Bad things. Let’s get them out of the way first.
Mother In Law In Care Home.
Contract not renewed In school Library.
Falling over.
Friends dying.
The last one is inevitable, I suppose, and the sadness that comes with it. I won’t say any more now.
The first one – a case of all’s well that ends well. I wrote a bit about the situation in my last post so don’t need to here.
The library.

I loved that library. The books. The space. The young people. The potential. The people I worked with and had lunch with and who came to talk to me. But. One very big but. My immediate boss, my hirer, my line manager, very quickly came to the conclusion that I wasn’t the sort of person she wanted . She wanted a sergeant major. I wasn’t capable.
So for a year we were at cross purposes. I thought my job was to encourage, motivate, listen and help. She wanted me to keep the books upright and the children uptight
Obviously the mix didn’t work, and as soon as it was practicable I was told my contract wouldn’t be renewed. Disappointing? Very. But understandable. More difficult though was the knowledge that she really didn’t like me. Not just my work. That I could understand, I suppose. But she made no effort to be nice, polite even. Never a good morning or how are you? I found it depressingly weird though I didn’t stop till the end – trying to be nice, I mean.
But – it’s over now, and the new librarian is safely ensconced! At the end of August my last salary was paid in. What to do next?

I decided I would have a gap year while I thought what to do. I don’t really want to go back into full time teaching so I thought I’d do some supply work- to keep my hand in so to speak. I signed on with an agency and bingo. I’ve been inundated with work! But I’ve only done two days.

At the end of October I decided to go to Kew Gardens to visit the Chihuly exhibition. It was the second to last day and raining. Perfect. No one would be there. And so it turned out. I’ve described the day in a previous post in detail. Suffice to say that the day was more significant because I fell over. Didn’t break anything but am still not able to walk perfectly. For a few weeks I couldn’t do stairs so couldn’t really work. I did one day on the Monday after my fall – the pain hadn’t kicked in yet, and I worked a day a week ago. Otherwise I have been too busy. So. Onto the good things of 2019. Holidays! Paris. Spain. Italy. I don’t quite count visits to Poland though at present I am in Krakow and that really is a holiday.

Theatres. Thanks to my children and my friends I have been to the theatre lots this year. Most memorable: Ian Mckellen, ‘Fascinating Aida, A winters tale (theatre in the cinema). And that’s only last month. Miriam Margolyes. The magic flute. Cinema: Knives Out; The Favourite; Mary Poppins. All such fun.

And I’ve had time to read lots and lots of books. You can look me up on Goodreads if you really want to know. ( I wish there was the same sort of site for plays and films).

Best of all I’ve had time to catch up with some old friends. I’ve almost overcome my fear of phoning people – due to the fact that for a long time I couldn’t hear very well so it was all a bit stressful, so I didn’t try. But my wonderful magic hearing aids have changed my life. I highly recommend the NHS. And Specsavers.

It’s been a bit of a hurtle through the year. I’ve done loads, met some fascinating people, made some new friends, both young and old, and I think I’ve learnt a little more about myself.

I’ve certainly learnt a lot about my heritage recently: I wrote, without much hope, it has to be admitted, to the Ukrainian archives to find out about my mother’s side of the family. Very quickly I received a positive reply and on payment of a mere fifty dollars I immediately received her birth certificate and my grandmother’s birth, baptism and marriage certificates. Fascinating. But I will expand on that next year!

Finally I have overcome some ancient resentments and that is very liberating
So. To look forward now to the new year. As before if there’s anything you’d like me to write about just give me a word. Happy new year!