... In Spain...

And we are going out to the Folky Club in half an hour and you should hear the rain

And we came home from the FC and it wasn't raining...

Napping

And before I went for my nap s'afternoon I decided to try it with my alarm set to go off in 20 minutes not half an hour as usual because it seems...... dunno, I think I am ready to get up sooner

AND Tesco's

So s'morning we nipped out to (More Reasons To Shop At) Morrison's to get our biggish list of food, including mouthwash and toothpaste, but all their blueberries were best b4 tomorrow, so we had to nip to Tesco's afterwards and get 2 packs of much longer dated ones

Third Day

And Ed is coming in in a bit for his third day of work.

But we are off to a Folk Club tonight so I shouldn't be too grumpy...

Patience

And tonight I was sitting in my room no email so I was bored, so I actually watched the snooker for 3 frames. Hours it was and it was actually quite interesting

Mobile Security

And I had a pop up on my phone saying Pay for Mobile Apps now as it is running out of time. As I didn't install F-Security, it installed itself a couple of weeks ago, I thought nah, uninstall it. For a number of hours both me and Ed have been trying in the end he gave up and then I managed on my last try for today

Less Than Half My Life

And it seems so important now, but it was invented less than half my life ago

Ed-Ding

And hoo-flipping-ray Ed has come in for the second of his 3 days to work. He has washed my feet and commented on how Germolene seems to be making my leg look better so.....

Audio Book

And yesterday I got half way through the first step of buying an MP3 Audiobook to listen to on my Walkman but I thought "I have got so many books already in my Kindle that I wouldn't have time to listen to it"

Reset

And just then my PC wouldn't connect to the Interweb. All 4 lights on my hub were still lit but I pressed the reset button on it and as if by magic the web came back

Ding

And Ed came in s'morning for the first of his 3 days in a row working here/with me

Wiv Freya

So tonight I was feeling a bit grumpy so I said "Freya, wanna come out to eat?" and she agreed. After we had been out for food and then a drink in a pub then we dropped her off.

And came home and in my Inbox was an email from Denyse saying "Don't go out so much!"

Hectic

And today I am going to fetch Toby from Llanelli at 3 o'clock and dropping him home but Freya txted me s'morning and said "Can I come to your house early today" so we have had to agree not to lock the door which is a bit unsettling but as I am currently here there is no issue. Next month I will have to leave a key under't mat or summat. Hopefully

And then Toby txted me to say "No, not today"

TimMY

So s'morning Tim was able to fix my original diary so I was able to go back to it and happy chappy is the mood now

Extra

And WOW. Tonight we went to an extra at Caffi Iechyd Da and it was excellent, a variety of singer songwriters taking turn to sing

Democracy

Then we went to sumwhere else and voted. Dunno what I thought but I did it

Sigh

Then after lunch we had to go to the Gym where mainly they were testing me. And good lord, compared with when I started I can stand up, walk etc nearly twice as well as I could last year

Oh What A Flippin' Morning

So Ed came in today as I was nearly crying as Google Calendar was f**ked again. I restarted my PC and did the steps that I had to take yesterday and it was still f**ked. After much fiddling etc I loaded another version, an alternative and it has worked so far

Racism

When I was at school my best friend was black and another good friend was Asian. Now it feels a bit odd to see a black singer tonight at the Folk Club. He is good but...

Folking

And in a few minutes we are nipping out to Llanelli Folk Club

Cleaning Him

Then that Toby phoned and said "Can I come up for a shower?" and as I had nowt on obviously I said "Yes"

Sarahless

So Sarah the OT txted me and said "Can't cwm today, got a migraine"

Timmy

So Timmy came in s'morning and together we looked at loadsa rental properties on the www. In the end we decided 2 to follow up and he is on the phone now...

