10 Days To Go & Counting.... Cold Snap

10 days to go & I am getting quite relaxed, finally! Can't wait to be with Nigel again! He is very busy taking apart the kitchen units we bought, on the ever brilliant ebay, just hope they & the Belfast sink will fit into the Kia with all the other stuff! I will be well gutted if he can't get them home :-(  Well anyway the best thing will be him home again where he belongs!!!! Notice was handed in on Friday so all systems go go go!!!!!!! Ahh my Mum is going to really miss him & Seaney will be gutted, mind you his Xmas show will be taking up his time & will be all consuming for him, so its a good time of year for Nigel to be leaving as he will be easily distracted.  Sean, my 23yr old step son, was born with Downs Syndrome & I defy anyone not to love him. He is not all clingy lovey dovey he is his own person with everything that entails but his character is funny. Had Sean been able to easily communicate & live an independent life with a career then he would have made an excellent stand up comedian! Instead he & his Saturday club put on a production every Christmas & it is fantastic, his life from now will be consumed with nothing but talking about the "show". I for one am thankful for that!

We have a cold snap here but with glorious sunshine & blue, blue skies. Hopefully a sign of the winter to come, sunny & bright, it makes it so much easier to cope. We can keep toasty warm, we have a wood burner upstairs in the bedroom & downstairs, in fact  we have to wear summer clothes indoors as it gets so hot.  The main winter probs are the water freezing & the roads being sheets of ice or impassable with snow. Last year we had a spectacular crash when with snow chains on we went into a sideways slide downhill into a coach! This year we have a 4 x 4 Kia Sportage I just pray it will be a good girl & cope well over here. I used to say oh you don't need a 4 x 4 here its just scaremongering but after last winter I was wrong. The winter before was very deep snow but beautiful sun so we felt good & the roads were good. The temps were reasonable to, I guess. Last year it would snow & freeze then melt a little & freeze & on & on there were many layers so where it looked ok with soft snow there would be a thick layer of ice beneath. Well all we can do is wait, see what this year brings & make sure we are home early. The night of the accident we left a house where Nigel was installing a new bathroom & it was 7.30pm which was too late. That was the night temps dropped to -27c & don't I know it.  I was sat for three hours in the car with no window frozen solid while we had to wait for police & fill in forms. Well it may be cold but its beautiful. I remember the ice was like diamonds on the bushes & trees like something out of Narnia the winter version, fantastic! For the time being though it's warmer out than in!