leukaemia-limbo-dance

With the rise in Covid we invited all the family to take lateral flow tests before we went round to Paul’s for Sunday lunch this afternoon. Everyone showed a negative result, so we went and had a lovely time. Paul and Harriet’s house is so airy and we were all pretty well spaced out, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the dreaded lurgy wasn’t lurking in the shadows today.

Before we went, both John and I were like dormice. John stayed in bed and I wrapped myself in a blanket on the sofa while we hibernated for most of the day. John is tired after all his exertions yesterday with fitting the under-cupboard lighting, and I am just plain fed up again.

Who knows where this mood comes from? I don’t – but I don’t seem to be able shake it off. It’s all very well for a little while and I can skim over the surface but then it comes back again. Grrr……

I suppose little things can trigger a low mood and perhaps a contributory factor was that we found our newly-fitted solar panel system had thrown an alarm again this morning, so it’s not working. I tried to phone the electrician but no joy today, so it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. More Grrr……

Ah, well, fingers crossed that we both feel better tomorrow. We certainly enjoyed seeing the family today, who always uplift our spirits, so I’m hoping we’ll go to bed on a higher note.

Take care everyone. God bless.

I visited Mum this afternoon and took her some flowers from the garden, a box of chocolates and some little Battenberg cakes. She was delighted with the flowers and put in her two pennorth in helping me arrange them. The stalks had minds of their own and it all looked a bit tangled, but we both thought that the display had brought the garden into her room.

Her eyes lit up when she saw the edible treats and said, “Oooh, little Mr Pickling cakes! I love those!” I couldn’t help but laugh – not exactly a Spoonerism, but close.

As is Mum’s custom whenever she receives a gift of something to eat, she said, “Well, I won’t have one now.” It’s never quite clear what she is saving the treat for, so I suggested we open the box of chocolates anyway to look inside. Once the packet was opened….. well, we tucked into them of course!

We had lots of singing ‘Que sera, sera’ and lots of giggles as Mum settled into a comfortable position on her bed. We had lots of repeat performances with a favourite question being: “Where do you live now?”

She enjoyed looking at all the photos of the family but really had no idea who anyone was. She wondered if I was still married? Oh, this is your husband? He looks a nice man.

She loved looking at all the children and oohed and aahed over them, delighted at how good-looking they all are and wondering where Freddie’s red hair had come from. Oh, and was Oliver my son? In the explanation, I talked about the children being her great-grandsons and their parents being her grandsons. “I’ve got grandsons?” she exclaimed. “Really? I’ve got grandsons? Well, thank you. I am so pleased to have grandsons.” Bless her.

But really, she was on top form and we had a lovely time together – including Mr Pickling.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, John has been busy all day fitting some new LED lights under the cupboards in the kitchen. Easy to fit, as the strips of lighting have double-sided tape on them for simple attachment to the cupboard surface. Ha! That bit was alright but hiding the electrical wires and hot-gluing them to the underside of the cupboards resulted in a lot of: “Oooph!” and “Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” – it transpires that hot glue is painful on the skin…..

We went round to Pete and Dawn’s this evening, which was lovely. Just what was needed for cosy chat, laughter, fun and a balm for the soul.

And there we are – another day done.

Take care in the big, outside world – there’s a wave of COVID happening right now with a 43% up tick in cases in the last week. God bless.

Despite the breeze today, the temperature rose as the day went on and we were scorched. I did my best to stay out of the sun but I did potter in the garden this afternoon.

John was very successful in staying out of the sun as he spent all day in the garage – more tinkering. I think it’s going quite well despite a few setbacks, and he seems quite excited at the progress he is making. Every day he says, “I’ve got to get it finished!” and I nod, hopefully.

We were both up quite early and I toddled off to yoga this morning. I have to confess, I was a little anxious about how I would get on as the Friday class is a bit more challenging – and I seem to creak in every joint these days. However, I managed to keep up – and Jaime always gives us options if something might just be a bit much for the crocks or beginners in the class. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and felt much better than I did yesterday. Not yet best, but better.

This afternoon, while John continued his long stint in the garage, I decided we really ought to plant the tomatoes he was so keen to buy a couple of weeks ago. I doubt that they’ll do much good now, but I’ve planted a couple of them anyway.

I also thought I’d have a bit of a tidy up on the patio. There was debris everywhere and, of course, lots of ‘remains’ from last week’s barbecue – not least the volume of sand that had found it’s way out of the sand pit.

I must confess to getting a bit disgruntled now though, as the scaffolding is still up from the installation of the solar panels last week. I am not that much of a complainer when it comes to tradesmen because we know what it’s like but, not only is it taking away the light from the kitchen, which is dark at the best of times, but it’s in the way. I’ve ended up putting the Growbag with the tomatoes in at the front of the patio, rather than snug against the wall. The company that did the solar panels has told John that the scaffolding will be gone by Wednesday of this week. I hope so!

I worked my way along the patio, clearing this, picking up that, untangling the other and arrived at the pond. On inspection, it was looking very sorry for itself – the irises are all overgrown and the duckweed was totally covering the surface of the water.

Ha! And the poor fish – I think they have been struggling for oxygen for a while as there was a floater on the top…… But it can’t be all bad, as we’ve still got newts in the pond. I am always excited when I see them! Anyway, I captured handfuls and handfuls of duckweed to clear a space for the fish and cut back a few irises. I will try and have another go in the next few days….. But, phew! There are still some fish left in the pond.

All for now, folks. Hope the night is cool enough to encourage sleep. Take care and God bless.

Susie Dent’s Word of the Day is ‘swullocking’ (19th century) which means stiflingly, searingly hot. I rather like it!

Goodness me, I feel like I’m in the doldrums again. Even when it’s a beautiful day like today! Who’d have thought it, eh? Weird. Ah well, I shall feel better again soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday we had a marvellous trip out in the morning to Shropshire to collect the pieces of upholstery John had commissioned for the Lotus. It was a lovely drive in Harriet’s car, with the sun shining and the countryside wearing her best clothes.

John was absolutely delighted with the work that the other John had done and he came home a very happy bunny. We even stopped off at the Fig and Favour for a bite to eat for lunch, sitting outside, enjoying the weather and the food.

When we got back we nipped over to the Kenilworth Newbies for a cuppa and to keep Danielle company while Michael was working. John dropped me off while he went to the dentist for a filling and then came on afterwards.

The children were lovely to play with again, as they have a new play area – a mud kitchen and water fun (although the water was added after this picture was taken).

William turned out to be a refusnik though, when it came to saying sorry to Thomas for flicking him with a little pipe. The flick wasn’t really his fault – he’d seen a spider and reacted to get it away in a panic. I fear he has inherited Michael’s morbid fear of spiders……. oh dear. Still, Michael manages to control the fear when dealing with spiders, so I hope William will, too.

Grandpa rocked the baby – firstly in his bouncer and then in his pram, and he was highly successful in rocking him to sleep. Then he rocked himself to sleep on the swinging chair in the shade of the cherry tree in the warm sunshine, with the scent of the gorgeous yellow roses that are in full bloom at the bottom of the garden gently wafting in the breeze.

We shot home at tea-time to arrive in time for the plumber to call and review the area in the dining room for a new radiator. We weren’t altogether impressed by him, so fingers crossed he’ll do a decent job. We’ll see.

Last night, being Wednesday, of course, it was Quiz Night. It was lovely to see everyone, but I felt so tired I could hardly join in. I think I must still be feeling the effects of the few glasses of prosecco I had on Sunday….. except it’s continued on into today, leaving me in the doldrums. Grr…..

Anyway today, all day, John has been tinkering on the car. In and out of the house researching things on the internet, then back out again to have another go. He’s been a very busy bee.

I, on the other hand, have slothed both in the garden and in the lounge watching the tennis on TV, and have done nothing all day. This was my intention in an effort to improve my feeling of tiredness. Fingers crossed, I will feel better tomorrow as a result.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine folks. Take care. God bless.

I nipped off to Yoga this morning but, as I set off, I heard an ominous rattle on the car. I drove slowly to the church hall, thinking maybe it was a stick or something. Anyway, the rattle didn’t go away when I was on my way home either, so I mentioned it to John when I arrived back.

Ha! John gave the car a ‘hard stare’ and a rigourous test drive and there was miraculously no rattle. Hmmm….. my imagination?

Anyway, when it was time to collect Freddie from school, I drove gingerly ‘just in case’ – and hey, voila! There was the rattle again. And it wasn’t only me who could hear it – both Freddie and Lily could hear it. So I drove gingerly to their house where we have left the sickly thing, with instructions to the garage to collect it on Monday to take a look at it.

Of course, having lent Andrew the VW yesterday, we were now car-less….. “Erm… Paul? Do you think we can borrow your Volvo for a day or two, please?” The answer was yes, of course we could, so I have driven gingerly home in that one, too, ‘cos it’s not mine.

It wasn’t the best start to the day really because we had had a hiccup already, by the time I’d set off for yoga. There was an alarm showing on the new solar panels app on John’s phone. Oh, blimey.

I texted the electrician to see if he could advise and, as luck would have it, he called me just before I got home from yoga telling me to give him a call. “I’ll see if I can talk you through it on the phone.” he said.

I scrambled into the loft and switched all the switches he told me to switch then left the system for a while with my fingers crossed. An hour later, I was up there again, on a WhatsApp video call checking all the buttons and switches and levers and so on. We had got it working OK. Phew!!

Meanwhile, John had had an exciting time while I was out. He did his medication routine and then took himself off down the hill to the surgery to take a sample to them. Then he had to make it back up the hill. I am not sure how long the walk took him in the end, but he came home quite chipper. He had done a mile and beaten the hill.

This afternoon John did some more work on his beloved Lotus while I collected the children from school. Freddie and I had a lovely wander across the top of Abbey Fields towards the car, imagining making dens and defending our territory. Here’s Freddie inspecting a branch that might make some good camouflage…

When we got to Paul’s, he was already in and inviting us for tea. “Don’t you remember the discussion on Sunday?” he asked. Oops, no…… I had no recollection of the conversation at all. Mind you, I had had a little bit of fizz by then. “I haven’t brought Dad with me,” I said, apologetically. No worries, Paul would go and fetch him.

So we had a lovely tea round at the Kenilworth Originals – courtesy of Freddie, who made all the pizza toppings. Delicious.

And that’s been us. Thank the Lord for family, friends, good yoga teachers and bailers-out who manage to put us back on track, that’s all I can say.

The news on the new wave of COVID, by the way and just so you know, is that, according to the latest study: ‘Omicron evades previous immunity (even if previously infected) in both antibodies and ‘T’ cells better that previous variants. And reinfection with Omicron doesn’t necessarily stop more Omicron reinfections….‘ Professor Christina Pagel summarises.

I have bought new all-singing, all-dancing masks……

Take care everyone. God bless. It’s a Strawberry Moon tonight and, as I write and look out of the window, it is very, very beautiful. Get picking your strawberries, folks!!

…….a plan comes together.

We had thought that our plan for a barbecue on Sunday might be scuppered by the roofers returning to fit the remaining solar panels but, in the end, we decided to go ahead anyway.

Both the electrician and the roofers arrived just after mid-day and got on quite quickly in finishing their work. We were able to get everything ready for the barbecue and get it lit by the time they had finished. And then we had the luxury of cooking and eating en famille without any onlookers.

We had a lovely time, chatting and playing, eating and drinking together. The weather held fine; the food was delicious – very ably cooked between all the men – and the wine flowed. All marvellous and wonderful.

This is us trying to get a family photo at the fourth attempt. The first three photos all show Michael out of frame or pelting round the back of the swinging chair, trying to get in the photo before the shutter clicked. Made us all laugh – especially me, apparently. I look like I am laughing like a drain in every photo! And, in the final photo, Thomas looks like he’s saying ‘Phew, at long last!’ with Oliver yawning his head off in boredom.

It was delightful to have Andrew home but he went back to Cambridge today. Poor man is exhausted as usual, not having finished work on Saturday night until 2.30 in the morning. Madness.

We had planned to drive Andrew to Cambridge this afternoon, but a suggestion that he borrow my car instead met with favour, meaning that neither of us oldies had to drive and could therefore recoup our strength today.

