The last week hasn't been one of my best and I've read little and written even less. Hopefully all that is behind me. Well obviously it's all behind me but what I mean is that I hope all the lethargy, coughing and general lack of wellness is now behind me and the New Year will see life returning to whatever is the new normal out there in the big wide world that is Lewis.
Various friends I've spoken to today have been reminiscing about the Hogmanays we used to have. Stornoway used to have a huge firework display down at the Harbour to see in the New Year. It was always mobbed and a great charity fund raiser. In the Seventies when we came here we always had a party of friends on the evening with a meal and party games and a great deal of fun. Indeed, one way and another that continued into the 2000s and then for a decade I was always in New Zealand for Hogmanay.
Since then it's been a time of quiet reflection and, whilst each year I might be awake for The Bells, there's greater odds that I'll be asleep.
I did think about looking at one of the videos I'd taken back in the day but, with loved ones featured having passed on, New Year doesn't really seem the right time.
Apropos nothing at all to do with New Year I was watching Archbishop Tutu's coffin being carried into the Cathedral today. It reminded me of the time when I found myself helping out an undertaker for a funeral at a crematorium. Archbishop Tutu's coffin was the 'cheapest they could find' but had rope handles by which it could be carried. I looked at those with envy as the bearers held them and took the coffin into the cathedral. The coffin I was supposed to help carry (the first time I'd ever carried a coffin) had less substantial 'brass' handles. As I picked up my corner of the coffin by the handle the Undertaker said in a 'whisper' that seemed to reverberate around the crematorium "Not by the effin handle you effin idiot, they're effin plastic."
Hopefully, tomorrow, I will wake feeling a new man and ready to meet the challenges of 2022 of which, I'm sure, there will be many.
All the best in 2022. I look forward to reading your posts .
ReplyDeleteThanks, Red.
DeleteWhen my oldest left Oxford, he was awarded a 2:1 degree. I remember him saying "At least it wasn't a Desmond" meaning a 2:2 (tutu). The man's name lives on.
ReplyDeleteAnother one to be stored in the memory banks, Cro. Thanks.
DeleteA cheap casket for the Archbishop. I like that.
ReplyDeletePlastic handles are less likeable!
Kylie, the plastic handles in the furnace wouldn't have been good either.
DeleteHappy New Year! X
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jules. I hope your and Lily's year is fulfilling.
DeleteWishing you a much better year in 2022 Graham. Isn't it great to have funny memories ("brass" handles) to look back upon and chuckle about? :)
ReplyDeleteMxx
Margaret, I'm finding that more and more of my stories mystify the younger generations because they often involve things they have never heard of.
DeleteHopefully you did wake up feeling a new man today! While I don‘t feel a new woman today, I do like the looks of this first day of 2022; it is sunny and bright out there, and because it was forbidden to sell fireworks here, there is much less rubbish on the street in front of my house.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Graham! May you be meeting all its challenges with your usual optimism.
Thank you, Meike. I have woken to a full-blown gale whipping up the waves in the bay below the house. However there is also some blue sky. Not a day for going for a walk even if my cough had abated sufficiently.
DeleteOne of the sure things about ageing, Graham, is that it takes much longer for us to shake off malaise of any kind. I hope that you will improve shortly, both physically and in spirit. Decent weather, permitting a good walk might be just the tonic. I haven't heard the term Hogmanay in a long time. An old friend, long since gone (wonder if her coffin had plastic handles?), who had been here well over fifty years, yet sounded as though she had disembarked from Scotland a day earlier, always referred to New Year's Eve antics as Hogmanay. Her husband had a PhD, their three sons had PhDs and those sons all married women with PhDs, so when they sat around the table together there were seven Dr. Hoffmans, and my friend, Doris, who had as she put it, "A lowly Master's degree"! Doris always claimed that's why she had to do the dishes!
ReplyDeleteYour opening statement is sad but true much to my chagrin. Love your Drs Hoffman story. Best we can do is two but, I expect that is pretty common in the medical world.
DeleteHoping your malaise has decided to leave itself back in 2021 and allow you to begin 2022 feeling better. May 2022 bring us hope of better times.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary. I'm feeling a lot better this evening after another quiet day.
DeleteGood to see you back in writing shape and mood! It struck me when reading this post that I've associated the word Hogmanay with Christmas rather than New Year. I blame Terry Pratchett for that: one of his Discworld novels entitled 'Hogfather'. Looking things up now, I see Hogswatchnight in the Discworld is 32 December, though. /lol/ (I know it's CJ rather than you who is a Discworld fan - you've probably never read it...)
ReplyDeleteMonica, I have actually read a couple of the Discworld books but you are correct in that it id CJ who is the real fan having, I think, read every book TP wrote.
DeleteHappy New Year, Graham! Hope your 2022 is filled with good health, fun adventures, peace and joy!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Ellen, It would be lovely if it was like that for all of us. Here's hoping....
DeleteGood to see you back. I'm not you of course but what I do is pay for medical treatment (twice).
ReplyDeleteFind a GP you get on with and discuss for as long as it takes what treatment is beneficial and what stuff can't be cured. They aren't any more expensive than vets if you tell them you don't have insurance. Mine knows I have, little minx. She's okay and even came out to see to my brother-in-law when the local GP went on strike/hiding from Chinky Pox, whatever.
All the way from Manchester she travelled, a star bar. She did bill the airfare and her time sleeping at his expense but didn't knock anything off for her time pissing about with posh horses. To give her credit she has just been back to Scotland to have some dressage lessons.
She is a lovely lass, I'm tempted to ask the prices for curing erectile disfunction.
Adrian, I'm fortunate in that I have excellent medical care from the NHS. My medical practice, the local hospital, The Beatson and Ayr hospital all play their parts and I cannot complain about a single thing. I should add that if the NHS had not existed in 1959 I wouldn't be alive anyway because my parents could never have afforded for me to have had half my lung removed at that time for a condition that people in parts of the world still generally die of today.
DeleteHey, Graham...I hope the coming year treats you well, and I hope you're feeling well very soon.
ReplyDeleteI think there has been more than enough sorrow and heartache throughout the world over the past couple of years so it's time for good news, happy events all round.
My best wishes to you...take good care.
Hi Lee. Thanks. Feeling much improved this evening. I hope that the year ahead is very good for you and your furry companions.
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ReplyDeleteJill, using the "Contact Me" form in the sidebar please would you send me your email address if you don't mind me contacting you direct. Graham
DeleteIt is a brand-new year ... here we go! Counting blessings as we speak.
DeleteIndeed, Jill. If one can keep them in one's mind and dismiss the others that's a big help.
DeleteHi Graham, I'm sure your joie de vivre will return as soon as you are rested enough. It just seems impossible that you could be without it. May all the good things laying wait in the year ahead start appearing soon!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pauline, I'm on the mend and today has been a definite improvement.
DeleteSending very best wishes Graham, and hope you have got over your bug! we hope to catch up with you again this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Eve. I think I'm almost over the bug. It's always good to catch up.
DeleteSad about Bishop Tutu but I guess it was his time. We had a very quiet new year's eve year, no fireworks no parties nothing, it was nice for once.
ReplyDeleteAmy it was very quiet here too but there was always a big fireworks display at Napier beach.
DeleteIt is rumoured that Liberace used to wake most mornings "feeling a new man". Happy New Year Graham. As the days lighten, spirits brighten.
ReplyDelete