I AM getting better

So today was changing the bed. I still need help putting the sheet and the cover on but today I was able to do the pillow cases and thing cover.

Yes, it's not all of it but it is progress

OK. On the subject of getting better, someone has put a wedge under the kitchen door to keep it open in the wind. Now I use my right foot to arrange and kick it into place. Last year I had to use my left foot

No Time

And because we had been busy at the garage etc I didn't have time to cook (the 3+ hours for bollock knees) so we popped out to The Caraway Restaurant. My food was alright but Timmy had to complain and say "This meat is all runny, swap it for summat else please, I will just have a burger instead" so we weren't very happy with the trip out

BUT before we ate we headed into Carmarthen to stand on the footbridge and watch a "fun" rowing race. Which was strange but being able to stand for that long and walk that far is a bit encouraging. 

Hippy Cars

So we went out today to the Texaco garage and looked at their hybrid cars, starts on petrol, switches to battery, when battery runs out starts petrol again etc. I think ATM they are the most enviromentally solution that doesnt need plugging in every 40 moles

Roll On Monday

Then at some point on Monday someone is gonna deliver my new PC for the bedroom, either to me or the greenhouse if I am out.

£56 well spent, I hope

Oh The Fun....

And we are off in a bit to my one physio class of the week, "stroke" this one is aimed at...

And we had an early lunch so I had digested before going to class, I need to

Just by jazus, I am getting better every week.

The one that stood out for me was the stepping up and down and back up again without using my 'stick. And there were loads, I said to Sam about how my right foot is so much slower than my left foot doing a movement and she said "You didn't used to be able to use your right foot at all". And the stepping left and right, again with no stick and I managed to catch myself when I was a bit wobbly, again in the past I would have been on the floor

Ooh

And Timmy spoke to me yesterday about choosing a new Motability car and he said there are a small number of Toyota hybrids available without having to pay too much extra. So we will head out over the weekend, when he is working again, and have a look

Oooooh, a eco friendly hippy-mobile!!

Lordy

So then tonight I showed Timmy some of the links to cheap PC's that I found, to replace the one in the bedroom but eventually we just bought a refurbished one from Amazon, I think I am protected etc

Force Of Habit

It is just becoming more normal to walk about indoors with no walking stick

So Near So Spar

Then after lunchtime the postwoman came late and delivered my new monopod. Upon opening it it looks all wrong, won't fit on my camera so we went online and said "Give it back". So they said "Print this out, stick it to the envelope and take it to the Spar". Which we did but they said "No, computer system is down, try again tomorrow" so on the way to gym tomorrow (or way back from) we have another call to make.

It is the first time I have done a "Send it back" thing to Amazon and it wasn't too hard

What A Morning

So first of all s'morning me and Timmy had to head for the Drs to get my inhaler and a new cream. Fairy nuff except when we were finished I walked towards the door but Timmy had headed for the shortcut to the chemist. Oh yes, that way......

Then we had to head to Carri Iechyd Da to fetch my organic delivery. First time we went down King St someone in front of us nicked the parking space but second time around someone was coming out of a much closer parking space so we got that. I had to tell them that I will be late next week as we have to head to the hospital in't morning but that was done

Then we popped off to Morrisons and just about got everything, they were well short of organic milk but I found a big one with just about the right date on it

Then before lunch we headed to gym where I did 20 minutes on a rowing machine

No Stick

So I was sat on the bench out the front reading when the bin men came and took it away. The kind chap brought the waste carrier up to me and set it next to the bench. So I stood up, picked up the carrier and walked all the way around the front and up the side of my house to the spot outside the garage where I keep the carrier. Walked the whole way with my walking stick held horizontally off ground

But the back door was open for me to enter so I couldn't do it back round!!

Gloop Gloop Gloop

So I had an early lunch and then just after lunchtime we headed to Aqua Aerobics. Well the regular teacher was back for a start and......

Just WOW etc, I am noticeably better week after week.

