Grey matters: Friday Evening

Thursday, 22 May 2008

Friday Evening

Bonjour Everyone

Felt better and had a wicked day yesterday. It was Jet's birthday and we had lunch together with wine too. In the morning I planted a lovely little oak tree in the gardens which I hope will grow well for others to enjoy. Great to see Tom again in the evening and have a good chat about New Gen.

Today not so good-can't see so well and feel very tired but nice to see Jeanette's parents. Thanks for coming Trish and Peter.

Love

Ali x

This week has been a rollercoaster ride and we've all been very worried about Ali. He was very poorly for three days but is better now and back to himself.

We've had 2 early morning shower sessions with Ali in charge and the bathroom awash! Elsie, Jackie and Kathy were soaked but he was so funny and we all had a good laugh to start the day!

The staff are wonderful and Ali feels very safe and happy here which is a blessing and we all feel priviledged to be cared for in such a special place.

Love

Diana xx

24 comments:

Anonymous said...: great to hear you had a
great day on Jeanettes birthday,and to see your ever wonderful smile in the pictures.
also glad to hear that after a couple of not so good days you're back to yourself..keep fighting the good fight.

love and prayers as always

xx; 24 May 2008 at 00:43
Anonymous said...: Hi Ali, we are so happy to hear you are feeling better again.
Keep fighting, and one day you will enjoy the big oak tree you planted.
Always thinking of you
G, Catherine & Benni; 24 May 2008 at 04:40
Anonymous said...: Hi Ali,
Lovely to hear from you and so pleased you had a great day on Jeanette's Birthday.St Francis and the staff sound great. Hope Wendy is still focusing on the NY Marathon? Thinking of you all over the bank holiday weekend, lots of thoughts, prayers. Much love. Sally XX; 24 May 2008 at 06:04
Anonymous said...: have a lovely weekend ali - hope the sun shines on you and the newly planted tree.
lots of love to you and all the family,
katie
xxx; 24 May 2008 at 06:55
Anonymous said...: Hello mate,

Great to hear you were able to enjoy Jeanette's birthday with her, but watch it on the wine you old panache drinker. Your oak tree will be enjoyed by generations and for centuries to come. Now enjoy the weekend with all the family around you, I'm just off to wembley to roar on the red side of Bristol. Take care and keep smiling,

Russ, Bele & Cara xxx; 24 May 2008 at 07:28
Anonymous said...: Hey Ali,

So happy to hear you had a grand time with Jeanette on her Birthday.
Your shower antics sound like great fun!! - these guys at St Francis are indeed true stars and it is reassuring to know our friend and Team Rainback are being looked after so well.

I love your oak tree by the way. I’m sure it will grow to be fine and strong. Apparently they like a chat and a hug…. It looked a wee bit lonely so I found it a soul mate for you. Planted by Trees for Life your other tree will grow up (with a few others) in the Highlands of Scotland to rejuvenate our native forests for the future.

As always, love to you and your family. Dave M; 24 May 2008 at 08:17
Anonymous said...: Hi Ali,

We're glad you had a good day with Jeanette for her birthday - with wine too!

Lovely for you to catch up with Tom too.

As always, our thoughts and prayers are with you. You're really a very special person.

Lots of love, hugs and kisses

Suzanne, Laurent, Matilda, Bobby & Lucas; 24 May 2008 at 08:44
Anonymous said...: Fantastic to log on and read that you've had more happy moments. I can just imagine Ali wreaking havoc in the shower - brilliant.

I hope you have some more smiles and laughter this weekend, that's what you're best at Ali.

Love to you all.

Paul, Kate and George xx; 24 May 2008 at 09:18
Anonymous said...: Fantastic news that you had a good day for Jeanette's birthday. Glad to see that giving up is still not on your agenda.

Must have been good catching up with Tom.

Sending lots of love all the way from Scotland.

Love Sharon
x; 24 May 2008 at 09:25
J-A said...: Hey Ali,

Listening to London Calling by the Clash at the moment - always makes me think of growing up in Kimpton - not quite sure why tho as we'd have only been 8 when it came out so can't exactly have been partying hard!

I always think the wetter you can everyone else, the better the shower!
I hope today is a good day for you - the sun is refusing to stop shining and so are you.

Everytime I see an oak tree now, I shall think of you. Nice one!

Always here.

Lots of love

J-A; 24 May 2008 at 09:27
Anonymous said...: Hi Ali

Glad you are feeling better - although whether turning into Alan Titmarsh is a good thing....I suppose he supposed to be the older woman's crumpet (or something).

Take it easy today (Saturday) so you can preserve your energy for the biggest night of the year....The Eurovision Song contest. Yes, you kow it has to be done. Not sure if you enjoyed the Semi-Finals, but there are some total gems, lots of very strange behaviour, near naked European poplets. Unfortunately the Czech Republic didn't get through - NIall (my husband) particularly enjoyed the gyrations of the "dancers" wearing very little behind the "dancer". Link for the scorecard...http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/party/.

Enjoy.

Thinking of you (and hope you enjoy the cakes)

Love

Jo McCallion
xxxxx; 24 May 2008 at 09:52
Anonymous said...: Hi Ali

We are thinking of you loads. Your strength is inspirational.

Love Iz Neil and Robbie.; 24 May 2008 at 10:00
Anonymous said...: Dearest Ali

We were so happy to hear that you managed to have a happy day on Jeanette,s birthday after having had a rough couple of days before. You were obviously keeping yourself for her special day.

