Or rent a place.
Offering a suggestion for happier winters, his better half had ruled out buying a place overseas.
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[Misc] Christmas and mental health...the annual thread
- Thread starter Happy Exile
- Start date
Or rent a place.
Offering a suggestion for happier winters, his better half had ruled out buying a place overseas.
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
Very true
Seagull58
In the Algarve
He didn't say she ruled out buying a place. She ruled out living there all year round.
“f***ing hate the winter, the cold, the rain, the relentless poxy drizzle”.
Extended winter stays in sunny climes, end that melancholy.
- Jul 27, 2024
- 808
We could organise a whip round?
happypig
Staring at the rude boys
You can still go for up to 90 days in 180 and keep your UK residence. I know several people who own places here in the Algarve and travel back and forth fairly regularly. 19°c and sunny today
I think I'm going to push for that next winter (mrs H is working in a temporary job until April). Beetle off to Spain or Portugal for Jan/Feb.
nicko31
Well-known member
Hate it too, getting out every day is essential no matter how heavy the cloud cover is.
Always think by mid Jan things are looking up as the afternoons start to draw out and the light just gets a bit better.
Thank god for the Albion
Planning a long walk round Brighton tomorrow. Good for the soul … and fitness.
I know a few folk who go for an extended holiday in the autumn, home for Xmas due to a family etc, then another symbolically up to the clocks change.
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
Go for it
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
Do you have a dog? I look forward to my 5 miles a day rain or shine. I tend to go around 11-12pm when I can get some quiet away from people.
No. Just Shank’s Pony. Being just Brighton (not London) it’ll be quiet.
zeetha
Well-known member
- Apr 11, 2011
- 1,376
Evening all. Christmas has been a time I've both looked forward to and dreaded over the years for family reasons though recent years its been more looking forward to. This year though I've felt sad and detached from it which is probably part of the grieving process from two close-to-me deaths of an aunt and friend in the last 3 months, but I've hidden it from the family I've seen as they have enough going on themselves. Hence venting here...
Hope everyone is doing ok, or at least as much as possible at this time
Hope everyone is doing ok, or at least as much as possible at this time
Lenny Rider
Well-known member
- Sep 15, 2010
- 6,096
Hope everyone’s been okay today, to whatever degree of okay that is? 
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
I was down at my daughters in Brighton today for Christmas lunch Bear Rd area no one out and about. London looked like a normal day at 7am vans with ladders on top looked like they were going to work the normal sound of sirens and twats on their car horns.
Long day. Tough day.
First Christmas since my mum broke her hip, and went off a dementia/Alzheimer's cliff-edge.
She came to my house for the day, and we did our best. I think the day for my mum was as good as it could be for her, which is the main thing, but for me, the whole day just felt sad.
Christmas was always really important for my mum - the family getting together, the present giving and receiving, the food, the rubbish TV and hours upon hours of games, and the laughs that brought.
Mum was here, but she wasn't really here. That version of my mum is now gone. It's difficult to get a smile or any kind of laugh out of her, and I spent most of the day just thinking back to all those Christmases which are now never going to happen again.
I know it's just one day, but it feels so much more than that.
First Christmas since my mum broke her hip, and went off a dementia/Alzheimer's cliff-edge.
She came to my house for the day, and we did our best. I think the day for my mum was as good as it could be for her, which is the main thing, but for me, the whole day just felt sad.
Christmas was always really important for my mum - the family getting together, the present giving and receiving, the food, the rubbish TV and hours upon hours of games, and the laughs that brought.
Mum was here, but she wasn't really here. That version of my mum is now gone. It's difficult to get a smile or any kind of laugh out of her, and I spent most of the day just thinking back to all those Christmases which are now never going to happen again.
I know it's just one day, but it feels so much more than that.
- Oct 20, 2022
- 7,275
Lovely.Hope everyone’s been okay today, to whatever degree of okay that is?
Apart from me having a complete mutual meltdown with my ADHD niece (don’t sit two autistic people in the same room for hours on end, one that is loud hyper and the other who is triggered by loud hyper
) and later my 90 yr little frail Mum marching into the kitchen at one point with her walking stick in one hand, trying to grab my arm with the other to drag me out from the kitchen because I was winding up my sister by being all autisticky (I wasn’t, she was just being annoying). But lovely to spend the day with Mum and sad to see how much she has declined.Went in the garden and skinned up with the BiL, so all is good now but I definitely dipped into darkness at several points during the day
- Oct 20, 2022
- 7,275
Sorry to hear of your bereavements Zeetha.
You did exactly the right thing to join the thread for a vent - I hope it helps.
That was very unselfish of you to ‘put on a brave face’ for the sake of your family but I hope you find time after Christmas to chat about your sense of loss - if not to your family, then to someone that can be there for you.
Christmas is just as much (if not more) about quietly caring for others as it is about eating and making merry, so in your own way, IMO you really did participate in the Christmas spirit today for want of a better phrase.
zeetha
Well-known member
- Apr 11, 2011
- 1,376
Thanks Zeberdi for taking the time to reply to me, and for your kind words - it does all help.
Sorry to see that you had some tough moments today too, but glad all is good now.
Since I’ve been living by myself these last few years, Christmas for me is a time to take stock and have a bit of re-set.
Happily, my two kids don’t live too far way and whilst we spend a few hours together on Christmas morning, which for me is joyous, once they’ve gone back to their mum I pretty much check out of the whole thing. So by midday today I’d pulled on my boots and headed for a long, long walk across the fields and through woods and little villages until dusk.
There’s something about walking in the country in the depths of midwinter that I find good for the soul - something stripped-back and uncluttered. The bare trees and hedgerows and ploughed fields provide the perfect backdrop for thinking about everything or thinking about nothing, depending on how you feel.
Every now and then, as I made my way through seemingly lifeless villages, I’d pass close to the windows of a house or a cottage and catch the sounds of a family Christmas lunch in full swing just the other side of the glass. I’ll admit, that stung a bit; but I’ve enjoyed lots of those in the past and I guess life moves on for all of us. (Plus, as I walked by I smiled to myself as I envisaged the inevitable family rows that would be breaking out later and that by Boxing Day they’d all be sick of the sight of each other).
Not sure why I wrote all this. But whatever sort of Christmas Day you’ve had, nothing stays the same forever - so cherish the happy times but don’t forget to live in the moment too, because right now is what matters.
A peaceful Christmas to one and all.
Happily, my two kids don’t live too far way and whilst we spend a few hours together on Christmas morning, which for me is joyous, once they’ve gone back to their mum I pretty much check out of the whole thing. So by midday today I’d pulled on my boots and headed for a long, long walk across the fields and through woods and little villages until dusk.
There’s something about walking in the country in the depths of midwinter that I find good for the soul - something stripped-back and uncluttered. The bare trees and hedgerows and ploughed fields provide the perfect backdrop for thinking about everything or thinking about nothing, depending on how you feel.
Every now and then, as I made my way through seemingly lifeless villages, I’d pass close to the windows of a house or a cottage and catch the sounds of a family Christmas lunch in full swing just the other side of the glass. I’ll admit, that stung a bit; but I’ve enjoyed lots of those in the past and I guess life moves on for all of us. (Plus, as I walked by I smiled to myself as I envisaged the inevitable family rows that would be breaking out later and that by Boxing Day they’d all be sick of the sight of each other).
Not sure why I wrote all this. But whatever sort of Christmas Day you’ve had, nothing stays the same forever - so cherish the happy times but don’t forget to live in the moment too, because right now is what matters.
A peaceful Christmas to one and all.
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