Japflacks

And I asked a MOS "Why do I have eg oats etc" and they said "For making flapjacks, they are not as fattening as many snacks" so gosh, yes, I recall now. So when I have finished this weeks treat I might have to make some

More Watching

And I watched more kids telly tonight

Red

And as I found loads of episodes on Dave ch 19 I am currently watching Red Dwarf

SKYPEing

And I had a brief Skype call with my brother today, just as practice, but it went OK

Banker

So we had to nip into the bank to pay in the cheque my Dad had sent for Toby's birfday, I put cash in his birfday card in exchange. I was nervous but it went OK and it seems to be in my account

Not tomorrow, tonight!!!

Were going out tonight and oops, tonight it is on, not tomorrow

And it was excellent. Clive played loads, I read out 3 poems and it was just generally excellent

Shaving

And I had another shave with a proper razor s'morning. And today, as advised by Ed, I moved the razor down, rather than up on my neck. And good lord, a much closer shave there, good call Ed

Poohing Today

And I woke up s'morning, felt it and thought "First?" but squeezed it and ate sum breakfast before going to t'loo

(sent from my phone)

Booze

And tonight I went to the superdoopermarket and bought a bottle of wine. It has no cork. The bottle I bought t'other night was corked which it seems is rather unusual these days. 10 years ago corks were in every bottle, nowadays they are a bit unfashionable

Dinner

So for dinner tonight I made stir fry veg and a Morrison's curry soz. It said on the jar cook chicken then add this but I cooked veg then added it. And it was really nice, delicious. It took about 5 mins to cook, then half an hour on the cooker, yum

AND tonight I tried some of my olive oil with chilli's in. I tasted it, thought "Can't taste owt" but I think the curry was significantly hotter than it would have been without it

Rudeness

And today as I was bored I changed the link you get if you click on "rude" on my 'site

Exercises

So today I had the first of my sheetful of exercises given to me yesterday by Physio but it wasn't too bad.

It felt a bit odd exercising my right arm as it was by far the worst injured but I did what she told me

More Slimming

Then today I had my first toast with slimming marge instead of butter.

It was actually OK, the marge is not so bad and I could put it on a lot thinner, so.....

Woe Is Me

So last night I thought "Oh g*d, better go swimming in t'morning", arranged my bags full of more clothes, towels etc s'morning, changed my pants for swimming trunx to make it easier there, then the phone rang. Oh, no swimming today as I have gotta do other stuff

Hooray but I have just spent ages getting ready, then nearly as long getting un-ready

But as last night "they" said s'morning swimming b4 lunch I thought "OK, no shower tonight as in an hour I will be in't pool in't morning..." so I will have to have a shower just after lunch today

The Young Ones

For some reason I searched for an episode called Bambi, watched it and it is relatively amusing, still

More Fun

Then all my staff were in the kitchen for a meeting but lord, I had to make my excuse and leave

Afterwards I spoke to Denyse and asked her about the reports that were written about me way back when. She has not 1, not 2, but 3 lever arch files full of the paperwork from back then. We sorted out that it is the neuropsychologists report I wanna see and will see it in a fortnight when Denyse comes back

What Fun

So no gym today (hooray) because a) the physio lady is coming to see me to talk about extra balance exercises etc, then b) there is gonna be a team meeting here to discuss my immediate future etc, so not really hoorayish but still, gymless

Good lord, she brought loads more exercise sheets for me and tried most of 'em. Which was wearing but I could tell how surprised she was that I am so well

And we did loadsa walking upright with my staff gripping my right arm and keeping me walking properly straight. You must do it and learn

Normal Poohing Once More

So back to normal (after breakfast) poohing again today.

So phew

(sent from my phone)

Now Wednesday Visitor

And Freya came over for the first of her new Wednesday visits. I was a bit bored, what should we do together?

But she won't be able to nick my chocolate in Waverley Stores any more. I have reduced to one treat per week, a bar of Green&Blacks from there

STILL No additions

And I walked on my own two feet to bed s'afternoon, again.

