Catching up

 After the wonderful homecoming surprise from my friends, I was inspired emotionally, and found myself involved in a few more household and gardening chores which lifted my spirits one hundred fold.

There was lots of other "stuff" that happened too.
First my smart phone started dropping calls - both in and out going calls. Took it to my service provider where it was checked and was told the sim card was fine, so the problem was with the phone. Came home and tried to ascertain what the problem really was with my friends Google and Youtube.  Decided to factory reset my phone.  Took the sim card out but forgot to back up my data and so lost some of my contacts, previous messages, and also some lovely photos I had taken....lesson learned....back up data first before attempting to reset a phone.
Brought my phone back on line and reinstalled the lost programs and other info but it continued to drop the calls.  Another technician told me perhaps it was the antenna that was faulty.  I tend to believe this because sometimes my wifi drops off for no reason at all.
What does all this mean?  I have to walk around with two phones for the time being.  My old phone for making and receiving calls and my poor phone for whatsapps and texts....time to look for a new phone.

My camera strap broke and it almost dropped to the floor, thank goodness my reflexes were in fine form and I caught it before it made contact, which would have certainly lead to its demise.
Luckily for me after launching a request on Freecycle a kind lady had a spare one to share.

Gift giving this holiday season was not the usual, but our good vet and his staff received their regular package and some cleaning essentials for the kennels.
Another gift for our "new" postman (who after six months still seems to forget that there is no one living here by the name of Marjorie).
This year I made up a few extra packages which included the kind folks at the funeral home, the staff at the morgue, as well as the Classifieds lady at the newspaper who was kind enough to allow us a later than usual Obit notice before the press deadline.

Usually flowers for our departed loved ones are placed on the graves on Boxing Day. What horror when I visited the cemetery where Steve is buried to find all the gates closed and locked.  I had no idea that the government controlled cemetery was closed on Bank holidays...next year I will know.  We visited Steve the following day and we found the grave much easier this time around.
In the meanwhile our carpenter friend has built a lovely wooden cross to mark the grave.  I hope we can install it next week.

I attended two late night church services during the season ...on Christmas Eve and again on Old Year's night. As I parked Beast on Old Year's I noticed a security guard monitoring the car park, which I found a bit uncomfortable. On investigating, I was told that there had been a few vehicle robberies during the late night services....what is this world coming to?  We are not being persecuted for our religious beliefs but we are being targeted by hoodlums when we are praying in the sanctum.....gosh.....

New Year's Day I spent the day resting and watching tv (please remind me to stay away from the tear-jerker movies on Lifetime) since my friends did not host their regular New Years get-together.  I did bake a coconut rum and raisin bread pudding to welcome in the new year.

Today, more sad news....one of Carl's sisters has passed.....after coming home to cheer me up, it will now be my turn to be there for him to console him and other members of my adopted family.
Having never met her but hearing only great things about her, I am sure that as a result of her strong faith, that Heaven has flung its doors wide open to receive her.
Rest in peace eternal Judy.