I have drifted about all day, nursing a slight hangover. John, however, has pottered about as usual and done a bit on the car. He is quite excited because the upholsterer has now finished the interior pieces, that we took to him about six weeks ago, and they are ready to collect. Just got to find time in our very busy schedule to make the run into Shropshire now!

In other news, Andrew spooked us all today. This was the view he saw and photographed outside our back door at lunchtime…… oo-er…….

Take care everyone. Wear a mask in indoor spaces if you can. There’s another COVID wave here now and people are being hospitalised again with this pernicious vascular disease………

God bless.

I am still keeping up with my early morning yoga and sticking to the 30-day challenge, but crikey, I do feel creaky first thing. Although, to be fair, this morning wasn’t so bad as I’d had an early night last night. Perhaps that’s the answer.

Yoga session finished, John and I discussed what we might do today. I have a pile of debris in the garden that I am keen to tip into the skip that’s sitting on our drive at the moment, so I thought I might get on with that. John had offered to go over to Michaels to advise on the dismantling of the shed. “Do you want to come?” he said. “Yes, I don’t mind – that’ll be nice.” I replied. “Give Michael a ring and see what’s what.”

In the end, we went over to look after the children for a little while so that Michael and Danielle could go car-hunting. They’d seen one advertised that they might like. The shed dismantling was going to have to wait.

Well, I say we went for a little while…… it transpired that Danielle had a family Baby Shower to attend at one o’clock and had a bit of a panic that she might not be back in time from looking at the car, which was in Derby. Hmm…… probably a bit tight. I mean, we hadn’t arrived in Kenilworth until 10.30…..John agreed to go with Michael instead.

The boys set off; Danielle and I went to Sainsburys for a few supplies. And on the way, we had a delightful encounter with Harriet and Freddie, who were just about to call on the new owners of their old house to let them know that a parcel had been addressed there by mistake. Harriet was amused. One of the girls had made the error but….. “Look who it is who has to go and sort it out!” she laughed.

We did our bit of shopping and went back to the Kenilworth Newbies. The boys ate their packets of crisps on the way home, which negated the need for a ham sandwich just then for their lunch, as they were full. Danielle got ready to go out and put Thomas to bed for his nap before she went.

William and I played games and watched an episode of Paw Patrol before I suggested he might like his ham sandwich. “Yes, please,” he said and wolfed it down.

Thomas woke up about half past two and I was so distracted by his dirty nappy that I forgot to offer him his ham sandwich. He didn’t seem to mind and we played and played all afternoon. It was lovely. This is us, practising saying ‘cheese’ at the camera.

William managed a fabulous cheesy grin and included a lovely little wink, but Thomas was so intent on his effort that he looked permanently serious and worried, bless him. I say nothing about how I look……. and it’s always ten to one in the Kenilworth Newbies’ kitchen.

The men came back from their trip up to Derby about four o’clock, but they were empty-handed. Although there were some plus points to the car they saw, they didn’t quite swing it for Michael, so no sale today. Keep on looking then, I suppose.

John was exhausted when he got back. “I’ve only been sitting in a car,” he complained, “no idea why I am so tired.” We were invited to stay for tea, but we thought it best to come home. John snuggled straight into his chair and promptly fell asleep before I wafted his evening meal in front of him at seven o’clock.

And that was us today. I wasn’t expecting to spend the day with the children but it was, as usual, lovely. Neither was I expecting to bump into Harriet and Freddie but that, too, was lovely.

The Kenilworth Sleaths spent their afternoon in Abbey Fields at a celebration event there – I think it was The Lions annual ‘do’. Freddie had his face painted which I think is stunning. In my opinion, he looks exceedingly cool – the face paint being enhanced by his wobbly baby teeth either side of his emerging adult teeth. Great one for the album.

Take care everyone. God bless.

Some things just put you off kilter, don’t they? And this week it was Shadow, the cat.

He’s been unwell for a few weeks and it all came to a head this week with the final visit to the vets yesterday. The family discussed the situation and agreed, sadly, that it was the right decision.

