At last! I am sorry for not writing sooner. First I must say I hope you all have had a very happy and peaceful Christmas. 

    Now a few days later I also want to wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Peacful New Year. 

    I'm writing this on New Years Day, as no doubt you will have already noticed. That's because I am still sitting here in what I call my comfort coat and long stripey socks. I'm watching The Glenn Miller story, 'Which I love.' Even though I know it is going to make me cry at the end. I even filled up when I was writing about his music in my Mother's story.

    Moving on, I didn't get in until nearly 1am,  it was 11am when I finally rose from my bed. The rain was torrential then, so I have decided to give this day, 'Up to God,' as the saying goes. To me it means sitting down drinking coffee and eating anything sweet I can find, I just wish I had some of the chocs left from Christmas.
    Can you just imagine how I look? Not my most glamerous, that's if anyone can look glamerous at my age! Unless you are Joan Collins of course!  Well today when I put my FB on, there were several messages down the side. They were from all from these very fit men, who are only about ten to fifteen, years older than my oldest grandson. Where do they come from? They say they have seen my profile and want to get in touch. I'ts weird and macabre, unless they think I'm a rich, crazy, old lady. Sorry, they are out of luck, I'm not rich, the crazy bit I can't comment on.
    Last night I had a lovely, late night with friends in a club. Not a loud bouncing club, just a large group of people who have kept their club together. It's like the many clubs you could go to years ago. There was music, food, and good company. 
    Of course as we get older we remember and often reminisce about the sports, and working mens clubs etc, we used to have. In my town we had what we would call the triangle. It consisted of The Engineers club,  Cons, (Conservative) Club,  and Working mens club. One across the road from the other two. The celebrations at those clubs on New Year Eve made them the place to be and they would be packed. There wasn't trouble in them because they were run by a Committee, who were also the members of the clubs. They didn't put up with any nonsense and you would be banned until you learned to behave.  The clubs were filled to the brim  every weekend with local people. On New Years Eve around midnight a Scottish Pipe band would play as they went into each of them and it was magic. I often wonder why things have changed so much!

Well this is where I came in originally, and as usual have started to ramble on with memories of times past. Sign of old age I guess.  Take care all, and be happy.
Lilian

I was thinking about everyone when those awfull floods were on the telivision. It must have been horrendous and would have made Christmas awful for so many. I just hope you were all safe. We had gail winds around 70 to 80 miles and hour here  and it kept most of us awake because our town is surrounded on three side by the sea. I think I have said it already, I live on the small island of Walney and I also live on a small hill looking over the sea. We have had some wind before so I'm used to it and was lying tucked up in bed listening to it. I could hear the sea roaring in, it was awesome. I only live in a tiny place so thought I must have some damage as I could hear debri flying about. But no, when I looked out the next morning not even a flower pot had moved.
The first time these storms happened to me, was over nine years ago and it scared me to death. I finally got up about two in the morning and put my clothes on. I thought if I was going on the Yellow Brick Road at least I would have my underwear on! That was when Carlisle had those terrible floods.

Then unbelievably Christmas day was glorious and I had a very lovely day, and ate like a Queen. My son was a chef, and his wife is a great cook, so in all they put a meal on that could not have been surpassed anywhere.

If this writing seems a bit disjointed, I'ts because I have been taking covers off my suite to wash. Today is a beautiful day and the sun is shining in through my windows. Believe me, I'm not bragging it is showing everything that needs dusting or washing. And it all needs doing! But as I'm intending to get this letter sent and there is another party tonight, somethings will have to wait. Still I must get a bit done, If I get too behind and have to go out, I leave my hoover in the middle of the floor so that if anyone calls they think I am in the middle of cleaning. Also when you get to my age you can play the, 'Oh heck my eyes are getting really bad!'

