Old Style Ways and Poor Health part 2.

pollyanna_26

Wolfey Iam so happy to see you here where you belong again. Not a day passes when I don't wonder if all is ok with you both.. You were one of the first to join the original thread and tolerated the never made a thread witterings of this inept don't know what I'm doing technophobe.I have looked on Flylady a few times and spotted a few posts and done a reply but you were probably back in the lair when I posted.

I was thinking of you a few hours ago and considering asking Mar if you were stiill on the "Alternative Forum" I did post there for a while but there was something about the layout and format that reminded me of the old forum layout and I found it less easy to use. I find the Vanilla platform much easuer although it took a bit of getting used to, However long a post it doesn't time out and disappear into the ether never to be seen again.

I'm glad both of you are plodding on ok and hope it wont be long before the doggy friends reappear and life gets back to more of a norm. I don't know if you ever were a film watcher but since I dropped dd at her boyfriends in the middle of March to shield there with him working from home and two cats I've found myself talking to the wall as Shirley Valentine did.

As soon as Superdoc ordered dd to Shield before the letters went out I knew she'd be back under the duvet if she had to stay here with no BF or cats and despite all the couselling every move forward she'd made would be wiped out after years of effort.

The 12 weeks is now 20 weeks and counting but she's coping better than I thought. We had a few hours in the garden at extreme social distancing yesterday. I think that's the 5th time since mid March we've seen each other but neither of us feel it's time for her to head out despite the lifting of Shielding when parts of the north and other regions are needing to be locked down again. My view is human life is more important than the economy.

I hope your flares will settle but I feel at the moment they are partly a result of weather and mental stress. Apart from Rheumo, Osteo and Fibro Scatica has joined the party too so sleep is elusive and sometimes the smallest thing is a grat effort.

I do wish it was possible to opt out of PMs. I said it on the site feedback but nothing has been done,.It was bad enough on the old site when a random person could abuse someone from behind a keyboard. In the present circumstances it shouldn't be possible for anyone to do so. The ability to not read is there but I know in dds case just the memory of past abuse is triggered if someone randomly contacts her.

Sorry for this long reply. It is lovely to see you again. Pop in if you have enough spoons. Very best wishes to you both, I still think of you when I light the candle. I still have a few of the good ones left. I did consider taking up candle making but as at the moment it takes me some time to remember how to make a brew it probably isn't the best idea I ever had.

Love and light

pollyxx.

boultdj

Welcome back Lamewolf.

maddiemay

Hello all, lovely to see familiar names, I am a relative new girl, but read along a good while before I posted. I have a few things to do before bed time, will pop back and do an update tomorrow.

pollyanna_26

Today has been both boring and frustrating. I've spent ages on the BT site looking for a better landline plan than the one they'll move me to on September 1st which is more than double my monthly dd and as I discovered looking on MSE that's just the calls. Line rental, caller display, messages , vat and everything are charged on top of the calls and takes it well above double bill.

The site is awful now scant info on various plans and no detail of line rental and other extras.

I bookmarked the MSE post and have had a good read through and the plan is not recommended. If anyone has a BT landline it's worth checking MSE.

It's being rolled out to existing customers on Sept 1st unless you contact BT for a different plan or change to another provider. It looks as though I'll have to ring the dreaded call centre. The site isn't accepting my email address and password although it was ok a couple of months ago when I checked my bill just before the laptop gave up.

I feel as though I've wasted hours. It's been sunny and breezy here today and I could have ambled round the garden, got some fresh air and pulled some weeds.

I can never understand how big companies can have such poor websites. There may have been more info if I could have logged in but although i was entering the correct email and password it kept rejecting them.

I hope others have had a more interesting day than mine.

I've been wondering Mar if your son is any good at simple DIY. It's cheap and easy to knock up some raised containers. I was looking at some in gardening magazines last week and there were simple instructions. One idea was one at wheelchair height across a corner at the right height not to need to stretch . If it seems likely to be right for you I could post the instructions here.

If you don't have a suitable corner there are others you could access from your wheelchair.

I hope you got your tasks finished and had a good sleep Maddie. I never thought of you as a new girl , I'm so used to seeing you on SSs thread. I need to catch up there but so much seems to have happened there while I was offline I don't know where to start a reply.

I'm still smiling at Wolfie putting her paws round the door. She was such a regular here I missed her and did wonder if they were Ok. It's not easy coping in normal times when you're both very ill but the current situation makes things so much more difficult and worrying.

There used to be a lot of posters on the original thread and I do wonder how they are. I know Tink pops up from time to time on the forums and sometimes here.

I think about those who were really struggling often without family or any support. That's hard enough in normal times but we aren't in normal times and it must be awful to be struggling on alone.

