Miss Him

So after Alex said "Lets go check the garden s'morning" and we did it occured to me how much I will miss him when he goes after next Wednesday

Cool Teacher

Someone on Ixion posted this note from a teacher to pupils yesterday, I approve

Big Walkies

So this afternoon, at my suggestion, we set off to the reservoir for a walk around. (Basically it is number 4 in this guide). It was well lovely, very "in the countryside" but all accesible etc. A lovely afternoon out

Strange Memory Came Back

And I had a strange issue with remembering stuff from the past for the first time in years today

Wanted

So I arranged the webpage with my purchase, left it sitting incomplete for an hour and in the end gave in and bought one

Clean It

And I discovered today that after GGtGG cleaned the cupboard doors etc after the tiler was in that some of the cupboards have actually got dirt on the eg plates in there, there is a much bigger cleaning up job than we expacted

.....Only Happens......

And there is thunder happening today after lunchtime

Class

Then today I had my gym class which went as well as a......

And on the way to gym I was discussing my issue about getting on the plane, I got to gym and quite happily set off up the stairs. Gosh it's easier than it was last time I flew

Gym

Then we headed to gym where he said either cycle for an hour or do 5km in 10 minutes so I just sweated and panted, did the shorter but much more intense cycle then headed home for lunch

Shopping

So then first thing today me and Timmy went to pick up my organic delivery front Iechyd Da then on the same trip we drove to Morrison's, parked in the carpark, checked my Organic Order so we could buy anything that hadn't come, and walked in and did the rest of my shopping

Lunges

<Sigh>Again</S>

Pick It Up

And we need to head over s'morning and pick up my weekly delivery of organic food which makes Timmy (who is driving me today) think all kinds of negative thoughts

Lunged

<Sigh>And I did some more today</S>

No, Can't Bear It

Aargh. Tonight on telly I started watching The Invictus Games and what can I say. After about 3 minutes I had to turn it off, I can't bear it. If you have lost both legs in a wartime incident you shouldn't be running a race. Just wow and aargh etc

Saying Tara

And today was Alex's first shift working since he said he was giving in his notice which feels a bit odd

But he has remembered his swimming trunx so we will be in Aqua Gym later

And what can I say... It was interesting

What A Performance

So we went to Ceir Cawdor Cars in Carmarthen, popped the car in for it's checkup, walked from there the number of hundred yards to the Cafe that used to be Aardvark when I worked there. Had a cuppa tea, a very nice bun then headed back. We got back, waited 5 minutes then she came out and said they couldn't find any faults on the car. Wait and see at a guess

Gymming It

And I popped down to the gym and did hard exercises for 20 mins. A sweat was broken into

Lunges

And as I had been taught to do exercises called Lunges In The Kitchen and then couldn't go in my kitchen for a week they had kind of fallen through. But s'morning I have restarted the exercise scheme

And this evening too. Lets get back in routine....

Warm

So I am lying in bed without anything on my top half. And no covers over me, it is that warm at half past one in't morning

Fr Ted

And tonight I found an episode of Father Ted on telly and I am rather enjoying it

Missing Him Already

And Tim announced today that in a few weeks AwfulAlex is leaving my employment, he has found another job so he will be leaving soon

Swimming

Then me and TerribleTimmy headed to the swimming pool. Apparently my lengths were much quicker today so dunno, summat must be improving

FES-ubble

So s'morning it occurred to me.

So I haven't had the FES on yet today but it has already done me so much good. I am walking almost without concentrating and my right foot is sitting flat on the floor, not all trying to turn upside down like it was before I was fitted with an FES device in the first place

Table

And earlier when we were sitting at the dining room table to eat I noticed that it had gone wobbly. MM looked at it and said "Allen key later when you are in bed napping". He did and it is much better now, I can press on it to stand up with no fear of it falling apart etc

Cooking

And for the first time in a week I had to get knives and boards out and actually cook from scratch the curry that we are having for tea tonight and the foreseeable future, it is a large saucepan

Out

Then just before lunchtime me and MightyMark went out for a drive about. We popper out to Narberth and just walked over the well uneven up and down pavement. It was better on the other side of the road but I said "Therapeutic" when MM suggested crossing over. Eventually we called into a café and had a brew

Luck Or Skill

Taking this pic under my porch tonight. Luck or judgement?

