IT'S BURSITIS! OH, WHAT A RELIEF!

It started about a month ago, she was walking up a flight of stairs when her left knee 'gave' way, it caused her to catch her breath as it was a. a bit of a shock and b. it hurt but when she took another step, rather nervously, all was well! Curious, she thought and continued on her way up the stairs.

About two days later it happened twice in one day, then it started happening every day but as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. But something else started and that was a sharp pain shooting up the inside of her knee cap and occasionally, it seemed to lock.. grr.. and made a noise. But as they were both affected by polio when she was a young child, she knew that sooner or later, her knees might well experience some 'difficulties'.

Yesterday she went to have her first appointment with a new Medical Herbalist. Who is a charming woman who came highly recommended. They went through her medical history quickly and then they got to what was 'troubling' her currently.

"Arthritis or food have caused the swelling of my joints of my right hand and my knee, they can be extremely painful and I want to get on top of it before it gets any worse as I have allotments which need to be worked" and explained what had happened.

She said that since the beginning of the year she had overhauled her eating habits radically, that she no longer drinks coffee because her consultant at Moorfields had told her that caffeine increases eye pressure, which is not great if you have Glaucoma.

Doesn't eat any corn or corn product, like starch or flour, because of that attack when she ate the popcorn and had cut out all dairy as it is a known triggers for arthritis and that she can't eat any bread or anything which has wheat, rye, barley in it as they do horrendous things to her insides and cause her to bleed like a stuck pig! To put it politely..

"I haven't been able to eat any of the Nightshade food family for four years' as they cause my joints to swell within the hour, I think that more or less covers it.. oh, I never eat take-away food and the only sugar I ever eat is on my crystallised ginger, I won't take anything that has aspartame or fake sugar in it".

She produced a ring that she hasn't been able to wear even on her little finger for several years and slipped it on with ease! "Ah.. well it was certainly something you were eating that has caused your joints to swell, if you keep doing this elimination diet for another two months, then put them back one at a time and see what happens, that way we will identify which the culprit is.. but I think with the timing that you talked about, that it's dairy" said the lovely herbalist. "Yes, I agree, sad isn't it!" said my mum.

"Now, let's look at your knee and find out what's causing the problem", so she pulled up her trouser legs and the herbalist moved her chair so that she was right in front of them.. "ah, well this is interesting, your left one is very swollen, it's pink, hot to touch and also.. it's swollen at the back, you've got.. Bursitis" and proceeded to explain what it is.

They talked for about another twenty minutes, the herbalist told her to tell Valerie about her knee and then it was time to go, she took the paper about how treat bursitis, a herbal mixture for her knee and hands, a bottle of prescribed herbal mixture, paid for the consultation, said "Goodbye and thank you" and walked slowly to the station to go home.

What a pleasant experience.. and the relief of knowing that it's 'only' bursitis and not her Arch-Enemy Polio 'waking up' was and still is.. monumental!

GeeGee Parrot.
January 31st, 2017.

JANUARY 29th, 1917 - CONSTANCE'S BIRTHDAY.

She was born in the morning in Madras, Southern India, so when we awoke this morning, we knew she'd already been born all of those one hundred years ago today. One hundred years.. time is an extraordinary thing is it not?

She came across some of her mother's letters this last week, she was looking for papers, she really must 'get on' with sorting out that back room! And she found them and with them were the letters, goodness me, no one could ever forget Constance's writing! It was only decipherable by her old friends, to whom she wrote on a regular basis or her immediate family.

A gift that she always gave her mother was a bottle of 'Moment Supreme' by Jean Patou, She used to get it in Bergdorf Goodman if she was in America or Fortnum & Mason's in Piccadilly, only a very few stores stock it.

She never known anyone else who wore it and the only times she has smelt it since her mother's death were on the occasions that Constance has come to 'visit' her in order to alert her to something! I know it sounds pretty strange but life IS pretty strange!

We woke up to sunlight but the boring dreary greyness has descended upon us again, it's slightly warmer than last weekend but this past week has been truly bitter, on Thursday at midday it was below zero in deepest Knightsbridge and yesterday was so damp.. ugh. It might as well have been raining the pavements were so wet.

She went to the library yesterday morning and was desperately saddened to see the tree on the corner of Sydney Street and the King's Road surrounded by flowers and candles in jars. When she was headed for the library on Thursday, a car had jumped the lights and hit a motorbike.

