Sunday 26th August 2007

Today is the anniversary of the birth and death of my lovely daughter she would have been 42. Not a day goes by when I don't think of her. I only hope she is in heaven with her dad.
It had been a nice few days since Lucy came with her dad and Chun on thursday, Stu also joined us and we had a nice family meal together, well I hope it was, as I cooked it. The Lucy stayed on as the others went off to do their own things. Friday Lucy and I went into Dudley to have croissants at one of my favourite cafes, the only really good one in Dudley, but unfortunately when we got there it was closed for holidays. So after a little walk around the farmers market and an ice cream for Lucy we caught the bus and went to Haden Hill park. It was a lovely day and after a little walk around the park we went inside Haden Hall. In all the years that I have been going to this park, nearly 66, I don't ever remember going inside the house. I do remember many years ago when I was courting Eric, his sister Betty used to work there on a saturday morning, serving teas, but most of the time the hall was usually shut up. It was really interesting the rooms were all set out in the furniture of the times around 1900 and there were a few rooms with very excellent wax work figures in costumes relating to their positions in the house. One room was made to look like a hospital with a wounded soldier, blood and all, and a nurse and a model would could have represented Florence Nightingale looking over him. Another was a bedroom with a serving girl knealing at the bedside as if in prayer. All the rooms were beautifully furnished and china cabinets filled with the most lovely porcelain. All in all it was really worth while, the only drawback was the tea rooms were not open due to lack of staff so we could not get anything to eat, therefore after an hour in the playground we had to come home for a late lunch. We made coconut pyramids later, well Lucy made them I only supervised, which she and the children from next door ate at one of Lucy's "tea parties"
Yesterday I arranged to meet Rob and Chun in town to collect Lucy from me, but I was encouraged to stay with them as Rob wanted to take me to Bourneville to a tour of the school building with the Carillon. We were fortunate to go on a day when there was a concert by a famous Belgium carilloner playing. The tour and talk was very interesting and the guide told us how the carillon came to be put in the tower of the school by George Cadbury and how the number of bells were increased after his death, in his memory, by his wife. The bells can be seen from the road, as the are in an open area only covered by an ornate roof. We went right up to the top of the tower where the Belgium gent was playing and we had a very close look at the machinery, the keys and also the bells. What a great thing. Just on our doorsteps and something you hardly notice when you go by on the bus. I stayed overnight at Robs and today we went into town and met up with Stu for lunch at the lovely burger bar on the canal side in Brindley place. I got a free glass of wine for being a little cheeky to a waiter, maybe a bit flirty, I'm not sure if a 66 year old should be like that with a young man, but I do like a little fun. I shall have to finish her as I'm very tired, but will continue tomorrow.