And I was able to leave my 'chair half a room away whereas yesterday I left it at the door to the hall

And I took my wheelchair to bed, in case I need it in the night and didn't sit on it at all in the night. So p'raps I will have to try walking to bed in the night too tonight

Weirdo McPhone-call

So I had just finished my lunch today. My BT landline phone rang so I went out of the room and answered it. "Hello, is that Mr Gareth Williams?" he said, "No" I replied.

"Why not" he asked me

Had I thought about it I should have said "Because I am a burglar" or summat but I was too surprised

Voluntary Working

So today we will drive off to Carmel and if necessary take photos of broken bits

And it almost all looked perfect except for 1 gate, someone had nicked it, removed a whole farm gate

Early To Poo

So I woke up s'morning. Most mornings I have my breakfast THEN a poo, but today I felt it was more urgent so today I needed a poo first.

Shock horror etc

(sent from my phone)

He Cooked

And that Toby came down and cooked for tea tonight. OK, it was relatively easy cooking but he made an excellent job of it.

I bought, he cooked

No additions

And I have just gone to bed on just my own two feet. Wheelchair = no, and walkystick = NO too. All by myself

(sent from my phone)

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

Well What A Morning anyway.

So first of all me and Timmy went into Wilkinson's and bought a full length mirror, well a fuller length one. Sarah the Physio is coming here Thursday morning and she will make use of it

THEN we went to gym, where once again I walked in from the car park. Once again I was too knackered to do much exercises but not as knackered as last week, so obviously summat is improving

And I took the opportunity of being in Wilkinson's to purchase another 2 reuseable shopping bags which cost me the grand total of 90 pence

I Can Walk

Yes. Yes. Yes. I can walk without my walky stick!!!!! I have just walked from in front of my PC, across the living room, down the hall, across the bathroom, and back without my 'stick and without holding on to anything I was passing.

For ages I have been too scared to try walking halfway across the room with no 'stick but I just managed.

I CAN WALK

But not too far
So even after doing my walk earlier tonight I am attached to wheelchairing...

Headwaying

After I bumped into someone from Headway a few weeks ago I s'pose I'd better try and show some interest so I will be there tonight

And it was as interesting as was expected but a couple af members said "Well done Neil" as I am showing people how f*cked they can be then get better....

Quote About Finding A Girlfriend

Plenty more fish in the sea

            Swimming by

Bitter Tears

Well, I watched The Best Of Men and actually started crying towards the end. It was good, us cripples were shown well and.....

When I Die

Steph

Pizza

And we had another pizza made from naan bread for dinner with oven chips and I had to use my new pizza cutter that we found t'other morning and it was quick and easy. None of this back and forward cutting, just line it up, press it forward and ur pizza is sliced

(Pics of) Eating with my right hand

And today it occurred to me that I haven't used my right handed spoon for ages, so I gave it a go today. Now it doesn't look as "proper" as my left hand does but the more I use it the better. Now I thought, when I was eating breakfast, that I should use the timer on my camera to take a pic. In the first one I had no head

and in the second one when I leaned my camera on a coaster I only had half a head

so I had to use 2 coasters piled up to take the proper looking final photo

Shop, shop, shopping

And Timmy said "Do you need to go to Morrison's today, as I need...." so "No, but yes". So today I will buy the ingredients to Freya's tortilla's and some other "extra" stuff, then tomorrow I will get some salad and my usual weeks shopping

OK, we got everything on my list apart from salad, I think my and Timmy make a good team shopping

Walking

So me and Ed were in my living room s'morning. I said "I can't walk the 6 steps to my other chair as I have no splint on, where's my walky stick", he said "Go for it" and moved into a position where he could catch me if needed. I managed to walk properly, upright, lifting my right foot etc so I can walk further than my confidence suggests, I AM GETTING SO MUCH BETTER SO QUICKLY that I can't keep up

Gone Now

And my brief visitor has left s'morning and gone back to Belfast

Dinner

And I had to make dinner tonight. We had enough stir fry veg, noodles and cooking sauce for 2 people but randomly on my veg shelf there were 3 spuds left over from cooking on Thursday so I switched t'oven on and baked them. So all 3 of us had a baked potato and some stir fry

Fatter

Ho hum, I am 1.75 lbs heavier than last week.

