Skip to main content

All about the netball (and the Christmas tree)


This weekend has been super busy. As well as the kids usual football and netball matches the England netball team were playing in Nottingham so of course we had to go and watch them. So on Saturday as soon as Big Girl’s own netball match finished we made a mad dash to the Arena to watch England take on Jamaica. The match was brilliant and seeing netball played at such a high level is inspiring for Big Girl. It’s fast paced and although it’s technically a non contact sport it can get a bit argy bargy at times, which makes it all the more exciting. 


England won 66-47 but due to Covid the players weren’t allowed to give autographs or have photos taken with fans so Big Girl was really disappointed. When we got home I was knackered so went straight to bed so I could recharge my batteries ready to do it all again on the next day. 

On Sunday morning before going to watch day 2 of the netball we made our annual family trip to get the Christmas tree 🎄 We always have a real one and we always go together to choose it. Hubby and the kids are very particular about the size and shape of the tree and will have the poor bloke that’s selling them show them sometimes 10+ trees before deciding that the one they saw first is the best one! This year we got a 6ft tree but in the past we’ve had 7ft and even 8ft trees where we’ve had to chop the top off the tree to fit it in the house! 

We have two very special traditions associated with buying the Christmas tree. When you buy a real tree they will saw a couple of centimetres off the bottom so the tree can soak up water in the stand (the same way you would cut the bottom off fresh flowers). We have kept every stump that has been cut off the trees we’ve bought and we write the year on it. I would love to do something with them all but I’m not sure what. The second tradition is that we put the tree in the car and then the kids climb into the boot to have a photo taken. We’ve been doing this since they were tiny and Hubby and I have told them that while they live under our roof they will pose for this photo, even if they’re 35! I would love to make a montage of them all; it would be great to see how the kids have grown over the years but I’m not even sure where all the photos are. They’re probably on different laptops, phones or memory sticks and organising our photos is a job that we never seen to get around to doing. 

After we got back from choosing the tree me and Big Girl left to go to the netball as we wanted to get there early to watch the England development team take on the London Giants mens team. Yes, you read that right, a mens netball team. I’m not sure how I feel about men playing netball. I know it’s 2021 and everyone should be equal but I still see netball as a woman’s game. I know that we get outraged when people say that women can’t play football or rugby or other traditionally male sports, because of course they can, so by the same logic men should of course be allowed to play netball. But I also feel that men have enough sports and that they should leave netball alone so I’m contradicting myself. 

Hubby and Big Fella had tickets to the match on Sunday but they only came to watch the main game. We also went with Big Girl’s boyfriends family- I was friends with his Mum before they got together and our two families get on really well. Big Fella really didn’t want to go but I told him that it would really mean a lot to me. This time last year I had spent months and months stuck in bed either at home or in hospital so I’m determined to try and live each ‘good’ day to the full and make as many memories as possible. I’ve taken more photos in the last two months as I did in the the last 2 years as I want to be able to look back on these times when I’m having a bad day, or I’m stuck in hospital and remind myself that there will be more good days to come. 

Jamaica won 53-63 but as England had won yesterday and the week before in London they won the series and were crowned champions. And just like on Saturday as soon as I got home I was straight to bed. I’ve spent all day in bed today, exhausted and in pain but it was worth it. 

Next weekend it’s Hubby’s birthday so I need to get present shopping for him this week. I find this time of year so, so stressful. There’s always so much to get done and I’m so limited on how much time I have when I’m well enough to do stuff. I feel like there’s even more pressure on this year to be extra special cause last year was so rubbish. Obviously Covid restrictions affected our 2020 Christmas, like they did for lots of other families, so we didn’t get to spend any time with friends and family last year. Plus I was so unwell I literally got out of bed on Christmas Day for a couple of hours to watch the kids open their presents and cook the dinner and that was it. I was admitted to hospital on the 27th December so I feel like this year I should be super grateful not to be that poorly and that Christmas should be amazing. But I’m finding it really hard to get into the festive spirit. Maybe it’s me putting that pressure on myself to make things perfect but I'm acutely aware of how much time I’ve spent in hospital the last year and how I’ve missed out on so much with the kids. I’m trying to make up for it now but it often feels like one step forward, two steps back. As of today I’ve not even begun Christmas shopping for the wider family and time is running out. As much as I would love to shop small and support local businesses I think that the convenience of Amazon prime will win out. That way I can order gifts from the comfort of my bed! 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caravan wankers

Over the last few years when I was stuck in hospital for long periods of time Hubby and I would talk about what we would do if I ever got ‘better’. During some of those times when I was so, so poorly the idea of just being at home for more than a few weeks at a time seemed like a far fetched dream. But I’m currently living that dream! And obviously I know I will never ‘get better’ but for these purposes ‘getting better’ meant being well enough to be at home, not in pain 24/7 and not in bed all day, every day. Not too much to ask now is it??  So in our talks, once I was at home and was well enough to do the real basic things like watch Big Fella play football, Big Girl play netball, go to Tesco, play with the dog, go to the cinema etc one thing kept cropping up. We would love to have a motor home and tour round the country. We talked about the places we would like to visit, how much Buddy the dog would love it and how it would give us a chance to reconnect with each other.  But...
1 comment
Read more

The light at the end of the tunnel is a train

Last week was a busy and pretty crappy week for me health wise. I had to go and have blood tests done with the nutrition nurses and I had two hospital appointments; one with the gallbladder surgeon in Nottingham and the other with colorectal surgeon at St Marks. I was hoping to have at least one surgery date to write in the diary following these appointments but I came home empty handed on both occasions. Here’s what happened.  I began noticing over the last few weeks that I’ve started feeling really crappy. I’m feel lucky to have been at home for the last 6 months and I have been the most well I have been for years but it felt like things had shifted slightly recently but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. But years of being sick means I know my body and I can tell when something isn’t right. I have been feeling permanently exhausted and having way more bad days than good. I’ve gone back to spending 2, 3 or more consecutive days in bed, unable to do anything but watch tv and sl...
1 comment
Read more

Trying to get vaccinated

When I was an inpatient recently I asked about getting the Covid vaccine because I’m classed as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (ECV). Apparently other patients on the ward had gotten theirs but I was told that it wouldn’t be possible and that I would have to get in touch with my GP. Apparently staff within the hospital had been using the system to book vaccinations for friends and family by saying that they were an inpatient and as a result they were now only vaccinating staff who could show their ID badge.  I can understand that people are worried about the people that they love but to think that people abused the system in that way makes my blood boil.  So when I was discharged I rang the GP surgery and was told that they had absolutely nothing to do with the vaccination programme and that I would need to get in touch with NHS England. So I called NHS England and spoke to an adviser who told me that according to the system I wasn’t eligible for a vaccination. I explain...
Post a Comment
Read more