Hi folks, mums funeral passed off on Thursday 20th September. It all went just as we wished it to. There were no dark clothes nor gnashing of teeth or rending of cloth and no professional mourners. The church was packed and almost every one wore light and colourful clothes and for those who did wear black, outlandish ties compensated. I wore a light coloured jacket, my Pink Panther tie and my leather cowboy hat, the service was brilliant and the minister and reader injected as much humour as they could into what could have been a sombre occasion.
From the church we went to the crematorium and as we all filed in, Monty Pythons “Always look on the bright side of life”, boomed from the loudspeakers. It was hard not to smile and as we filed out we were treated to a rousing rendition of Vera Lynn’s “We’ll meet again”. The wake was held at a nearby club and by 7pm those who could still stand came back to Château Ghastanbury where we had a final bonfire and a barbecue in her honour. It all ended in good humoured chaos at around 2am. I feel sure she would have been proud of the send off we gave her.
Today has been spent attending to all the official details such as paying for the funeral service and suchlike. I attempted to find the building society that the mortgage was held with only to find they have closed down and the solicitors I used for transferring names on the deeds have moved. It has been a frustrating day with lots of leg work and little to show for it. Attempts to ring banks direct were met with call centres and I experienced many accents I did not understand
Ok what happens next I hear you say? Well life goes on and I have decided not to make any decisions for at least 12 months. I don’t want to take any rebound action that I might regret for the rest of my life; however I am going to start travelling again next April when my holiday allowance and my finances are both up to the strain of it. I feel fairly certain that within 2 years I will have sold Château Ghastanbury and will be moving on somewhere else. For now the traveller is going to Belize in November to check on some things that we both think are too good to be true. I would be going with him but I don’t have many holidays left. Depending upon what he finds I may fly out there in April to check things out for myself and start globe trotting again.