And he had a strange conversation with them. He had to say that my solicitor is paying it so there will be no issue with not paying etc

Sitting Properly

Then we took Toby out for dinner (yes I know, we owe him a cooking lesson) and when we got to the restaurant we said "One of the back seats" but they said "No, sorry full, 20 minutes?" but we said that we would try sitting at a proper seat. Which worked, it felt strange, it looked strange but I did it, it was the first time I have managed to get in a proper seat in 9 years

Deliverer

And when I was just about to go for my nap s'afternoon I thought I'd better not stick my Do Not Disturb sign on the door as someone was coming here today to deliver summat, they came yesterday but I was out.... So I went thru to the living room to tell Paul that he needed to answer the door while I was in bed. I was half way thru explaining when he said "Look" as the deliverer had pulled up outside and was delivering to me

Lookin' After Gym

Then we went to Gym which I enjoyed as much as ever. We stopped and had lunch there then drove round a bit looking for houses to rent. To no avail

Wiv Paul

So when Paul arrived s'morning I was nearly crying, Google Calendar wasn't working, hadn't been for 3 days now but s'morning I set out to fix it and failed. Paul looked a bit, couldn't mend it, we started the laptop and that worked so it was obviously my PC. So we phoned Clever Timmy and asked him, he said "Clear your cache" and as if by magic that worked. So he is now known as Clever Timmy

City 1

And tonights folk club is quiet because everyone but me is flippin' watching at present Man City beating Man United

AND they won!!!!

City 1 United 0

Toby

And later we took that Toby chap to Kidwelly to watch the football with his mates

Edding

And this morning I had a bit of a row with Ed on't way to the supermarket as I said "I am not walking today, my head is in bits 'cos it's my anniversary" and he said "No, but.... walk" and I had to insist (at greater volume "NO"

I know U

And tonight in't pub I saw a man who has said hello to me loadsa times and tonight I asked him a slightly different "Who are you?" question than usual and from that it became clear that he was Naomi's partner in Brer Rabbit, Clive. Dunno how we have missed it so much but now I know. "Hello Clive"

Bike Racing

And I was able to watch a whole bike race, MotoGP, on't telly today. Last time I tried I felt as if my head was exploding but today I watched a whole race

Late

And with TimMy again s'morning. After I was nearly late yesterday I made sure that I had got dressed and brushed my teeth well in time today. Then TimMY was 15 mins late!!!

Snooker

And I am staying up late to watch the snooker. Gosh but it is a really strange game

Snooker

Then today I switched on t'telly to watch the snooker. Just good lord, if you think about it it is a really strange game. Who invented it and when?

Intro

And I was in bed s'afternoon when it occurred to me that my BLOG needs an introduction, a say hello, to make it legible to a newbie not just fans who have been reading it for ages

HP

And I have been trying to go to bed for an hour and a half but Harry Potter has taken my breath away. I am currently 96% of the way thru book 5 and just wow....

Laziness

So for now I am sat in my wheelychair wheeling about. I am quite capable of eg walking to push my lunch carrier into the kitchen, unloading it then pushing it back. But it is such a struggle, so difficult that most of the time I am wheelying. Do I need to change my habits? How can I? Denyse, any view?

Looking For Somewhere To Live

So me and TimMY are going out looking for property to rent in and around Carmarthen today

And we found some!

Daughter

Then, because my head is in such bits, we decided to take Freya to eat out and we had a lovely meal at The Harvester

Out For Lunch

Then later me and Paul went out to Waverley Stores (where we will be shopping later) for a delicious lunch. I had what was described as Shepherds Pie but I think it should have been called Veg Farmers Pie!!

Physio

And Sara the Physio came and did "stuff" to my right arm/shoulder that flipping hurt but did me good so I shouldn't complain

Iechyd Da

Then we went to Caffi Iechyd Da for their monthly folk night

There didn't seem to be very many folk in tonight but it was good anyway

T-shirt

And a new T-shirt that I bought arrived today

Smileys

So we had to go to great lengths to get a smiley in my blog today and there is more possibility

/please :))

Washing

So I listened to the new messages that I put on my diary

so today when Ed was taking my car in for a service I had a proper shower.

Not my bits and pits but a proper shower

Roof

Then today that beautiful woman Ruth came over and returned my big TV which she can't fit. So it will go in my front room in my new bungalow, not my living room as the small TV that I can see will be there

Service

And I won't be able to go to gym today as the car started flashing a "service now" light on't dash every time the engine is started and the only time available was s'afternoon.

