Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year

Because of the kind anxiety displayed by various warm-climate commenters about my soapy green mangoes (which our son ate) I bought a pinker one today to reassure you. The boy’s sadly gone now but I’ll add it to tomorrow’s fruit salad for a little taste of sudsy goodness.

Things are very quiet here at the moment. Daughter 1 and her husband are in England with his family; Daughter 2 is in London with her actor boyfriend and other friends; and Son has returned to Dumfries, two hours away. Mr Life is at work and my brother is doing some d-i-y jobs for my mother; he recently popped in to borrow some tools. There will be only eight of us for New Year dinner: Mr Life, my mother and aunt, my brother, his wife and daughter (their son has returned down south), my niece’s friend who’s doing a PhD in Edinburgh, and me.

As I've confessed before, I’m not at all good at the let-them-fly aspect of parenting. I mean, I’m fine with my darlings going off to visit people, but I do like them to come back. And yet, contradictorily, I like being by myself too; pottering about; doing bits of writing and reading and walking. But I find it very difficult transforming myself within a relatively few years from a very hands-on attentive mum to a … person. And it doesn’t help that I’m really getting quite an old person with baggy bits and wrinkles. Which are only going to get worse.

Still, we do have cats who demand attention, a bit like babies. I’m currently sitting in the cold study while there’s a nice radiator on in the living room, where the cats are sleeping happily, full of Tesco Finest prawns. They usually get Tesco Value prawns, but these were sold out this morning.

Well well, enough of this random wittering.
2009 may turn out to be a funny old year, what with the credit crunch and all that – I had my friend Maggie to coffee yesterday and she was saying that both her sons had lost their jobs – one a stockbroker and the other a salesman. But I hope all my bloggy friends manage to avoid too much crunchiness and I wish you health and happiness in the coming year.

11 comments:

  1. Happy New Year Isabelle....may you have many wonderful moments with your "tribe" close at hand! And forget about the saggy baggy bits. You are in excellent company. Moi. I can't even look in the mirror today. I think it must be the glasses actually. They are distorting my vision. I think. Have a great dinner!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to think I'd love the time when the boys went out into the world and I'm certainly training them to be independent and ambitious. But as they get older, (Tom starts his last year of secondary schooling this year) I find that I'm looking forward to the prospect of them leaving the nest with slightly less enthusiasm...
    By the way, that's the weirdest colour mango I've ever seen. Ours are bright yellowy/orange. That reminds me; I bought one a couple of days ago. I'll have it for breakfast.

    ReplyDelete
  3. And a Happy New Year to all of you too. I am feeling surprisingly upbeat about 2009 but that may be the combination of some good medication and a new job! You are also welcome to borrow my children any time you need reminding how wonderful peace and quiet can be!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy New Year Isabelle, and to your family too. I can't bear to think of my kids ever leaving home, I suppose I should start steeling myself now so I get accustomed to the idea slowly. Very slowly.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hppy New Year. I wish good fortune & health for all the Life Family.
    Which of course includes the cats, who look so healthy & spoilt!

    I did so love having one of my sons home for Christmas. Never stop missing them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hope the Hogmanay dinner went well.
    One of the unexpected pleasures of having offspring leave home is that they come back as adults, and there's a different relationship to be enjoyed.
    No wonder those cats look so glossy!

    ReplyDelete
  7. And a very Happy New Year to you and yours, too, Isabelle.

    It's a bit too early for a glass of malt (my favourite tipple is Laphroaig), but I will be raising one to you later in the day!

    ReplyDelete
  8. There's some sadness to Christmas and New Year as well as the joys of togetherness - when the family members go on their separate ways. But your splendid and adorable cats stay resolutely together.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Happy new year Isabelle! There was a time when I'd have gasped at soapy imported mangoes but I'm resigned to them now, hehe :)

    Wishing you a lovely 2009 (love the bannister kittens in the entry below!)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Your cats are just too too photogenic.

    I can see that you're as bad about taking multiple photos of them as I am with my 2 dogs....I could watch them all day!

    Happy New Year (or is that Hogmanay?)!

    Lesley x

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh, I know what you mean. It is hard to be a person again -- but it is also nice to have them come home as interesting adults. Hmmm.

    readersguide.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete