Oh There You Are 2012

Hello there!

Am afraid I have been absent from this little place for yonks now; it's months since I wrote anything of any note 'sigh'.
It's not that I have had a lack of material, I have a couple of posts outstanding, one of which is a promised one. Quite awful of me really. I've had lots of ideas for posts too as I whizzed round wearing myself to a shred over one thing or another.

2011 will not, unfortunately go down as one of the best and I am not sorry to see the back of it frankly. There has been the odd highlight. Going to my first ever blogging Conference in October and meeting some very lovely ladies was such fun. I was rather nervous but ended up having a smashing time, more on that to come.

But fun was thin on the ground sadly. I spent the majority of the year chasing the proverbial tail. Hours on end were taken up with caring for my Grandmother. She moved into a nursing home in January, picked by the local caring services 'cough'. It turned out to be the most awful place.

She endured all manner of indignities which I wont go into in public. Needless to say I made a great many official complaints. Numerous visits, letters and telephone calls were made to various officials to try to force the place to comply with the rules but it was such a huge waste of time.

Unfortunately, whilst all this was occurring she was in a huge amount of constant pain, not having some of her basic needs met and was distressed a great deal of the time. Anyone who has been responsible for an older relative will know how draining this is. I was constantly emotionally and physically tired. Frequently in tears and struggling to cope with the normal household work and the demands of Home Schooling the girls, sorting her personal correspondance and financial affairs and just life in general.

Add to that a huge change in our financial situation, my general lack of organisation and a rather choice falling out with my father 2011 wasn't the best.

It stank.

So I face the New Year with resolve.

I will try to get more than four hours sleep a night.
I shall open all the envelopes that lie waiting for me.
I shall endeavour to sort my wardrobe into some semblance of decency.
I shall definately go out to meet more people.
I shall try to develop more confidence in myself when I am not behind this screen and stop fault finding and not trying for fear of failure/judgement blah blah blah.
I would very much like to learn to drive and I absolutely have to lose some of the weight that tiredness and poor diet has made me gain. Five years on and I cannot go on blaming the twins.
I shall try very hard to be the very best that I can be and to count my blessings - often.
Most importantly I am going to take better care of my health. Having been pretty resilient for most of my life the last year has given me a couple of very loud warnings that I do not alas, have a cape. 'lights fag' I will give that up too!!!

My Grandmother is now in a new nursing home. It is within walking distance so I can pop in and say hello whenever I like rather than having to drag out Mr Bunny and the twins to take me three miles and sit in the car whilst I see her. This is huge relief and makes life much easier for all concerned. The fact that it is beautifully clean with such marvellous staff and doesn't smell like someones dog dropped of its mortal coil in it is also a plus...

To anyone that I promised to join in with a linky, didn't leave enough comments, wasn't very chatty on Twitter, didn't write that post yet I really can't apologise enough. Across the road is the local mind centre; there were points in the year where I wanted to knock on the door and check in for a few days.
Most of all I promise to try my utmost to be a better, happier and more reliable and productive blogger in 2012.

Hope everyone is having a good start to the year!

Love,