Irish Politics

Today I put up another webpage and this time it's name included 1690. Which for those of us with an awareness of Irish politics is the date of The Battle Of The Boyne when "us" protestants won

This may partly to be why I tell folk that I am a heathen

Daviding

So my bro is on his way, from Bristol airport, for a 21 hour visit.

I am cooking for him unless he insists on taking me out

And very strange it was too. He came over a couple of hours after he was expected as traffic had been bad, ate dinner with me, watched Dr Who then it was time for him to leave, he will only be here for about an hour in't morning then has to go again, back to Belfast. I know that it was a bit of a brief visit as he just want's to check on how I am but....

Freya

And Freya made it into the shop where we were shopping today and came back to mine afterwards. She really liked the Falafel but did not even eat the garlic potatoes which were much better cooked than yesterday. That was a bit disappointing, I wasn't overly impressed with them but did like them.

Afterwards we discussed attendance as from next week Freya will be attending Rangers every Friday and won't be able to come so we rearranged her visit to a Wednesday

Oh Dear

And as the summer holidays are over we better nip to the swimming pool.

Hoo-flippin'-ray

I AM GETTING BETTER
Just good lord, in the swimming pool stretching my legs upward, doing the breast stroke with both hands etc. In the couple of months since I have been there and I am so much better already

And as I was walking up and down the swimming pool I was able to concentrate a bit less on lifting my knee and walking properly with my right foot. I think I am beginning to learn properly how to walk, it is more automatic than last week

Duh

So last night I switched off my 'puter and nipped bedwards. On the was I switched on the laptop but it couldn't find my music files which are stored on this PC. It took me checking and showing Dicky that it is working again s'morning (which isn't what I was trying to show him) that it began to dawn on me.

Autoshutdown in an hours time, instead of switching off now is what I should have dun last night

Wow

Suzie Cater posted a video which actually brought tears to my eyes, but on reflection there is no point me being jealous, my f*c*ing eyesight doesn't work well enough

Ybot Again

And we took the rest of Toby's washing to him tonight and he was going straight out to meet a gurly, so god knows etc

Gymming

And me and Dicky went to gym.

Again, it seems to be habitual now, I walked from the car into gym.

Again I was too knackered to do much proper exercise afterwards but it is getting/making me better

Cooking

And Dicky suggested that if the cooking goes well today one day next week we will make some garlic mushrooms to have with a french bread which, if it comes off, I think will be an addition to "Neil's easy dishes"

Well tonight's dish wasn't cooked properly, but lovely anyway, so hopefully it will be even more delicious when reheated and cooked a bit more tomorrow

RHS

And after lunch I filled my kettle back up to boil it tonight and the whole way thru I held the kettle in my right hand

Shop

And so me and Dicky went shopping, I bought some spuds, some double cream, some cheese etc which Dicky is gonna help me turn into Garlic Potatoes tonight, and there will be enuf left over that we can have it tomorrow when Freya comes to dinner too, with the Falafel mix that Freya reminded me to buy this week too. So yum yum in anticipation.

I had to buy some stir fry veg for the weekend too

Ybot again

And tonight I had to pick up Toby, do a load of his washing then drop him back. Hmmm, I feel a bit used but what choice does he have?

Sarah Jones

And we had a really important visit from Sarah the Occupational Therapist today as she wanted to finish off my views as she is putting together a big report for the court on how I am doing. She seemed really positive and gave me sum feedback on how well I am doing at this being in the real world

And she suggested I look into holidays abroad, perhaps starting with France or Spain then being more adventurous when I know I can cope...

