30.04.11 – One hell of a winter !

Well I honestly don’t know where to start telling the story of our winter, I suppose the best place is where I left off with Chris recovering from another operation in early December, things still never went great from there as there were further complications and she was back in hospital another twice both before and after Christmas which meant we had to cancel our holidays to Thailand in January but that happened for the best as I’am about to tell. We went back to England to spend Christmas with the family but even that wasen’t easy, the freezing conditions that I mentioned earlier continued and we left by car for Dublin Port on 22nd December, it was clod and clear in Limerick but by halfway it was getting grey and within a few miles we were in a blizzard which continued all the way to Dublin, to make matters worse there was no road salt in the country by then and so the roads were untreated, I was driving along our main M7 motorway without even tyre tracks to keep me on the road – it was a total white out! Now much as I love our Mercedes car I have to admit it is not ideal in snow and so we got stuck a couple of times but with a push we got going again! We finally madeDublin late in the evening and settled into a hotel safe in the knowledge that we only had to get 5 miles to the port the following day. We made it onto the ferry to Liverpool with no further problems and had a snowy but uneventful journey to Sunderland, we had a great Christmas, Chris’s mother wasent well so I decided to go there and cook a turkey dinner with all the trimmings which went OK and we had a nice meal, the rest of the holiday largely consisted of eating too much and me coming down with flu so we spent New Years Eve in my mothers watching Jools Holland on TV!! We returned toIrelandin early January but Chris was still not well and she ended up back in hospital for a minor operation but had to wait until 24th March for the final cure to her problems, she really had a tough time. While this was going on Chris’s mother became very ill and Chris felt she needed to be with her and so we returned to England and normally I would have come home to attend to business but I was so worried about Chris that I decided to stay with my parents and keep her company (not really a hardship for me!) Her mum had a long illness and was in and out of hospital but she remained fairly strong and a bit stubborn (like her daughter there!). Chris headed back for her operation early in March and I headed back to start our weekend tours, fortunately this operation was a great success and Chris is fighting her way back to full fitness but when she headed back to England her mums’ condition had worsened and I have to report that she sadly passed away in the early hours of last Saturday unfortunately just as I was near home to start a busy weekends work after being in England supporting Chris. So last weekend I ended up doing our two tours and a transfer before heading back to England from Cork, my heart went out to Chris and I offered to go straight over but typically for her she told me there was nothing that I could do and I would be better working, I think she was right but she has been incredibly strong through all this, it is fair to say my heart wasen’t into work last weekend but my lovely passengers were mostly very understanding and I think they were grateful for us not canceling and going the extra mile but then I like to think we always do! I returned to Sunderland on Sunday night and it was lovely to see Chris at Newcastle Airport waiting for me and to have her in my arms at last – those were a long 2 days for both of us! I must mention my lovely parents and especially my mum who looked after her in every way she could – she is one special lady but then so is Chris! Fortunately in many ways last Monday was a holiday and so me and Chris had a final bit of “me time” before I started on all the arrangements and paperwork that follow a death and we are still waiting for confirmation of the funeral date. So next week will be a bit disrupted I’am honoring existing bookings and doing our Cliffs tour tomorrow and Monday and Kerry on Tuesday, then after the tour it will be straight into the car for Dublin where I’am staying in a hotel before an early flight to Newcastle on Wednesday, then all being well we will head back on Friday night and it will be business as usual from next weekend, if you are taking a tour with Chris be extra nice – she has been through a lot! We may have to take a few days off later in the season to sort Chris’s mums’ property but we will give plenty of warning of that! So that’s what has been going on with us, I don’t really think I have mentioned business so I will save that for next time, for the moment I’am just trying to run the show on my own, do tours and hopefully remain fairly calm, cheerful and approachable, it sounds a tall order but remember that is just what we both try to do everyday!