I often think of Larumbelle who was a very prolific poster on the first thread. She was alone had been homeless at one point but she was a very inspiring person. She joined a community project and learned all sorts. They gave her some ikea kitchen units they no longer needed and she managed to fit them herself. She had zero confidence when she joined here but she got to see she was capable rather than helpless.

She joined a little community garden and grew veg and herbs. She was a bit scared of her social worker. The SW wanted to install a cooker in her flat. She had a microwave with timer and hob which she stood over while cooking so she didn't forget it was on. Her anxiety was high thinking of a big cooker.. it took a while but we finally got through to her that she was fine as she was and didn't need a cooker and she bit the bullet and refused the cooker.

I often wonder how she is. She disappeared off MSE a few years ago. I hope she's well and happy and doesn't allow anyone to dictate to her any more.

pollyx.

MingVase

Son is  always far too busy to do anything for us Polly. He will smile and say oh yes mum no bother, I can do that. ......BUT IT WONT BE THIS WEEK, Then it ends up sometimes not this YEAR

The wheelchair is for when we go out, so I can wander around the seaside places and not get tired. I haven't used it yet because of the virus carry on. Haven't been anywhere.

I left BT  a few years back Polly, after a nightmare month trying to get them and AOL to fix our broadband.

pollyanna_26

I have terrible memories of AOL.I'll have to have a good look at whats available. That BT plan is awful. They're sending the letter to all their customers and I bet many will fall for it not realising the extra £4.50 a month only covers the cost of calls.It's very sneaky and I'm glad I spotted the MSE link. Pity the two tin cans and a long piece of string of childhood didn't really work, it involved a lot of loud shouting when you were only a few feet away from the other person.

I looked at Plusnet for the internet but it seemed to be for fibre. I'm here with terrible 70s copper wiring so no chance. I need to move. DD2 is in a village about two miles away in a victorian house but that area had a full fibre roll out years ago. It's like the Land that time forgot here.

I hope you manage to sleep and get something for that throat asap.

Night Mar xx

MingVase

This village got fibre B/B last year but I never bothered with it, it's fast enough for me. All I do is sit here and yak onnit

pollyanna_26

So that's Plusnet? That would suit me I like the idea it's UK based and you sound happy with it. Too tired tonight but I'll have a look on their website tomorrow.

Try and get some sleep Docs in the morning.

XX

pollyanna_26

Feel like a limp lettuce tonight apart from BT I've trawled other phone and broadband sites. Then decided to check all direct debits. I got out of the habit some time ago as there was other stuff going on. I still can't figure out why I can't log in to my BT account to check other charges than call costs but I have discovered why I can't enter meter readings on my Co-op energy account. Having looked at their site and also Octopus who now supply the 100% energy for them - I thought they were called Bulb because there's a big light bulb on their letters- Fibro fog again. But going on the co-op site cleared that up.

I've now found customers needed to click a link when Octopus joined and change their password. I'll need to phone if it needs doing on the online account I can't get into but at least I'll be able to enter the readings online again instead of the terrible automatic phone option which can take a nunber of attempts before it accepts meter readings and the meter numbers. That will be a relief.

I've even read Martins email today. I used to every week but as life got busier that became hit and miss. I'm going to go through every DD except the house and contents insurance first one's with the bank who did the mortgage second is a company I've been with since the mid seventies. Can't get a better deal with either due to being on a flood plain which I didn't know about until the floods the following year when gales and a high tide breached the sea wall. Water was up to the threshold here and I later realised why they built that very high, houses a short walk away were well and truly flooded and needed to be evacuated and undergo months of repairs.

I've tried other companies but none will offer insurance which is annoying as my present ones are very expensive.

Can't get a water meter either. The water company or builders mucked up the job and it's so complex we can't have one. If only I hadn't been so young with two very small children I hopefully would have been more knowledgable but they were lovely houses , there were good schools, the beach , lovely parks and new young neighbours all seemed well until the storm.

So I'm paying well over the odds for two insurances and water. I'd feel guilty putting it on the market. A search by a solicitor on the local water website brings up flood plain if someone considers buying but I'd hate to burden anyone young as I was with those costs.

I hope everone is ok. I tossed and turned last night . It was damp and humid. I'm trying to talk myself into going to bed but it's still warm and I'll need to be at too tired to go on before it's worth trying. Upstairs is always much warmer than down even when the heating is off as it's been for months.

I'm hoping Mar has managed to eat something even just some soup or something easy to swallow and will either be asleep or nearly there. Now you have the med give in to getting better Mardymar don't be a heroine! If there's stuff in the fridge or cupboard your husband can manage to keep you both fed with let him.

You've been so helpful today to me but it must have been hard feeding me info over the course of the day so thank you so much but now you rest and take care of you.

The candle has been burning merrily so imagine the scent of a field of english lavender calm and relaxing.

Love and thanks

pollyxx

MingVase

Pollywolly xxx