IT is a peculiar thing, our memory. Sometimes it’s great to spend a bit of time with a group of friends talking about ‘do you remember when?’ and on other occasions it can make you a little sad recalling those who are no longer with us.

Life is so complex, I have given up trying to understand it. You wake up one morning and for no particular reason you feel full of the joys of life and on another you may feel ‘what is the point of it all?’.

I suppose that’s because for most of us, life is full of ups and downs.

But we seem to embrace both situations and happily just get on with it.

I am looking forward to a little trip down memory lane that we are going to make sometime this week. We are off to Colwyn Bay where we spent many holidays when the children were little.

I can’t say it was the most exciting place in the world but as we were staying with my husband’s sister who had a bed and breakfast hotel there, and as it was costing us so little, it was most acceptable.

I hate to admit it but money, sad to say, plays a very important part in our lives.

I know perhaps it shouldn’t but if we are honest it really does. And having been at both ends of the scale, I can speak with some authority.

I recall franticly hunting down the seats of the sofa in the hope of finding a penny for the gas meter, and doing simple sewing and alterations in order to earn a bit of extra cash.

So people who say money doesn’t really matter, have obviously never been without it.

I still find myself doing a bit of penny pinching, not because I need to but I suppose because of the way I was brought up – and I am glad to say it has paid off over the years.

My suitcase is lying open on the bed in Adam’s room. It is a long time since my son died but we still call it his room and we always will.

In the suitcase, my holiday clothes ready for the OFF.

It’s quite amazing just how many things we think we might need and I know that half of them won’t be worn.

Perhaps that why we use the saying ‘just in case’...