2010 - that was the year that was!

I started 2011 with no intention of doing a "summing up" of my life during 2010 but as I have read many posts doing just that, I thought I would give it a bash, but its not very good and has made me think that perhaps I am looking forward to 2011 after all, as I don't think I want a repeat of last year!

January 2010 kicked off with OH's Gran's death at the age of 91, from Bowel Cancer.  She only went into Hospital on 21st December after being ill for some months but called herself an Ambulance in the end.  She got diagnosed after a scan, two days later, by which time the Cancer had spread and the Oncologist told her she might not even see the night out, to which she replied "Thank Christ for that".  But she did.  Christmas Day 2009 saw OH leave with his Mum to visit his Gran in one Hospital and his Dad in another.  At this stage my Father In Law had been in Hospital since September, initially with a broken Hip but then suffered a Heart Attack, MRSA and what at first appeared to be an inoperable Ulcer as he couldn't eat. 
So a few days into January, both FIL and Gran got moved to the same hospital (our local one) but luckily not on the same ward.  She was a feisty old thing and would have been shouting out "what are you doing to my Son?" had they have been put together.  Anyway a few days later Gran passed away and FIL doesn't have a clue about any of this.  When he asked MIL one day "Is my Mum still alive"  she told him no, and that she had been gone for years.  Luckily his memory is not what it was.

February saw Mother in Law go in for what we thought was a routine operation to remove Polops from her Womb, an operation that she had had once before about three years ago.  After the Op she got a recall to the Hospital only to be told she had Grade Two Cancer of the Womb and would need a hysterectomy, which took place in March at the same hospital her Husband was in, as he had been moved from our local Cottage Hospital at this stage after pulling his feeding tube out of this stomach!
Luckily MIL seems to have made a full recovery and is due her second check up later this Month.  February was also the month that saw a few invitations drop on the mat for London Fashion Week.  As a day out to London can work out quite expensive, I chose carefully and opted for one on a Sunday which I had two tickets for, which meant I could take my youngest daughter with me as she has always wanted to work in Fashion and is applying for University Courses in either Fashion Promotion or Journalism.  It was all very exciting and I loved it, even though I felt a little out of my depth! 

May saw the Blogs 1st Birthday and although I didn't buy it a Cake, there was some Mr Kiplings Manor House in the cupboard so I had a slice of that to celebrate the fact that Women over forty can still blog about, and love fashion, and that as far as I know, I was one of the first to do so in the UK (well I couldn't find any, which is the whole reason I started out)!  

9th June saw my eldest Daughter turn 21 and we had a lovely day out in London which, much to her surprise, included afternoon tea at Claridges which she loved.  We bought her a Mulberry Bag and 21 small gifts, one to mark each year of her life.  I think the whole event exceeded her expectations and she went to Cafe De Paris on the Saturday night where she met Michelle Keegan from Coronation St and the Sunday saw us have a family pub lunch with my ex-husband and his wife and Uni girl arrived home for the summer that morning, so was able to join us.

July saw the FIL come out of Hospital after 10 long months into a Hospital Bed, where he remains, in their Bungalow.

We managed to get away to our beloved Puerto Banus near Marbella in Spain at the end of August and it was a much needed break.  There is nothing like getting a bit of Sun on the old bones to make you feel revitalised and refreshed.  I got kicked out of Burberry for trying to take a picture of an Aviator Jacket - but what the hell!

Courtenay, Claudia, OH and Little Man.

September saw all preparations in full swing for my youngest daughters 18th birthday on Wednesday 22nd and her party on Friday 24th.  On Monday 20th I had a complete melt down over the party dress fiasco and ended up in tears when I was supposed to be on a train to London to attend London Fashion Week.  On the night of her actual birthday my Mum rang herself an ambulance after experiencing chest and stomach pains and the most uncontrollable Diarrhoea I have ever seen which initially had the hospital staff thinking she had a stomach or bowel condition.  My brother and I spent all night at the hospital and came home about 7.30am to get kids ready for school and make pack-up's and after dropping Charlie off, my God daughter picked me up, as I had promised to attend an Appeal's procedure to get her Son into Grammar School after he failed his 11 plus.
On the Friday we were told that Mum had had a heart attack and she was moved to critical care where she remained for a week before being put on a normal ward.  I was up at 5am that morning to start cooking the party food, visited Mum 20 miles away between 11 and 1 and continued the preparation when I got home.  The party was a huge success and was packed with teenagers but to say I was exhausted was an understatement. If you miss a whole nights sleep at my age, it shows, trust me!