So Ed took it earlier, they phoned and it is back now, new oil, new oil filter etc, and washed!!!

And I didn't have to pay for it either :)

'Elli

And we are going off in a bit to Llanelli Folk Club

And it was as excellent as we have come to expect

Triple Busy

Then I was in cooking dinner when that Toby arrived, said "Can I have a shower" then showered and left

Moishe

Then unexpectedly Moishe came round with Eli, her son, to see me and we talked about moving and decorating afterwards etc

OT

Then Sarah the OT came round and spoke about Mindfulness and NAT's and paying attention and moving etc

Looking For Property

Then me and TimMY went out and about, calling into a letting agent or 3 and then looking at their property

Wow

So I am sitting in a restaurant with Toby because I was s'posed to be cooking for him but my head exploded. Why? Denyse came to see me s'afternoon and said "We have got funds, you are moving". The first person ever to leave that place

Just good lord I don't know what to say, other than Hoo-(f**king)-rah!!

Gosh, just OMG - I am moving

OhMyFlippin'God

So TimMY came round s'afternoon and chatted for a bit then we went online and booked my trip to Manchester for Sam's graduation

Nobody

And then s'morning I woke up at about 7, thought I lay there for about 10 minutes and looked at the clock again and it said 10 past 9!!! So obviously I was asleep without realising it

And s'morning I am looking out my window, waiting in the hall etc for my MOS but they are not coming, they are having a scary meeting about me s'morning and then coming later

Still not here...

Dinner THEN Folky

So then we went and got Freya from her house at 5 o'clock. First of all we nipped to a restaurant it was closed, went somewhere else and sat outside it for 15 minutes as it said "Opening in 10" then eventually we went to a third place and had a delicious veggie dinner each.

After that we drove not far to a Folk Club where Freya won the prize of tonight's CD, and generally we all had a good time

Arrangements

And I had made arrangements to pick Freya up from school at 5.15 today after her revision lesson but she just txted me to say "Did I tell you they are not happening today?" so after a few more txts we decided to pick her up from her house at 5

Ed-ington

So Ed is back here again today although Paul is taking us (me and Freya) out tonight to give him a rest

'Tween Pics

And I was looking for my reference about how to link to a lower picture and couldn't find it. Looked on that Interweb and confused myself even more trying to put the wrong command in.

Eventu-(f**king)-ly I found my example of how to do it and it finally worked

SoS

Wow. What a weekend I have had, at SoS 2112. We went up on Friday and were one of the first to arrive. On Friday I mat a chap who said "Hello Neil, I never met you before your accident but I can't tell you how much better you seem now than 3 years ago when I fifest met you at an Ixion do" so I don't really know what to say to that.

On Saturday Gordon had to bring in a very grubby bike because he had just fallen off, but he was unhurt. I am struggling with how he crashed and got up and picked his bike up and I am so ill

Also on Saturday we came back to the hotel for lunch, she said "Sorry no chef" and we went and had a nice lunch elsewhere. The same night she said that 5 minutes after we left the chef came in and she tried to phone us but there is almost no mobile coverage there

And someone also was wearing a T-shirt that said "Rock'n'roll with MS". I thought what and asked him, he said it was his band and a friend of theirs had a child who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis so it was to raise cash for them

For the whole weekend I was torn between thinking "Compared with my life 10 years ago I am f*cked" and "Compared with my life 9 years ago I am so much better"

And the local brewery supplied beer there

And a local festival was publicised everywhere

And I was so impressed with marvin's t-shirt that I went to the supplier he told me he got it from and bought one for me

Lord

i am being tokd off for having negative thoughts so.....

"Isn't it a nice day, here I am in a beautiful place with a good crowd of folk..."

