My poor neglected blog

Oh dear!

I havent blogged since February!! How do I sum up 10 months in a a few minutes?

The most important change to our lives has been the redundancy/retirement of Peter. He had not been enjoying the travelling over to the office near the airport, so when his team of 4 had to be reduced he volunteered to take redundancy. At nearly 60 he did not expect to find another job near to home (and hasn't actually been looking all that hard!) so has had a lot of spare time to spend on his railway, taking long walks etc. It has taken a little while to get used to him being home all the time, but we are getting a routine sorted out now.

My marketing has continued -- we still do markets at Buxton, Bakewell, Whaley Bridge and have added Castleton to our monthly schedule. Takings have been variable - some surprisingly good markets and some very disappointing ones too. Here's hoping next year will see improvement all round. Sales on Etsy have also been variable -- very few during the summer but quite a rush during December -- in one week I spent about £100 just on postage!!

On-line sales have been boosted by the opening of a 4th Etsy shop -- MarmaladySupplies -- for baking disposables such as cake tin liners, muffin cases etc which has worked quite well. I have also taken the plunge and launched my own website --so I am now a dot co.uk!! -- Marmalady.co.uk . This was with the aim of selling my edibles in sterling -- but the vast majority of sales (averaging 1 or 2 a week) have been of my baking supplies.

There have been a few family events during the year too. In March my 86 year old father was taken suddenly into hospital with kidney failure and we were warned that at his age the outcome might not be good. After 3 long weeks of his grumbles he was fit enough to return home, and with his medication re-jigged has been fitter than for quite a while. His dementia however continues apace and he is still easily tired by any mental or physical effort. We are due for another round of hospital visits shortly as he has now been diagnosed with prostrate cancer - we will find out how serious it is at his next appointment in mid-january.

In July my parents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary with a family party. Not many people reach this milestone - so it is a shame that Dad can't remember it!

My mother's youngest sister, Hilary, had been unhappy in her rented house in Romiley for a while so we were pleased to find a nice flat in Chapel for her. The move was difficult as she has the family failing of being a hoarder - decided what to part with was hard!

Lizzie surprised us in November by announcing she was off to Australia for 6 weeks over Christmas -- a holiday she is thoroughly enjoying. She is due home at the beginning of next week - the time seems to have gone very quickly.

I think that brings me up-to-date on the milestones of the year. Have just looked over my goals for 2009:

to lose some weight and keep it off -- well I am finishing the year about 2 lb lighter, - my max weight loss was about 10 lb

to be more organised generally -- ummm fail I think!

not to fret over things & people I cant change but concentrate on things that can be improved -- think this one has been reasonably successfull

My goals for 2010? probably similar to last years -- with the hope of more success!