Old Style Ways and Poor Health part 2.

beanielou

pollyanna_26 said:

Lovely to see you Beanie. I keep meaning to ask if you prefer Beanie or Lou.

I have missed you since Mooloo doesn't post much now she's so busy. I do remember to wish her Happy Birthday each year as we always did and she posts an update on how things are going.

We posted there over many years and I still miss her threads.I hope Miss Summer is ok and still  loving her bed.

Take care

polly

I answer to either   
Miss S is well but is going to the vet tomorrow as she has a big lump on her neck 
She still loves her wee bed 
Hope all as well as it can be with you & yours xx

pollyanna_26

I'll stick to Beanie then. It's what I always called you on Savvys Threads.

Hope all goes well at the vets tomorrow. Don't know if you remember youngest and her BF rescuing the neglected kittens all those years ago.They were in a terrible state and Stimps the brother had awful dental issues due to starvation and neglect.

DD had a think and took out full pet insurance on both . Little Mags was just very thin and frightened  but there were times she saw the vet so it was well worth the money

That horrible guy who was going to abandon them both to go abroad to find himself a wife wouldn't recognise them now.

I was so shocked anyone could put something  like that on Facebook but they've been a blessing and a pleasure and helped keep youngest going over the years.

I considered showing them the picture of Miss Summers bed. Big boy Stimps will have a look at something but if he can't eat it soon walks away. Little Magrat Garlick loves all the shiny, snuggly , pretty things and though she's tiny if she can carry it away it goes.

She would be very interested in Miss Summers very posh bed. Mind you she'd probably demand a four poster..

How are you doing? I know you finally got the awful mobility car replaced but not much since then. How are the falls? I hope they aren't so frequent now and you're still at the foodbank. It must be busier than ever there now.

You probably know already as you  know Ian but I still look at his twitter feed. Last winter I was following his walks. One through the Cowgate in the dark. Old Town and New Town . Snowy scenes etc . They passed the time and I enjoyed them . Something normal in abnormal times.

Recently I went on his Twitter feed then noticed a tweet from Waterstones. New Rebus book. I never thought we;d get that last book.

I know there will be two final Rebus books. I never thought we'd see one. I was ready waiting for Amazon to put it on pre order so that's one.  I've now seen the cover and rather strange title . There will be tears from us both after those last two but at least we will have an end.

Those books kept youngest going for many years but she'll cope now once his story is told.She managed after Terry Pratchett which shows how far she's come over the years.

I hope both your son and mum are Ok. Keep Plodding Beanie.

pollyx

pollyanna_26

I hope all was well with Miss Summer beanie.

It's been one of those days here after a recent PIP debacle for youngest, me hanging on  the phone twice until it was finally sorted

Email from youngest this morning her ESA SG  payment didn't go in to her account on Friday. No idea why she didn't mention it then but we've been emailing back and forth.

She who doesn't  do phones did phone them earlier and was told they couldn't discuss it with her only with her Appointee-Me.

I've been trying to get this flare down and hoping the steroids are beginning to work on what Superdoc suspects may  be one or two rotator cuff tears.

Rather than hang on the phone again today I've had to tell her I'll phone them tomorrow morning . It's been strangly hot since Saturday and I struggle to sleep.

First time I haven't done something straightaway but no spoons meant I needed to pace.

I hope MN and others are ok.

pollyx

beanielou

Miss Summer has to have an operation next week.
POsitive vibes please.
I had a total faff getting her into the basket & then into the vet.
Exhausted

My son is hoping to go back to uni in August.
My mum is on her holibobs & I am looking after her cat!
Interesting keeping her & Miss S apart!!

LOve Rebus as you know.
Have you read any Skinner books by Quintin Jardine? 
Love them as well as the Lorimer novels by Alex Grey.

Still way to many falls & too many bumps & scrapes.
Bah is all.

Hope you can get the ESA sorted out & bah to the PIP hassle.
It just never ends.

Take care polly xx

beanielou

Oh & hope thye steriods kick in really soon  xx

pollyanna_26

Here's me still awake at stupid o clock beanie still can't manage to sleep.

I'm so sorry  Miss Summer has to have an op next week; I've always been a cat lady but boy do they worry  us or break our hearts somtimes.

I will be sendin love light and all the positive  vibes I can that things will be ok.

Thenk you for your good wishes. Faffing with DWP always triggers pain hanging on the landline for so long before you even get to speak to an advisor.

I haven't read Quentin Jardine but did read the William McIlvanney unfinished book Ian finished off last year. A very different police officer in tough days in Glasgow so we ended up reading the whole series from book one.  The older ones were very cheap to buy.

I'm sorry the falls seem more frequent is there nothing at all that will help?

When I couldn't sleep earlier i decided to come on to the forums to try and get in the mood to sleep.

