Christmas Letter
It's hard
to believe that another year has flown by. As I sit here and
recollect the year I realise that we have experienced another action
packed year, varying from life-saving operations (me), buying a yacht
in Greece, enjoying mediterrean holidays to completing a new tropical
greenhouse. I shall endevour to provide you with a brief resume of the
year and if you
require further details, you will have to visit "Latest News", which covers all aspects of the year 2007, in more depth.
The year started with two
Christmases - you can never have enough! The first started a week before Christmas when Robin
& Angela and Derek & Val came over from the U.K.
Memorable moments included: the Christmas lunch with the
in-edible Christmas pudding, opening of the Christmas tree presents,
where Derek & Val received risque presents, the boys v girls quiz,
ten pin bowling and the fog at Knock airport.
The second Christmas involved my sister & Ffion coming over from
the U.K. where they were joined at the Christmas table by Jacinta,
Reece and Annie. Presents this year included a racing bike for
me, a "Stepper" for Melly and a new mobile phone, hifi system and
guitar for Sorcha.
A few days after Christmas I
suddenly started vomiting blood! I was suffering internal
bleeding. Luckily, Roscommon hospital
was only 10
minutes away. I promptly gave another "bloody display" as I
entered casualty and this grabbed their attention where they quickly
ushered me into the casualty ward. A few hours later (after an operation) I was rushed
to St Vincent's
hospital, in Dublin where I spent approximately eight
days in hospital (including New Year). I had four operations over
those eight days and a further three since. I was off work for
nearly four months. Presently I appear to
be in "good working order" - as confirmed by my last operation in
August.
During
late January, a mink got into our chicken shed and killed Marge (chicken). He had already killed our three ducks a few weeks
earlier. The next day he was caught in our mink trap and was shot
by a neighbour an hour later.
In
February, Colin and Michael came over from the UK to help with a few
jobs. During their brief stay, the chicken area got an extension
and some front paths got concreted. The
only new animal to join our menage this year was "Tilley" - a black
cat. In mid February we took advantage of a prize that I had won at my
college's Christmas raffle. This was a two night stay at the Kilkenny
Hotel, in Kilkenny. I spent several days relaxing after the trauma (hospital) of the previous weeks - until England was beaten by the Irish again at rugby. Little did I know then that I would get revenge on the gloating Melly, when England would make it to the Rugby World Cup Final and Ireland didn't!
