Rachel Coleman

Today would have been my mother's 79th birthday. It's been 3.5 years, I still miss her.

Her sister, my aunt, is in hospital following a stroke last week, and not expected to recover. My cousins are on their way to Australia (possibly there by now) and hoping to arrive in time to say goodbye.

I walked to work this morning in a downpour with angsty-sad music in my headphones, and let myself cry it out while no-one was watching. In the last few minutes of my walk, the sun briefly shone through the clouds, and the music algorithm played me something more upbeat. I took in the moment of beauty, and walked on.

We had our usual quiet Christmas Day: stockings, family zoom, salmon-elevenses, roast bird dinner with my brother Jonny, a silly film (Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon). I even managed to drag the children out to the park for an hour or so before dinner, including some table tennis and frisbee.

One of my personal Christmas traditions is watching the Nutcracker, usually in a cinema broadcast, and I just couldn't make that work this winter. So I was really charmed to find a broadcast of the Royal Ballet's production on iPlayer; the advantage of watching it at home is that I can have a quiet chat with my brother alongside without bothering anyone else.

This morning I woke up nice and early and headed out for another of my booked hot yoga sessions, followed by dropping in on my old friend Shaun for a long-overdue catchup. This afternoon has mostly been reading and TV, and the evening will probably continue the same way.

bullet points for October & November
( yeah it's 99% ice hockey )

And that brings me to this week! In which I got a cold on Wednesday and therefore skipped training Wed and Fri and worked from home Thu and Fri. I did shake off the cold enough to play my first game for Huskies last night (in Gosport, against Southampton Spitfires), and later today I'll be playing for Kodiaks 2 against Lee Valley Vampires. I am especially looking forward to this one, I love playing against teams full of friends.

Next weekend Kodiaks 2 have a double-header weekend of home games in Peterborough: Saturday night against Lee Valley Vampires and Sunday night against MK Falcons 2. And that wraps up 2025 for Kodiaks 2: after 6 games in 5 weekends in November, we have zero games in December.

So, the tenth anniversary of my diagnosis with leukaemia happened earlier this week. I usually celebrate my survival on 1 October each year, but I'd wondered a few months ago about having a party in actual summer.

In the end I didn't organise anything for this weekend because I had a hockey game with Warbirds yesterday. This morning I took Nico to Clip n Climb, and this afternoon I met Rosie for a public skate and then we had ice creams in the sunshine. On my way back to my bike (locked by the rink) I ran into a couple of people and sorted out a few things relating to Kodiaks and next weekend's Draft Tournament in Biarritz.

Also the announcement has just gone out that I'm captaining one of the teams in Biarritz, and I'm off work now for nearly two weeks.

... and actually all of that adds up to a fantastic "up yours cancer, you didn't kill me", even without throwing a party.

Take it away, Elton:

I'm playing an ice hockey game tonight in Cambridge, a charity fundraiser between Warbirds and Tri-Base Lightning. But until then I have a strangely unscheduled day. I might sleep or read or something.

I could post about what I've been up to lately!

Work:

• spoke on a panel about effective 1:1s, it seemed to go well
• played my usual Senior Tech Woman role for a colleague's recruitment panel, and am happy that our preferred candidate has apparently just accepted. (a frustrating number of timewasting applicants more or less obviously using LLMs to write their applications and generate their free-text statements on suitability for the role; I really resent having to wade through paragraphs of verbose buzzword bilge to ... fail to find any evidence they actually know how to do the job)

Hockey:

