Night night Kenny

Kenny Rogers died. I heard this morning and did the obligatory morning listening to some of my favourite Kenny tunes. My poor husband has patiently put up with my singing for much of the day....... made more painful by my need to imitate a Deep South accent..... Again obligatory I think! The music got me reminiscing.....

My dad has always liked holidays that involve a lot of driving. He likes to be behind the wheel and to be in charge of where we ended up and where we stopped along the way. As a kid he would pack up my sister, step sister, step mother and I and off we’d go. Usually back to Scotland. As we got older we ventured abroad more.

As a very young child living in Scotland I remember a boxy dark red Volvo that had broken back door handles..... the doors were held shut with bungee cords and you had to sit in the middle of the seat so you didn’t fall out if the doors managed to fly open! That was when there was just the three of us; before my dad remarried.

After we moved to Northern Ireland our road trips home to Scotland became an annual event. We were fortunate kids. Dad had good jobs and we got a holiday pretty much every year. The road trips involved the adults in the front and the three girls in the back of whatever ‘family friendly vehicle’ we had at that time.  The one I remember best was a midnight blue Granada Scorpio that was his pride and joy. it was a company car and he was rightly very proud of it. He had been made a Managing Director of a company and his Scorpio even had a car phone; a very grand thing to have in those days! Not that it was ever really used because it cost a small fortune to use it!! 

Anyway, with dad working such long hours and travelling so much too, the one time we all came together as a family was for the annual holiday. The three girls would get piled into the back seat, with me always squashed in the middle because I’m the youngest. I used to get horribly car sick........ I have thrown up at the side of many Scottish side roads. I distinctly remember a road trip to France that took forever because it involved so many roadside vomiting sessions. Not to mention me having to use anything we could find in the car when emergency struck - plastic bags, tissue boxes...... whatever was close at hand!!

I wasn’t a fun person to go on a car journey with. And don’t even start me about the ferry......!! Anything faster than a skateboard and I was green and looking like the doll in the Exorcist :(

But how does this have anything to do with Kenny Rogers?? Well, travelling with such a nightmare passenger often led to family rows....... rising stress levels........ increased spewing up!! There were a couple of preventative measures that helped.......open windows and music. Of course, a family of five will rarely agree on music choice so that often led to more rowing. Probably a fairly normal 1980s family holiday! 

There were, however, two albums the whole family agreed on...... Neil Diamond’s The Jazz Singer and Kenny Roger’s Greatest Hits. To this day listening to those albums takes me back to being a kid and I still know every word by heart. Even in my rebellious teenage rocker years, stick on The Gambler and I’d be singing along. It remains true to this day....... and I’ve spent this morning proving it....... stick on some Kenny and I lose all sense of cool!!! I won’t be able to stop myself from singing and dancing as if I was born and bred in Nashville. And I just won’t care. Or stop! 

So I’m sad to hear the world has lost one of the men who could cut through teenage angst and the need to be cool. 

If you’re feeling anxious in these scary COVID times, stand up, stick on some Kenny Rogers and sing and dance your way out of it!! Trust me ;) 

Keep safe xxx

Corona panic

Up until Friday I wasn’t really taking corona virus too seriously. Yes, it was bad, but I also know how much people love a good drama. Friday changed things a bit for me....... first I read an article about Italy and how the whole country is in lockdown. Next I travelled to Belfast for a meeting and was spoken to by my Line Manager....... there had been discussions. I’m classified as high risk. I was instructed to work at home where possible and not to travel to other locations for meetings. I realise that many people would be delighted at this.....”work” from home...... I know some who claim to do that already. They tend to never have real health issues but also never seem to do much work. The prospect of working from home doesn’t appeal much to me. I’m limited in what I can do and I thrive on being around other people. Whilst I appreciate why I’m being told to do this, it makes me feel weak. It reminded me that I’m not at peak fitness and am still a bit delicate......... something I spend a lot of time ignoring and ploughing past! 

When I came home on Friday I found that everyone I spoke to seemed to have moved from a ‘no need to panic’ position to a ‘we need to be really careful’ position...... People I respect. The ‘not prone to panic’ brigade suddenly ending sentences with ‘just in case...’ and ‘have you heard Tom Hanks has it?’!!

And so on Saturday morning hubby and I found ourselves doing what I called an apocalyptic shop! In fairness it was more of a mild panic shop..... we did buy toilet rolls and stock up the freezer and cupboard, but we didn’t stock a nuclear bunker! It went against the grain but it felt like a sensible thing to do. Just in case.....

We are constantly being advised to wash our hands. Do we not do that anyway?? Though in fairness I never realised how much I touch my face.... I have become acutely aware that I am constantly doing it! Hand washing has increased to Lady Macbeth levels....... not just after using the toilet or before/after eating, now just random scrubbing. Just in case......

The thing that has upset me most is the delay in being able to open our Relatives Room in Causeway Hospital. The money raised through our Macmillan fundraising has been used to create the Riverbank Room and I couldn’t be prouder. Our team of family and friends have created this wonderful space; a haven in the frenetic and scary hospital environment. Themed on The Wind in the Willows, the room surpasses all my expectations and I’m sad it’s going to take longer than expected to be able to officially open it. But it will be open as soon as the furniture arrives. An actual ribbon might not have been cut, but trust me we’ve worked tirelessly to ensure lots of red tape has been snipped through over the past two years. The Riverbank Room is there. If you gave anything to Triciafest or my sister’s  wedding (money, time, energy...) then you are a part of something special. I’m going to post a video on the Triciafest Facebook page so head over there to see more, but photos below.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. As everyone keeps telling me; STAY SAFE!! Much love 💕