Valentines: you can have my organ!

So here we are, the obligatory day of romance whether you want it or believe in it. If you don't apparently you are miserable and of course you are not.. Well for the first time in my 40 youngish years I tend to agree with the sentiment of consumer orientated dribble.
Yes I got flowers and of course I love them and am grateful; its the only time I get them. We have flowers always in the house but I buy them. If its something I want all the time then I should buy them.
I understand its that one day most people get any flicker of romance but its not without stress as I witnessed in Clinton's card yesterday. It was like a scene of the living dead. Men folk picking up cards, putting down cards, huffing and puffing., talking aloud to themselves "how much". Women with younger children chanting "just get one, anyone". Then there was me with the youngest helping me pick a husband card. The first one she pointed at I bought, without any consideration to the sentiment as she informed me she was sick of Valentines day. Then it hit me being a teenage girl on Valentines day is actually the most pants day of the year.
As soon as you are at "big school" you realise all those cards you used to get during primary were actually from your parents not the boy in 5A you actually thought liked you. For me I realised that when I never got another card again during my school years. Well excluding the one a pal gave me from the ones she received as she had too many. How very kind of her!
Of course I am teaching the youngest that Valentines cards are not a merit of how pretty, popular or desirable you are its just a load of pants. She agrees but I can see she wouldn't object if she got one.
I am not a fan of getting older but I wouldn't want to be 15 again with my tight perm and proper school shoes.
Writing the customary "guess who" in scrawly handwriting to disguise my own,  I sent a card to a boy in my class. It was the last card  I sent until I became a grown up. He mistook it for being sent by someone else. I know this because he told me and he asked the girl out. They dated and I never owned up. So yup Valentine can suck.
I felt guilty this morning being one of the masses sending a card for the sake of it. So my grand gesture of romance for Andrew today, the most romantic days of all the days; I put the bin out.  
In our home, that's Andrew's job and it doesn't seem much but it has to be dragged down a very large lane. He was delighted with his present when he got home from work.

Anyhoo I think there is a much better gift on Valentine's day than a heart shaped box of chocs or a card with padding and glitter. Its a pressie that doesn't discriminate between single or married, coupled or divorced, cupid believer or non.  Its  the one of being a living donor. So my gift to those that may need it is to register. This might not be for you but its worth considering. Its a personal thing.

        
https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/

The next chapter:Moving forward.

So here I am blogging again. The tag line of this blog entitled "A Northern girl's account of starting a new life" seems a distant memory as I have been here 6 years.

However I find myself starting a different aspect of a " new life". A new life of marriage so it still seems applicable. Has anything changed? Well a little; I like saying husband and its evident something seems different for Alice. Apparently its easier to buy cards for me now as she felt "someone special" cards were a little limiting. It also means I am not going anywhere which is reassuring.




Andrew has 2 children and I love them both equally but  Alice lives with us, I am more responsible for her and its a fantastic journey. As she grows so do I. I never thought that first month of my challenging Jersey journey I would be a married parent, but here I am.



So our journey so far is as hilarious as ever. Andrew and I are very much on the same page. 3 weeks of a chucklesome honeymoon reinforces that. We never stopped laughing,


We got fatter but laughed none the less. After 6 weeks of marriage standing in front of the bedroom mirror like a naked teletubby, (Don't worry there isn't a picture)  I ask him "have we let ourselves go already?" His response is priceless as he stands next to me, both now like naked teletubby bookends. "Well we are fatter, but we have the rest of our life to get hotter". Its hard to be hot when you are laughing hard and all your teletubby bits and bobs jangle about. Its true though, we do have the rest of our lives but I am setting a 2 year completion date.  Don't want all that effort  last year to go to waste! So chickpea bulk buy awaits!

I didn't make new years resolutions as I never keep them. De teletubbying is about a life change not a resolution. If I was to change or complete something in 2017 it  is my book. Yup I am writing it. Its the most ridiculous thing I have ever read and certainly won't be winning the Man Booker prize. I write a bit put it down, then write a bit more. I don't seem to move forward with it because I pick it up to continue writing and I read it and think "this is ridiculous". However I like it, I like ridiculous. Without ridiculous I think adversity would be much harder to manage. When finished I am not even bothered if anyone reads it. It probably won't make any sense to anyone but its very cathartic for me. If it is ever read by anyone and they laugh, then that's all a person could want. So halfway through writing it, a year to complete it and 2 years to de teletubby; I would say that's the next chapter indeed!

So readers perhaps start your own chapter.

  
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