The police and an ambulance with medics were on the scene almost immediately and when she left the library, she was directed to cross the road much further up. Oh dear, we all know what flowers and candles mean, poor man. Fancy having to be the police officer having to go and to tell his family that he wasn't ever coming home again.

But whilst she had been in the library, a curious thing happened, a woman came in with a big bag of books and said to one of the librarians "I'd like to give these to the Library as I don't want them", the librarian explained that because of Public Lending Rights, (authors get, I think, 7p per borrowing) that they didn't accept books from the public but suggested that she gave them to a Charity Shop or let my mum, whom she said "reads a lot" have a look at them!

My mum said "what are they?" The woman put the bag on the desk and said "help yourself if you want any of them and pass them on if you don't" so she looked at the books and squeaked with joy! For there was just the book she'd been wanting to get but had forgotten the, rather starting, title!

"I'd love this one if I may, how much would you like for it" she said to the woman who smiled and replied "Absolutely nothing, have it with my pleasure, please take the others as well" and with that she left, leaving mum with the bag of books!

The librarian and she looked at each other and laughed! What were the odds on that happening.. just the very book, about which we will post when she's read it, for on Friday, she collected her new reading glasses from EYE Opticians, yippee!

And just a few doors away from her opticians on Mare Street, Hackney, she has found a very nice bunch of youngsters, they run 'CRISIS', a charity shop for the homeless and last Friday when she collected her long distance specs, she was  delighted to give them her computer monitor together with its' cables, a bag of books and some dvd's.

And when she goes to collect her additional pair of distance glasses next Friday, she'll take them the other books the woman gave her.

Much as she'd like to stay warm and snug in bed with me keeping her head toasty, she thinks she 'ought' to do something. So I have to go as she's about her business, whatever that might be. Me, I'm going to snuggle down somewhere until sanity returns and I can get back onto her head.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 29, 2017.
PostScript: Her mother's birthday and also Bill's! 

DROP YOUR SHOULDERS AND BREATHE THROUGH YOUR NOSE.

She said to herself as the needle slid painlessly into her lower jaw. Yes, she was at the dentist having her annual check up and having a filling replaced.

Her dentist is a magician! A kind, gentle, incredibly thorough man whose work is top notch and she's had great dentistry work done in the past and puts him up there along with her first regular dentist, Dr. Crease of Tenterden, Kent, Dr. George Taylor of Hereford Square, London and the first of her North End Road Dentists.

It was Dr. Crease who did the orthodontist work when she was eight, she has a small jaw and the amount of teeth that we have were going to be a problem for her so he took a couple out which gave others the correct amount of room, clever nice man.

Dr. George was also a magician, his bridge on her lower jaw is stil as good as the day he put it in, over forty years ago! Sadly Dentists grow 'up' as do their patients and it was a very sad day when she received a card announcing his retirement and thanking her for being a patient for so many years.

She wonders who is doing Sir Roger Moore's teeth now, for Doctor George did the teeth of a lot of show business people.

Anyway, back to current times, after Doctor George retired, she had another good dentist for a few years but then he also retired.. grrrr.. then she went to one whose work was very sloppy, but he did take out a molar, that even she knew had died but she certainly wasn't going to trust him with Bridge work and she moaned about this to Karen, our old friend in the North End Road market.

"Not a problem" said Karen, "There's a great dental surgery literally just behind you, go in and tell them I sent you" and turning around, she saw she was standing in front of a dental surgery she must have passed hundreds of times.

In she went and spoke to a young receptionist who gave her a form to fill in and she booked an appointment for a full check-up. It appeared to be busy practice, with several dentists and a hygienist as well.

She met her new dentist, a young capable looking man with a smiley face who complimented Dr. Crease and Dr. George on their dentistry work and said that that her teeth were in good shape apart from a filling that she needed in an upper tooth and asked her what did she want to do about the missing molar hole?

It was decided she would have a plate, so he made a mould of her jaw and this marvellous thing appeared! It was a perfect fit, but with this guy whom she ranked 'up there' with her two previous dentistry Gods, she hadn't expected anything else!

Then one day she went in and after her clean and check-up, she was saddened to hear him say "This is our last appointment ...., for I have sold my chair" and he explained that he was getting married in two months time and moving up to Suffolk where he had bought a chair.

"But don't worry, I trained with your new guy and he is good, really good and the same age as me (34) so he won't retire on you like Dr. George and just remember.." then they both laughed as did his assistant.

And he was right, her new dentist to whom she has been going to for two years is extremely good.