• KODIAKS WON PLAYOFFS on the bank holiday weekend oh yes they did. So proud of the players, and definitely earned my share of reflected glory managing the team this season and running around half the weekend. League winners, Cup winners, Playoff winners, promotion to Division 1 next season, utter delight.
• Very much an Insufficient Sleep weekend, we topped off the playoff win with a night out in Sheffield, I got back to my hotel as the sky was getting light, good times.
• Kodiaks awards evening last night: lots of celebration of the hard work and lovely camaraderie of this group of players, A and B teams both. I got to announce and hand out the B team awards, and I received a really nice pair of gifts for me as manager: a canvas print of a post-final winners photo, and a personalised insulated travel mug (club logo and MANAGER on it). I love this team.
• I'm still enjoying also playing with Warbirds, and have now been to a few summer Friday scrimmages run by Tri-Base. I went to a couple of Friday scrims at the end of last summer and felt everyone was very kind but I was pretty outclassed. I'm pleased to feel like I'm keeping up a bit better now after training a lot harder this last season.
• I trained three days in a row this week (Warbirds Monday, Haringey Greyhounds tryouts in Alexandra Palace on Tuesday, Kodiaks Wednesday) and that was Too Much and I was pretty sore Wednesday evening and Thursday. Rest days are important even if I am much improved in fitness compared to this time last year.

Other:

• I did a formal hall at my old College! Using my alumna rights and having a nice evening hanging out with old friends (who were the ones to suggest the plan). Good times, will do again but probably not this term.
• I had an excessive number of books out from Suffolk libraries that needed returning, so I did a flying visit to Newmarket by bus last Saturday, this turned out to be the cheapest/quickest way across the county border. I managed to stick to my resolution not to borrow any more physical books but slipped and fell on the "withdrawn books for sale" stand. Managed to only come home with four.
• I did a little indoor cricket the Friday before playoffs (it's now finished due to exam period), and some nets practice last Sunday, but I keep being too busy to actually play any of my team's games. I'd like to do more nets practice though, that was intense but also felt like I was beginning to improve.
• I did a little table tennis with Active Staff but that's also now suspended for exams. I'm considering getting a cheap set of bats and balls for me and the family to go use at the local rec ground, or in the free indoor tables at the Grafton Centre.

Coming up: my summer is full of ice hockey camps and tournaments (Prague, Hull, Sheffield, Biarritz) and my old club Streatham have just announced all their summer training sessions will be "Summer Skills Camps" open to all interested WNIHL players, so I'm looking at going to London regularly again in July and August.

Oops, it's been about three weeks since my last update of substance: I was in Czechia with C, and anticipating the last five games of Women's Worlds. I think literally none of those last five games went the way I wanted, but I'm very glad to have watched them and been part of the highest attendance ever for the Women's Worlds tournament. (Breaking audience records for women's sports! yet again!).

Sunday night, after the gold medal game, we hung out with some new friends in a bar. Afterwards, very slowly saying goodbye in the main square (I'm on a groupchat now, yay), we saw pretty much the entire Finnish team walk past dressed to the nines and wearing their bronze medals. I went to bed far too late given the time we had to get up in the morning, but no regrets.

Monday (Easter Monday), we left České Budějovice on a train at 8am, changed at Linz, had nearly four hours stopover in Frankfurt (boat tour, discovered the Too Good To Go app works there and thus picked up some delicious curry for dinner) and arrived in Paris at 11pm, checking into a hotel a very short walk from Gare de l'Est.

Tuesday we walked up and down the steps of the Eiffel Tower (to the second floor, they don't let you walk up the really high bit), took a boat tour with a really mediocre audio guide, had the most delicious lunch in a very cramped restaurant on the Île de la Cité, got fancy ice cream from the Île Saint Louis and walked from the Seine right back to our hotel for the luggage, onward to Gare du Nord and the Eurostar and home.

Wednesday morning I was back at work, the children were both back at school, and Wednesday evening I was back at hockey practice. And since then my life has reverted to the usual whirl of work, family, ice hockey, with a new summer addition of cricket with the West Cambridge team. (Obviously one sport with a concussion risk was insufficient.)

České Budějovice seems like a world away now, nearly three weeks ago: I am very glad I went, I am very glad to have had C's company on the trip, and I'm very grateful to Tony for keeping the lights on and taking care of N at home so we could go. I could write several long posts just about the tournament to be honest but the short version: it was really good ice hockey, it was an amazing experience, it was exhausting and slightly crazy. Czechia treated it like a serious tournament and the fans showed up in response. I very much want to go to future Women's Worlds, if I can afford to.

