January 2024 - A rather slow month.

The first half of January was a very tough month. I spent a lot of time thinking about the loss of Grandad, and on the 5th of January he was cremated. He hadn't wanted any kind of funeral or event, he just wanted it to be quiet and low key, and that really summed him up. In some ways, not having a funeral was actually better than having one. It meant we could all process, grieve and reflect at our own time & pace, which for me was the best way forward. I had spent a lot of time self reflecting and thinking about him, but also on how to move forward. As cruel as it is, but neither time nor the world stop because you lose someone. It continues regardless of whether you are following or not. So I had to make some peace with myself, and move forward. But Grandad wasn't going to be forgotten, he was going to move forwards with me. I often have conversations with him in my head about what I'm doing or things that have happened, and that's how I keep his memory alive.

I woke up one morning early for work, and glanced out the window to discover a white coating on everything. Alas, by the time the sun had come up it had all but disappeared. 

My lego collection had been growing, I'd brought a few more bits to create my little market area. A bus stop, stalls, toilet etc.

I'd also somehow managed to order blue base plates instead of green, and it was only after I had half assembled everything that I noticed the mistake. Never mind, it will just have to look like it had flooded slightly after a heavy rainstorm. We are in England after all.

A monster breakfast roll, made dutifully by James for me before a long shift. Nothing like a hearty breakfast to get the day going!

In the news, it was widely reported that Japan had become the 5th country to successfully land on the Moon, and it got me thinking. Why does our moon not have a name? Why is it just referred to as Moon. Was it because it was the first moon, and thought to be the only one by our ancestors, or was there another reason for it? We also started to see movement in the Horizon IT Scandal that affected thousands of people working for the Post Office. The software was faulty, and caused many people to be convicted & jailed for theft which they did not commit. Widely regarded as one of the largest miscarriages of justice in British history, it's taken two decades to even get the former CEO of the Post Office, Paula Vennells to hand back her CBE after over a million people sign a petition for it to be removed from her, for the role she played during the scandal.

It's incredible that this had even occurred, and even more incredulous that people had spent years in prison, lost their homes and even committed suicide because of a faulty software program. It brought about a question of compensation, but how can you compensate someone for being in prison? How does it bring back years of their lives? How does it even give any consolation to anyone? The fact that even the money given so far was just a fraction of what was deserved. It just kept adding salt to a wound. As the case continues through the courts and evidence is heard, I hope those in charge of the software and those who created the false cases knowing the evidence was wrong are brought to justice.

The lit up phone box in Winchester, where we'd been in the evening grabbing a bite to eat. I like that at least it was being used for something, most of them now are just left decrepit and vandalised, although there's a growing movement to reuse them as mini libraries, honesty shops & art forms.

And here's Nan & Grandads bird feeder, loaded with birds, and the occasional squirrel & rat too! Their garden is a haven for wildlife, there's fish in the pond, herons that come to visit, sometimes you see ducks in the stream at the bottom. deer come in (and eat all the fruit & veg they have been trying to grow) and perhaps their favourite animals, the foxes. There's a family that live somewhere in the garden, and my Nan has named them all. The mum is called Annie, and Annies partner is called Satan, because Nan doesn't like him and thinks he gives her the evil eye. I love to hear stories about what they've fed the foxes (custard creams are Annie's favourite) and how the foxes follow them round the garden when they are digging or planting. I never knew foxes could be so tame!