So that's my gift to you, when you go to the dentist and have to have any kind of work done but especially if you have to have an injection, remember, to drop your shoulders and breathe through your nose.. you'll be amazed.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 27th, 2017.
PostScript: Dental Surgery, 337. North End Road, London SW6. Tel # 020 7385 0113.

BT & THEIR ITALIAN BOOK KEEPERS & THE STORY OF A FREE GIFT!

Now I know that unless you're a wizard at figures, adding up endless columns can sometimes lead to a small amount being 'out' at the end but have you seen by how much 'out' the Italian branch of BT books are out?

They're out by £530 million. That, even to her, works out at over half a Billion Pounds Sterling! Blimey and all those other gob-smacking words that she uses when she's been struck dumb, that sure is a lot of loot to get wrong when you are supposed to be doing the accounts, is it not?

The shares in the company have currently fallen 20% with a bigger loss probably to follow when the full report hits the fan! Can you imagine how much these accountants are paid and yet they pull a stunt like this! OI VEY!

But I now want to tell you an enchanting story that a friend of hers told her today in the bank, she's banked with this bank since she was very young and along the years has met folk who are charming. And she bumped into one of the more charming folk in her local branch this afternoon.

They wished each other and families etc all the best for the new year etc and then he said "You've just missed the most extraordinary event ever to take place in our bank certainly, maybe in any bank" and he proceeded to tell the tale of what had happened.. he said..

"A very smart but casually dressed late middle aged customer of ours came into the bank, she withdrew a lot of money in £50.00 notes, took her card out of the card reader, thanked the teller and walked towards me looking at this big bundle of money, she stopped and said quite clearly and very calmly "What the hell, I don't need all of this" and with that she smiled at me and walked up to a woman who was waiting with a little girl and said "Here, please take this, put it into an account for her", she bent down and kissed the little girl on the head and handed the mother everything, except for one note, that was in her hand and walked out of the door".

He continued by saying "we were just frozen, the woman was standing there looking really scared and looking down at this huge bundle of money in her hand, she turned to me and said "is this ok, is she ok, what shall I do?" and he said "it's quite ok, I heard her, I saw everything, now why don't we do as she suggested and put most of that money into something for your daughter?"

My mum was standing there with her mouth open! As you can well imagine! She asked him if he knew the money giver well? He replied that he did and that she was worth millions, and yes, they had opened an account for the little girl, the mother had kept £150.00 for herself and the rest which amounted to several thousand pounds is now waiting for the little girl to grow up..

He then went onto say "but the reallyreally nice thing was that the mother said "I know that you won't tell me who she is but if I write a note to her, would you please make sure she get's it, to tell her what we've done with her generous gift?" and she and the little girl wrote a note thanking the woman just giving their first names, so that the gift giver had no way of being obligated in any way".

Apparently she's quite sane this woman, she is generous to a fault and extraordinarily kind. We think it is a lovely but slightly eccentric tale of kindness..

And although we awoke to a frosty foggy day, by 11.00am it was bright and sunny with not a cloud to be seen! But it's cold.. veryvery cold! Lucky me, I got to stay home, she had to do food shopping for greens and fruity-tootie! She was given some easy peel mandarins today, such a treat, we haven't had those for a year.. but it is January and it's the best month for citrus fruit.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 24th, 2017.

THE SLOTH WOKE UP!

Good grief, yesterday I got turfed off the bed and she stripped it, bundling everything washable into the magic wet machine. Then she reappeared to 'make the bed' with crisp clean linens and a new blue top cover.

Such action! And it didn't stop there, she then vacuumed the bedroom. Cleared the dudu off the hall surfaces, dusted and polished them, vacuumed, put two candlestick lamps with toile de jouy shades onto the chest of drawers and a piece of silver, rehung Hugo's medal designs and the little icon back on the walls.

I was chased off each top of door that I perched upon, Beaky likes books you see, it's a hideous passion for those crunchy spines has ruined thousands of £'s worth of valuable books, she cannot sell them now, that's for sure.

Walk-in cupboad gave up its' prize possession! An airtight bag full of boxes of original Twinings LapySang. I don't care what Twinings say - by the way Twinings has been bought by the family who own Primark and Selfridges - they HAVE altered the recipe of this tea, when she was tipped the wink by a tea buyer friend of hers, she swooped and bought a huge amount of the tea. Kept in airtight conditions she probably has enough for the rest of our lives! The new packaged stuff bears no resemblance to the original!