I miss that little city and the beautiful, very walkable, historic centre. Like but not like Cambridge in a lot of ways. The hostel worked well for us, the weather was lovely almost every day of our stay, and we got the budget about right. Six months of Duolingo Czech was very far from sufficient, but I could at least manage please and thank you and simple food & drink orders. I still want to do better, and I'm going to Prague for a hockey camp in June, so I'll keep persevering I guess.

It's been a busy first ten days of the year. My sister-out-law J got out of hospital a week ago, and my brother D got out yesterday. I went to London last Saturday to check in on both of them, and take some clean clothes and other necessities from J's flat to D. My dad coordinated so we got to spend some time together and both got reassured that they were doing well and on the road to recovery. So I've been in Cambridge working and skating and all my usual things, just keeping in touch by phone and groupchat.

Kodiaks had a team social skate last week, using a very kind donation of free festive skate tickets to each hockey team by the ice rink. We were able to include a bunch of family (parents, siblings, spouses, children), and just generally hang out and skate in a relaxed way.

The cargo bike is still languishing in our garage, but the bike shop reopened this week, and Tony has taken on coordinating with them. I think the status is that they have all the parts they need on hand, it's a matter of scheduling, and they'll call Tony sometime next week to confirm a repair slot. Meanwhile assorted people have very kindly given me lifts home from hockey practice (I can usually get myself to the rink by bus, but not home again by the time we finish), saving me a lot in taxi fares.

In case I didn't have enough chaos, my personal laptop decided to stop turning on earlier this week, and of course I hadn't backed up everything for a few weeks. I've dropped it in at a local IT shop that quoted me a sensible price to take a look and see if they can repair it. (There obviously may be more to pay to repair it, they'll call with details if so before proceeding; they also quoted a sensible price to get the data off it if it's not repairable). I have alternative devices for most things I normally use it for, so it's not a disaster, just annoying.

The very cold temperatures this week mean there might be fen skating tomorrow. Certain groupchats and rumour networks have lit up with info and I've got a lift sorted if conditions are good. We're all waiting for the early morning update from our man on the ground (man on the marsh? friend in the fen?). After injuring or coviding myself out of every fen skating opportunity since I learned to skate, I'm really hoping this will be my time.

Two-day adult beginner ice hockey camp awaits! I expect to be very tired by this evening (3.5 hours of skating and an hour's off-ice training). I'm writing this on train 2 of 4 at Ely; taxi to Cambridge North got me there only just in time, but it did get me there in time so now I can relax and catch up a bit.

( family festival notes )

Last weekend, as mentioned, I went to Macclesfield to celebrate a pair of significant birthdays on the Coleman side of the family. Lovely to be with all my siblings and to see our wider family. The trains were rather less lovely: very full on both legs (Cambridge-Birmingham, Birmingham-Macclesfield) on both days. I got us seats every time but it was very crowded. I did get a chunk of autism course study done on the return leg.

This week was especially meeting-heavy at work, and I am now behind on at least three urgent things. Out of work my usual hockey practice Monday and Wednesday evenings helped keep me sane, even if the weather was horribly soggy for the first and bitterly cold for the second. I have also been happily booking trains for my planned trip to Czechia next year. I now have everything booked that can be, with one last leg looking like it'll open for booking in late December.

Yesterday morning Charles and I made a visit to the "Cambridge campus" (actually in Milton) of the College of West Anglia, to see if any of their post-GCSE courses appealed. I think I found it more interesting than he did but it was worth a visit to find that out. We also ran into a family we know on the same quest, and somehow I managed to talk them into coming to see the Kodiaks game that evening. I saw the dad this morning and apparently they had a good time. I'm hoping the girls in the family may want to give our development team a try.

Saturday night was a women's hockey double-header: Cambridge Kodiaks v Coventry Phoenix, followed by Cambridge Women's Blues v Oxford Women's Blues. I have enough off-ice volunteers for Kodiaks who are also now confident enough that I was barely needed once the game started, which is very satisfying. Then I stayed on and ran clock and music for the uni game, which is my idea of an excellent Saturday night (the only better night would be playing in one of the games ...) We had a really good turnout for Kodiaks, and possibly an even bigger one for the uni game with a lot of very partisan student supporters making the atmosphere electric. Kodiaks won 7-3, Cambridge WBs lost 3-6, and in both games the goalies on the losing team put in some amazing performances.

This morning I went to the rink for my usual skating lesson and had my usual hockey-nerd chat with a couple of friends there. Storm Bert was making itself felt with strong wind and occasional hard gusts on the way to the rink; the way home was definitely worse. I was planning to do some extra hockey practice this evening but by the time I got back from my lesson I decided I was not up for doing that ride again in the dark, and instead I've had a lazy afternoon and caught up on dreamwidth, including writing this post.

• My tailbone continues to get slowly better and I was able to do Kodiaks practice Wednesday night without much issue. I have skipped my usual Friday coffee skate today to give it a bit more rest before the weekend's tournament. Right now I'm procrastinating packing, but I'll be on the train to Sheffield in a few hours.

• I completed my autism course assignment on time yesterday, while still really not enjoying learning deadlines. I might try to get the remaining two assignments done early just to tick them off.

• After literal months in the same city, Mick and Joye and I managed to meet up for dinner (along with C and my brother J). We went to the Burleigh Arms, as J had said there was a new chef and good food. I thought the food was very good indeed: really good combinations of texture and taste, beautiful presentation, and portions just the right size that I felt able to go for the full three courses and walked home pleasantly full rather than overstuffed. I want to go eat there again as soon as I have a good excuse.

• I cut my hair again today, it still astonishes me how much it grows in a month, it still is very soothing to get it back to the very short length.

• Thank you to everyone who suggested baby oil for cleaning up after HRT patches, it works beautifully. (Also, I continue very happy with HRT and the miracle of sleep it has restored to me.)

Sunday evening, I did a massive pile of paperwork relating to my mother's estate (yes, still, it's very tedious), which of course meant a lot of thinking about her being dead and weirdly I was not in the best mood most of Monday.

Yesterday morning I printed off the massive stack of paperwork before work, and yesterday evening I hashed out logistics with my brother by phone, and that resulted in me being motivated to actually leave the house and put the thing that needs his signature in the post before the last collection from the depot by the railway station. I came back by way of a pub where I sat outside for a bit with a drink and a book, and amazingly my mood improved dramatically.

Tonight I'm going to London for bonus hockey practice with the Lee Valley Vampires while Cambridge rink is closed for its ice rebuild. They have a fundraiser running at the moment in case anyone wants to help a new women's ice hockey team get on a better financial footing: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lee-valley-vampires

We got a message this afternoon to say the Bristol tournament tomorrow is off, because of a faulty resurfacing machine that won't be fixed until at least Monday.

Multiple members of the team were already in Bristol, and at least some of the rest of us are out money for unrefundable travel and accommodation. I am quite gutted. (I did think about going to Bristol anyway, but without hockey it doesn't really feel worth it. Also my brother and partner are in this neck of the woods because there is a NEW BABY in the local branch of partner's family. I don't think I'm going to get to meet the baby this weekend, but seeing D&J will be some compensation for no hockey. And I can meet the baby later, heh.)

Anyway, heading out to the rink a bit earlier than planned this evening, so I can unpack all the gear I packed into SuperVolunteer CW's van yesterday morning, and repack it into the uni storage cupboard, or my cargo bike, as appropriate.

Four weeks ago my dad visited for half-term, from Sunday evening to Wednesday morning. I was working all week as normal and had to actually go to the office while he was here as otherwise it was too tempting to sit and chat with him all day. Both kids got some good grandpa time at least.