So first of all in the car on the way there I told MM about how my kicking when swimming had noticeably improved on Monday with somebody else. Then during the class I was doing "Stand on your right foot and lift your left leg" without having to hold on. I was just balancing on my right foot without holding on or overbalancing, too much anyway

And just generally I was able to do all the exercises with my right wrist in the correct position, wasn't bent over unnaturally

10km-ing

So here we are in the fscking gym pedalling away like a good 'un. We have about another 7km to go....

And wasn't it fun, I finished quicker I think than last week

RHS Pic Crisis

So if I am trying to take pics with my right hand pressing buttons etc,  also need to do that when it is plugged into my PC to transfer pics etc

No, 'tis done now, etc

Folding It Up

And tonight I washed the 3 towels that I had used @ swimming pool and experimented with taking 3 more out if the cupboard and replacing them. The point came later when the sun had dried the towels. I took them to the cupboard, folded then one at a time and was able to reach upward and forward and put them away, by myself. It is the first time since 2003 when I haven't required assistance with this task. Looking in the cupboard now they look properly away, not wrinkled balls of....

Farewell Wrinkly PC

So I said to Timmy again, "Is there an issue with this PC, it is so slow", he had a look and said "Nah, it is just too old". So the only think I use it for are playing music (and looking at dirty pics at night) he swapped the music store and speakers to a spare laptop and it has a link to all my vulgarity, so it seems so far to be about 18 times quicker. So we have put the old PC to one side, we will see how I get on with the substitute

My Calendar

And I changed the month on the calendar s'morning instead of 2 or 3 days ago and it contains a beautiful picture of one of the tourist treats on the north coast of Ireland

Noisy

And the birds were cheeping s'morning. They were doing it moreso when I went out but by the time......

In My Book

So at the minute I am about ⅔ of the way through The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and I am rather enjoying it. But today I was reading and came upon a quote

And that is the same quote I have on the first page of my website, my home page

WTF#2

So I woke up s'morning, looked at my watch, thought it said 9.30am, thought "WTF?", put my top on, shoes on etc, got up, walked to the loo, a voice from the next room said "What are u doing, it's only half past 5"...

WTF?

WTF

And I was watching a program about driverless cars tonight, dunno what to say..... but I was impressed

No Hibernating

So I was looking at a way of switching my PC to not "hibernate", just "sleep" mode. So I investigated and found right click on START and goto COMMAND PROMPT. But it didn't work. What was going on? Ah, it didn't say COMMAND PROMPT, it said "COMMAND PROMPT (Admin)" which I had missed yesterday. Did what it said and my PC is behaving more like I wannit to

Still Improving

And today when I was cooking 2 dinners at once (one in the pan until tomorrow) I was hopping backwards and forwards around the kitchen without my walk stick and without holding on to owt to balance, just walking about like a proper person

Shirt

And today I am wearing a lumberjack shirt kind of thing over my T shirt. I noticed today when taking it off (as I was overheated) that I used to avoid the lumberjack shirts as they had buttons instead of a zip, which were hard to do up etc. Yes, they are still difficult but 10 times easier than 6 months ago as my hands are becoming so much more useful

Art For Arts Sake

So me and MM headed into town early and called into the Oriel Art Gallery in Carmarthen. It was excellent, some beautiful work. The assistant was talking with me about the art and he went into the back room and fetched another book to show me pictures relevant to our conversation. There were another 2 art galleries opposite, across the road, but we decided to head off round town for a walk and will call in next weekend to look at these 2 galleries

(Sigh)Friday(/S)

So after an early lunch we headed gymwards, but Sam wasn't there this week, it was another teacher who used to teach my ages ago. And she was commenting on how much better I am doing these days, which was nice.

But also marginally upsetting, if I am being unusual as I am getting better what does that say about all the other members of the class?

Iechyd Down Diddly

Good lord, but there didn't seem that many folk there at the beginning but by lord there were loadsa muso's, poets etc, all kinds of entertaining folk.

