm i was still clock watching at nearly 11pm! usually the way when you have to sleep! then cant....

... so the wonderful new Christmas tree is up, starry lights lit and silver baubles arranged, by Franco! the other extra bits i always have every year, cards are strung from string... and of course my lovely nativity setting is there...

and now today, nice when i took the Pip out for her walk... then it started raining and raining hard, letting up a bit now... much check the weather... have a trip on the bus later to the airport to meet Baz, then Franco will pick us up just after 8pm!

er... checked the weather... well its not always, or even usually right is it??? time for coffee....

TTFN
Marian

I am adding to the post, today 14th December 2010, a year later, looking back I have noticed something missing...

I had ended the post on the 14th saying I felt strange.... Turned out I awoke with a migraine, and Mom refused to go to Mount Vernon without me... She couldn't get out of bed, and really didn't want to go. We called the doctor for Mom, who came to see her, didn't see the signs of kidney failure that I now know, far more than I want to. I stayed on the floor of the living room in my cocoon of a sleeping bag...

Mom remained the same until I left for home, sleepy, no concentration, unable to read a book or do a puzzle, just wanted to sleep, ate very little, her body was shutting down. And no one knew, the doctor I feel should have thought about the tumour and where it was, and how it could be effecting the kidneys, blocking them maybe, still in retrospect, its all too late.