Pig Racing

Pig racing, a trip to the cinema to see ‘Salmon Fishing in Yemen’ which Simon would have loved, a Fairtrade Schools event in Harrogate and a walk across the fields to the Yorkshire Dales Ice Cream Farm with my two youngest grandsons this morning, are just some of the things I’ve been up to this week. Oh and I’ve been wearing my new jeans and they are far more comfortable than I was expecting them to be. I also met up for lunch with a good friend and former colleague of Simon’s who now lives and works in New Zealand. Simon had been so looking forward to seeing her again but sadly it was not to be.

It’s just six weeks and two days since Simon died and yesterday the bill arrived from the undertaker. I can almost hear Simon saying well that’s the final nail in the coffin then. Despite all that has happened since Simon died I still can’t quite believe that I will never be able to have another conversation with him. I know that some people, including my dad - I still think talks to my mum every day - find comfort talking to their departed loved ones but I don’t. From time to time though I do recall Simon’s words to me, - usually the encouraging supportive ones and when he was teasing me.               

At last, the catalogue for the exhibition which includes some stunning photographs arrived on Tuesday last week; 5 days after the pots came home but it was definitely worth waiting for. Included is an interview with Simon about his collection – it gives yet another insight into my multi faceted husband.

I expect not many of you have experienced an evening of pig racing so I thought I would tell you all about it so that you know what you’ve been missing. First of all as you can see from the photo real pigs are not involved. By the way Adam, my 5 year old grandson acted as one of three official starters for two of the races – he’s the one with the Union Jack face in the photo. The pigs are identical, fluffy and pink and battery operated. The coloured ribbons around their necks identify them, for example my pig Roody in race 2 had a green ribbon. The ribbons are taken off after every race so no one knows the pig that is programmed to go a little faster than all the others. You bet on a pig or pigs in each race (in units of 50p). It gets very exciting as the pigs walk, or is lurch a better term, erratically towards the finishing line with their noses and tails twitching. The punters who have placed bets on the winning pig get a share of the winnings. I won nothing all evening and the two pigs I had sponsored were useless but Adam won a race with the much fancied ‘Scooby Do’. Pig racing evenings are not only good fun for all the family but great fund raisers – we raised over £800 last night for our church. So what’s stopping you organising one? The next thing I want to organise is a ‘Big Bra Hunt’. It’s an OXFAM idea – more about that another time.