It is a positive that I had my 81st birthday in April. Also, positive events in my life are that all my loved and loving family members have added a year to their ages. Veronica reached 60, Chloë, 29, Julian,74, Jennie, 76.

Another positive event was that we (Julian, Lola and I) went on holiday to Center Parcs in Longleat. I was not a happy traveller on the day we left home and arrived at our destination (see my earlier post about being Risk Averse) but it was quite a nice place we stayed, even though I still had to sort out food most evenings and had to get up in the middle of the night to take Lola outside in case she needed to pee – it turned out, most of those nights, that she didn’t!

Annoyingly, dogs weren’t allowed to travel on the ‘road trains’ and I was unable to walk all the way to the centre where food, drink and entertainments were. In the end we left poor little Lola alone for an evening and went to a restaurant which had robots which delivered the food! In particular I loved the king prawns sautéed in butter which I had for a starter that evening. That was a big positive!

I missed out on the entertainments, in particular the indoor swimming pool with the entry-way to the outside pool and flume (even in the middle of winter!) I still remember that part of our stay at another Center Parcs, many years ago.

It was a positive event when I had the cataract in my right eye removed with the left eye op happening in January. Another positive event was the operation on my right hand to relieve the carpal tunnel syndrome which has been bothering me for the past couple of years. The op on the left hand was carried out about fifteen years ago and was so successful that the symptoms in both hands disappeared for much of that time! (This is a well-known phenomenon, apparently.)

Of course, just waking up every morning was a positive event; having enough food and clean water was a positive event; being able to appreciate my surroundings, to talk to my friends, to read – and write; to watch the storm outside while safely indoors; all have been positive events in my year.

I just wish that it could be the same for all people.

Robot waiters