Neighbours

And s'morning GGtGG said "I have just been talking to your neighbours and they wondered it they can come and see your kitchen floor as they might want a new one?"

So they popped over later and were well, vocally, impressed with my new tiled floor. So I suspect they might be contacting the fitter....

Dinner Where?

So we had dinner in the kitchen/dining area tonight and already it doesn't feel like a novelty. I am used to it again, phew

Mayo&Chips

After a conversation about fattening foods that I had t'other day I thought "I haven't tasted that for nearly 15 years" so tonight I tried it with my Sweet Potato Oven Chips. Mayonnaise and Chips. I had forgotten how good it tasted (even tho it's not doing me much good) just yum yum it was

Walkies In Town

Then s'afternoon I was feeling a bit twitchy and GGTGG said we needed some shopping so we drove to town parked on Lammas St opposite the new Aardvark and set off walking to Wilko's. We went in there got about half way to the back when GGTGG said "I need to go right to the back of the shop for some XXX. Wanna wait here?" But I said "No, it's theraputic" and followed him right to the back for some goods. Then we queued up and paid then left. On the way back to the car I said "Aah,  Poundshop, want..." so we went in there and walked around until we found what I required. Then we queued, paid etc then walked back to the car. On the way GGTGG commented on how different it feels being in town with no wheelchair.

Lunch In Kitchen/Diner

Then today we, me & GGTGG, sat in the dining area to have our lunch, for the first time in nearly a week. It felt good

Beginnings Of Back To Normal

So my MOS is coming in early today so "the two of them" can get stuck into putting furniture back etc into the kitchen. So hopefully breakfast today will be my last meal in "there". IIRC they can't put the washing machine back until tomorrow as it counts as heavy so...

No, mistaken I was. They were saying that yesterday, to today is tomorrow IYSWIM. 3 loads of washing done and dried and put away today

Even Tho

And even tho the tiler has finished there is no furniture in the kitchen until tomorrow when it has all dried properly etc so me and Alex are still going out to eat tonight. At Pizza Express to keep up a Friday Dinner tradition

Didn't He Do A Good Job

And the tiler has left today, he reckon's the job is finished and I might agree

Friday Dinner

And we had to keep up some traditions for Friday Dinner even if I can't cook it myself this week

Hot Weather

So today it has been so warm so I installed a temp measurer device thing on my phone. Now, at a quarter to 11 it says "Indoors 31° Centigrade"

Now at 11 it sez 32°

Macaroni Cheese

After my query when Alex ate this on Tuesday I went back to Morrisons for tea (and my weekly shop too) and tried this. Yes, it was purely average a la Morrisons café but I so enjoyed eating it. I got a bit emotional, like "I used to really like this but it is about 15 years since I have had it (and I had an ABI etc etc) so I couldn't remember, until the first mouthful went in"

But yum yum

He Sais "Wedi Gorffen"

So tonight he has finished tiling the whole floor. It looks f'ing lovely. So tomorrow he has to grout the whole floor and fit the edge bits etc then he is finished.

Then I will owe him sum but I think....... it's worth it, this time

And s'evening I was walking about looking at the room, it feels so "not slippy underfoot" it is so much better

Performance

So first thing today I popped into Iechyd Da (we got the closest free disabled space on King St, no car park was involved this time) and fetched my delivery of orgy porgy veg etc.

Then I went to gym for a mega cycle.

Then we came home for lunch.

THEN we popped into town back to the chemist near the Drs and fetched my new sockings

Mega Cycle

Well it was written on my timetable to cycle for an hour today but I thought "No......" and said "Just 20 minutes but going AFAF". So usually I travel 3.9 or 4 km in 20 minutes, today I broke into a sweat and cycled just over 5 km.

