IN T' NET

An occasional Basketball Diary ... (from Yorkshire, in case tha'd not noticed)

HOME; Archive 2003-4; Archive 2004-5; Archive 2005-6; August 06; September 06; October 06; November 06; December 06; March 07; May 07;

 

30/06/07

However, in view of the decreasing activity on the site since the end of the season, i reckon I owe you an explanation not to mention an apology) so bear with me.

As regular readers may know, my step-mother, in her 80s, has been in a Residential Home in North Wales since my father died three years ago. The journey to visit her was not exactly easy, but she was very contented there, and it seemed best not to disrupt her life further by moving her just for our convenience.

However, in late January Mary became ill, and spent a month in hospital before being transferred to the local Cottage Hospital for convalescence. Her health had deteriorated to such an extent that the Residential home could no longer meet her needs, and, after spending some time assessing the options, we made arrangements for her to transfer to Doncaster in March.

This alleviated our travel problems, as the Nursing Home is only 15 minutes away from us ... rather than the three hours each way when we visited North Wales. However, its very proximity meant that visiting took up more of our time, as we were going several times a week and this became increasingly true as her health continued to deteriorate, involving a further spell in hospital.

Despite these personal distractions I managed to keep "Pawprint" updated most of the time during the season (though you probably noticed a certain amount of "slippage"), but once the season was over I found it increasingly difficult to find the time, and updates became more spasmodic.

As Mary's health continued to deteriorate we were devoting more and more time (and emotional energy), and having once fallen behind with the Summer's events it was increasingly difficult to find the time to sit down and begin to catch up.

That was unfortunate, as it means that not only have we failed to provide the early fixture list service on which we've prided ourselves in past years (they're up on the EB site already!), but we also missed having a say on the ongoing farce of the Mallin Review ... not to mention enquiring whether anyone else has noticed how quiet the BBA (remember them?) have been lately!

That, though is all about to change. After next Friday's funeral I should at last be able to find both the time and the concentration to begin to catch up ... so those clubs and individuals who've been making complete arses of the themselves had better start worrying now.

In the meantime, I'll be making sure we keep up with the scores and tables in the Under-18 Women's European Championships, and beginning to to catch up with some of the easier news items, such as player signings and the growth of the BBL.

Then I can join all of you in starting to really look forward to September, and the start of the new season ... only a couple of months away now!