A couple of weeks later Uni Girl went back, which is always a wrench after having her home for 3 1/2 months during the summer and the hospital visits continued.  The Blog suffered no end, and made me wonder how Women that work full time ever have the time to post!  I think I was both mentally and physically exhausted to be honest.

The end of October saw Little Man go into double figures and had me wondering where the last 10 years had gone.  I still felt young when I had him but now feel really old!

1st November saw Mum moved to our local hospital which is still a 30 minute walk or a bus ride away.  I visited every single day for an hour and left at 3pm to walk to school and collect LM.  Although it was more convenient that she was local, I still found the visiting exhausting and she finally came out on Thursday 16th December after 6 weeks of rehab which involved getting her to eat and walk again.  My brother and I spent lots of time at her house, getting her new furniture and a bed installed downstairs, aswell as having a major de-clutter and clean up, as we hadn't done anything since she went in.  It took us two solid days to get the house straight and had me realising that I could never be a Cleaner!

9th of November was the day I stopped working at the Salon after having given a Months notice.  I retrained in Beauty when Little Man started school aged 4 as I needed to work but couldn't find anything that would fit in around school hours.  At this time it became apparent to me that having children later in life causes massive childcare problems as my Mum and the In-Laws were too old to babysit whereas my Mum had the girls every day when I worked in London and was a single mum, in the latter half of the Nineties. 
The arse has fallen out of the Beauty Industry (locally anyway) and for the couple of months previous, I was only making the room rent, so all was not good.  I had  planned to turn my eldest daughters room (she moved out two years ago) into a study or a Blogging Den for me, but alas after a couple of loyal clients asked if I could still do their Treatments, I had little choice but to turn it into a Beauty Room and at least now whatever I make, goes in my pocket and not somebody else's even if its only £50 a week, its mine.

With Mid December came yet another Birthday, as I slide the slippery slope to Fifty!  Goodness knows what I will call the Blog then!  I have thought about changing the name but still want over forties women with a passion for fashion to find me, should they use a search engine, I remember what it was like to try and find a more mature Fashion Blogger and although I have a lot of young readers, whom I adore by the way, I still wish to remain true to the whole reason I started out in the first place but who knows, I can be fickle at times!  I hate getting old, but just like Joan Collins, I intend to do it gracefully and with Style!
Christmas did at least go well.  So long as the kids get spoilt and are happy, I have realised that is all I care about and even the 21 year old acts as if she were 5, which is lovely to see.
31st December saw OH's last day at work.  He started a contract in July 2009 which was initially only for 2 months but kept getting renewed every 2-3 months.  It is sad that they never took him on permanently and that the new year has started with him unemployed - not a great start I am sure you will agree.  He has an interview next Thursday, so fingers crossed! 
2010 also saw me meet with some lovely bloggers and I have been touched by the kindness of you all with enquiries about my Mum and some gifts you have sent me.
So there you have it, a pretty crap year when I write it all down so I do hope things get better this year!
I suppose I had better go and put the Beef in, we are having our New Years Day lunch today as everybody was either out or hungover yesterday (not me of course, I was asleep before midnight but I did have a Snowball in the evening).
Yesterday I added a Facebook thing to the Blog so please click on if you are a reader and use Facebook.  As my Facebook is personal, I am not sure I want to link my posts to it, as my friends would probably think I am mad, but who knows, maybe one day I will.

So thanks dear readers for sticking by me in 2010, each and every comment means the world to me (except the nasty ones of course).  I often talk a load of shit, lust after things I could never afford and dream constantly of owning a Chanel 2.55 and a cupboard full of Louboutins, but hey thats me!