Soon to be.......

Doesn't seem to matter WHERE I go, there is always a downpour! This time we've only had a couple which for May is probably all right. Mind you, I can't complain - we've seen a lot of sun as well!  We passed a pleasant weekend with Tina 's younger sister, her husband and since it was Mother's Day , then her highly pregnant daughter and her NOT highly pregnant second daughter! Her husband and I took a trip down to the coastline - the Atlantic from the other side so to say,  Atlantic - on Sandy's passage Mother's cake......... Back garden  with pond, fountains and - somewhere in there, tomatoes, aubergines , avocado etc....... Gotta get the fish and stuff this is the stuff....!  All that is needed, even spaghetti...........! Skip and Joanne  waiting for something.......! Atlantic Beach - coolish!    No - weren't waiting for that....... AAAAAh maybe for this....?

 I thought that after almost 20 days of 90 a balance of my stay in the US of A was called for. Firstly let it be said that our reason for coming was a failure. We wanted to see Tina Concetta's mother whilst she was still alive, but we failed by just 7 hours, which meant, of course, an emotional remeeting for Tina Concetta  with her brother, at the airport, I personally had never met her, although I had spoken often on the phone with her. The events, naturally, made our programme an almost automatic one, and I must state here that my greatest pleasure was  being accepted by the Marzocca family in the manner they did.  Certain things don't have the same roots, or indeed ANY roots, but they still appreciate having the opportunity of pushing roots....of a kind! Of course, learning the funeral forms, traditions, do's and don'ts, was difficult quite apart from the Roman Catholic rites, and - worst of all trying to keep in my mind around 400 names of closer fri...

 THOUGHT I WOULD REPUBLISH THIS, makes me feel quite happy with my situation now..........in 2013! . That was the year that was - my own look at my personal year! 2009, a year that I was once again surprised to see the start of, began in fine style! A reduction in Pension to cover an increase in Health Insurance ...! Not a lot, but anything less is BAD! Home improvement had to be done even so! A toaster that had blown up during Christmas work, a washing machine that had eaten all my undies and spat them out in shreds - clean but shredded, a new definition of "shreddies", a cooker that took an hour to heat up and then wouldn't allow itself to be cut off...all had to be replaced in the course of the year - quickly preferably! A bad start, the January sales so awaited to make ENORMOUS savings, was a fizzle! A damp squid - no bang, no pop! No bargains! I did notice that by the time you added the insurance, prolonged guarantees, delivery, you arrived at t...

A selection of photos of our "living quarters" rarely as empty as this!

 As you regular readers are probably aware,  I find myself at the moment in a place called Floral Park, New York - USA  due to  a decease in the family. Always difficult to justify one's presence or not, invited and/or expected to make an appeaance, or not - I have been unable to attend 3 funerals in the last 10 years, basically for the same reasons, simply financial! This time around, this reason did not exist, and with any chance, I should get to see one of my nieces halfway between her residence and ours as well! I intend to use this article to show a little of mysef and Tina Concetta in her "natural surroundings" - she it was who lost her mother just 7 hours before we landed at JFK Airport . Her father died some years ago, but she still has 2 sisters and a brother all who live in or around this area, and they all grew up in this building I am now staying at. I was obliged to be present at the wake, which thankfully was only 1 day, and forced me to try to put...