Goodbye 2015...

I can't say I'll miss you either. Hello to 2016...

I'm really hoping that this year will be the turn around. Not for a moment 3 years ago did I expect my personal posts to end up making so many people cry. I didn't think I'd be documenting the hardest 3 years of my life, and that of my partner and children.

I guess that you can only keep wading through the mud for so long, and during the second half of 2015 we tripped over quite spectacularly.

From Summertime onwards one of our children was very ill, literally wasting away after losing their sister, and they were hospitalised in September. They are now spending more time on home leave than in hospital and beginning to return to a more normal life, showing a strength of character that continues to amaze us. All the kids continue to amaze us.

My partner had a surprise trip in an ambulance with flashing lights in November. Thankfully he did not have the heart attack he was threatening, and after a short stay, a host of tests and an enforced break from work, he is more 'himself' than for a very long time.

We holidayed in the Isle Of Wight and the Just So Festival, but missed out on the Geronimo Festival in May because I was having my own personal crisis with a recurring umblilical Hernia. I now have a very impressive 15cm caterpillar track running down my middle and I weigh less than I have in 10 years...it's a silver lining...and my first goodbye of 2015...

Goodbye to some of the people who I was never really a fan of, but who gave me my strongest childhood UK TV memories - Deidre left Coronation Street forever, Cilla Black is unlikely to surprise anyone ever again, George Cole will never sell another dodgy second-hand motor, and Orville will sit on a shelf without Keith Harris.

Burt Shavitz of Burt's Bees, Carl Djerassi, the 'Father' of the birth control pill and Nicholas Winton, who personally saved over 650 Jewish children from the holocaust

A fond goodbye to Leonard Nimoy. Star Trek was essential viewing for me growing up, as were Hammer Films as I developed my love of the horror genre, so farewell indeed to Sir Christopher Lee, and thank you for all of the scares. Thank you also to Wes Craven, who introduced us to Johnny Depp, and laughter alongside the horror in Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream.

Goodbye Sir Terry Pratchett. I look forward to introducing my youngest 2 children to the Discworld universe. I am sorry that the last 8 years were not there for you to enjoy free from the knowledge of what was to come.

Check Mort, by Discworld illustrator Paul Kidby

Music lost some amazing people in 2016. Steve Strange, who really led the way for a million more acts to just be themselves. Percy Sledge, BB King, Ben E King and Errol Brown, all responsible for some amazingly powerful songs which have a strength and endurance beyond most, and can send a shiver down any spine. And Lemmy....The Ace Of Spades will always be his card...

Courtesy of the NME

We are still here, thank you for every comment and message, every giveaway entry and every tweet. Thank you to each and every one of you who has helped to carry us this far. Have an excellent 2016 x

Turn the page.....but never put down the book.

 
I'll leave you with another loss for 2015. Natalie Cole...