Computer Genii

And this morning I was looking online for devices to listen to music from my PC in my bedroom, but they were very expensive and I didn't buy any. I mentioned it to Timmy and he said "You have a laptop in your bedroom, why can't it be in the sharing group?". Much fiddling about etc and now the laptop speakers can play any MP3 file on my PC in there, through it's own speakers.

Next query, after a bit of looking I found AUTO SHUTDOWN on my PC so I can set it to go to sleep a couple of hours after I have gone to bed, listening to the music, or read out books from my PC

Oh he is so clever this Timmy chap, it was all his fault that I sorted stuff out today

Organic

"Indeed, even the Soil Association's own president, Monty Don, acknowledged as much when he took on the role in 2008: 'I would much rather someone bought food that was local and sustainable but not organic than bought organic food that had to be shipped across the world'"

Interweb Stopped

Just at bedtime last suddenly the www started playing trix on me. www.hippyweb.me.uk would load but from that, the page called Getting.htm wouldn't load, after many trials, different browser etc it still wouldn't and Classic FTP wouldn't work either. So in disgust I switched it off and went to bed. This morning it all worked, phew

Oh Dear

After glancing through a list of files, BI stands for Brain Injury, nothing sexual

QI

I am watching QI on i-Player ATM and it isn't bad

Ybot

And Toby is coming over later for dinner. Today was his second day at college, his first proper day as they had an induction yesterday. Gosh, I hope (and pray) that it went well for him and he is doing summat proper with his life again

And it turns out "later" he has to stay in college 'til 7.30 tonight, so much later he will be here

No, even l8r, dunno they must be talking about more important stuff so he said "C U again"

Big Team

So today I have got Dicky and Paul as my team, and they both wanna come to gym with me. Paul want's to assess me doing various stuff, possibly bicycling etc

Well they both came, were both making noises about how well I was, this week I cycled on a different bicycle which wasn't as comfortable as last weeks but I did it

But for the second time I walked from the car into the gym and then I didn't want to do more exercises as I was knackered

Windy

So I went to loo needing a pooh last night. I got there, farted loads and thought "Oh, gone now" and went back to bed.
Farted LOADS

Neil The-Hippy http://www.hippyweb.me.uk

(sent from my phone)

Chokky

And today I started the bar of chocolate that Freya left here t'other day. Just WOW, it is delicious, she chose an (expensive and) excellent bar for me to buy her

More Reason's To Shop At....

And we went to Morrison's s'morning and bought all sorts of stuff. We didn't buy any WitchDoctorWitchHazel which we couldn't find last week

but they do sell it on Amazon, so I bought some last night

No Shower

And the water has been turned off in this area today while they fit sum pipes. My big bottle is full, as is my kettle but no shower today. Woe is me  (noisy video)

And by half past five the water was back on, properly fixed, so HOORAY I will be able to have a shower tonight

And interesting, the next time I go up the street and see if they have filled in the hole that has been there ever since I moved in

Brain A Bit F**ked

Mmmm, this is summat that happened 6 years before my accident but I have completely forgotten all details

More Lunch

And today I took out the toasting bags, some bread and some cheese. Luckily I checked the bread in the bag first, it wouldn't f**king fit. So I had cheese between toast again, not toasties.

I have bought some different toastie bags off Amazon, they look a bit bigger

And tomorrow it is back to salad 'til Friday when hopefully my new toast maker will have arrived

Wow

Then in the afternoon/evening one of my oldest friends turned up, Zoe who was wonderful and is just as beautiful as when I saw her before my accident

Lunch

And today for lunch I toasted sum bread and sliced some cheese while it was toasting, then put 1 layer between 2 bits of toast. YUM it was delicious and it didn't prove as difficult slicing thin pieces of cheese as I had expected

So was it nicer than cheese on toast?

