{"id":92418,"date":"2020-01-07T15:36:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T15:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qvcuk.com\/?p=90877"},"modified":"2020-02-07T10:03:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T10:03:01","slug":"looking-back-and-moving-forwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.qvcuk.com\/presenters\/alison-keenan\/looking-back-and-moving-forwards\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking back and moving forwards\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCrikey Bobs\u201d as my Aunty Edna would say, where did the last fortnight go??<\/p>\n

Christmas at cracking speed, and having over the week before New Year, that too came and went in what seemed to be, a ridiculously short space of time.\u00a0 How was it for you?\u00a0 I very much hope that if you had plans they all panned out, and if you were facing a difficult or lonely time, that it was better than you\u2019d anticipated. Thank you for all your sweet wishes here on the blog – I hope you found your replies – I\u2019m just sorry it took me so long to write them this time!<\/p>\n

We had our Christmas sort of spread out.\u00a0 The \u2018family\u2019 party was on the 21st<\/sup> December and involved as many of Colin\u2019s and my children as could make it.\u00a0 We had most of them with us, and along with crazy games, far too much food, and dancing until the wee small hours, a good time was had by all.\u00a0 We hardly took any photos, but I found these two:\u00a0 me with Colin\u2019s two daughters – Lily and Vicky – and then Colin with his son Dan and granddaughter Calla.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I was glad I didn\u2019t have to get back to work until the 23rd<\/sup> as it took me almost a day to clear everything up! As Honey was to be with her daddy this Christmas, Colin and I, Jack and Sam all went up to Lucy\u2019s to spend Christmas Eve with them.\u00a0 It was a lovely day, full of more fabulous food, lots of laughter and game playing, and making new memories.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

The boys came back home with us that night, and then Lucy joined us first thing Christmas morning and helped me in the kitchen.\u00a0 I have to admit to making a bit of a muddle of the Christmas lunch as I managed to singe my pigs in blankets and my sausage meat patties! When we moved into this house seven years ago we inherited a large double oven range type thing. The oven on the right has never worked properly, and has always functioned at a lower heat so I put all the trimmings in there expecting them to cook slowly. Unfortunately this year it decided to ramp itself up to 220c!\u00a0 Sausage meat patties are something my mother always made, and looking at my somewhat burnt offerings I could almost hear her voice telling me they should\u2019ve been cooked on a lower heat\u2026 there were many moments over Christmas when I thought of her and missed her\u2026<\/p>\n

My children luckily have iron constitutions, as does Colin, and the fabulous boned and rolled turkey from our local butcher went into the main oven so was fine, along with the roast potatoes.\u00a0 Everything was eaten and then we all flopped about in front of the fire, playing Trivial Pursuit and enjoying the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special before bedtime.<\/p>\n

If you watched QVC over the holiday, you\u2019ll have seen me there on Boxing Day with my fabulous Clarks<\/a> boots Today’s Special Value.\u00a0 I think we surpassed ourselves with winter offers and of course our New Year sales<\/a> have only just begun!\u00a0 I hope you got yourself a bargain or two.\u00a0 As I worked over the Christmas week I had New Year off which worked very nicely as it was my friend Jo\u2019s 60th<\/sup> birthday on New Years Day!\u00a0 Jo and I met each other on the first day of secondary school – way back in 1971, so our friendship goes back 49 years!\u00a0 She\u2019s been with me through some of the best and the worst times of my life, and I can honestly say, I don\u2019t know how I would have got through most of it without her.\u00a0 In keeping with her family tradition, we had a cheese fondue – well four fondues as there were 14 people – and Colin made a mighty MDF table topper for the dining room so we could get everyone round it.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

It was lovely setting everything up with her, and then having her family here with us all.\u00a0 Her daughters had asked Jo\u2019s friends and those of her family who couldn\u2019t make the evening to video a little birthday message for her, and they put them together in film form for her.\u00a0 It was really touching and lovely to hear how special she is to all of us. We did manage to get a few photographs that I thought I\u2019d share, and we made some fabulous memories too.<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

And so here we are in 2020\u2026\u00a0 From The Naughty Nineties, this decade has already been dubbed The Roaring Twenties!\u00a0 If I remember correctly from my history lessons, in the 1920\u2019s this term came about because of the major changes economically and socially in the USA.\u00a0 Their economy boomed, Prohibition had less of a hold, the movie and fashion industry flourished, so for some it was a great time, but not for all. \u00a0\u00a0Looking back over the last decade, it was a definitely a mixed time for me as you know.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe just nine months after turning 50 I was diagnosed with breast cancer.\u00a0 The treatment and surgery definitely took up a lot of the following four years, but I felt incredibly lucky to get through it.\u00a0 Sadly I lost far too many friends to the disease, and of course we lost my mum at the end of last year after a short illness.\u00a0 But on the plus side, it was an incredible 10 years with so much to be happy about.\u00a0 My marriage to Colin, Honey being born, travelling around the world, and having my first book published and now working on it as a novel are just a few of those things.\u00a0\u00a0 I know from this blog, and our interaction on it, that life and health has been mixed for you too, but I hope that you\u2019ll be able to hang onto the positives as we move into this new decade.\u00a0\u00a0 You know me, I\u2019m definitely a glass half full kind of gal, so I\u2019ll just crack on with the year ahead and wait to see what it holds.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be 60 in March, and Colin and I are heading back to Holbox in Mexico for some sunshine, so that\u2019s definitely a plus!<\/p>\n\"\"<\/a>\n

I do plan to keep up with my walking as I really enjoy being outdoors and in my garden, and if you\u2019re the same you may be interested in this Thursday\u2019s TSV from Grumpy Gardener<\/a> which is a bird feeding station.\u00a0 If you already use Richard Jackson\u2019s amazing High Energy bird food<\/a> you might like to know that it\u2019s our Garden Product of the month, and would be perfect with the TSV.\u00a0 Richard\u2019s improved the ingredients so there are now whole sunflower hearts and higher energy suet pellets included.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t exactly whet my appetite, but then I\u2019m not a robin, but I know how much the birds in my garden are going to enjoy it!\u00a0 I\u2019ve had it on Auto Delivery for the last year, and will repeat it again this year – delivery every 60 days and SO worth it for results like this.<\/p>\n