Phil's 2013 Summary

A famous film describes this year, “Four funerals and no weddings”.  However, we did manage to squeeze in a few holidays on the way starting with an all inclusive in Lanzarote.

Also Sue had major open heart surgery which was not the end of her trauma that seems to have lasted forever.  Anyway, she seems to have recovered already.

During February we had the last meal out with my Dad before he went into decline.  It was nice that Georgina’s other Grandma managed to come over and join us at the same time.

Lots of snow and Steve’s (Pem) 60th Birthday party.

We had a lovely cruise around the Mediterranean with Costa, more snow and my dad went into hospital in March.

In April we had a party at Sues and an all inclusive in Corfu where I tried a Quad bike for the first time.  I think I might have cot the photos for two cruises mixed up; nobody would notice if it wasn't for the dates on the pictures.  Never mind all cruises are the same, great.

Dad was only in hospital for a short time and they let him come home.  They didn't expect that he would last very long as he has kidney cancer and a heart that is hardly functioning.  Thats why he feels so crap all the time but at least he was not in pain.  Dad died peacefully at home with Mum in May and I arrived about 5 minutes later as there was an accident on the M1.  I also went to see Eric Clapton with Steve for his 60th Birthday.  Jim went to Georgia on a business trip and Shirley went to Australia to visit Dan.  There was also the bizarre Wednesday night where they all came in playing my Dad’s favorite instrument, the piano accordions.

In June, Sue’s Dad died.  On a brighter note, I went to stay with Steve in Loughborough and went out for a drink with his two boys, Ben and Joe who I hadn't seen for years.

Over the summer and especially in July we had lots of stays at the caravans with various different people; it really is good fun having those when the sun shines.

It was also Claire’s Birthday and one of her presents from Sue was a boat trip and meal on the Thames.  We even managed to get away for another cruise on the Queen Elizabeth to Hamburg for a few days.

In August we took Mum for a well deserved holiday for a cruise around Norway.  We still had time for lots more stays at the caravan as well.  Life's hard sometimes.  However, I forgot to say that I started back to work for Rexam back in March so it wasn’t all play.  Its only for 3 days a week though so we still have lots of free time.

We had a night out for my Birthday and we went to the nice Thai Modern restaurant.

In September we had more stays at the caravan and Claire got back in touch with her Mum after 20 years apart.  Claire’s Mum Liz died in October.

In November we had a trip to Prague which Claire really needed.

Here we are back to December again where we had a cruise to The Canary Islands and Malta with Sue and Ian.  It feels that at long last Sue’s troubles might finally have passed.  She has now found a really nice chap and they seem to be getting on great, her health is much better and she can party again and appears to be making up for lost time.  Have a great New Year Everyone!