I have a number of threads in my bookmarks. Yours is there thoughI don't post as often as I used to. Savvys is too and after mentioning her yesterday she'd just posted.

Think it was Christmas when she last did a post.

She's done an update  and things seem much more positive for her and her family. it was quite spooky seeing she'd just posted after months of not posting.

So far I seem to have summoned up two final Rebus books. The return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate for a Dr Who specail along with the original writer who was far better than the ones after he left and something else I've forgotten. Think I need to try to get to sleep now.

Try to take care of yourself. No use telling you not to worry about Miss Summer but I'm sure there will be many sending positive vibes and hopefully all will be well.

pollyx

KxMx

I hate DWP calls too, such a relief now I have a 30 day rolling sim contract for a fiver, unlimited calls & texts.
I dial, put it on loudspeaker, place the phone beside me & get on with something else while waiting for an answer... Bliss! 

beanielou

THanks polly  xx

mothernerd

I'm okay polly. I overdid things on Saturday - I'd done shopping on Thursday and Friday but only got part way through my 'list' (just writing everything down as I remember it). Saturday started by going back to the cs I looked in on Friday (no chance to get back on Friday) - duplo farm set, a pair of curtains, picture books, some things I found that I was going to buy elsewhere, for which they wanted £5.50. I insisted on giving them £10 (think the shop's already in trouble, don't want to hasten it's demise). Needed a sit down (had taken the shopping trolley because the curtains were bulky) and opted for the main pedestrian area at the end of the street I was in rather than the benches in front of the town hall which were further away but on the way home.

All benches were occupied or someone beat my to it - pedestrian area, bus station, mall (thought I might pop into the market for pot herbs). saw that the key cutting place was open (thought they'd been replaced by another vape shop) so had 3 keys cut (only have 2 now and mine is bent) and sat on their stool for a blissful 5 minutes. Continued up the mall - it's only straight with one row of shops on either side and a couple of ways into the market block and had my next sit down on a little wall at the side of the car park. having got so far my choices were Icyland (lovely cheap pasta salad and SW ready meals) or Tessimo, (facing me but across the bypass but they have caffeine free drinks).

I'm having issues with food and drinks atm. I have mostly cut out sugar and fat and a chronic pain diet suggested cutting out/ reducing meat, dairy and wheat. I have vegetables and I know there are things I can make with them but don't have the time, patience or energy to do new recipes (or even cook) especially if it means juggling the laptop in the kitchen. I didn't go to put mum's bin out last week (I hurt all over and it was only the paper bin, which isn't critical) but I have been combining that with a visit to Morrie's (get back on the same bus and a couple of stops further on) where I've been picking up ys f&v and plant based ready meals for 88p instead of nearly £3. Just a few but it means I have back up if I don't realise I'm hungry until I'm ravenous (therefore make poor choices). I've really missed not having those options, this week. I can get the bus all the way back to the stop nearest my house (far side of the town hall, back of my house faces the nearside of the town hall).

I need to get back to just drinking tap water but caffeine free is an interim measure - having to settle for caffeinated drinks has made me jittery and wide awake at 3am (this was after 3 days). So I opted for Tessimo's. Sat down outside, inside (by the toilets which I also made use of), on a couple of those heavy duty stools whilst going round and the ones behind the tills. Bought lots of drinks (intending to reduce consumption by 50% each week) and lots of rm (a few fresh and lots of frozen). Just went by the traffic lights system (will read the small print later but these are more honest than arseda) and it gives me a breathing space - I've traded money for reasonably healthy meals and saving my sanity. Then had a taxi home.

Collapsed in a chair, ate an ice lolly, a bowl of pasta and drank 2 drinks, which made me feel vaguely human again. Took books back to the library and a letter for next door to the man I thought was the landlord. he isn't but he had been looking in on my neighbour and found him on the floor one day and called an ambulance - neighbour is now in a local care home (a small friendly one, mum's partner ended up there) and the dog has been rehomed (shop man was feeding her but thought it wasn't fair that she was alone all day). So the house is not for sale (wondering if the old man owns it) but the shop man will start clearing out the mess in the next couple of weeks and tackling the jungle (told him the bits I'd done). 

Gone 2 pm and I dragged myself up the stairs (DS3 did more bags than I asked him to including moving shopping bags to where I could easily unpack them). Spent the time mostly relaxing but did make a start on an embroidery project. I've donated a pile of aida fabric pieces to the cs (16-18 hpi) but kept one 14 hpi (holes per inch) to see if I could still use that. I also ordered some pieces of waste canvas to try working one of the 'baby shawl' fabrics (could only afford to buy them after my brother died and have spent the time since being too terrified to used them in case I mess up). If I can't those can also be donated. There's an option of 11 hpi it's a rare find - some I checked didn't have it when I clicked through but if I can use the 14hpi there's plenty to work with.

