The "P" word - well, I wasn't expecting THIS

 

Photos of the Cothi when it was a little bit in spate in2018, and on the way down again.  It could rise 4 - 6 feet in as many hours.

Morning all.  Beautiful clear blue skies - why couldn't tomorrow be today, then the Fair wouldn't be under threat from Storm Darragh.  Tomorrow I have to be up and away before dawn and driving out as one of the first vehicles heading out towards Llandovery and Lord knows what debris will be on the road, or landing on it as I drive South for an hour. There is a Yellow weather warning for rain and gales, and the last time Keith and I ventured (just 10 miles too) in one of those, it took us 4 hours to get home, and we were turned back on every road which crossed the River Towy and at one stage, seeing the River Cothi hurtling through the iron bridge across it and 4 foot of floodwater the other side, we truly thought we would never reach home that night.  Fortunately they let us through on the A40, but it was a close-run thing.

I shall pack today, but in the morning if it's as bad as it looks it's predicted to be, I shall stay put.  I hate letting people down but don't want to risk life and limb not to.  UPDATE - I've been told it's cancelled but my booking has been carried forward to the National Botanic Gardens BIG Antiques Fair in February.  Phew and Hooray. Another Update: Just as well it was cancelled as a goodly bit of West Wales (and all the bits where my children live) are now in a rare Red Alert - heavy rain and 90 mph gales.  I am just in an Amber area and going nowhere!  Praying everyone will be OK and really hoping that the people of the Valleys won't endure flooding again, especially this close to Christmas.

Yesterday I was still feeling bad for letting Rosie down about my trip to New Zealand - I  just couldn't pull myself together enough.  Right now, I need the security of home, no challenges, no decisions to make, phone calls to work through, nothing to organize (hence the Fairs take on a magnitude way beyond what they really are, even when the sun is out!).  Tam had been cross with me for missing the holiday of a lifetime and seeing such a dear friend from school days.  She said I shouldn't give in to anxiety - she had had to work through it in the past, but the grieving process is so complex and nothing works out as it might have done before, my brain included.  Keith was my rock and I feel very much afloat these days, despite my family providing comfort and support.  

I was aware that Tam was on the phone to Gabby up in her bedroom, probably having a moan I surmised.  When she came back down with Rosie, she began trying to get me to go on holiday with Gabby "somewhere exciting".  This would still be in February, whilst Tam was on the last month of her maternity leave.  I said my idea of exciting was a coach trip up to Scotland, with everything already set up - hotel, meals, outings - I  just had to be there with my suitcase, money and camera.  I couldn't entertain any idea of things NOT being organized beforehand.  But that was Not Exciting Enough - apparently I needed An Adventure.  Europe then.  Yes, I still wanted to go to Denmark's museums and finally see the Bog Bodies I had read so much about on my Archaeology degree - a flight from Manchester would only be a couple of hours . . . Or then we had been planning, us girls, pre-Covid, to go to Granada and the Alhambra palace etc.  No, still not exciting enough.   I'd wanted to go to the Mediterranean, as Keith had loved it there, but most of the places I would have liked to go to shut down over the winter and the weather would be a bit like at home - cold and wet!  

Then Tam mentioned the "P" word.  I was so surprised that it hardly registered.  This was "P" as in "Petra" in Jordan.  Top of my all time bucket list - Keith and I had always been totally amazed by it and how I would have loved to ride through that narrow gorge into it on an Arab horse like I'd seen on several documentaries about it.  One of those impossible dreams.  I dismissed the idea immediately, as too expensive, too much of a dream and too much of a challenge. THEN Gabby did some research and came up with a totally organized, trips out to archaeology including one of the Crusader castles that Lawrence of Arabia (another hero of mine) visited when he was researching his archaeological dissertation prior to WW1, the Dead Sea, and a night sleeping out in the dessert in tents.  AND it had 70% off the price!!! All the reviews were good too . . .  https://www.exoticca.com/uk/tours/asia/17105-wonders-of-the-hashemite-kingdom?fbclid=IwY2xjawG-VLtleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHZEZUFE8oRehZ0j5kvkW8uhJ6UjUGK2-craKxTn30rEySyh1ZP18wU61KQ_aem_lJq6z0Xv-pHXYo0Dotq_xw

Well, to my absolute delight, we are booked and going the last week of February.  I am still pinching myself and won't believe it is happening until I am there.  I still wish I was brave enough to go to NZ, but it will happen in time.  I am going to use some of my savings to have a couple more breaks in Europe and try to fly solo at one point.  As Granny C would have said, no pockets in shrouds . . .  Anything I make at Fairs - as I still have so much pre-Covid stock to get rid of - will help my finances too.

So, 24 hours and it's like being on a different planet!  Now I will do the last couple of additions to the top of Gabby's quilt and I can concentrate on a couple of Christmas-present cushions and finishing off another quilt.