‘Do you need me to come?’ Michael texted. I shook my head at the message. ”I don’t need you to come. I will manage.’ I texted back. John offered to come, but no: ‘I am strong.’ I tell myself. ‘I can do this.’ And I did. Stroking my farewells to our beautiful cat as he passed away. And so another chapter of life is closed.

I forgot to tell myself to be prepared for a bit of fallout from the event though. Might be feeling it a bit now.

RIP ‘sitting-on-your-lap-and looking-into straight-into-your-face‘ Shadow.

Meanwhile, we have had a flurry of activity at home with a) the plasterer finishing the job in the dining room; and b) the team to fit the solar panels arriving yesterday very early in the morning.

We were, naturally, still abed when the doorbell rang at 7 o’clock. It was the scaffolders. “Alright, love? Just open the gate and we’ll get on.” Right. I toddled round the side to let them in. The wheelbarrow was in the way so I started to shift it. “Nah…. don’t worry about that, love. We’ll do all the shifting that’s needed.” Well, that was alright by me.

In an hour and a half they had finished their bit of the job and were away. The roofers arrived next and started shuffling things from the van round the back. Then it was the plasterer returning for the third day running and finally, it was the electrician…. crikey, I’m going to run out of milk for all the teas and coffees…. I went and bought some more but, by the end of the day, they had drunk their way through that bottle too.

It was quite exciting really, but tiring too. We were up and down the stairs; in and out of the loft; to and fro along the landing; in and out of the bedrooms and calling through the windows – all in the name of finding where to poke the wires. And then ladder shifting to reach the top of the house. We were exhausted by the end of the day – and the electrician didn’t leave until a quarter to eight. Phew.

The solar system is connected and has started to work but the roofers haven’t finished fitting the panels. “We’ll have to come back tomorra,” they said, in their delightful Liverpudlian accents. One of them thought they’d be here bright and early. Clearly, the boss didn’t agree. He shook his head. “Might even be the afternoon,” he said. After all, it was a five-hour round trip from Liverpool.

Anyway, the upshot was that they didn’t come back today. They are coming back on Sunday. That’s scuppered my plans for a family barbecue, then. Ah, well…..

This morning we had the pleasure of entertaining Pete and Dawn for morning coffee and cake. Oh, what a balm for the soul. So easy. So comfortable. Such good company.

John pottered in the garage this afternoon then slept a while. I slothed in front of the TV catching up on programmes I had missed. I had thought that I might get on with cleaning the house to remove all the dust that has settled everywhere but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered. And despite the lovely balmy evening out there, we both thought, ‘Let’s go to bed early, eh?’

Just in case you miss it on the news, by the way, there is another COVID wave coming. Anything to do with the Jubilee celebrations, do you think? Whatever it is that is generating more infection, please be careful everyone. It’s not the flu, whatever anyone says.

And in other news: Susie Dent’s Word of the Day is a reminder of ‘trumperiness‘ (19th century): the state of being extremely showy, yet utterly worthless.

Take care. God bless.

7.30 a.m. Yoga

8a.m. Plasterer arrived

8.30 a.m. Ocado delivery

9 a.m. put the shopping away…..

10a.m. Bryan arrived to look at the Lotus

10.30 a.m. John out for breakfast with Bryan

11 a.m. Set the Quiz

12 noon: John back from breakfast and out into the garage to tinker

1 p.m. Anne – consider pottering in the garden. Oh…. shame…. it’s raining. Never mind, settle in the lounge and catch up on TV programmes ……aaaand….breathe…..

Lordy! It took me forever to put the shopping away. It took me forever to set just two quiz rounds. That’s because I couldn’t decide what to do. Should I set questions on the Jubilee? Do a General Knowledge round? Or Pot Pourri? Or questions on James Bond? (our frequently-visited-topic). Or, how about….. (now here’s an inspiration!) something on the Thunderbirds? (we’d had a question about them the other week which went down well….). Hmmm…… I didn’t know what questions to set.

In the end, I was rather glad I didn’t go for any of the above because, guess what? Other team members selected the very same (except Bond). I went for something close to my heart: Words. And for Round Two? Birds.

Whilst John was tinkering in the garage, I watched several episodes of ‘Hunted’, ‘Love Island’ and ‘Bake Off: The Professionals’ at the same time as stuffing my face with crisps, a whole pot of ‘The Collective’ passion fruit yogurt, and a banana. I am now officially fat.