Dinner Out

And tonight we popped out for dinner to somewhere close to where I usedta live and currently not far away from Freya but I was astonished. A) it was really nice and tasty and B) it cost next to nothing, but it tasted like quality food, not cheap rubbish

Bank

And I was a bit thrown out by Lloyds Bank s'morning. I queued up, gave the woman my cash card and said "Can I have X hundred quid, please" she said "Type your pin number" and counted out the cash for me

So I needn't have taken my passport as the only proof of ID that I have now that I no longer have a driving licence

Missing Her Already

And we popped into town s'morning and forgot that the chiropodist was coming to cut my toenails. The floor layer told me when we got back

Almost Painless

And when he creamed my armpits tonight it was hurting perhaps only 2% of how much it was hurting 3 nights ago. It is still unwell but getting better and I still have 3 days on antibiotics.

Here's hoping...

Out For Dinner

Then tonight we are going out for the first "someone else's kitchen" food. Dunno where we are going tonight, I will leave it up to Alex(1)

And we just went to Morrison's for tea and we both said "That was lovely" afterwards. And it was relatively cheap. £13 for the 2 of us with 2 apple juices, 2 coffees and 2 buns between us

(1) No, my call actually, in the end

Weirdo Lunch

And we had lunch in the spare room today then. It all went well, I could find everything etc but it felt so strange

What A Day #27

So after the crisis s'morning, we popped to Morrison's where I bought the smallest Muesli I could find as more organic is being delivered on Thursday, then to the gym to do lifty/pushy exercises. On one of those machines, I asked Ed for advice, I said "I suspect that my right arm is lifting as far as the left now, is it?" and he said "Yes". It still hurts to move it like this but if it now moves nearly as far as the left summat must be improving

Thrown Out

So s'morning I had breakfast in the spare room and just as I finished the floor redo-er arrived. Conversation, then he shut the door and got to work. ATM there is big noisiness coming under the door s he struggles to remove all the tiles and carpet

And you should hear him drilling (noisy WS)

He has finished drilling now, so phew

Out

Earlier s'evening I did more preparation for the tile layer coming tomorrow then said "Can't stand it, gotta get out" then we went to a pub on King St (My local was shut, it's Monday) and had a couple of pints

Then when we came back I had to go into the spare room to prepare breakfast for tomorrow, that I will be eating in there

Breath.....

And today GGtGG came in an hour early so him and MM could get stuck into moving the heavy machines out of the kitchen etc as the chap is starting tomorrow so I will be out of there for the rest of the week

And Timmy just txted me from Malta to say "Tiler has just txted me, he will be with you by 8.30 in't morning"

Getting Better

And while GGTGG rubbed cream onto my armpits s'morning it still hurt a bit but 97 times less than yesterday so it is improving

Bank Holiday

So today is a bank holiday. That means no gym as it will be full of kids who are off school for the day etc, hopefully BTN Tuesday

Eating

And I nearly had to fill the bird feeder again. That's about 3 days since I filled it. Either more birds are eating or we are gonna have some fat pigeons

Foggy

And it is well foggy here ATM

Less Hurting

And having just had MightyMark put cream on my armpits I can say that it hurts less than it did yesterday. It still hurts a bit but it is getting better. I have another 5 days of antibiotics so hopefully it will continue

Next Week (or 'This Week' if you count Sunday as the first day of the week)

So next Tuesday the floor tiler is starting in my kitchen/dining room so it will be a week of eating out

And my team started rearranging the furniture, when there was two of them here s'morning, to make the spare room into an eat breakfast/lunch area next week

And I have done my last load of washing. Tomorrow morning, when there are 2 of them here, they will attempt to put the washing machine into the garage. And then GrumpyGareth is responsible for removing loads of tat out of the kitchen etc ready for Tuesday morning

Dinner

Then for dinner tonight I took a breath and tried to cut up (I failed, had to ask GGGtGG for chopping assistance) the Butternut Squash which I bought last week and was too intimidated to try.

But it was actually really nice roasted as main carbohydrate

Tomatoes

And the tray that has been sitting in the kitchen is starting to look a bit more useful

Walkies

Then s'afternoon we drove around town looking for a free parking space to no avail. So we headed into the pay&display bit at the end of King St. We parked there, walked to the other end of King St then turned around and walked back.

