A TRIP TO SEE OUR FAMILY REUNITED SORT OF DAY

My brother in law Graham who died recently was the main channel of communication between my sister Susan and ourselves and with his recent death we really weren't in the loop even missing his funeral while we were in Borneo. Mandy decided to give me a metaphorical kick up the backside and today we headed down to Northampton and it proved well worth while and reassuring. Sue was at home with my nephew Stephen and his son plus the two dogs. We had a long chat and even a few smiles and laughs. It is obviously early days yet and Graham had as I suspected shielded Sue and the family from the worst of his prognosis. With contact details firmly stored we hope to keep in touch and when the time is right have a family meal together as Graham always loved. The absence of sweets around the house marks Grahams absence and as Sue had discovered no more cigar butts will be hidden but perhaps a few more found, a life long smoker with throat cancer he evidently enjoyed sniffing a lighted cigar even if he couldn't smoke it.  Stephen now has his own health issues and you wonder at the seeming unfairness of everything.

An old friend of mine now a CoE ordained priest said with stunning honesty when asked about his cancer and the death of his grandchild through it,  how that tied in with his faith ,' I know that God has a plan I just don't know what the bloody plan is.' Anyway I came away so glad we had visited and although still wet we had an almost empty road back north, Saturdays have some advantages.

The work on installing the model vehicles in the cabinets goes on, all the temporary storage boxes have now been unloaded, the vehicles are roughly grouped but fairly obviously won't all fit into the spaces remaining but a good few will and I hope to squeeze the commercial vehicles and cars up a bit and house at least one more region. The rest can wait phase two of the room which will be about 13 feet long mounted on my media storage drawers up to the ceiling but able to house larger themed displays and dioramas. Meantime when this phase is done I'll take a break from building and get to grips with the new cine film scanner which is still untried. With everything off the floor by the end of the coming week ( I hope) I'll be able to access the old tape resources and get the Bus Spot Ultra Sunderland completed ready for Christmas, I'd like to get at least one more in that series ready but not sure what to pick for the treatment.

Our slide show tonight covers the visit to Redditch, infamous now for the attack by the Diamond / Rotala driver. Notifying the traffic commissioners of that and many misgivings passed on to me  is another job to do. I'll also update my to do film list to the end of the year, those locations I miss will just rolll over to 2020. Next weekend is the centenary of the birth of my adopted mother, Marion ( Massie) as well as being on armistice day.