Back to normal

This week has seen me getting back to normal after the month of December had virtually seen all my usual activities cancelled because of flu and lack of energy.

On Sunday, I did a shift at out local park information centre. It is run by Friends of the Park. We sell calendars of the park, notelets of the same, pens, notebooks, tree guides, bird guides, duck guides, and food for the ducks and squirrels. We also try to answer any questions the public may raise about trees or ducks. Unfortunately it was pelting down with rain and was very cold. Suffice to say we had no visitors at all and took no money at all.

On Monday I went back to a gym class for the first time in a month. I normally have no problems doing this class but on that day I find it hard. Even the class instructor singled me out in front of 25 others and asked if I was OK.  It was quite embarrassing.

On Tuesday I visited an old work colleague of mine, whom I haven't seen since last March. She has a beautiful show home - puts mine to shame - beautifully decorated and tastefully furnished. We had a lovely morning catching up on all our news including of course Kay's wedding. 

On Wednesday, I attempted another gym class which thankfully went much better. I rushed home to shower as that evening I went out with four of my choir friends for a pub meal. Snow and very low temperatures were forecast, and, as the pub was some 4 miles away, I was a little hesitant whether I would get there and back safely. It was snowing as I drove there and it was settling on the roofs of cars. We had a lovely convivial meal exchanging stories of our individual Christmases. Fortunately, the snow had turned to rain and by the time we left (or rather were thrown out as the last people to leave) at 10.30pm, the rain had washed all the snow away and I got home in one piece.

On Thursday, I went to a U3A (University of the Third Age) meeting about Charles Dickens. It was very interesting as it was seen through the eyes of the man himself..... what he himself had written about his own childhood and adult life and how that compared with what had appeared in his novels. In the evening I again risked an icy drive to go to a choir party. After our Christmas concert, there was little time before Christmas itself to get everybody together for a social evening rather than a singing evening, so it was arranged for this day. It was lovely to have longer chats with people I know by sight but not always by name.  I was determined not to stay within the comfort zone of my usual friends and mingled with people I had never spoken to before. We had been asked to provide either food or drink for the party and I made a double batch of crispy cheese cookies - a recipe I had recently acquired from a fellow gym user. They went down very well and at least 5 people asked me for the recipe.

On Friday, I did a foodbank shift. The church that runs it also offers a sit-down cooked meal held in the church hall. This leaves little room for bags of food to be handed out inside, so we do this outside. Knowing the temperatures were barely going to be over freezing and I would be standing on the spot for over two hours handing out food, I donned five layers on my top half and tights under my jeans on the bottom half. Not to mention hat and mittens. All in all I survived without turning into a block of ice. I then scurried home to cook a lovely meal for Kay and Darcy who were coming to visit for the evening. I cooked chicken cobbler,  pigs in blankets, red cabbage, mixed vegetables, roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, followed by Christmas pudding and custard. After that we tried to stay awake to watch a DVD Darcy had given me for my birthday (more about that next week).

I am now home alone for this weekend and catching up with admin and a general potter around the house. As I said, back to normal.