We are keeping to the elimination diet, her knees are less swollen and are looking much smaller! She is stiff in that joint if she sits for a long time on a bus journey but finds the trick of getting up and standing for a bit helps stop that. And the finger joints on her right hand are considerably less swollen! Yippee.

She saw a friend very briefly on Friday who showed her an interesting book! She only buys books that are 'meaty and of factual importance', all the rest she borrows from the library. Talking of which.. ouch ouch ouch.. when she was sick in the chest and head, she forgot about her library books and ran up a debt of £27.00, she had 11 books out and had to hand over the dosh over on Tuesday to unblock her account. Good thing she and I are practising frugality at the moment, isn't it!

Twenty seven squidly-diddlies.. that'll larn her, that's for sure!

Anyway, enough of doom and being silly. This 'ere book, which she plans to buy it this week is very scary and I will blog on it.. for there is information in it that made her blood boil as it will do yours as well.. but you ain't hearing anything about it until she's got it, the book, in her hands.

Today was the day for clearing off every flat surface in the bedroom and dusting it, what a lot of dudu  there was on her bedside table, which is the top of a cupboard or the bottom shelf off a bookcase, whichever way you want to look at it! There are identical book cases either side of her bed.

Next week she is going to Dawes Glass to place an order for two pieces of glass with which she will cover the top surfaces and two long but narrow pieces of mirror for the bathroom.

Rubbish galore.. aka dudu disappeared into a black bag, empty envelopes and old letters of no importance, she has a bag full of stuff that needs to be shredded as well but that will be a chore for another day. A longer connection flex for the iPad to its' charger was unearthed, she knew she'd had one once upon a time and there it was!

A very late lunch was cooked, lots of vegetables with meat! Goodness me, I'd almost forgotten about meat! And very tasty it was. She'll see if she has any untoward reactions later today but so far, her system and her hands are very content with the new diet routine of lots of vegetable and eggs with fish, so perhaps meat, for a BIG treat on Sunday, might just be ok?

We will have to wait and see. In the meantime, I have to go, she's a'going hunting for this new book and needs iPad.. have a good week folks and remember to read Tales from GeeGee Parrot.. aka yours blog often to amuse and educate yourself. ChirpChirp.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 22nd, 2017.

IT'S A GOOD THING WE LIKE ENGLISH WINTER VEGETABLES AS THOSE 'FANCY' & OUT OF OUR SEASON ITALIAN & SPANISH COURGETTES, LETTUCE & TOMATOES ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY!

For due to the current appalling weather conditions in Italy and in Spain, the prices have rocketed for courgettes, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes in the wholsesale markets, leading to some supermarkets refusing to pay the huge differerence in their box price. It's a bit of a steep jump isn't it.. from £8.00 a big box to £22.00?

She's mighty glad that we eat mostly what is grown in season, however, the thought of eating a tomato (even if she could) grown hydroponically in a tunnel in the depths of winter, fills her with horror! Ugh. No, thank you.

So we are eating all manner of root vegetables, carrot, parsnip, turnip, beetroot, cabbage, onion, shallot and garlic together with rice and buckwheat, which isn't wheat just in case you're gluten intolerant. Sadly, one of her most favourite grains is, this is Freekah, a young wheat grain which is smoked and comes from the Middle East.

She's mighty glad she planted so many onion, shallot sets and garlic, both hard and soft neck varieties, for although a thieving bastard dug up half a bed, she's still got a lot and dear Tereza, our upstairs neighbour has given us lots of the delicious Violet variety from France.

It's bright and cold here in London today, last night was below zero C. She has her clothes ready for her morning jaunt down to Hackney to collect her glasses, thick trousers, cotton tights, much warmer than socks!

Thermal clothing, poloneck sweater, Marina's beautiful coat and walking boots with slip-proof soles, one of Darling Pat's hats to keep her head warm and with Myra, our Lebanese friend's, Christmas gift of a deliciously warm long scarf to wrap around her neck.

And she'll stop off somewhere along the route to find Chick Pea flour for she now has the recipe for those Sicilian Chick Pea flour Fritters!

That's your lot for today. She's off to do some laundry and a bit of sorting out in the store room and I'm heading off to a high point for a doze.. an afternoon doze after lunch is a good thing, do you not agree mes amis?

GeeGee Parrot.
January 19th, 2017.

RICK STEIN IN PALERMO.. QuickQuick! An email must be sent to Joe in Canada immediately to get a recipe!