One woman read a poem which talked about "being able to walk faster" or somesuch so I went over to her table and said I felt that poem was aimed at me as I had been in a wheelchair for ages, learned to walk slowly, got faster every week....., she said "Stroke?", I said "No, ABI" and she said "Aargh, my daughter suffered a Brain Injury 5 years ago" and we talked for ages filling each other in on our stories. They now run a business together, despite her daughters mental issues

Bicycle Races

So here I am cycling away at gym. The sooner we finish today's 10km the sooner we can go home for lunch

Bother. Yes I finished somewhat later and just slumped panting etc for some time afterwards, no lunch yet!!

Then s'evening we are heading out to another Caffi Iechyd Da do, in town

This Used To Be So Hard

So flushing the right hand sided flush lever on the loo used to be so hard, I used to have to reach across with my left hand

Used to be difficult......

Fill Up The Freezer

Then after dinner tonight we popped out to Farmfoods to top up the freezer. The only issue we had is they no longer sell any Sweet Potato Frozen Chips but that was strictly a top up rather than needing some

Oh What Fun We Had

So we are heading to the Aqua Aerobics class in a bit.

My heart is full of joy.....

Sarcasm doesn't really suit me, does it....... 

Well that was fun wasn't it

RHS

So today I took some photos only using my right hand to operate buttons etc, when I stuck up the webpage to that effect I noticed about a third of a screen below that one was one saying "My right hand is getting better"

So yes, like proof that it is kind of thing......

Random Pics but SO Important

So today I took some random pics out of the car using my right hand. Like I used to do before my accident but I haven't been able to do since 2003.

It isn't very important pics but being able to use my right hand in this fashion is important

Pyle

So we are off to see Sara the Physio at Pyle s'afternoon....... I hope she will be impressed with my improvements but I am sure she will push me some more

And we are on the way now, nearly reached the M4

And no, shock to the system, it wasn't Sara but a physio called Rhyan who was doing strange stuff with my right arm, attaching it to a FES style device, an AvivaStim,  and wriggling it, and I could do a bit of wriggling by myself. Lordy, even by the end of the session I could feel an improvement, but there is still a long way to go

WTF?

So we headed down to a Headway Swansea meeting and played a 4 person game of placing numbers with various other BI'd people

As ever I thought "WTF are we here for?" but as ever it was marginally better than going to gym

MOT

So we are sitting in Cawdor Cars awaiting for the MOT test to be done. They said I need to order my repeat car so they will have it in stock by September. We looked at 2 smaller and we liked both and I could manage.

A Mocha my favourite one is called

Well an hour and a quarter and they gave us the keys back and said "Tara". So we came home, quick lunch then we are off to a Headway Swansea meeting

Not Today

And there is no noise coming from my devices today

Telly

And I watched this weeks Dr Who again and what can I say, it has attracted my interest in so many ways......

To The Tip

And today as it was quiet we headed out to The Tip to take grass cuttings and my old Trug frame and some other recyclable tat

Noisy

And we were looking round in the garage s'morning and we spotted 2 wind chimes hanging at the back. We had to take them down ages ago as the chap who previously lived next door was dying and they disturbed him. But as he had died and his missus left ages ago so we put them back. A silly sound on windy days

Nice Cup Of......

Then s'morning I had my coffee with breakfast same as usual but a couple of hours later I decided to try a radical approach and made a nice cuppa tea in my mug. I had to wash out the mug, turn the kettle up to proper boiling point etc but I did enjoy it in the end.

A nice cuppa tea

Sh*t

So whose fault is this crisis?

Caroline

Then tonight I clicked on a link on my phone. Lordy I have been listening to it since before dinner time. Radio Caroline, ooh its good

And this is some not quite Caroline thing based on it, just wow

Still Getting Better

And I did loads of veg s'morning, peeling and chopping etc and there is no doubt, a)I use my right hand for peeling nowadays and b)I am just generally getting better use of both hands once more

AND over the last few days I have walked in and out of the back door, up and down 2 steps, without using my walking stick or holding on with my hands. Just like a proper person!!