The only problem was that Gareth set my FES stickers as recommended by Sara t'other day which was fine for 200 yds then stopped working.  I sat on a bench, he investigated and found that as they weren't supported by my sockings in the new position they had simply fallen right off.

Lunging

Then s'morning I did the first of my (as instructed by Sara) 3 times a day lunging exercises. Which involves putting my right leg forward, bending it about half way (which I can manage now) then bending my backwards left leg as far as possible, for about 5 seconds. Dunno, it is supposed to improve my flexibility and strength

Done a second now, while I was cooking dinner

Pizza

But then, eventually, I made a couple of na'an bread pizze with chips for dinner. It was as nice as usual

Marginally Chaotic

So after she left I was pushed for time. So I went to bed with no bath, napped, got up and went to the Dr's about my armpits then came back and felt that I'd better have a bath today as my armpits are so wonky, so we did have a late but delicious dinner

Right. The Docs. So we explained, asked for stronger cream, she said "No, that is the strongest", suggested antibiotics, had a close look at my 'pits and after looking at he right one, the worst, she said "Yes, it is all infected, you need antibiotics" and gave me one I don't recall ever having before, it is obviously specialising in this kind of infection. But after looking at the instructions and looking online it is not a killer to have a few pints one night next week

Then

So we had a quiet morning then didn't go to class as the physio lady was coming to see me. She listened to my issues then tried a different position for the FES. We went off walked up the street to test it and walked back. She told Mike loadsa stuff that "the staff" need to know about positioning, then was really impressed with how my foot/leg position was so hopefully if I can repeat that... Then we took 3 or 4 photos which I will send to "the staff" later..... after my nap then after my trip to the Dr's about the rash in my armpits...

Out

So we are out for the night at Caffi Iechyd Da

And it was excellent. Took loadsa photos but it is too late to transfer them now, manyana

It's done today

Sudden Hail

And suddenly tonight it was suddenly hailing really hard for about 3 minutes. The sky was blue 10 mins ago and it is slightly raining now

More Docs

And Timmy phoned the Dr s'morning and was told to phone back to speak to her tomorrow so we can find out why my armpits are still swelling

Scared

And Timmy came in s'morning and talked about the tiler coming in next week and moving the fridge, washing machine etc

Aargh, and I had just been to pick up my weeks veg and we won't be eating here much......

Busy

And we have a relatively busy day today, pick up veg, go shopping, go to gym, take tablet, go out to Iechyd Da tonight......

And we gave done all the morning stuff now. Part of the exercise at gym just wouldn't work but as she is coming here to see me tomorrow, the physio, perhaps we will have an update

Walkies

Then before dinner I said "Lets go for a walk, so we drove to Carmarthen, parked up in the disabled bay at the beginning of Lammas St, headed off then up the hill to King Street, past Iechyd Da, from there along King St, down the side of the Court House back to the car. Exhausting walking up and downhill thus, but it is worth it. (In blue dots on this map)

Exhausted

So the AA class was renamed this week, it is now called Aqua Fitness. Dunno if it will last but... Anyway I did a session doing random tilty in the water rather than against the wall but I did it. And I was able to stand on my right foot and kick with the left more than last week so summat is helping me

Marginally Busy

And today I have an early lunch, then Denyse is coming here to discuss summat with me, then we are off for an Aqua Aerobics class

No, less busy now, Denyse phoned me at quarter past ten and said "As it wasn't a very important discussion we had planned and summat else more important has come up......" so she cried off today and is gonna email me with a substitute date soon. So just early lunch, take my tablet then go to Aqua Aerobics

Well an early lunch has been eaten....

And a tablet taken...

Dinner

And for dinner tonight Alex was crying when I said there was a pan of curry so instead we had baked spuds with grated cheese and beans. It was delicious but the curry in the fridge...?

