We had a lousy 2013 so we were eagerly expecting 2014. Well it just took a week in January for us to start wishing for 2015 to come and we have been kind of floating since Christmas.
Rhea managed to scratch the skin of her left eye, probably while playing with Bubbles and it was pretty worrying for a while. Just after it repaired, she got an urinary infection. Bubbles managed to split a nail on the length, so she needed attention too.
The weather hasn't been helping of course, and although we haven't been flooded in the house though small leaking in the conservatory, it has been a nightmare. Taking the girls out and keep the house relatively clean is mission impossible. There is so much mud that at each step you risk breaking your neck. The park has lost 8 or 9 trees now, 3 being massive one, one even blocked our street. It rains so much that the roots seem to simply rot and then when a tempest comes, the poor trees just give up and fall. It's terrible to see them being decimated that way.
We didn't get much sleep either through the tempests as the girls were scared. We were so tired we decided that after the coming back of Dennis 4rd week of January, we would try to take some time off.
On that Friday January 24th, I was supposed to pick up Dennis at 10pm (oh yes, I forgot telling you that his car broke down mid of January) and he was to leave on Monday morning again.
My dad called me at 4pm, saying mum was brought to hospital and was to have an emergency operation the next morning. He couldn't tell me exactly what was happening as he starts losing his memory a bit, but with the shock, it was worse. He was crying and I don't think I have ever been so heart broken, because I wanted to be there with him and I knew it wouldn't work. I was talking to him and browsing for a flight at the same time, but it quickly became obvious that the last flight was from Gatwick only in an hour and there was no way I could be physically there on time, let alone I didn't know what to do with the girls.. After he calmed down a bit, he told me it had to do with the stomach. Anyway, whatever it was, I needed to go.
I eventually managed to book the last seat on the 8 am the next day, packed my bag, managed to reach the girls sitter, prepared the food for the girls for a week, picked up Dennis and the next morning at 6am, I was on my way to Gatwick.
The operation of my mum went well, my dad was a bit out of it because of the stress, but hopefully I was there with him. On the Sunday night, Dennis dropped the girls at their career and on the next day, flew to Zurich. For the first time ever, on Monday, we were all in different countries, Dennis in Switzerland, me in France and the girls in the UK.
I spent 2 weeks in France in the end. I must say I had never spent time alone with my Dad and it was a fabulous experience for both of us. Even through worrying times, we managed to have fun and laugh. We were so tired emotionally that we did a lot of stupid things, like my dad driving us back from the hospital back home to the wrong address or me trying to cook pasta in cold water, but it was really nice. It was mixed emotions though when my mum was released from the hospital because she started being "herself" again and complaining about a lot of things. She came back on Thursday noon and I left on Friday afternoon. When I left, my dad took me to the bus stop because obviously he couldn't leave mum alone too long. He was sobbing and it was very traumatic for me to go.
Since then, not much has changed as resting. I had to try and work double to catch up after the 2 weeks in Marseille, the rain and tempest don't stop. I was out with Bubbles this morning (Rhea had made the clever choice to stay home) and one massive tree has fallen last night, almost blocking the river completely. 10 people were working to take it away.
The positive in all that ? My almost 90 years old mum made it out of the operation. My beautiful Rhea turned 11 in January, proving everybody wrong. We are lucky enough not to be flooded inside the house as so many people are living in hell.
But still, I wish 2014 will change for the better soon.
Sorry for not being around much. I have dropped in at Lucky 7, just to have a look at what you were up to and although I didn't comment on any blog, it made me happy to see you are still there. I will surely come back one of these days, I just need to breathe a bit.