What a day

First I packed my bags for SOS then Sara the physio came in and really hurt me to make my arm better

Dr Richard

Then came down the chap who was here for a number of hours, recording and videoing me talking. His name was Dr Richard Body, speech & language therapist and he is on my side putting my claim together. He did say some interesting stuff and gave me an example from his tape device of how I need to speak slowly and louder and clearer (which I was capable of doing, unlike some of his patients) in order to make my voice more understandable

So practising now, every time I speak

Ybot

Then we had to take that Toby chap and buy him some food, as they had cut off his dole without telling him so he had to reapply s'morning. Now he is a proper doley, sign on every fortnight and get hassle off the staff etc

Drs

So Paul came round s'morning and he soon took me to the Doctors for a follow up appointment on my swollen left leg. He said it is still slightly swollen but nowt to worry about. He said that I should try resting my leg on a cushion when I am in bed

S'evening

And we went to the first folk club that I have been to this week later and it was excellent

S'afternoon

Then I was put off by Sarah OT not coming today, her kids are off school today, apparently.

I have been lost in Harry Potter world since and Timmy is now cleaning

Wiv Timmy

Then Timmy came in s'morning. A bit later I ruined the world by getting in my car and being driven to (More Reasons To Shop At) Morrison's to buy £2.00 worth of Blueberries

Ybot

Then that Toby came round. As I had felt unsettled this week and didn't have a "learn to cook this" organised for him we just went out and I bought us dinner

Gym-miny

Then s'morning me and Paul went to the gym which was as much fun as always but I am still getting better. Afterwards we stopped and had lunch there.

And for the first time yes, I was walking a long way but Paul had to catch me when I tripped over a chair-leg

Later today we have arranged to take that Toby chap out for his dinner too, so I will only have eaten breakfast here today

(And it's a reference to a Mary Poppins song - this Gym-miny thing)

Burry Port

And then tonight we are going out to Burry Port Folk Club

Oh. But then Ed told me he had just been sick so he had to go home. No Folk Club tonight then

Anti-virus

They we spent all afternoon running a new version of Norton Antivirus scanning my PC. Good lord but it is effective but it has taken 2 hours so far and there is still the 3rd hard drive to do

And we are still waiting for it to finish

And it is still going. Today's lesson is OVERNIGHT

Bigger Bin

And I was trying again to make my recycle bin icon bigger. It said "Right click anywhere on desktop, click Properties...." but Properties didn't come up when I clicked. I thought panic.

Then later I looked again, same result but this time I noticed it said "Size" at the top of the right click menu. Investigated and it then said Small icons, Medium icons or Big icons

Walkies

So I went shopping with Ed s'morning. When we were on the way there I said "Can I not walk today" as I felt uneasy. He said "No, I will come behind you pushing your wheelchair". So fairy nuff, I still felt unable, uneasy but tried it. I walked the whole way around the shop, I could have walked much further if we needed to. But I felt too scared to walk

And before we set off he protested to me, tried to persuade me to take off my "I'm a pirate" hat, but we mat loadsa kids about 3 years of age who said "He's a pirate" to their parents then laughed when I said "Pieces of eight" to them

Aargh - I Had The Ability Already

And I got fed up with Gimp to try and stick together 2 jpg's so I deleted that and searched the Interweb again for another solution. One solution said "Download a program called Irfanview, it's easy". But Irfanview is the graphics editor I use and I had never found a "Stick 2 pics" together mode. So I looked at it again and oh dear, good lord etc. Under the Image menu it sez "Create Panorama Image" and there it is, put other pics at the bottom or to one side etc, it works the size automatically etc

MY-Tim

And ho hum, TimMY was on again today....