Gymtastic

Then we went to gym and got stuck into various exercise machines etc. Today on the 'pedal by hand' machine I managed a full 10 minutes exercise, the longest I have managed in the past has been 6 of those minutes

Pick it up

Then s'morning we popped into the Doctors at the end of King St. and picked up my prescription, then I walked across and down to the chemist to have it made up

It seems like no time since this whole trip involved out of car, into wheelchair.... but for a couple of.... at a guess months, it has been walking

And we had to sit in the car for 5 minutes until the rain stopped at the first call, the sun was out by the time we finished in the chemist.

Quote From Ixion

And on the mailing list which eats up my life "someone" said about the do last weekend

>> It was good to see Neil the Hippy there sans wheelchair

And someone else replied

> Indeed it was, another mark of continuing recovery

Which was nice to read

Hail

And there was an outburst of hailstones s'morning. It's supposed to be becoming summer........

And an hour later the sun is bright from an almost cloudless blue sky.....

And 15 minutes later the sky looks grey and cloudy again......

10 minutes later it is nearly cloudless again...

(Not real photos, got them off the Interweb....)

And a few hours later this was the view from my bedroom window when I was settling down for my nap (real pic)

Ordered

So again I ordered my fruit and veg from CMOrganics which will be delivered to Iechyd Da on Thursday

Feck All On

Then after lunch I had nowt on to do. But I got stuck into cooking a big pan of curry which MM said was rather nice, not as burning as last time I cooked curry for him.

But then I realised that we had no more "microwave rice makes 2 portions" so we nipped to MoreReasonsToShopAt.... and while I was there I stocked up on Sweet Potato Oven Chips and some frozen protein

Sigh

So I am off to the 'wimming-pool in a bit with my part time trainer of disabled swimmers MOS so no doubt he will expect me to do loads etc

Well did it. It didn't hurt so much

And I did a whole breadth of the pool with no floating aids, I just swam it!!!! Which I haven't managed since my accident years ago

Out

So as I was bored we popped into town to a pub (as my local is shut on Sunday's and Mondays now, we found out when we drove there) and had a couple of pints

And earwigging this morning when Timmy was handing over to MM he was paranoid that I would fall over etc

But we parked a couple of hundred meters from the pub, I walked there without my 'chair and walked back without falling over etc

Chores

And today I have stripped my bed and washed it, weighed myself and... done bu**er all else. Oh, I have cleaned myself from top to bottom. Well had a bath

Uphill

Then s'afternoon I had to take Timmy out for a coffee/bun treat as he took me and paid for it on Monday. This time we parked on the corner of Blue St/Lammas St in town and walked all the way up the hill to (the very posh) Ice Cream shop at the top of the hill, past the old Crown Court building

Mmmmm

But after we had eaten the woman who served us said "How was it?" and I just said "Will you marry me?" and she said "If you take me on holiday" but I can't as Timmy needs to keep us company etc

Painter

So Timmy came in s'morning and said "Someone coming to see us s'morning" then pottered for a bit until someone parked outside. Went round the place with Timmy then said "I won't be able to start for 3 weeks, if..." which suits us. So he agreed to email Timmy a quote this week then hopefully he will paint the whole outside of the house and repair some bits etc

Phew

And while I was preparing dinner tonight I knocked the timer device on to the floor. Oops. 3 pieces and a battery lying there. I reconnected it all up, put it all back together, and it just worked, first time I presses a button

Thrush

And the new cream that I have got from the Dr for my rash says "For the treatment of vaginal thrush and for your partner if he has thrush on his penis" which is slightly reassuring

Off Oot

Then when Timmy was here t'other day I said "There are some musicians at Iechyd Da on Friday but I think guitarists upset me, as I used to be (half a) one". He said "You don't say that at the Open Folk Night....". Oh yes, that's right... so my and GGTGG are heading out after dinner tonight

Lordy, just wow etc (noisy link)

Back To Docs

Then s'morning "we"(7) need to go back to the Drs to ask for a new, stronger, cream for my armpits. It has got 90% better but that cream has been rubbed on for 3 weeks now. I need a stronger one to actually make it all the way better

(7) Me and GGtGG

And we saw a very beautiful young Dr and she gave me a weeks worth of hydrocortison tablets and a new cream

Than we went to gym, oh what fun we had 

Suddenly Busy

So s'morning we popped out s'morning to buy a new toilet thingy to fix the leak in the staff room loo that flooded last night. So first of all we went to Towy Works walked in, turned around looking, thought"WTF?", walked to the counter, showed the chap the broken thing we had brought, he said "Hang on" and went and fetched one.