Rest

Day of rest

Thursday Dinner Treat

And as we popped out for dinner last night we had the Thursday Treat, na'an bread pizza and chips for dinner tonight.

And it was as nice as it usually is

Hay Fever

And my nose is running much worse today

Extra Treat

So I wasn't sure if last night's concert was gonna be this months "come all ye" folk nights but on the table when we got in was an advertisement for next weeks once a month do

Get Ready

And it is an early lunch today before I go to gym for a Pulse class with that Sam kind of over lunchtime

And I went, and it wasn't Sam taking it but Christine The Posh Totty. MM wasn't joining n today as he hurt his ankle and he said that watching me he could tell how much better I am improved

Windy Day

And it is well windy today

Panic Over Salad Pack

So I nipped to Iechyd Da and fetched my veg s'morning, then to Morrisons for the rest of my shopping. Came back, putting it away and I panicked, no salad pack. Checked the delivery note, none on there so I checked my order form, no, not one there either, "Aargh, must have forgotten" so after gym we headed towards Morrisons, were going round the roundabout on the way when I recalled "No, home again, home again, jiggity jig". I haven't used a salad pack for a week, I go to the Trug and cut some off every lunchtime

Weekly Business

So s'morning we nipped to Iechyd Da and fetched the orgasmic food then to More Reasons To Shop At.... and fetched the rest of my shopping.

THEN we nipped to gym and did various exercises

Then we are going back to Iechyd Da tonight to see a gig and eat dinner etc. So we are not eating the usual Thursday dinner of na'an bread pizza and chips. Waiting until tomorrow.....

Cooler Today

And it is about 9 or 10 degrees cooler today

Upsetting (2)

And when I lived in Manchester years ago in the "estate" I squatted in was surrounded by high rise flats, which were all closed and emptied out to knock them down as they were seen as a H&S risk

Upsetting (1)

So it makes me feel a bit strange. On the selfies yesterday you can really see the scar on my throat where they had to insert some device to keep me breathing after my crash.

I have no memory of such stuff but there is the scar to prove it

Hotter

Map

And I have gotta try and recall that the html trick I was trying to remember last night it called an "Image Map"

Aerobics

And it is an early lunch today as we are off to Aqua Aerobics at lunchtime

And wasn't it fun. As usual. But I can't half tell that the motion in my right arm isn't half improving week after week

Off Out Tonight

So we are off out tonight to a comedy night at the theatre in Carmarthen.

Lets hope there are more people watching it tonight, we made a total of 6 last time we were out

And there are 4 of us so far tonight. 

No a total of 4

Bicycle Races

So we came to gym in the heat to do a 10km cycle

Oh what fun we had

BUT today, for the first time, I completed all 10km without needing a rest, I just did it in one go

Hot, Hot, Hot

Lordy but it's hot. (And it is even hotter now, quarter to eight)

By my RHS the window is wide open, to my left the door is wide open and it is still too hot in here

STILL warm tonight

Back To Normal, again

<sigh>

So we are back to normal again, swimming with MM if he has remembered his trunks at about lunchtime

</s>

Well we went swimming and it was much cooler in the water but by the time we were dried and dressed we were roasting again.

Now, in terms of getting better. I managed a width and two thirds hopping on just my right foot. A fortnight ago I could only manage 2 yds so it is obviously much better. And swimming, I just did all 8 lengths one after t'other. It is the first time I have managed that, I used to have to do it in two batches of 4, with a huge panting rest between

Hot Stuff

So I went outside to read at about 9.30 s'morning. I lasted about 12 minutes before I needed to come back indoors, out of the sun

It Knows

Well, it knows what the weather is like today

Burnt

As I am watching the news about the fire in the towerblock I can't help thinking of Hulme where I usedta live in Manchester. It was surrounding about 8 towerblocks which were being emptied and knocked down as they were seen as "dangerous". H&S gone mad but it was to keep folks alive

Fark - I'm a fan

Just watched yesterday's Dr Who and I had to grin most of the way through. By Gord but it is good stuff

Cloudy

Another cloudy, raining in Wales, night

And it is so cold that I am sitting wearing just a t-shirt
on my top half next to a wide open window at 8pm

Sunnier Today

And.....