It will go off to him immediately after we publish this short post. Rick Stein has been on the BBC1 channel going for a weekend to lots of interesting places.. Iceland, Berlin, Vienna, Thessaloniki and Palermo to name a few that we have seen.

And towards the end of tonight's programme, he went to to meet with Duchessa Nicoletta Polo in her beautiful home the Palazzo Lanza Tomasi, she is the daughter in law of the man who wrote 'The Leopard' and she taught Rick how to cook Panelle, they are Sicilian chick pea flour fritter.

As they're made out of Chick Pea flour, which she can eat as it has no gluten, oh yippee, with water, parsley and salt - she cannot eat any flour which has gluten in it - these would be wonderful!

Now why is Joe getting an email? Well, his parents are from Sicily, so there's a fair chance that he might know what she's wittering on about or that his mother will.

Bed time.. we are going to bed early in this household. She has to fill her drinking water bottles (three of them, she making herself drink lots and lots of water these days), put her last lot of eye drops in and then it's time for the light to go out.

Chirp.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 18th, 2017.
PostScript: She woke up the next day and did an on-line search for Panelle and lo & behold, oh, the wondrous web has the recipe! Also a full description of that programme together with the Duchessa's full name and other recipes, so this post has been altered slightly.

SHE'S NOT LADY KIM MURRAY, SHE'S LADY MURRAY, THE WIFE OF SIR 'ANDY' MURRAY THE TENNIS PLAYER!

Grrrr! Get it right you stupid journalists! Strangely enough, a woman who should know better also titles herself as a Lady, this is Jeanne Galway, the American wife of Sir James Galway, the man from Belfast who was knighted by HM The Queen in 2001. She is an extraordinarily talented musician.

The only time a woman is ever a Lady in her own right is if she is born with that title, as in the case of the daughter of an Earl, Marquess or a Duke or if she is given a Baronetcy as in the case of our Prime Minister, who then became Baroness Thatcher, more commonly known as Lady Thatcher. If a woman is 'knighted' by HM The Queen she becomes a Dame, as in the case of Dame Diana Rigg.

Rant over..

Very chilly bumbum here today in deepest Knightsbridge! Further north they're basking in giddy heights of about 9 degrees C, it is zero degrees C here. Shivver my timbers and all that. The sky is a pale watery blue with no clouds in sight, hence the coldness.. brrr.

She was seen hunting in the china cupboard for something, I flew over and landed on her back as she was down on her hands and knees, that made her laugh when I peered over her shoulder into the cupboard as if I knew what she was looking for!

Then with a triumphant squeak, she pulled out a very large heavy mug. Like a beer stein, if you know what they look like but it has no lid, more's the pity! This, apparently is a momento from the trip to Copenhagen that she and Edgar took in 1994.

A quick dust and wash and moments later, it had two Peppermint tea bags in it together with a measure of Vitamin C powder and was being topped up with boiled water. The smell was delicious and the very thick ceramic ware kept the heat in splendidly!

Lunch time.. yippee! Apparently we're having spring green, onions and carrots and a tin of sardines. Life is simple in our home, I love what she cooks and eat it as well, I, of course, do have bowls of 'Parrot Food' but who would eat dry seeds if offerered human food, not me, that's for sure.

And I am extremely partial to sardines and all other manner of fish and LOVE to crunch the stems of cabbage leaves and broccoli and cauliflower. But, I beg of you do not be stupid enough to try and nick a bit of hummus whilst Beaky is eating out of the pot.. you'd get an 'old nip' very quickly.

So we're off to rustle up grub.. stay as healthy as you can. Do not spread germs if you have a virus, it isn't fair as you don't know the ramifications for other people.

But please do Chirp, be as happy as you can and remember to walk on the sunny side of the street.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 18th, 2017.

THE GREAT SOUL OF SIBERIA. In Search of the Elusive Siberian Tiger. By SOOYONG PARK.

There are books that you start and put down as you want to go to sleep and then there is the kind of book that you read all through the night to the last page, this book is of the latter kind. An amazing and extraordinary tale of human bravery and dedication, of spending six months of the year in sub-zero temperatures in underground bunkers and immersing himself in the lives of these very human shy animals.

His writing 'holds' you, you turn the pages wanting to know what happens to 'Bloody Mary' and her cubs. Apparently there were several documentaries made from his hours of filming, she's now on the hunt to find them.