Now here is the reason I haven't been in touch.
I have two computers, and managed to sit on the one I'm using now. (Not on purpose.)  I just thought I had a new screen cover when I turned it on. There were various patterns on it in black and grey! I had stuck it under the settee cushion when I was going out. My idea of security! I came in and sat down without thinking, I never felt anything. I'm afraid my poor computer did! I was lucky, my son called  unexpectedly. He said, 'You have cracked the screen mother!' You know how they say it when you have done somthing stupid. I had spent hours trying to change the pattern, even thought I could rub it out. (Well I have never said I was computer literate!) Thank goodness Paul has fixed it for me, so here I am back again.
 I said, I have two computers and I love my other one, but she is nearly as old as me. I tried to write my letter on there,  she huffed and puffed in her own computer way. She appears to not like the internet anymore, and also seems to be having hot flushes. I had to turn her off for a rest every so often. Anyway to cut a long story short she closed down on me and completely refused to let me send my blog. I am going to get her fixed as I would miss her so much. One of my lovely Fibro friends is a whiz at computers, so I'm going to let her work her Magic.

I want to say to all my friends in Malta, thank you for your friendship, and the fun we had. I hope they let me into the hotel again. I went off with the baggage room key. The taxi driver told me he would take them back the next day when he went for another pick up. I hopefully bribed him with enough to take them straight back. I was only back two or three days when I recieved a Christmas card from a friend who lives all year round in the hotel . I can see why he does that as you get really good attention there. I really think I could make a very good Lady, I hate house work but like a nice house and I love entertaing. Oh well a bit too late, unless I meet a nice older man!

I have been home twelve days now and they have flown by so fast I can't believe it. I love Christmas and still have that childish excitement about it, so had to put my decs up even though I was going to be out most of the time. The fairy on my small Christmas tree is 56 years old this year. She is still blond but her wings are a bit creased, just like us oldies! She still delights me though, as not only was she our first Christmas tree fairy for my baby to be, she was the first for me as well. Some of my Christmases were not good when I was young. My best were of course when my children were  small. We always managed to have what they had wanted. They were so happy and excited although they had  much less than they all have now.  The excitement also comes back when you have grandchildren. But the magic of seeing the look of awe in my great grandson's eyes now is unbelievable to me.
 
Well I am going on and I have loads more to write about so I think I shoud send this now and tell you more about my adventures in Malta next time

I am going to try to put a photo on here off my Android, again my son has shown me how to put the photo's I have taken on to my computer. So here goes

If I don't write before , HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR. i HOPE IT IS GOING TO BE EVEN BETTER FOR EVERYONE THAN THIS LAST ONE. ((((-:  

Lilian x
 

Hi all
    I'ts  6-30 am and I'm here in my own comfy bed. Arrived home around ten last night and after reading my mail and drinking a large cup of coffee without milk and eating some chocolate, I dropped into bed. I had a good journey with Malta Airlines to Manchester and was happy to see my son waiting for me at the airport. This morning I woke up around 5 ish and felt really rested so I have just had another coffee and the rest of the choc and decided to stack my pillows up to talk to you. I'm not a chocoholic and don't usually drink coffee without milk, but although my son did get me some I left it in his car.
     I have had another lovely visit ot Malta.
    If you read my blog last year when I had been there for the first time, you will know I fell in love with it. This time although I still think it's the most awesome of places it wasn't quite the same. I will still be going back next year, God willing! It's like any love affair though, after twelve months you find out that there are little things that you would like to change. Not that I have ever tried to change anyone! (((-:  I am a people watcher and I have decided I could write a great series about the people living in a grand hotel. It would a bit like a posher Benidorm! I have met some really great people and the stories they have told me have been both hilarious and sad. 
    I think I have alreadt told you, on the day I left for Malta I picked up my first books from my mother's story. 'Cos That's The Way It Is. I took three with me and gave two friends one, I  also gave the hotel library the first and second stories. I met the man who does the library as I left and he said, 'I have had to keep them to one side to lend them out as a lot of people want to read them.' He sounded quite surprised, as he said, 'And the feed back is how much they have enjoyed them.' Of course I was really pleased, until I read a comment on my Kindle site. Someone had said they didn't like it and it was boring. That brings you down with a bang. The worst thing was it was signed by someone called Mitzi and my best friend was my dog Mitzi.

