I'll start off with the bad news first - yesterday my daughter's fish, Flip, who I've been looking after for a couple of years now, has done his last flip. I found him at the bottom of his tank yesterday morning still as can be - not even a flick of his fins. Even though you can't really cuddle a fish or take it for a walk nor interact properly with it, I was quite fond of Flip. Mandi had got it for me apparently. When I came home from hospital in 2006 after my brain haemorrhage, I had to live with Mandi for 4 months. I'd done some damage to my eyes and couldn't watch the television much, so she thought looking at a fish swimming slowly around in the tank might be of some help. It actually was...

So to Flip the fish - sorry you're no longer with me, and I do hope you are happily swimming around in the big fish tank in the sky.....



He was a lovely looking fish and he'd flap his fins when I spoke to him. I will miss him funnily enough.

On to more pleasant news.. Mandi has got a job in Turkey as a Meet and Greet representative to holiday makers. She only feels she can work part-time at the moment, as she gets so tired very quickly, so this job seems ideal. She's done the training, two whole weeks of it, and will only work 3 days a week, and she is really looking forward to doing it. It'll be good for her and Dogan. Even though Dogan says that he's her husband and it's his job to provide for her, I think he'll be relieved it's not all down to him to do everything. Mandi says she'll pay for all the groceries and the internet, so Dogan will have some spare money left over, and no doubt he'll spoil her - he really is a wonderful husband. So that's the first bit of good news, the second one is that she's bought a car.............

Where they live they really have to catch the bus to go anywhere and that can be a bit of a bind sometimes, as the buses don't always go where they want them to go. The wife of Dogan's boss was wanting to sell her car, she's had it from new 4 years ago, has hardly done any miles in it and she's English so her and Mandi are good friends already - so Mandi can relax knowing that it's genuine and not a 'chop shop' car. It does look gorgeous......




She's already whetted my appetite by suggesting we can visit other areas in an evening and take sunset photos and also drive up the mountains to be able to get some wonderful scenic views - so I'm really looking forward to going out to Turkey this time, well I always look forward to going out there, to see Mandi and Dogan, but more so this time cos we'll be mobile.

That's all for the moment folks, today has been a nice warmish day, I've actually been able to have my lounge window wide open all day - I had it open yesterday for about 3 hours, but today it's been open for 6 hours and it's great. Maybe the summer is on its way to us.

Finally - can I please wish all those mothers out there who celebrate Mother's Day today - our Mothering Sunday was a couple of weeks or more ago, a very happy Mother's Day.