Then we popped to Iechyd Da and picked up the delivered Organic Veg

Then we popped home and put the goods away.

Then we popped to gym where I did 6 minutes on the bike, said "Ohhh". Timmy said "Take it to 7 minutes", took it to 7 minutes and said "Nuff" then Timmy said "OK" but I tried to carry on more and the machine gave up. So I went homeNow Timmy has turned all the water off and is trying to fit the loo fixer piece

And he did fix it, put it all back together then last piece he realised that that should have been in the middle so he is now taking it all apart again to put that piece on

Aargh, well he finished and it flushes and doesn't leak so much but there us still a slight leak, so he gas set the old one on the side and left a note on it for Alex, the ex-plumber, so when he comes in he can hopefully properly fix it

It seems to have settled down into a "properly fixed" position now, it no longer leaks and is filling up faster

TBCC

So half way through the class in the pool at't gym today Tina announced that it had a new name. Instead of Aqua Aerobics it was now to be known as the "Tina Being Cruel Class". Fairy Nuff, I think so too

Nooneraft

So we headed out this afternoon/evening in search of "coffee and buns" and we ended up on St Clears in the actually rather welcoming Little Chef cafe where I did indeed have coffee and bun

So when we came home for dinner I didn't have any carbohydrate, just protein (no chips)

Gymtastic

So we headed over to gym today and did loads of machines, lifting etc. It was all looking much easier than last week when I got stuck into The Cross Trainer machine but I felt that machine was making my right knee move in the way that I have been fighting against for months now

Swimming

So we went swimming s'morning and while I am impressed with speed of swimming etc, and definitely better at it than last week, I still had as much fun as a.... poorly tiger

Rearrange

And Timmy came in s'morning and said he had been txting with the floor tiler over the weekend and basically he is coming in 2 weeks to do the kitchen/dining room. So "someone" will have to rearrange furniture etc.

So I will eat breakfast and lunch as normal, well in the bedroom to eat them, and we will go out for evening meals until he has finished

Back To "Normal"

So then I came back and was much too busy to switch on my PC for ages. So we nipped out to Morrisons to do a weeks non organic shopping and also to get half of my weeks supply of organic food (which was half and half possible from Morrisons) as I was away when normally eating fresh orgy produce so I will get an order again later this week.

And I did (am still doing) loads of washing to catch up

And I am socking-less today as we had to wash all 3 pairs that I normally rotate today

Bysee Bye

So we have had breakfast and already said "Tara" to a number of people.  I will finish my shit, pack the rest of my stuff and then be off ourselves

Last Night

So tonight we had the last night of Ixies. I decided not to go out to eat so I had a small pizza here with half a bowl of chips. MM had the same. So we ate with about half the Ixies, chatted to them for a bit then chatted to all folk when they came back. A pleasant evening was spent, many folk said to me how much better/lighter I am

And it is so warm tonight that I took off my fleece and was just wearing a T shirt

Hay On...

So we popped into Hay On Wye s'morning and I was actually rather impressed. It was all uphill and downhill and unsettling underfoot and I managed, we walked around for ages, went and had a brew, then walked some more. I insisted to MightyMark that he bring along the wheelchair as last year I had some difficulty walking everywhere but I didn't need it this year. I walked everywhere, pretty much from one end of town tovt'other then back

MOS

And we were leaving the hotel today and another MOS was sitting on the desk, she said "I didn't see you yesterday, I saw you s'morning and thought 'Where's your wheelchair?'" which was nice to hear and to be recognised from last year

Thundery

So this weekend I am sharing my bedroom with someone who is best described as a loud snorer. A very loud snorer