08/02/2008 by Aileen.

Arrived home just as J’s client was leaving. Then I began trawling through OU forum messages and there was one in my personal post box from a really lovely bloke (I’ve met him for tutorials and coffee so I know) who was going to take a back seat for a while as he is going through a depressed period with panic attacks. Feel very sad for him. Hope he bounces back soon.
Then Martin rang to say he had just installed Skype and asked us to. He talked John through setting it up and we had a chat. God fun seeing him and Fiona while we chatted. When Ali and Eric have John’s old Apple they can get involved too.

So then of course I had to install it. Searched through my friends and only one I could find on Skype was Janet. Our kids grew up together. Her husband Alan skyped me back when I added him to my contact list and we had a chat. It’s nearly 10.30 now and I’ve done no studying and house is a complete mess.

And I’m off to Manchester for the day tomorrow to meet 4 other OU colleagues. Unfortunately the one who I mentioned above doesn’t feel he can make it. I feel quite gutted about his news. He has two autistic children and was recently made redundant so he has a lot on his plate. Really hope he gets better very very quickly.

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08/02/2008 by Aileen.

Well, busy for a retired young lady. Nothing like when I taught full-time.

Anyway, I had trouble printing my creative writing effort so had to grab my laptop and run. Left it too late to meditate. Great morning as usual.

Then to Hessle for Mass and Lenten Lunch. Sat next to a dear 83 year old woman who wouldn’t stop talking. I had to stop giving her my full attention as my soup was gettingc old. Well, priorities please! To cap it all I am a bit deaf and she spoke very quietly. I heard every few words, and they were like ‘doctor’ stroke, injection, hospital, injection, pump, stroke, doctor.’ I felt really queasy as I haaaate hospital stuff. I intended leaving at 1.30 for hair appt in Hull, but made my getaway at 1.20. Just as well as I only just made my 2pm appt.

Then, grabbed photo magazine at WH Smiths and made for Sheila’s to pick her up for church cleaning at 4pm (at my own parish in Howden.) Stopped in layby on way as I was 10 minutes early and turned mobile on. Two messages from John - both in morning. In the first one I thought something terrible had happened to him or one of the kids as his voice was so - can’t think of the word. It turned out his computer had frozen, then lost everything, and he was blaming me. (To print my creative writing I had e-mailed it to myself, then opened it up on his puter so I could print it off. Wasn’t worth putting air conditioning on in sunlounge to do it all on my puter/printer) Second message - he was a happy bunny again. Puter was working.

At church I took some photos as it looked so lovely. Flowers from Maureen Hall’s funeral. White garlands everywhere. Maureen and John own a big Garden Centre in Howden and the family is very involved in the church. I didn’t know Maureen well, but she seemed lovely. Once when I told her that John didn’t have a problem with Jesus, it was the church, she said, ‘Tell him the church is just made up of people.’

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