Today had an early start but delayed rise, curious, no? What I mean is that she woke up, went to the bathroom, then got me out of my cage when she came back and we slipped underneath the bed clothes for an hour to have a cuddle.

There's nothing like a cuddle on a sharp and frosty morn! And this morning was extremely 'frosty' here in deepest Knightsbridge but old Mr. Sun was awake and had his torch on full beam! YES! We saw sunlight at last and a high blue sky greeted our eyes when we got up and she drew back the curtains.

Yum.. egg and hummus for me, how delicious! Just egg for her, for she had finished all the broccoli and needed to go fruit and vegetable shopping today.

And go to the Library, which is where she picked up the Siberian Tiger book. Then onto to the North End Road for a weeks supply of fresh fruit. Persimmons, pears, mango, avocado and two crisp white cauliflowers plopped into WW. Then it was home via Tesco's!

Tesco? Yes, Tesco because they're the only people who sell 'Spring Greens' which I think, but am not sure, are what are called Collards in the USA. Whatever they're called, we love them! Steamed with carrots and shallots, drained (vegetable water retained and drunk) then drizzled with olive oil, with plenty of fresh black pepper and some crunchy salt.. delicious!

Lots of crisp, un-packaged heads of broccoli completed her shop and she was home again in two flashes of sunlight! What a lovely day.. crisp but sunny.. the perfect January day, please may we have lots more like this?

Then she can go gardening and I can get some peace and quiet. You do realise she been underneath my feet almost every day since December 28th, so there's been no rest for me at all!

But I know she's going to Hackney on Friday, that'll give me a few hours of peace and quiet, as her glasses will be ready to be collected by then. Don't worry folks, she isn't trying to read a lot without her glasses, she maybe be dumb sometimes but she ain't stupid where her eyes are concerned.

Chirps to all.. many chirps in fact, because that mango we had for pudding was wonderful!

GeeGee Parrot.
January, 17th, 2017.

SYLVIE JONES. A LOVELY FRIEND

She knew she owed her a call but somehow didn't pick up the telephone..

To a lot of people her name will mean nothing but to those of us in the design world, she ran the wholesale desk at Bennetts Silks in Stockport for years and later on, to Manchester United Football Club, it meant a lot.

About a year later after leaving Bennetts to help Rod run his business, she was working out at her gym very early one morning on 'The Dreaded Ball' which Sylvie could, literally, dance upon. She finished a routine and three very fit looking men started to clap!

They came over and asked her if she could teach them how to use the ball like she did and her second career was born. For those three men were members of Manchester United's first squad, three of the highest paid footballers in the land!

She did her training and qualified as a fitness instructor and proceeded to take the guys fitness up to an extraordinary level, the word spread and then someone started talking 'Olimpic Athletic Squad'.

Sylvie was one of the most unassuming people she knew and she asked her "what are you going to do?" And the response was this "I'm not, I'm not giving up my family life, I'm happy as I am, there are other fitness coaches quite capable of doing what I do" and she didn't, she stepped down.

And did something different.. she started Web Designing! She was, truly, a Woman For All Jobs!

My mum started to be ill and a mutual friend told Sylvie about it and they chatted.. but Sylvie did not let on that she had also a problem.. a cancer that had been operated on and 'dealt with' many years previously had returned. Our lovely friend had full blown bowel cancer.

Today, in the afternoon, she thought "Where is that naughty girl, I'll give her a call and was slightly bemused to find a answering message in her friend's mobile saying 'Rod Jones can't take your call, please leave a message', so she called the house number.

Rod answered the phone, except it really didn't sound like Rod, it sounded like an older, desperately sad version of his former self and she said "Rod, it's ..., are you ok, you sound very ill, what's the matter sweetie, is Sylvie there with you?".

And she heard him choke as he had to clear his voice and tell her the dreadful news that Sylvie, his marvellous and truly magical wife of forty eight years, had died on November 18th, 2016.

She sat stunned.. our darling Sylvie gone. Rod told her about the funeral and the 'wake' afterwards at Frankie's, Sylvie's Wine Bar of choice. To which bosses of textile industries came, a lot of folk from the Interior Design world, the Man United squads past and present, the WI, the Samaritans for whom she had volunteered for over thirty years, the local allotment members, her friends and the whole of the local town council!

Everyone wrote in a book and Christian, her son, said "It's very strange, it's almost as if all the remarks have been written by the same person just using different words and different subjects.. but it really shows how loved she was".

That, Christian, is true, she was loved very much by hundreds of people and we will all miss her.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 16th, 2017.