Well, I’ve just had a phone call from my Dad.

Apparently the cause of my Nan’s death was pneumonia according to the autopsy.

The funeral’s scheduled for Friday week.

I’ve also been informed that the estate is worth around £100K!

Well, that’s a very useful sum. It will pay off my morgage and car loan for a start. The rest will get invested. I’ll also invest the money I’d use to pay for the loan and morgage into the same pool every month. That should help it grow as well.

I *MAY* use some of the money for camera equipment (a good tripod/head, bag and maybe some good telephoto glass) but I’m not sure about that yet. I may just still save up from my normal funds. The £30K left over after paying the bills isn’t a huge amount so needs to be kept as pristine as possible.

Well, it’s been a mixed week and a bit.

The beginning of last week was my birthday. I did absolutely nothing to celebrate it on the day as no-one was available to go out. Similarly, the rest of the week, really. Just a quiet, boring routine of going to work and going to bed, really.

Friday was different, seeing as one of the postgrads in the department was going away for a month in Germany working a combined celebration event was hatched. Five of us went off to “The Gardener’s Arms” in Jericho and had some food. The pub is a completely vegetarian food place. I was surprised that the burger actually tasted of beef! Anyway, I wasn’t too keen on the chips as they were definitely McDonald’s fare rather than nice, thick juicy ones.. and they were too salty as well.

Saturday I woke up and wondered what to do with the day. Initially I thought of going into town and browsing in book shops but then I wondered if Rachel and Graham would mind if I popped in for an hour for a cup of tea and a chat. So, at 10am I phoned them up… As it turned out it was a nice day with soup and bread for lunch, much tea drinking, watching of rugby on the telly (only ever any interest to me if it’s a group effort) followed by a lovely roast chicken dinner followed by more natter. A bit more than I expected, really.

Sunday was quiet. The weather was wet and I just didn’t get around to doing much of anything.

So, now it was Monday morning, a normal Monday morning I thought. This changed as I was eating breakfast when the phone rang. It was my Dad. He had some sad news, my Nan had passed away at the nursing home where she had been living since my uncle died nearly two years ago. She was 99 and had been very frail for the last couple of years and had lost all connection to the present. All her recent (as in the last 50 years) memories had gone, she was also virtually blind and deaf. In a way it was a release.

My Nan said to me repeatedly over the years, talking about her house etc. “When I go, this will all be yours.” I used to always brush it off saying that she still had years ahead of her. Now, of course, she’s gone, the house being sold a couple of years ago after my uncle’s death and the money used to pay for the nursing home. I’m wondering just how little is left of that legacy now. The house sold for about £160,000 I think, but with nursing charges of (I think) about £1000 a week or maybe more, it’s probably pretty well all gone now.

So, here we are, it’s Tuesday morning and after a night of not sleeping well due to mind sinusitis I’m trying to work or, more importantly, think. It’s hard this morning.