You all looked so happy in the garden and that is what we love to see, our Ali and his caring family enjoying precious times together. We were thinking of you all on Thursday and praying you would enjoy Jeanette,s birthday.

The shower antics sounded great and we can imagine you all laughing so much, what a tonic it must have been to you all to have such a laugh.

Well we are up north at Sarah & Daniel's and the sun is out so do hope it is the same in Berkhampstead. We are sure you are wearing your sunny smile as always Ali. Have a great day.

All our love and hugs as always to you, Diana, Ian,Jeanette and all the Rainback crew. Take care.

The Conways
Chris, David, Stewart, Jo, Freya, Sarah & Daniel xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 24 May 2008 at 10:21
Anonymous said...: Dear Ali and the Rainback crew,

So pleased to read the blog this morning and that you have overcome and couple of rough days.

Brilliant to hear that you had a nice day with Jeanette on her birthday here's to many more!

I mentioned in an earlier blog that my sixth form tutor group have been following your progress. They raised lots of money for the teenage cancer trust and adopted Macmillan trust as their form charity. They left school yesterday and wanted me to pass onto you their best wishes and that the skiers have the NEW GEN link it's now up to them!

Keep the faith mate and look forward to many many more blogs.

Take care, God Bless, 'Up the Ammers'

Ian and Lindsay Parker; 24 May 2008 at 10:41
Anonymous said...: Hey Ali!
So you held your own wet t-shirt competition in the shower, did you?! Blimey some things never change, and for you that's your senses of humour and adventure, wherever you may be wreaking havoc!

Today's Gang Show song, from the 1998 show is especially for you, Ali (but please do think Rogers & Hammerstein's 'Carousel', rather than LFC's theme song!):

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown:

Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone -
You'll never walk alone

Your family, your friends and your bloggers are with you every step of the way, my friend.

Love from Ewan xxx; 24 May 2008 at 11:01
Anonymous said...: Morning Ali & Family,

I hope the sun's shining down on you today.

We're all thinking of you (as always)!

Love Gaz, Sabina & Dylan Parkinson; 24 May 2008 at 11:33
Anonymous said...: Ali I wanted to share my moment of joy this morning on receiving my supermarket shopping delivery and discovering I'd gone wild and ordered cocoa pops.. I thought you would understand the happiness of a chocolate based product for breakfast.

Great to see the pictures of the oak and hear about Jeanette's birthday. I hope you have another good day.. je pense fort a toi.

love to all

Emily C xxxx; 24 May 2008 at 11:37
Anonymous said...: Ali you had us all worried for a while!!!!

Good to read your blog and see you had a good day with Jen. Hope you had a few beers too!!!!!!!

Keep smiling fella and of course keep the faith

Love Danny G; 24 May 2008 at 13:05
Anonymous said...: Hi Ali, good to hear you are feeling a bit better.
Our year 13's left today and I think we have another couple planning to do the gap course at New gen! You of course had Nick on the course two years ago.We have had a new set of classrooms built on the school site and our kids have been reading your blog and decided that we should plant an oak tree outside it too!! They are currently growing acorns and plan to call it little Ali!!
Love to you and all your family,
Lesley, Steve and Yogibear; 24 May 2008 at 14:09
Anonymous said...: Dear Ali- so relieved to hear you are feeling better. All the thought wavesof love that have been floating around in the atmosphere must have had an effect.
Love as always from Liz & Keith; 24 May 2008 at 14:35
Anonymous said...: Hey Ali

Great to see you back on line and hear you are back on form creating havoc in the shower!!

Pleased you had a good day on Jeanette's birthday and have been planting trees.

Thinking of the incredible you and your amazing family loads.

You have inspired me to smile more, to give people a bit more time, appreciate what I have, get off my ass and do things and live life more to mention just a couple of things!!

Keep smiling, keep fighting and keep believing.

We all believe! :-)

love Rich E; 24 May 2008 at 15:37
Anonymous said...: Hi Ali

We're so glad to hear that you are feeling a bit better and were able to enjoy Jeanette's birthday. It sounded like you had a lovely day with the Oak tree planting and then lunch with wine too!

Well it's another sunny day today, so we hope you get to go out in the gardens and water your tree.

Thinking of you all

Love and best wishes

Paul, Amanda, Emma and Georgia
xx; 24 May 2008 at 16:16
Anonymous said...: Hey Ali, so glad the chairlift is going in the right direction and you are feeling better!....as i ve said b4 love is stronger than anything, and you are surrounded by love world wide so stay strong.
A wee friend e x; 24 May 2008 at 19:43
Anonymous said...: 'Tell me what you think, tell me what you feel
Is this thing a fake, or is it for real.
Is it what you hoped for, what you dreamed,
Is it something strange that you've never seen.

Does it lift you up, closer to the light.
Does it send you raging into the night.
Where did it begin, will it ever end.
Where the sun sets and the river bends.

Where the river bends is a place I've been.
The waters notso blue and the grass, well it ain't so green.
The current gets strong it can pull you down.
You gotta swim hard if you wanna turn around.

But I don't wanna go there, not with you.
I'm happy right here now I got a love that's true
So let's stay a while and invite our friends
Noone needs to go where the river bends.

I don't want to go there ever again
I'm gonna be with you right here till the very end.
So lets stay forever and ever and ever Amen
NOONE NEEDS TO GO WHERE THE RIVER BENDS.'; 25 May 2008 at 00:24