Funerals and birthdays

 I am feeling much better now thank you, both virus and aching limbs gone, although I still have the rotator cuff pain but that'll go eventually.  

This morning we went to Minehead harbour for a look at the sea:-

Yes it was grey and dull and the sea is practically indistinguishable from the dreary sky, but it's our sea and we like it!  It's so lovely to live just a few minutes drive from the sea....even though it's not the beautiful sandy beaches and lovely clear blue seas of Cornwall, we still love it.  There are some sandy beaches, interspersed with rocky ones, in fact there's quite a lot of them.  We're not too keen on walking on the beaches nowadays, whether it be sand or rocks - with husband's balance issues and my bad back, hips and left knee, we're liable to fall over....and neither of us is really capable of picking the other up!  Fortunately, there are lovely wide (and flat!) promenades alongside most of the beaches, which makes walking much easier, and plenty of seats or even walls to sit on.  We're never going to take it for granted living where we do.

I've decided we're not going to my uncle's funeral, much as I'd like to - it's certainly too far for husband to drive, and too much out of their way for my brother and SiL to come and collect me, they'll have a 3.5 hour drive as it is without a diversion to pick me up.  The nearest point for them to pick me up from would be Exeter, which is too far for husband - I wouldn't be happy about him driving back home by himself, and certainly not about him coming back down to collect me later on in the dark.  I've been in touch with my cousin and said brother will be representing us at the funeral, and hopefully we can watch it on Zoom.  That's the problem with our family and extended family now (and no doubt loads of people have the same problem) - we're all scattered around the country, miles and miles apart, our lives having taken us all in different directions.  Still, it is what it is, thank goodness for phones and internet allowing us all to maintain contact.  I can't imagine what it must have been like for families before today's technology - although I guess more families would have remained pretty close geographically.

There's been a lot of media hype about the coming bad weather later today - I think down here we're forecast to possibly have a couple of flakes of snow around 5 pm, which will immediately be followed by rain so the 2 flakes won't stick around!  I hope you all stay safe and warm, and don't go out unless you really have to if you're in an area likely to have significant snow.

It's husband's 74th birthday on Wednesday (wow, when did I get to be married to an old man?! 😂).  We've agreed that I'll give him some money towards the new TV he wants later in the year, which is one of the things on our Needs & Wants list.  It's a Want, not a Need (there's nothing wrong with our present TV), he wants a slightly bigger screen and there's something else about this new TV that he keeps going into raptures over....I don't know what, it's all tech stuff that is way over my head and I'm not interested enough to find out about.  I just hope when he gets it, that he can work it.....😏.  I've just made him a sticky gingerbread cake, it's one of his favourites and is the sort of cake that gets better with time, so it should be just right by his birthday - although he probably won't wait that long to try it.  I've also bought him a nice thick sirloin steak, also his favourite - but he'll have to cook it himself, I can't abide the smell or sight of meat cooking now.  Anyway, if he cooks it (which he is perfectly capable of), then I can't be blamed for it not being the right stage of done-ness!  I will cook all the sides for him though.