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Switzerland

It’s odd how the mind works. Suddenly a long lost memory randomly pops back into focus. I was trying to open a food tin and the can opener had done a runner. Time to get out my Swiss Army Knife with its soon to be tried, mini can opener tool. I remembered buying this knife gadget from a gift shop in Switzerland to hurriedly try to fix my Glasses. We were at the top of The Gornergrat. A high mountain ridge standing at over 10,000ft just a few miles from Zermatt. It’s famed for having Europe’s highest open air railway.

The memory further opened out. Glasses quickly repaired, we had lunch sat outside the mountain top restaurant. Hawklad’s Mum then said that on our next Swiss Holiday we should try to stay at the hotel here, seemingly perched on top of the world.

That was 2015 and our world changed before that could happen.

One day maybe we can complete this memory.

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Bit wet

Our nearest city’s flood defences are being tested this winter.

There is usually a path here…. Initially I thought there was also an alligator waiting for hardy souls still committed to using the path. I didn’t risk it even though my online phone map was trying to send me down it. In this case I definitely ignored the naviGATOR.

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Ghosts

A Christmas Week trip out to the Coast. To the South Gare at Redcar. My old childhood town.

Wild and windy with clear storm damage. This place gets a real battering from the North Sea.

As a child I would either bike here or my Dad would bring me in his old rust bucket Ford. It was a great place to come, it was as exciting as this part of the world got. Huge waves, intrepid fishing boats, working lighthouse and huge supertankers coming into port. If you were really lucky you would get to see newly built mighty Oil Rigs being towed out to the oil fields, hundreds of miles north. That was many years ago.

The waves are still huge, everything else has changed. Hardly any fishing, lots of derelict industry, not so many ships using the ports now. Dad is a distant memory.

The photo below was taken from what was left of one the Gun Posts. Since the 1970s this view would have been dominated by a huge Blast Furnace, Europe’s second biggest. Now that’s gone as well.

2023, the Furnace should be there in the middle of that photo

Back 18 months ago, the Furnace was still there, a shell waiting to be scrapped. For decades the Furnace dominated Redcar. Dominated its skyline, economy and life. My Dad worked there, my brother in law worked there, most of my school friends went to work there.

From 2022, proved to be the last photo I would take of the Steel Works..

Walking there this Christmas and I could really feel THE GHOSTS of the past. A once childhood haunt is now just HAUNTED.

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Peter Pan

Netherlands inspired Christmas at the local Country House. Maybe next year we can try a slightly downscaled version in our little bungalow.

Still the Country House is a good place to come when our village power is off, AGAIN. You don’t apparently get supply problems in Netherlands….

I was reminded that we haven’t been inside this place since our world changed back in 2016. We would come here often, then life abruptly changed course and our smaller family stopped coming. That’s been a common theme.

It’s been a while since I read Peter Pan. From what I can remember it’s about the inevitability of growing up and plans suddenly changing. Life happens. Too often losing our sense of adventure and missing opportunities. Losing confidence to LIVE and FLY. BUT IT DOESN’T have to be this way.

Need to remember this….

It doesn’t have to be this way.

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Lights

Trying new stuff is always a good idea. Well kind of. For Hawklad new stuff has to be carefully mapped out, introduced slowly. If you get that right then it is a good idea.

This time it was me that got caught out by NEW.

A trip to see some Christmas lights at Doncaster. Really enjoyable if not exactly very festive at times. A little more Lion King and Star Trek than Santa. But still good and Hawklad enjoyed it as long as we kept our distance from the crowds.

You can see the issue I would have later…l
At last a Festive feel….

So all great until I was dragged on this torture device.

I am petrified of heights, yes I admit it, that rather held back my climbing career….. Even a couple of rungs on a ladder is an issue for me.

This is way too high and most certainly not part of the carefully mapped out plans. Camera focusing is not easy with my eyes firmly shut….

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Panto

Back in 2015 we had planned to take Hawklad to the theatre to see Panto. Many countries don’t do Panto so here is a short Yorkshire Guide to it.

Panto runs at many theatres across the country over Christmas and New Year. Silly, family musical comedies based on Fairy Tales. Each Panto tends to have at least one almost semi famous TV star, one kinda local celebrity and a group of actors, with a few just starting on their careers. Cheesy jokes, slapstick action, catchy songs, big sets, great costumes and really over the top acting. Much audience participation, compulsory booing of the pantomime villain and shouts of ‘it’s behind you’. Some really unfortunate parent always gets singled out for much social embarrassment.

It’s still hugely popular in the UK.

Roll back the clock and in 2015 Hawklad’s mum wasn’t well which stopped us going. Our world changed in 2016 so no panto. Years passed without panto, then COVID.

But finally in December 2023, many years late and WE got to PANTO. Better late than never…… in York’s old Theatre Royal.

Hawklad absolutely loved it. Muppet Dad thankfully avoided being the unfortunate Dad picked on throughout the 2 hours show. Yes it was a truly wonderful, enjoyable family show. That good that tonight we are already booking tickets for next years Panto which is going to be Aladdin..… It took too many years but now we can’t wait to keep up this new tradition.

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Change

Sometimes things can move forward.

OK, sometimes it’s forced, but it’s still change.

Back to 2016 and our world changed. I remember being handed a help booklet with the Death Certificate. It explained all the stuff you had to do when your partner had died, how to arrange a funeral, possible help. It read like an IKEA Wardrobe Assembly sheet.

I remember reading the financial support section. It talked about claiming Bereavement and Widowed Parent Support from the Government. It explained that these benefits were available if you were a married couple with a child in full time education. In BOLD it said NO SUPPORT for Unmarried or Civil Partnership Bereaved Partners.

Fast forward all these years and CHANGE. A Successful Legal Challenge against the UK Government has overturned this rule. Now Bereavement Support has to be offered to ALL couples. So last night I completed the 12 page claim form, Hawklad is still in Full Time Education. No guarantees as the Government is trying to limit the damage BUT worth a try.

Better late than never…..

Posted on by bereavedandbeingasingleparent · 16 Comments

Frozen yoga

Definitely frozen and a poor swan forced to go on foot around the lake.

Definitely frozen as today’s morning yoga torture was performed in two pairs of leggings and three layers of fleece. Not really in the mood to ‘enjoy the deep grounding position’.

‘Let the head relax onto the inner thigh’, how can I relax when my thigh is convulsing like it’s been hit with a million volts and my neck sounds like it’s just snapped.

And how can I ‘with a lions breath transition smoothly onto the other side’ when I’m embarrassingly stuck with rigorous mortis rapidly setting in to my increasingly knackered and now badly deformed hip.

Apparently yoga is good for you….

It’s definitely good for letting things go. With me ‘a delicious downward dog’ is ‘my hairy backside ridiculously stuck in the air releasing fart after fart’….

Is it just me that yoga bullies….

At least I won’t need to take an ice bath to cool down.