I was just finishing up with the excitement of the last episode of ‘Hunted’ when Danielle texted to wonder if I might get there a bit earlier than planned. Poor girl said she was ‘struggling with tiredness’. I interpreted that as ‘I am knackered’, so yep, no problem. I was done with my TV viewing, so I set off.

I had a lovely time with the children, playing and chatting and reading and singing and eating and drinking. All rather good. Michael and Danielle were off to a Parent’s Evening at school for new starters in September, so I put the boys to bed and they were as good as gold. Honestly, it was lovely.

I was back in time for this evening’s Quiz and once again we had fun. John was in full flow and Quiz Master for our rounds and the fun was enhanced with a couple of glasses of wine for me which I felt I ought to have for medicinal purposes…… John was on water.

So there we are. Whatever the reality of it, we thought we’d had a busy day……

Take care everyone. God bless. Hold your loved ones close.

It’s been a funny old day. What was planned wasn’t quite what happened but there we are – that’s life!

I was up early in readiness for my little yoga class to fulfill my challenge for June, and I managed to creak my way through it. I had planned to do my normal class with Jaime at 9.15, too. However, John had a medical consultation at 10.00 and, although he said he’d be fine on his own, there was just something that niggled away at me enough to say I’d stay at home and be there.

I was pleased I did because, although it was a pre-op assessment, there were lots of questions that needed both our heads to find the answers. This is all in preparation for a biopsy on the prostate at the end of June. The assessment took quite a while and afterwards our heads were buzzing full of what’s involved.

John had started down the route of consulting those in the private medical arena but thought now he didn’t need to go ahead. I wondered whether another discussion, face-to-face with someone might help, so he’s cancelled one and stuck with the other. We’ll see.

This morning my head was also filled with anxiety over a poorly cat. Shadow has not responded to the thyroid treatment he’s been taking and is as skinny as a lath. The vet had advised me to go back after a couple of weeks anyway, so I booked up to see the vet at lunchtime.

The vet was straight with me. Investigation is needed to find out what is going on with Shadow’s mouth – but the anaesthetic could bring on a heart attack. Or, examine him under duress – which could bring on a heart attack. He’s a very poorly cat. On the other hand…… ‘if you want to go down the (euphemistically-called) RIP route, I’d support you’.

Discussions to be had with the boys methinks. After all, the cats are theirs…..

This afternoon, John went out to visit his friend Hobbo and left me to my own devices at home. Honestly, I thought my strings had been cut. I wafted about for a bit with a million and one jobs to be done but, without the impetus of John behind me, I wasn’t quite so motivated.

In the end, I got a chair out of the shed and sat in the sunshine sunning myself for a while, communing with the Universe. It’s the first time for a long time that we’ve actually had sunshine.

I got on then, after about half an hour, to do a few bits and pieces before John came back and then we both sat out in the garden in the ever-receding-behind-a-cloud sunshine. Nice.

Meanwhile, the plasterer has been here all day putting up the plasterboards. He’s worked hard and has nearly got them all up and fixed. Tomorrow, the final boarding, then the beginnings of the skim…..

This evening I went to my prayer group and was pleased to be in the company of bright, intelligent women. We had a good discussion and I came home uplifted but with plenty to think about.

Michael popped in this evening to see how Shadow is doing, had a cuppa and stayed for about half an hour before shooting off home again. Paul had popped in earlier in the day to pick up a credit card he’d left behind, and we spoke to Andrew on the phone this afternoon. Can’t be bad – all three sons in one day. More nice.

I have mostly ignored the goings on in Parliament and the repeated ‘let’s draw a line under…..whatever the latest issue or scandal is’, but I am aware of the bleatings of the Prime Minister’s friends, which seem very shallow to me. I may be in the minority here, but goodness me it feels like a horrible, sticky little mess.

Susie Dent’s Word of the Day? It is ‘struthonian’ (1960s): one who ignores unwelcome facts and buries their head in the sand. From the Latin ‘struthio’, ‘ostrich’. Ha!

Take care everyone. God bless. Let Him carry you.