Got involved with the embroidery (serial playing in the background) until nearly dark. It's quite a complicated pattern (similar to a small scale Fair Isle with 8 colours). I'm only using 4 colours atm - off white, pinky beige, deep medium brown and a medium red fox colour. I have lots of little bits of these colours in my use ups box and I'm thinking if I try to complete one row at a time (some single lines, some up to 10 stitches deep) I can change to another close shade when I run out.

Sunday everything hurt and I could barely move but thought I'd do more (had posted two letters on Friday) paperwork and more sewing (to see if I could or whether I need to leave a day in between). Went downstairs to make lunch (3 veggie fingers, root veg mash, broccoli), cut up a butternut squash to roast in the oven, put together a salad from fridge bits for mid afternoon, cut more peppers and cucumber to have with dips/ in salads and added a large yoghurt (did breakfast yesterday and today), apples and a small knife to my collection. Had apples and veg pouches upstairs - nibbled through multi coloured carrots, green beans, broccoli on Saturday and similar + baby sweetcorn on Sunday (again very expensive but cheaper than buying individually and a quick way to get an assortment of veg in me) and already have apples and plums, oats to go in my yoghurt and some crackers up here.

Didn't make significant progress with the paperwork so when I woke up yesterday I had no proper plan just a mess of 'to dos' circling, vaguely apprehensive about an appointment. So did a very slow morning routine until my heart stopped racing and my breathing stabilised and I felt calm.

Phoned the probate office, kept on hold for ages but then spoke to a human being how could see no reason for it being delayed so she will pass it on to the 'expedite' team and I should get the grant of Probate soon. Checked for the time of my appointment (I'd already put the letter in my handbag but looked in multiple places first) then ate, packed my bags and went for the bus. The 'short cut' from the bus stop to the surgery was easier than last time. Spoke to the doctor's receptionist about my 'fit note' (tried via AskmyGP last week hoping it would be ready for picking up but it said the service was 'unavailable' - apparently they switch it off when requests reach a certain volume. The fit note won't be done until next week but will be backdated to flow on from the current one (quick note in my journal this morning to apprise UC of that).

Went to the upstairs waiting room where an officious volunteer told me they were only doing Covid vaccinations (extra trip down and up in the lift - thankfully they had one - to confirm I was in the right place. Once in the link worker's room she asked what 'had been going on?', so it all came pouring out - everything from mum dying, moving back to mine, then back to mum's, then back home, living with 2 superannuated teenagers with their own MH problems, hassles from mum's partner's family, probate people for not doing their job, last week's revelations that both my ex (the boys' dad) and my nieces' other grandma have reached the 'no further intervention' stage of treatment all the way down to feeling guilty about not contacting one of my dead brother's ex-gf's who 'wanted to stay in touch' but just not sure I can cope with her.  

The link worker's summation was that I'm still putting everyone else's needs above my own. She's done a referral to CAB for help with the PIP forms (thought I could manage but must accept help - I know you offered Beanie but I did welfare rights work for over 5 years, mostly voluntary but paid for some of the time). At our next appointment she'll help me fill in a bus pass application (not worrying about the cost before I get on a bus would make life so much simpler). We also discussed ways of tackling DS3 and Beloved (including me worrying that she might be near the edge). Last week's 'we have to work out how to get you 2 your own place' and gently drip feeding in extra tasks seems to be working. 

I did complete the bedroom move I started last week (abandoned when I got the bed wedged diagonally and slept in it like that for 2 nights). Went back to my original plan. It will make some things better, might make some things worse but we will see. Today I need to go and put mum's bins out - Black (rubbish) bin filled by trailing round the yard deciding what to keep and what had to go) and Green (garden and food waste). If I have any spare energy I should make a start on weeding the raised beds for the viewings. Need to go and bring them back in on Wednesday (will combine with other things if possible.  I sat under a tree with a drink after yesterday's appointment (and watched the builders moving stuff with a huge crane) but would like a day out, even if it's only riding around on the bus somewhere scenic - Blackrod, Horwich (foot of Winter Hill) or the 'villagey' bit between Bolton and Bury.

I also need to visit a diy store to research gates/ fence/ trellis panels and posts (the pictures on the websites are so tiny ad dark that you can barely tell metal from wood let alone what all the special profiles do). Need to see how they fit together and what would work in my space (without knocking down walls if possible). Have CBT tomorrow - think that's going well, I worry beforehand but feel better afterwards. Better find some clothes and get moving. My favourite dress (have it in different colours) is rubbing on some sore patches I'm trying to get better and the only other two dresses already have paint and other stains on. So need a tunic that covers the worst of the damage and the holes. Most of my clothes have holes, I'm having a whole new wardrobe when I lose more weight.

beanielou

Can you PM me your size MN.
I may be able to help with a tunic..

When is DS & Beloved wee one due?