Three weeks ago I had a day out to Bury St Edmunds to visit naath in their new home. This included exploring the local shops, finding a very nearby library branch which has self-service hours, and a decent local cafe. There are hourly trains from Cambridge, and there are hourly buses between the town centre to naath's place, but they don't actually match up very well and the local bus company doesn't accept PlusBus (which is a new and exciting first for me). When I next go (when there are not bus replacements) I'm going to explore walking/cycling routes instead. I'm also enjoying using my Suffolk library membership, thus far used entirely for ebooks, for actual physical books.

Two weeks ago emperor had a beer party, for which I had cunningly commissioned my dad to bring beer from his local brewery. The company was excellent and somehow we got home at 2am, when I had had every intention of being in bed at midnight. I did basically nothing on Saturday until I had to go to the ice rink for the Kodiaks / Women's Blues double-header. I did the official scoring for the Kodiaks game, and unofficially helped out with the WBs and managed to get home before midnight that night. That was good because I was out the door soon after 8am to go see Arsenal Women play Tottenham with lnr (extra long travel time because of going via Cambridge North to avoid the Cambridge Half Marathon, and bus replacements from Royston). The Arsenal game was very satisfying (a solid win) and the company was excellent :-)

And then last weekend was Varsity ice hockey. On Saturday I was at the rink from about 9am to 10pm and got to watch all four games from the control box: scoresheet for alumni, clock and score for development, clock for Women's Blues, penalty box for Men's Blues. The penalty box was very soothing after the previous three: I didn't have to worry about anything but opening and shutting the door and sympathising with the poor misunderstood young men sent to the naughty box. (In the gap between the Development and WBs games I went on a supply mission for my brother, who had covid, and just managed to get back in time.) On the Sunday I had Learn to Play in the afternoon, with an steadily increasing audience, who were actually arriving for the last "Varsity" game between the Cambridge Narwhals and the Oxford Vikings. At the end of our lesson, I did the fastest ever change out of my hockey kit and a very fast shower, so that I could do the scoreboard for the Narwhals without stinking out the control box.

There is a write-up of Mick and Joye's wedding in LibDemVoice (by one of the other guests).

I bought a new novella by Roan Parrish a few days ago. I was reading it and thinking "this seems oddly familiar" but it took me multiple chapters to realise I had already read it through the Happily Ever After Collective, back in April. Oops. (Not that I actually object to giving favourite authors more money, but oops.)

N has been ill and off school all week, but I live in hope of him shifting whatever-it-is over the weekend. I am tired but mostly from sitting up at night with a coughing child; no-one else seems ill.

My old hockey club is playing my new hockey club in Cambridge tomorrow evening: Cambridge Kodiaks vs Streatham Storm, 18:30, Cambridge Ice Arena. I'll be doing off-ice officiating and loving everyone in this bar rink.

My stepfather is remarrying today. Joye is an old family friend - one of the people who've literally known me since I was a baby - who was herself widowed a few years ago, and has lived in Cambridge for many years. So we have a Quaker wedding and a CofE blessing to attend today, within easy walking distance of home, and currently I'm waiting my turn for the shower before we set off.

I realised embarrassingly late last weekend that I had no wedding-appropriate outfits that still fit, so I used my day off yesterday to go emergency dress-shopping. I had literally ten minutes left before I had to go collect Nico from school when I found a fabulous brightly-printed dress in my size with pockets, in the British Red Cross shop on Burleigh Street. Score another one for Cambridge charity shops. (I then hustled to be five minutes early for the bus ... which left ten minutes late, of course.)

Aside from celebrating the happy couple, I am very much looking forward to the company of my spouse, my kids, all of my brothers, and a bunch of old friends coming along to celebrate too.

I had a busy three days at work Tue-Thu, two of them actually in the office. Thursday evening I had hockey practice, where I wore my glorious new shirt, and when I got home from that, I found my youngest brother Matt had arrived for a planned short stay over the weekend.

