Lucy

Just as one child has entered the family another one left ... childhood at least.  On 14 November 2012 my niece Lucy turned 18 and legally became an adult.  Last night we went to The Lamb at Winkton and had a big family meal complete with new great-grandparents and their 5 day old great-granddaughter Sophie.  However the star of the show was a grand daughter Lucy.

I had gone into town yesterday to get some helium balloons, but one of them made an escape for the stars when I moved it to the boot of my car and the ribbon hadn't been fastened securely.  So she just had the two, which as I got them had to have teddy bears on them!  I also got some table confetti with shiny 18's, stars, hearts and flowers, but I only remembered them this morning, which isn't a great deal of help!

On my side of the family Lucy doesn't have many relatives.  Her grandfather, my father, died about three weeks after my 18th birthday.  Her grandmother died 5 years before she was born so most of those present were from her mother's side of the family and they are a close family.  I suppose I have always felt a lack of family especially as I have never married or had children - no one ever really wanted me.  I feel separate from them, and rather like an intruder.  For a couple of years of Lucy's childhood I didn't see her at all, despite the fact that we lived in the same town, but this is getting melancholy. 

Will I make it to Lucy's 21st, her wedding, celebrating her children?  Who knows, after all first she has to find out which way she wants to go with her life.  In which case I had better get round to learning how to use Skype so I can keep up with it all!

Sophie

This little lady came into this world at 00.56am on Monday 12 November 2012.  You can tell that her mum is a hair stylist - look at all that hair!  No wondering if her hair will grow, it already has.

She is presented to the world by Vicky and Trevor Sheppard, and the photo was taken by her Auntie Lucy Ford who will be 18 in two days time.  Her name is Sophie, a sister for Holly.

I do like Mondays!

My niece Vicky Sheppard and husband Trevor Sheppard are the proud parents of Sophie, born 12.56 am 12 November 2012 weighing 9lb 1oz by C-section. CONGRATULATIONS and so pleased that she is here at last and congrats to Holly who now has a little sister to boss around! So grandparents Marcus Ford and Lyrain Ford can go and get some sleep as well - your going to need it, and so will Auntie Lucy!

♥ S ♥ O ♥ P ♥ H ♥ I ♥ E♥

I posted this on my facebook page this morning.  At last a Monday morning with good news and something to look forward to, like meeting my great-niece Sophie for the first time.  I do like this Monday!  Sophie was having some breathing difficulties because they think she got stuck so she went off to Neonatal, but should be with mum later today.  Everyone can get a bit of sleep in the mean time, and they are going to need it!

Trevor dropped a knife on his foot on the 7th, which was the due date, and has severed a tendon in his foot which will need an operation to reattach it, so dad is hobbling and mum has stitches!  Welcome to the world Sophie ... things will get better, honest!

Windows 8 is a mystery!

I have not been posting for some time because my PC power pack blew, and it turned out that I was also having problems with the hard drive.  So on Friday I collected a new PC and yesterday I got a new router for the internet connection because I have changed provider.  I have been having a lot of internet connection problems for the last few months which has meant the loss of some posts on various sites and forums, and a huge amount of frustration because it has been difficult to keep up with what has been posted and what hasn't.  There have also just been days when I have given up on the internet before I smashed the monitor!

I now feel rather disconnected from what is going on.  These days I rarely watch TV; preferring instead to used the BBC iPlayer for most of the programmes I want to see on a regular basis, or to catch up with things I have missed.

The only problem with the new PC is that it runs Windows 8 and it is causing me all sorts of problems.  Maybe if I already had an iPhone or iPad it might not be as confusing, but at the moment all I can say is where is the start button for the my computer thingy!?  Why can't I have two or more non internet explorer pages sitting at the bottom of the page waiting for me to click them into life?  It is not that I am a technophobe but I do like things to be where I can find them, and not where I have to search for everything.  When I ordered the PC last Wednesday it didn't really occur to me that Windows 8 would be that different.  So, be warned those who are not computer geeks, it will take you some time to get used to it.

The other problem is that all my favourites have disappeared and it has been an effort to start finding things again.  For a while I thought I had lost this blog as I struggled to get to grips with this new system, but I am slowly getting the hang of it, but if you hear the sound of breaking glass, it is the monitor following its previous partner...