Weekend Of Rest

So I was talking to one of the beautiful neighbours s'morning and she said "Quiet day, much gymming?" but I had to say "No, weekend of rest, it is too busy with kids all weekend until school starts again in Monday"

Lets Go

And I dunno where I found the photo but I found it again within mine last night and it's just perfect, where I wanna drink, where I have a costume for

Sigh

Well we went to Sam's class s'afternoon and I did it. Dunno what to say, I am just improving every week. Which a chap said to me today, he has known me for 4 or 5 years since I started in the basic class, couldn't walk and hardly move my right arm etc

First

First thing s'morning I was confused, getting the towels and the cream out of the bathroom to take them swimming, even tho it is my weekly gym class today (with Sam in charge!!!!!!), not swimming.....

Then me and MM headed to town, to the car park on King St, into the Drs then the chemist next door to get my prescription. That took most of the morning, as I need to have an early lunch before my Friday gym class.....

Oh Dear

Whoops!!!

Art Gallery/Museum

So last night one of my beautiful neighbours was talking to me. She said "So what will you do in the evening?..... Art gallery/Museum?". And I said "Gosh, I tried art galleries a long time ago when I was sitting in my wheelchair. Access wasn't that good and visibility was impossible, but now.......", so I think at the weekend me and Roy will perhaps explore.......

Sunny Day

And I took a pic out the window when I was s'posed to be napping today

Out Again

Then after my nap we headed into town. We headed to Charlies and picked up sum batteries, bird seed food and a frame to put around the very old picture of my Mum and Auntie Madeline that my father gave me when I was in Belfast. In terms of busy-ness we framed that picture, then we put up the second pic my Dad gave me of the ship he was on years ago

As Usual

So we popped into town, at first we couldn't find a parking space on King St but after going round and round for a while we found one. Walked down to Iechyd Da and fetched the veg. Then we drove to More Reasons To Shop At.... and fetched na'an bread, milk and yoghurt etc.

We headed home and put all that away then headed to gym and did loads of upper arm and body exercises. On one of the lifting weights upwards machines that last time I managed 12 of the 30 I am supposed to do, today I managed all 30, for the first time ever on that machine.

Then after time on the walking upstairs machine which I need to do every day when I am at gym(1) I did ages

(1) According to Sara yesterday

Uber Back To Normal

So today I have to go back to my "Thursday Shopping" unlike last week when I was away in Belfast for the weekend. So this week buy na'an bread to make into pizza tonight etc

Properly back to normal

I Know Where I Am

So when I woke up s'morning I knew I was in my bed in my flat, unlike yesterday

Drownless

So I missed one of my swimming sessions on Monday as I was travelling back and I will miss the aqua aerobics session today as we need to a) Travel to Pyle to see Sara doing all kinds of scary physio and b) As an after thought meet Denyse half way between both out base places so she can...... slag me off or whatever the notes say to do today

Well, what a day #27. So first of all I walked up the steep stairs (frightening Denyse and Timmy) into the meeting room upstairs where we..... held a meeting.

Denyse was actually not telling me off for loadsa stuff but she did say "Why are you off your mind, you must have been naughty". Then I did half an hour on the walky machine, turning round to walk both ways even tho it is much harder when my right side leads. But by the time we got back it was nearly dinner time and I needed a bath and nap first

AND as we were walking back down the long and steep stairs Denyse walked behind me holding onto my bumbag in case I tripped. I didn't and then she had to walk back upstairs to get her handbag and files etc as she couldn't carry them while keeping an eye on me

Where Am I?

Then s'morning when I woke up, despite having been at home for 36 hours, I thought "So where am I today".....