On Friday we buried my mother's ashes at Barton Glebe: me, my brothers, Mick and Joye. We kept it pretty informal, and I think everyone had the space to say their goodbyes. It is still a very beautiful place. We followed it with a leisurely lunch at the Burleigh Arms in Cambridge, where Tony and my cousin Carol joined us. After the meal, we went our separate ways. Dan and Matt came back to mine, I napped while Dan gardened my driveway, and then I joined friends for Friday night disco skate and Dan headed back to his partner's family where he'd been staying. I had managed to get the tie-dye shirt washed and dried so I could wear it to the disco too.

Saturday morning I indulged myself in finally getting to the "thermal spa" at Impington (sauna, steam room, big showers and some recliners), and also later took Nico swimming. We got caught in an absolute downpour on the way home, and after that I realised that my vague feeling of tiredness was in fact just one of a number of cold symptoms. I didn't do much else Saturday or yesterday, apart from chat with Matt a bit and rest up in an attempt to get well, and I expect today to go much the same way. I have hockey practice tonight, but won't go unless I'm feeling much better by then. Matt went home again yesterday afternoon, and we have plans to meet up again next weekend.

(I am testing daily in case it is covid, so far all negative, and we were already being extra careful about ventilation with Matt staying; I am hoping it stays just me and just a cold.)

( death, grieving and family )

**

( exercise and sports )

**

( social media grumping )

**

Since I started spending less time on twitter and instagram, I am spending more time on Duolingo and Babbel, and on actually reading my Economist subscription. I feel like Duolingo is more fun and better at gamifying and getting me to practice frequently, but Babbel is the better teacher. Duo has a much bigger range of languages too, but I would really like to reach "competent" in at least one additional language, rather than my current state of incompetent in half a dozen.

**

Tagging this post for languages has just reminded me that I have catastrophically hit my tag limit on Dreamwidth and need to do something about that if I'm to continue tagging my monthly reading posts by author. Argh.

Last week was a bit too exciting at work (building reorg, sudden notice of most of my team needing to clear their desks to allow it), but it was followed by a busy and lovely weekend.

( hockey, family, friends, family, politics )

I am very much enjoying being busy, and having the physical and mental capacity again to be busy. I'm definitely dancing along the edge of being overscheduled for most of the next month or so, but right now it feels good.

Water temperature around 16 C, air temp around 18 C, and it was bearable in just a swimsuit. I said I'd do at least two lengths of the 90m pool, and managed four. I thought I could possibly have pushed myself and got another two lengths done, but I had more to do afterward, so didn't push.

Since I last went to the Lido (which is probably at least 15 years), it has both rebranded from a mere pool to The Jesus Green Lido, and it has acquired a small sauna. This turns out to be lifechanging, as I was able to warm up in there, drink down my 900ml water bottle, gossip with L when she came in, and finish the visit feeling warmed through and pleasant rather than shivering and terrible. I might even be persuaded to go again, if I can find a friend or two to go with. I'm pretty sure I'd need the added incentive of a swim buddy.

Anyway, the staff were lovely, it was a good fun thing to do with L, and we followed it with a little picnic and then an amble along the river and through the Grafton Centre and Gwydir Street to Mill Road, and to the place for L's dancing class. Along the way we found a surprise dearheart and T, and had an impromptu coffee and chat before I headed home again.

I am toiling through the last box of my mother's things this weekend, and this morning I found this leaflet, which she kept pinned up in the kitchen for many years. It was for the Conservative candidate for the Hill Rise ward on North Wiltshire District Council, for the 2 May 1991 elections. Ruth was standing for the LibDems against him.

"Dear Elector,

Please remember:

• I don't live 10 miles out of town.
• I don't have young children to prevent me getting to meetings.
• I don't make promises that I know I can't keep.

A vote for PLUMB is a vote for CHIPPENHAM"

Ruth might have won anyway, but she always reckoned this leaflet clinched the seat for her, the dig at her parenthood backfiring on Mr Plumb. She served as councillor for Hill Rise for many years, during which time she became Leader of the Council, and also represented local government on other bodies e.g. the EU Committee of the Regions.

