2010.....

   Some years go by with little or no events worth noting.....2010 was NOT one of those years.
The Queen of England once called the year that had gone by as "Anus Horriblis" which had nothing to do with the posterior or "rear end", and MY 2010 was a mixture of everything....!
Starting, as usual with January, it made its way through to December.....strangely enough!
January presented itself with its normal increases in Insurance costs, Electricity costs, Gas costs, in other words - increases in everything - except my Pensions....a normal start!
February and March brought the usual reflections on "departed people" -  mainly people far too young to have "departed", and in 2010 the month of March brought a further addition to the list, not a person, something much closer and much more dependant on me - "Granite de l'Oasis" - who you can see in the photo above. 
An animal who had shared the ups and downs of my life for 18 years, without complaint....! A friend and an enormous loss.
I suppose one could say that at 18 years (which represents around 125 years of human existence) she had had a good run, but that is little comfort.
February also brought the Anniversary of my sister Ruth's, departure   at an age far too young - at the beginning possibly of the good period of her life - and March the Anniversary of the passing of my wife, Kathleen  also at an age far too young - also at the beginning of "reward reaping years"....not to be -  for either.
I would appreciate it even more after these three events if people stopped telling me that "the ways of the Lord....etc" - 
YOU believe that if you wish, it's no concern of mine, but don't ask me to.
March is supposed to be Spring - new life and so on, but unfortunately for me, the saddest facts of life seem to be held, almost all of them, in that period of the year.
On the positive side, my capable and intelligent Medical consultant or Doctor, decided to invite me to help in any "isolation" problems. ( I didn't consider myself to be suffering from "isolation" - but he did - not realising that I'd simply seen enough and heard enough of people's barbaries and stupidity and misfortunes, and had voluntarily turned off). He came and took me to a "Philosopher's evening" - locally....Kind gesture which confirmed my own personal views - Isolation was the best policy....!
 
The positive aspect was that I could confirm my feelings!
April, May, June and July came and went, in the usual manner....an occasional visit to a beach to find it, as usual covered with greasy tinned sardines, covered in oil, just red in colour...!
An occasional visit from good friends from the Upper Savoy area, on holiday again, but always a pleasure to see, being much younger than myself and still full of the joys of living....which forced me to dust off my culinary prowess!
Around this time, I started using a thing I had been a member of for some considerable time - the infamous "Facebook" (you can find me there under "Ian Mitchell") and I spent quite some time CAREFULLY choosing "friends", not just any old thing, but a carefully selected variety of all nationalities, of all ages and of all backgrounds. This was to prove decisive and conclusive later in the year of 2010..
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Up till now, a fairly normal - uneventful year, with all of the usual ups and downs, but all that was to change radically in the last part of the year....starting with a "facebook friend"........
..from Chicago, Illinois, USA.....who became more, much, much, more than a facebook friend. 
I won't go into the details here for there are still a lot of little problems to be ironed out, but - looking for "my little bit of the happiness cake" it seems that I've been able to find it, in 2010....no doubt there will be much more to report on the subject in 2011.

A further sad event took place in 2010 - the decease of my mother, Elisabeth Mitchell, in Scotland, after a long illness  (shown here with my father Dr. Rev T.C. Mitchell who died many years ago).
At an advanced age, the event was not unexpected, but the form of illness made it difficult -almost impossible for people who took care of her to approach and even, often, to understand her.
Our relationship was, perforce geographical and character differences, "difficult".
This event led, as one says, to "silver linings" and these showed themselves in the manner of being put into contact with two "cousines" who I didn't know even existed, living in Australia, amongst others. 
Through the media of "Facebook," I was able to contact them, and the contact has held, sporadic but present.


I'm not normally a fan or supporter of such places as facebook, but possibly because of my policy of "selecting" friends carefully, I can only say that this programme has brought enormous and lasting changes into my life, in 2010.
It also helped me to recontact a friend here in France who had been a kind of "friend" but more a semi-adopted son of both myself and my wife when we lived in France.
We had lost contact many years ago, and although he had made the journey from France to Lorrach in Germany for my wife's funerals, we had lost contact over time.
Imagine - he is coming for lunch tomorrow - in 2010 - at the end of what has been an eventful year.
The same problems as always existed and exist - health, wealth remain "precarious" but "happiness" seems to be sorting itself out....and I'm hoping the other two will be less precarious over the period of......
...


I hope for the best - for you, for me and for all those associated with me.


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iwmpop (mrlemarquis)          -      Vauvert, France         -         Décembre 2010