    I started to  write to you last Monday night as I had woken up at 2-30 and was still fully
awake at 3-30. It wasn’t because I couldn’t sleep the fact was I had been down  with some sort of flue type virus. I hadn’t been out of the hotel for four days,  I am not the only one quite a lot of others have had the same thing. Now I know  only you ladies will understand this, there was a consolation prize, ‘I lost a  few pounds!’ I know your healthier without too much weight, but for every pound I've lost I've gained one ot two wrinkles. Laughter lines I call them!!
    Anyway, I  had woken early because I had slept well and I was ready to get up and back on  the go. I was disappointed because I had missed the Fiesta in the town of  Cospicua. I’m afraid my little legs were so weak they just wouldn’t have carried  me up and down all those roads. I went last year, and really wanted to go again.  I think going back a second time I would have taken in the magnificence of the  beautiful pageant better. It’s like reading a good book. Often if you read it  again you enjoy it even more the second time  around.
   On the Wednesday  before I was under the weather I decide to go back to Valletta. I wanted to
explore behind the main street which holds the Palace, Parliament, the Courts  and other important buildings, like M&S! I took the bus which is quite an  adventure on its own at times. It takes you through some beautiful towns and  past the bay where hundreds of boats are tied up for the winter.  I  quite like walking around on my own but landed up having a ‘friend,’ going with me, I had been saying I was going the  night before and a ‘gentleman,’asked could he come with me. What can you say? He hadn’t  two heads! So I agreed he could come. But explained to him, what I was going in to  do. The man who I had danced with several times this time, and last year had  decided he had taken a shine to me. He seemed to be looking for someone and poor  man didn’t realise, ‘I wasn’t!’
I have had my share of needy, and at my age  haven’t time or patience. I hope this doesn’t make me sound too unkind, I am  always available for real friends if they need me and they all know that.  So  off we went, I made sure I paid my own bus fare and I even bought the coffee. We travelled on the bus for around 45 minutes and in that time, I let him know gently, 'I think,' that I had been very happily divorced for over thirty years, I think he took the message on board. I often wonder if people think before they  pass remarks. He had all ready told a pretty, younger friend of mine that she  had put a lot of weight since last year. Not the way to make friends!  
Well, he was very well behaved and we walked for hours up and  down the very narrow and steep streets. We walked up to see the government buildings as there was a protest going on. Tt was youngster's of university age, and they were protesting about the fact that they were being asked by businesses to work free instead of offering paid work. I've never seen such a good natured and well mannered  group, there were only a couple of policemen standing beside them. As I watched two young men walked up ringing a bell and I was reading what was written on their shirts. They stopped in front of me and one of them apologised for the noise and explained to me why they were protesting. I told them I believed in protesting as it made people listen. I said, 'I have been a member of Green Peace for nearly forty years.' Well, he was so excited you would have thought he had met the Queen! He asked could he have his photo taken with me, and could he give me his email address so I could send him the picture. So now I have a great pic of myself, with him and his friend on my phone. Two very handsome young men! (I will just have to learn how to take the pics off the phone.) 
Anyway, I guess my man friend did get the message and he didn't ask me up to dance again!    
The next day I went on the bus with a lady friend, to see the lights and nativity scenes that are set up all over Malta. It is so beautiful, even magical because all the old buildings are lit up and they are spectacular in the dark of the night. We went past the government buildings where I had been the day before, to go to see Barracka Gardens. ( I had stood besides these beautiful gardens the day before and hadn't even known they were there.) They were also beautifuly lit up and looked out over the sea, the bay surrounding was picturesque and I took more pics but I didn't do too well as the lights are so bright. Mental note to myself, 'Learn how to change settings.' As it was night in Valletta my friend Sue and myself also decided to take the Christmas train on it's last run around the city and that was fun, we both felt like kids again. I have had to be a grown up for too long and have decided to let the kid in me come out. The joy of doing it now I am still of sound mind so can enjoy it!
 
I will make sure, 'I hope,' that I manage to put some of my pics on from my visit next time I write to you. 
Lot's more to write about but I'm sure you have had enough for now. it is 8-30 and I must get up, unpack my suitcase and back pack, get my decorations out, then nip out to fill my cupboards and freezer. I have an unexpected appointment tomorrow, so must go at a run these next few hours to kinda get two days into one. I am voluntering at Age UK on Friday morning, I think you all probably know I'm a retired Floral Desighner.  I'm helping a group of ladies make a Christmas arrangement for their dining tables Friday morning, then meeting my lovely Fibro friends for coffee on the afternoon. And have many invites to catch up on. I'm blessed to have so many smashing people around me. How could I not be a happy lady. (((-: Perhaps I will have more time


So will finish with a Great Wish for you all to have a Very Happy, Healthy, and Peaceful Christmas.
 
Love to all.
Lilian