Mañana

Then the phone rang and it was Denyse, she had spoken to Sara (who I have got to see tomorrow at 2) and she has permission to come to Sara's place of work at 1 tomorrow when she will tell me to be good etc for that extra hour, which makes sense, it is halfway between us

But I don't know if I will be able to cope, seeing 2 such beautiful women one after the other

Trip To Town

So first of all we headed to town, parked on King St and popped into a shop on there and bought more solar powered decorative lights for the garden.

Then we popped down to what used to be woolworths and bought a photo album so I will be able to put the photos that my Dad left for me of me and Mum together over the years into one album, perhaps with some writing

THEN we popped down to the diabetes eyesight test where first of all they measured how well I am reading and then she took photos of the back of both my eyes after some chemical had sunk into my eyes which meant I couldn't read anything for a couple of hours, but it is back again so I can read while I type

Sigh

And I have got too much to sort out, too knackered now, just.........

Jigety jig

Home again, home again

In bed now even tho it is much too late etc, we flew back and didn't crash

L8R

Then after my nap we went out to eat... somewhere as directed by Dad. We had a delicious meal then came back to the hotel for a coffee. Then folk took turns to leave

It was emotional in so many ways which I am not fit to go into tonight

Folk&Transport Museum

Then s'morning we went, with Dad to the Folk and Transport Museum and it was way too big to have a look at, and way too much walking upslope and downslope to find the cafe but it was nice when we eventually found it. I had a nice chat with my Dad and we are going back out with him s'afternoon

I also had a chat with David's Nora and kind of realised how much better I am than 6 months ago when she saw me last

Birfdé Bash

Then after napping we headed out for my Dad's 77th birthday bash. The meal was delicious and we had 3 courses but they weren't overly massive so I felt that I could have more

Strange

So Dad came to the hotel last night, then we popped over to his house s'morning and kind of said "Aaah". We left him to see Gareth then he is gonna come over to the hotel after lunch, we will pop out to see some sights then we are going out for a birthday tea

Sad

Dunno what will happen in't morning, I will take a trip over to see my Dad...

Wedi Gorffen

So we arrived at the hotel, they said "Can't check in yet" so we went to the eating part, had just ordered lunch when Daddy arrived. He spent a happy couple of hours there then said "Later" and went off, we went to the room and I found that I could use the stepping into the shower over the bath device then went to bed for a bit

@ Airport

So after an early start, frantic last minute packing then a trip up motorway we are sitting in Cardiff airport having a coffee

We're Off

So I have had to set an extra early alarm clock for the morning as I am getting up and flying to Belfast, to my Dad's house to see how he is getting on without Rosebud.

It was originally booked as a birthday treat for him before my Mum had an illness crisis which caused some extra trips to Belfast 

Vaguely Unsettled

So my bread bin is empty. It no longer contains tomorrows lunch defrosting

As we are eating elsewhere tomorrow

Gym-off-ero

Then after we brought the shopping back and put it away we headed to gym and did some rowing machine.

Oh what fun we had

Then

On the way back from voting we headed into town to pick up my veg from Iechyd Da. I think it was quite lucky, this week I had ordered olive oil and pasta which pushed the price up a bit but as I had ordered almost no veg the price was acceptable

The only things we need when we come back on Monday, OK not the only - the main things we need, are a small salad pack and a couple of pints of milk from the supermarket

Voting

So first thing s'morning RoyGBiv took me past the pub at the top of the road into the church hall where I was able to walk in and make my cross.

I used to struggle so much when I wasn't so mobile but I have told them postal voting was in the past

Nip Out

And we nipped out in the rain to pop to a cash machine so GGtGG could take out some funds for him and MM to spend on whatever they like in Belfast at the weekend

'Wimming

So we headed over to Aqua Aerobics workout today and it's a bit embarrassing but I might say, whisper, that I actually enjoyed the session today

More Practice

To try and embed it in my head....

And NO, we won't put the washing out s'afternoon even the sky is blue ATM

Well even tho the sky was blue then by the time we came out of the swimming pool s'afternoon it was raining so just as well that we used the tumble dryer......