(I feel the same editorial urge I did 30 years ago to point out we only lived five miles out of town. But in general I'm not a fan of attacking candidates for where they live. What matters is what they do, and how hard they work for their electorate. My parents both represented council wards they didn't live in, for many years, and did the job excellently.)

My original plans for Sunday got postponed, so I decided I'd use my unexpected free time to tackle a bunch of decluttering tasks that were waiting for my attention. I got some way along this (parcelling up this, bagging up that, posting stuff on freecycle) when my brother D rang, and said he was visiting his partner's family nearby and did I want to meet up, he'd come and pick me up.

I just had time to get dressed and take a couple of bags to the local charity shop before D & J arrived, and stole me for the afternoon. I had a very pleasant time mostly sitting and chatting with J, intermittently playing with J's 3yo grandchild Bean, and having my first proper conversations with Bean's parents in years and years. Bean's dad works in Cambridge and we've (I've) been failing to sort out actually meeting up forever, so I'm glad my brother finally pushed this to happen. (It's like pandemic and losing our mother have made us want to work harder on maintaining family connections, or something.) It's hard to get to the Bean-family home without a car, but I'm going to have a think about how to keep in touch without always relying on my brother playing taxi driver.

D & I also took a few minutes to get an important bit of bereavement admin done together, and he gave me a bunch of important papers for my ongoing executor quests, so that's probably how I'm going to spend a bunch of my bonus day off today.

It feels like I am almost entirely recovered from my concussion, and I've been using my returning capacity to make a push towards finishing sorting out my mother's estate. It still feels like a series of quests with side-quests, but maybe, just maybe I'm getting towards the end. (It didn't help that I basically ignored everything from about September to January, did a tiny bit in February, and then banged my head.)

( death, remains, and money )

Family zoom call:

• organised by middle brother, not by me, I continue to be glad and grateful for this bit of making-my-life-better
• maternal aunt was able to join us from Australia; due to timezones this is not a guarantee, and I was so happy to see her
• at one point there were only three of us on the call, all of us in Cambridge; three different houses in Cambridge but still funny
• youngest brother is going to Eastercon in person, his reaction when I said I was going too but remotely was very funny
• sister-out-law J was on the call for a bit and she is looking SO much better; my stupid knock on the head has stopped me being able to go help her out in London, so it was good to see

Skating:

• I did not feel too tired to go skating! So I managed to get to the rink once this week, hurrah
• I did in fact do more skating than last time I was there, and as noted last time my basic skills are there, but my stamina and muscle strength ... aren't. But more of it comes back each time, I think.

Food:

• I came back from skating and inhaled a portion of my own batch cooking from earlier in the week and it was delicious, nom
• Tony has been figuring out how to make little baked custards, and they are very delicious too

Today would have been my mother's seventy-sixth birthday. She's been dead a bit over six months. I still miss her immensely. I still haven't finished sorting out her estate, or indeed her belongings. But I'd like to do so before her next birthday.

She blogged here at ruthct21 and I also found she wrote some entries at mayoroftodmorden2020. Both my responsibility now, I guess, but there's no rush to decide what to do with them.

Below is the eulogy I drafted for her committal, but before that I want to link the LibDem Voice notice of her death, and the obituary in Liberator Issue 414.

( Read more... )

edit literally a few minutes after posting this, a folder arrived from Manchester High School for Girls, with copies of items from their archives featuring Ruth: a schoolgirl photo, school & Guiding records, and best of all, the programme for a performance of Androcles and the Lion in which she played the gladiator Retiarus.

• got enough sleep
• ran through the still-new morning routine successfully
• did a bunch of small bits of housework (including recycling the pizza boxes, this is never not going to make me laugh now)
• finished a book, started another
• caught up on Babbel and Duolingo
• ...
• got a phone call from my brother to confirm I need to switch to plan B for the next two days, heading to London tomorrow and home again Tuesday in a rail strike, lucky me

Yeah, that's probably how this year is going to go. A mixture of everything going to plan, and the occasional not-so-much.