New Year NEWSFLASH

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I was going to do lots of seperate posts about the holidays, but that never happened - see "family" below for the explanation. So, for now I think I'll just do an update NEWSFLASH. With credit to Jeff for inventing NewsFlash..

NEWS FLASH is basically news or thoughts that may be changing over time - an update or an evolution of thought that covers a multiple of topics. It is what makes a blogger tick and it is the reason why we read. So, with that in mind, I came up with NEWS FLASH as an acronym that stands for what is going on in life:

News (or current events)
Entertainment (movies, TV, celebrity, etc.)
Work (thoughts on the job or employer)
Spirit (thoughts on God and/or the supernatural)
Family (or friends)
Love
Anxiety (a rant or a trouble)
Sports (those who have no interest in sports can be creative such as contests, reality tv, recreation, cards, games), and
Home (house, yard, or even another family type of thought.

NEWS

Biggest news is my friend Prema had her baby (daughter, Avni) on the 8th January. CONGRATULATIONS to the new Mommy and Daddy! :-)

ENTERTAINMENT
I bought my husband the set of Pirates of the Caribean movies for Christmas. We laughed so hard in some places my stomach hurt. Johnny Depp is just brilliant as the ditzy Pirate Captain.

WORK
Hubby went back to work on our wedding anniversary (4th Jan), but we had a nice time anyway. I made a fancy dinner and it all came out perfect, thank goodness! Caesar's salad with cold roast beef and smoked cheese cubes, Chicken Breasts stuffed with ham and blue cheese in a white wine sauce and I cheated for pudding and bought a tiramisu from the supermarket. I never heard of tiramisu before coming here. It's an Italian dessert and my new best most favourite pudding. We had dinner with my parents and then they did the dishes while hubby and I sat in the lounge and listened to the music we'd had played at our wedding. I can't believe it's been five years!

SPIRIT
Christmas always makes me feel close to God. Not the human silly Christmas stuff like shopping and cooking and going insane - I mean the quiet between times. When I was a kid/teen I believed God sent me a Christmas present every year. Every year there was something "special". One year a bird flew into my bedroom on Christmas morning and chirped above my head. Another year a very rare moth I'd always wanted to see landed on our back door.

Then in my 30s I forgot to look for my gifts and thought they'd stopped. Lately I've started watching again and realised I still get my gift every year. This year a big white feather flew in. It was really weird, but nice. I was washing the dishes, looking out the window, and there came this white feather. No wind and yet it floated slowly past my window like a butterfly. I went to the door just in time to see it "land" in the back. I put it on the front of a box I have and tried taking a photo, but it is so white it just looks like a blob.

FAMILY
Everyone has been sick, everyone is slowly getting better. It was some kind of flu/virus. My in-laws were sick over Christmas, then my dad got sick just after new year, my mom and I last week and hubby last friday! I haven't felt that sick in a long time. I actually stayed in bed sleeping the whole day once last week. I haven't done that in years and years.

Hubby also had a gastroscopy on the 3rd of Jan for stomach pain. Turns out he has a hiatus hernia, but the medication they are giving him seems to keep him feeling fine so he is pretty happy with his health... until he got the virus too!

The good news is that my whole family are almost better and I feel almost normal. The bad news is that I am now way behind with reading blogs, writing my blog etc etc. Lots to catch up on!

LOVE
Our 5th Anniversary kind of overlaps into here. Hubby bought me a card with five red roses on it and he upgraded my computer. My gift to him was the dinner. We also got money from my parents to eat out. Hubby decided we'd share some of the money and so we used half to take my parents up a mountain! On New year's eve we went up the Cairngorm mountains on the funicular railway. It was great fun. I have photos, but I need to get them sorted and saved onto my computer. I will post some later, I promise!

ANXIETY
We still haven't found a new house to rent. It seems to be very quiet out there, plus we have special needs. I am badly allergic to cats (one house the people bred Persian cats so that was the end of that!) , my mom needs a walk in shower rather than a shower over the bath as she can't really get into a bath easily (hip replacement, arthritis and osteoporosis) and then we have the problem of hubby's "company car" - it's a lorry! The building firm he works for lets him bring the lorry home at night. We live in the country and have enough room to park six cars, but many houses in town only have on street parking for one car. My dad has two cars, we have a car and now a lorry! I keep saying I will only allow myself panic after the end of January (we have to be out by early April). So far I am holding the anxiety at bay... most of the time.

SPORTS
My dad's been watching the darts championship and Snooker on TV. I have actually enjoyed watching the snooker, probably because I enjoy playing snooker (although pool is more relaxing). The same cannot be said for the darts. It bores me mindless.

HOME
See Anxiety.