2nd time in as many days

Then later on today that Freya came to see me again. I txted her earlier and said "What's going on?" she replied "Dunno" but I felt I couldn't tell my daughter "But I saw u yesterday" so we actually had quite a pleasant time

Cripples Race

And I am watching the Paralympics again on telly today, and it is so impressive. People who have beaten this 'u r a cripple' thing and are doing their own thing

Dunno whether to laugh or cry

Still watching it, just.....

"Ability not disability"

Biker

And I heard this "BRUM, BRUM" s'morning and looked out the window. There was someone on a 'bike pulling up outside. I thought "Who's this?" but it was someone looking for number 52

Boogie

And we went out to Iechyd Da for a monthly folk night, met Freya there, and it was good.

2 monthly nights in a row but it was good

Thursday

"And no Neil, it is not Saturday today, it's just Thursday"

Dunno why I feel it's weekend...

Zoe

And while at Tesco's with Dicky I passed some txt's with Zoe, one of my best friends about 12 years ago, I haven't seen her since my accident but she is gonna drive down and meet me in Morrison's Café on Saturday afternoon. Her chap, who was also one of my best mates died when I was way too ill even to go to his funeral, so it is gonna be a bit strange, but exciting seeing Zoe again

A Good Time

So when we arrived at The Parrot for the first of their new come-all-ye's there was only us, Clive and 2 other folk, but as night went on it became well busier, so I think I am looking forward to next months already

Banker

So this morning first of all I asked Timmy to check my car tax and it is ending June, oops. Someone is sorting it out now but be careful

Then we went into LloydsTSB and tried to sort out my accounts, we opened another current account and closed my 2 spare savings accounts. Hopefully the bank cards for the new account will arrive here in a couple of days

Because we said "Have you received my new deputy order yet?", they said "No" but basically they took the deputy off my account as I am obviously in charge of my own cash, so I will receive the new cards here

Dat Boy

Then this afternoon a handsome young chap came to visit me. He has got to get up and go to college tomorrow so I hope it will go well

Nearly Hit The Ground

And in gym today we were standing up to practice just before we left, I stood up and toppled forwards. Luckily I could move my left foot forwards and my left hand with my 'stick quickly so I was able to catch myself, stop me hitting the ground.

My bum hasn't been right since, I nearly shat myself there and then

Gymmy with Timmy

So in a bit me and Tim are going to gym. I think today I will walk, with stick, from the car in the car park, into gym, show my card to get in then walk to gym. Timmy will need to follow me pushing my 'chair just in case...

I will let u know if I succeed

:) Didn't I do well :)

Telly

And there being very little Ixion today I am watching some telly. And it is pointless, sh*t

Pasta

And again I made a pasta and stir fry and stuff for dinner. The packet of stuff that I used said "serves one" on it but you were just supposed to heat it up and pour it over pasta whereas I had made loadsa veg to add.

So it worked and was lovely for the two of us

Veggie Forced?

Food shortages could force world into vegetarianism, warn scientists

AND they will make us read about it, too

Visitor

And Julia's dad, Brian, came to see me s'afternoon which was a bit strange but quite good.

And he brought me 2 of these

My eye is getting better

Then today while I was eating my lunch I temporarily took the eye patch off my right eye. Looking out the window while eating I can say it is definitely getting better, much less between my eyes, the vision looked a lot more normal. Still obviously not normal but a lot better

More reasons to shop at...

So me and Ed went to Morrison's and did a small shop, I think this once a week is too much so I will try twice a week now

Holiday

So it's a Bank(er) Holiday today but some of us don't get holidays, I have got no holidays, each and every day I have to work at flipping getting better.

Posted on Ixion s'morning

Dinner

And for dinner tonight we had scrambled eggs, beans and (oven) chips.

Yum yum it was good

So next week I might try frying the eggs, having them with beans and oven chips.

