Not even our memories!

Today is the 30th March and it's still trying to snow out there. The sun's been shining today, too, but it's still pretty cold outside. I did think about going out earlier, perhaps for a stroll along the river, but I haven't managed it as yet. Instead I'm sat on the sofa, huddled under a blanket with my cat, Scooby, watching movies.

Last night I was catching up with a new T.V. series, Revolution. It's only recently begun and it's about a world that exists in the present day without power. At the beginning, everything was quite normal, but in an instant and without warning, everything that required power to work just stopped working. Cars stopped right where they were, planes fell from the sky, lights and computers went off. Everything blacked out. A short while into the episode, and 15 years later, a female character was explaining to another why she continues to carry her mobile phone around with her, even though it hasn't worked since the power failed. Her reason? The mobile phone was the closest thing she had to photographs of her children. I made the assumption, at this point, that they must have died some time previous, and, even though she couldn't look at them anymore, the pictures she had taken, her memories, were still in there, stored on its hard drive.

This got me thinking about all of the photographs that I have taken over the years and have stored on my computer. I mean, I've got a box of old photos, probably not dissimilar to most people from the pre-digital generation at least, but, other than the pictures that I have on display in my home, all other documentation of fun times that we've had over the last few years are stored on my laptop's hard drive.

How times change. Only 10 years ago I remember having to take pictures on a camera with film that needed to be developed. You could get black and white or colour film in 24 or 36 exposures and they were sent away and developed, or, if you were in a rush and didn't mind paying even more money, done in a couple of hours by some retailers. And, until you got them back, mostly with 'over exposed' stickers all over them, you had no idea what you were going to get. Sometimes, you might find an old roll of film in the back of a drawer that you had forgotten about and had never got developed and you'd have no idea what it was of until you got it back from the photo lab. It was all part of the fun.

Nowadays it's so much simpler. Everyone has a mobile phone with a camera on it, or a digital camera with a display screen so that you can see the picture that you have taken instantaneously. It's truly ingenious. You can just keep snapping to your heart's content and it doesn't cost you a thing, only the memory space on your phone. And when you want to have hard copies, something to display on your mantelpiece, well, you just upload them to your laptop and print off the ones that you want on your printer and the others, they get stored in files on your hard drive. Easy peasy!

However, this does mean, of course, that we place all our trust on technology and our hard drives always being accessible in order for us to be able to access our memories. 

Lovely memories from the day my beautiful wife and I got married

Life has changed so much in the last few years, everything is electronic now, computerised or digital. Even our clocks are digital and change their own time in accordance with British Summer Time. There's no more need to put the clocks back or forth, unless you still have some of the old kind in your house of course, it can all get a bit confusing in our house. I haven't truly known what the time is since 1998!

It's funny how times change, isn't it? It does make you think though, eh. Perhaps we shouldn't take things quite so for granted. Not even our memories.

Holidays are coming.....

We're both really looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of this week as we have my niece, Chloe’, and her husband, Donald  (A.K.A. Dino) coming to visit for a week from the Isle of Skye, with their two kiddies, Charlie and Ava.

It’s hard living so far away from them. You miss so many things in very short periods of time with children, they change so quickly and we haven’t seen them for 12 months so they'll be so much more grown up. When we last saw them their youngest, Ava, was only 6 months old and she didn't really do much at that point, just sat quietly and watched everything going on around her, little sweetie. She's 18 months now and a proper little person, by all accounts. She won’t remember us but we’re really looking forward to getting to know her. Her Nana, my sister, is always telling me how she can't find anything when Ava has been to her house to visit, so, armed with this information, I've been busy nailing everything down in preparation for them coming here!

Charlie, their eldest, is just over 3 now. He was just over 2 when we last saw him and was such a little character and very clever for his age. At that point he had just started learning to speak Gaelic and, as Kat (my wife) and I don’t speak it ourselves, he translated a children’s programme for us called ‘Lucas am bata’ or ‘Lifeboat Luke’. We were both very impressed, Charlie, on the other hand, was totally unfazed!

His dad, Donald, volunteers for the RNLI in Skye and Charlie's a little bit smitten with 'daddy's boat'.

My sister, Tracy, (Chloe's mum) and her husband moved to Scotland when the kiddies, Chloe’, Adam and Ryan were all very young. It was a very sad time for me as I was used to seeing them all every day and was a huge blow not having them around any more. They were all really excited about their new life together and after they’d moved, Chloe’ kept in touch by writing to me lots and sending me photos of them all growing up. In fact, I found some of the letters she’d sent me a couple of weeks back and I was having a read through them, they did make me laugh. It’s so funny re-reading letters from your teenage niece who’s now all grown up with a family of her own!