Food

Then tonight I thought "Oh, I had today's meal at lunchtime, better have salad for tea", but then I thought "No, wan't warm food".... So tonight for dinner, wanting small but warm food, I had a chip butty for tea, and 4 spare chips. Just one piece of bread and a few chips. YUM YUM it was good

Laugharne

Then we met up with Freya and all headed over to the Laugharne Weekend sort of folk festival (noisy link), and it was good entertainment. There is another band playing tonight and more tomorrow but we had to miss those. But what we saw was very entertaining

Shopping

Then TimMY took me exploring and we went into the shop that Sam told me he bought my birthday hat in. Good lord, there was some radical bargains and some very expensive Hippy stuff. They apologised and said it wasn't wheelchair friendly but we said "'Cos there's no room" but it was well worth a look

Timming

So TimMY came over s'morning. If it stops raining we want to look at the shop where Sam bought my hat, then we are picking up Freya who is coming into town to meet us

Dinner

And Paul took me out to have dinner tonight as I think he's worried about me. it was very nice but I need to stop eating at their expense so much, I think I deserved it today tho

Goodbye

So Paul came in s'morning and after some farting about he took me to the coast with my hot air balloon so I could let it off and say goodbye to my sister during the funeral in Scotland

Dinner

And I thought that as Freya had an extra dinner at my expense I'd better take Toby out for an extra so I did

And it was delicious, in the Frankie and Benny's

Tesco's

Then we went off to the (ashamed) Tesco's place and bought 4 days worth of Blueberries (Wow!!!) and loads of quids worth of toothbrush heads

Boiler

Then later in the day the chap came to service my boiler and he said that it was all fine, working well and not leaking

Ding

So Ed came up s'morning closely followed by the chiropodist who I told about the broken nail last time but this time she cut all my nail's better than last time anyway

My left big toe nail looks almost properly cut back now while my right big toe is almost cutting length now

Llanelli

So s'afternoon we didn't do much then this evening we went to Llanelli to the Folk Club which wasn't busy at all for ages then loadsa folk arrived

And I usually drink Whiskey Macs here but they didn't have very many left tonight as last night they had a run on gin and ginger wine

Carmelling

Then we went off to Carmel to the Grasslands Trust property which I am checking out for dumping etc. The first gate we saw had loadsa black bin bags dumped but that was it all for today. Someone had opened one of the later gates but no other evidence so dunno why.

Timmy

What a stressful hour we have had already, me and Timmy. I have to pay for more "stuff" that they should pay for but I am stuck mid-changing representative

Bowling

After my nap we went and picked up the kids and went to Swansea to go bowling. Oh what a day, I won the first game then Toby got better I let them win a game

Gym Crisis

After that I went to gym, what a crisis we had. The lift upstairs was broken, no-one could fix it, after about 20 minutes we had to take another lift to another room and have 2/3 of a gym class

Napping

And I was in bed s'afternoon when a member of Leonard Cheshire staff came to my door, ignored the do not knock sign, eventually read it and went away again

Shopping

First thing me and Paul went and bought a blown up helium balloon. We discussed it and decided to have it blown up today. When we brought it home I was able to write on the side of it, quite well and legibly, "To Carly, thank you and goodbye, from Neil, xxx"

It nearly made me cry writing that but it is done

Walkies

More walkies. Kitchen, washing up, thru lounge to bathroom, sit on loo for a few minutes then stand up and clean teeth and floss and mouthwash then walk back to.... oh no, forgot my bag, turn around walk and get it turn once more and walk to living room and chair

Delete

A few months ago I stopped having to say "YES" when I deleted and made them go away, not Recycling. More recently I had them not going to the Recycle Bin but I had to say "YES". A few nights ago I made it so I don't have to click "YES, delete this" but it does go to the Recycle Bin, which I usually have to empty every couple of days but it lets me check if I have deleted accidentally

I like it best like this

Telly

Good lord, I am actually watching a proper TV program tonight

Bored with it now, watched half an hour

OK, with various distractions it it still on and being listened to, it goes over in about 3 minutes

Cleaning

Good lord. While Ed was still here I snuck off to the bathroom and actually had a shower not just washing my 'pits. Then cos Ed was here he dried my shins/ankles put on more cream then splinted me properly

Out To Play

But me and Paul are taking the kids bowling and for dinner tomorrow night for my birfdé

And immediately after that conversation we also talked about me letting off a balloon for Carolyn on Friday when she is being buried

Ding

A bit with Ed s'morning but not going to a Folk Club tonight as a) I need to have a shower before we go out with the kids tomorrow, and b) They said there is none this week as it's just after Easter