The beans are a recent addition to me, yes I like them but I think I had forgotten about buying them, and as I always cook for two adults or more, one small tin of beans is a lovely addition to some dinners

And as we had beans tonight I couldn't find a space to add the chilli ketchup

Taking It Easy

And today I am not doing owt, resting, reading my "book", it had been so hectic that I am doing bugger all except reading until we have arranged to give Toby a lift back from Kidwelly

Gone Down

And Dicky measured my leg after creaming it, and my left leg is 2cm smaller than yesterday which is loads better.

Made your own pizza

I am sorry for telling u this but I want publicity for my idea somewhere so....

For dinner tonight I had Naan Bread Pizza, it was ferking delicious. Open packet of Naan, spread some tomato purée over it, as much or as little as you want. Add some grated cheddar then some veg, I used 1/2 an onion and a mushroom on each tonight. Cook for 10-12 minutes at 200 degrees.

Coincidentally oven chips can go in the same oven 9 minutes before. It was so easy to do and so delicious, so here I am spreading the word

Posted on Ixion

Zoe

And I got in touch with an old friend tonight, one that I haven't seen for 13 or 14 years. Julia got in touch with one of her kids through Facebook and passed on her details tonight

And I have just found out Zoe works as a carer, I have 24hrs a day live in carers

Splint Off

When I was getting ready for my bath I sat on the edge of my bed and started to take the splint off. ! piece of figure of 8, yep, done, one piece around the back, yep done, but I couldn't find the 3rd piece. I called for help, he said "It's just this", I said "Aha, do it up again" and undid it myself and then was able to take my splint off alone.

See if I have remembered tomorrow night

Dinner

So Freya came back for her dinner tonight which was nice, she was here 2 days ago but I am so important to her... we just had veggie burgers and oven chips but there you are, 2 pizzas will be made and eaten tomorrow night

Splinting

And my splint feels much lighter less like an enormous device that hurts my ankle. I have had it on since 10.30 s'morning and it just isn't hassle, so I will keep it on until after shopping later s'afternoon, no problem, no issue.

Taking it off on the other hand.... I need help with that. Now.

With Dicky

So s'morning we better nip to shop as Dicky didn't get to buy himself some lunch, when we are there we will get some staples for their collection and we may as well buy a mousemat or 7 for me

Aargh, we got everything else but forgot a mousemat

Power Cut

And I was just sitting here about to turn my PC off and go to bed when it all went dark, the power had all gone off. After about 30 seconds it came back on, lights lit up etc

Telly

And I have got sucked into watching an upsetting telly program tonight. Very strange, I have been watching it for nearly an hour now

Doom and Gloom

Is this such bad news as it looks when I first glimpse it?

I need a week off

So today we nipped to the splinters and got a radical new splint, yesterday it was radical this, day before it was radical the other

I just want/need a week off getting better so quickly so I can think about what's going on and come to terms with it all

Rapid

Then we got back here I had 20 minutes to eat my lunch then I went to try out my new splint in the gym. We were 2 minutes early which was well lucky after travelling over a hundred miles both directions, having my splint fitted and a quick lunch.

So well done Ed the driver

New Splint

And we have just been at splint makers in Cardiff and now I have a premade much lighter splint which only supports my foot sideqays, not up and down. It feels much better and I can now tap my toes while wearing splint!! I AM getting so much better

Neil The-smug-Hippy www.hippyweb.me.uk

(sent from my phone)

Splinters

And we are going to Dacey's in Cardiff s'morning to get my pair of new splints

No, change of plan

So Sara the physio met us there, was talking to the splinter chap about how much my ankle is better, then rather than the 2 splints that were planned I got a new type of splint that doesn't restrict my foot moving up and down(1) but does restrict movement sideways. It feels really comfortable, is much smaller and lighter and it cost £34.00 instead of £150.00 which was penciled in for the big thing

(1) I have got my splint on and can tap my toes on that foot

And it is the first stage of getting rid of my splints permanently. OK, only a first stage but it has gotta start somewhere