It's absolutely beautiful in Scotland, I love it up there and love to go and visit whenever I can, but this time its our turn to play host and the Scots are coming to Essex!
Chloe's been here before, sometime back now, but Dino's hasn't and he's never been to London either and neither have Charlie or Ava. Charlie's really excited, so I'm told. They've been busy deciding on all the things that they're going to be getting up to while they're here on their holidays. So, as you can imagine, they’ve got a very hectic, fun-filled week of activities planned, including visits to London to do the sightseeing bit and lots of Essex sightseeing, plus, Dino will be celebrating his birthday with us whilst they’re here, too.
By the sounds of it they'll be needing a holiday to get over this holiday!

We’re both really excited to have them all here I’ll no doubt I'll be on here telling you all about it once they’ve gone home for a rest!

Right, There's still time to enjoy the calm before the storm. Time for a cup of tea!

Rose tinted glasses

I was trying to remember when it last snowed quite so much during one winter season. I mean, not snowed a lot in one day, I'm talking about when it last snowed on more than one occasion, you know like snowed then got warmer then snowed again. I don't think I can ever recall a time when that's happened. I mean, I can remember some crazy snowy winters as a child when it snowed so much we got snowed in, snow drifts up the front door, dig yourself out, type of winters! But not snowed, then got warm and then snowed again in the same season 2 or 3 times over.

I live in Essex now but I grew up in Staffordshire in a small village where everyone knows your business even before you do, but I digress! 

The weather in Essex, due to it being that little bit further south, is always a degree or so warmer than up t'north and the winters, well, less snowy. If it snows here in Essex you know that up north they're suffering.

Memories are a funny thing, they always seem so idealistic, or is that just me? In my mind's eye the summers seemed sunnier and the winters, somehow, more wintery. Perfect imperfection! 

I'm sure that they weren't sunnier or more wintery but it's funny how we store information like that, with our  'rose tinted glasses' on. 

I can remember one particular winter we got so much snow that we lost our electricity supply on our village for about 3 or 4 days. It seemed longer but I'm sure it wasn't! We had an open fire so we were okay for warmth, well, in the living room at least! But we didn't have mains gas to our village at that time so we couldn't cook or even make hot drinks! 

I recall having to walk to my sisters on the 'new estate', it was about half a mile, with a flask to get hot water as she had a gas cooker. They had everything on the 'new estate'! Posh new houses, gas! 

That year it was so snowy that I remember Philip Barnsley skiing in the avenue! 

During this winter we took our dog, Benji, for walk one day down the lanes and almost lost him it was so deep. The snow drifts were over 4 feet deep in some parts! I remember him bounding around like he'd never seen snow before. Having to make little leaps up to get over rather than through the snow, as it was so deep, and then just sinking into it each time he landed. It didn't deter him, though, leaping and barking and catching the snow in his mouth. It was great fun to play in, you don't to seem to feel the cold as a child! 

When we got home Benji's paws were all matted with snow and I had to sit and break it all off for him, I don't think he minded too much, though. 

Nowadays, I love the romance of snow. The first snowfall. The ground completely covered in a thick, soft blanket of white. Untouched, unmarked. 

Getting up and realising it's snowed and rushing to get dressed and warm. Into your wellies and gloves and hat so you can go out and play in it. Build a snowman? (Some things never change!) And then you're out there. Brrr, 'this is a bit fresh', but not too bad with my hat and gloves and scarf. 

Building a snowman. Starting off with a tiny ball of snow and rolling it around the garden to collect more to make the body. It doesn't take too long, I remember it taking longer, or maybe it's those rose tinted glasses again? 

My hands are freezing, even with my gloves on! 

Now to make the head. Another small ball, rolled around the garden then 'plonked' on top on the body. 
I can't feel my fingers! 

Now, everyone knows a snowman's not a snowman without eyes and nose and mouth, oh, and buttons. Gathering anything I can find to suit the job. Some stones for the eyes and mouth and buttons, that'll do and some dry grass as hair. As a child it was always coal and a carrot but there are no such luxuries now, and we don't have any coal, we've got gas, it's the future, you know!

My hands are aching, they're so cold!

Now to take a quick picture, record the memories forever. Nowadays that's not a problem, everyone has a phone with a camera on it, digital technology kind of took over without me realising.

Back when I was a child we didn't have any such thing. It was a cannon camera and a roll of film with 24 pictures, 35 if you splashed out! It was quite expensive, though, and to get them developed. Hence, the reason that there are no pictures of me playing in the snow as a child, I guess?

Can't feel my hands now, time to go inside. Kick off the snow. Get in and put the kettle on. I look at the clock, oh, I've only been outside 10 minutes, it seemed longer than that, colder than that. 

Snow is so much colder these days!