Planning

 We've decided (well, I decided) we're going home this afternoon.....we've had a lovely 10 days here with our wonderful neighbours C & J, but I need to get home and make a few plans.  As I mentioned before, I've kind of lost interest in our home over the past few months - I'd rather be here at the van.  But we can't stay here permanently, and the house does need some work - deep cleaning, a lot of decluttering, decorating and new curtains and blinds.  We're going to talk to our landlord about the decorating - neither of us is really in any fit state to do the decorating, we both have joint and mobility problems.  Although the inside decorating is supposedly down to us, we are aware that the landlord has had decorators in to a couple of the other tenanted houses (he has his favourites!).  He does arrange for the houses (the farm owns probably a dozen or more tenanted houses) to be gutted, thoroughly updated and fully redecorated as required each time a tenant moves out.  However, as we've lived in this house now for 10 years and will be here for the foreseeable future (there's no limit on how long we can stay), whereas the other houses seem to have a rapid turnover of tenants, it does mean our house is in need of some work.  He must know that.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained - he could of course say no, or we could come to some kind of compromise.

I've been under a lot of stress again lately - that isn't going to change anytime soon, but planning and doing things in the house will take my mind off it.  We'll start by approaching the landlord, then doing some thorough decluttering - I will be ruthless, husband is such a hoarder of 'things that might come in useful' (but somehow never do) and an untidy one at that.  I will have new curtains and blinds in all the downstairs rooms.....Sue, thanks for the mention of Dunelm, I'd completely forgotten about them, I've bought curtain tracks and poles before in their sales.  There's a big one here not far from the caravan, we'll look in there.  I'll also have a look on ebay, thanks Ruta.

There are health things for both of us I need to sort out - husband was discharged by his cardiologist into the care of his GP - ha, that's a joke, that was getting on for 3 years ago and he's not had ANY review of his heart meds, nor an annual check up for his heart - which he's supposed to have!  I have a lot of joint pain with my hips and knees, and a new problem with my right shoulder/upper arm.....well, I say new, it's been going on 2 or 3 months now.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning feeling like my entire body is just one big sea of pain, it's so constant now that I more or less ignore it, although it's very hard to ignore sometimes.  I haven't got time for pain, I just have to get on with things - if I don't, nothing gets done.  Nothing, and I do mean nothing, in our day to day life gets done if I don't do it myself, or prod husband into doing it, and keep reminding him because he forgets instantly.  I'm also supposed to have 6-monthly bloods and check ups for my 2 relatively minor liver problems - nope, not had any for a couple of years now, which will no doubt be blamed on Covid.  One, the congenital one, should stay a minor thing, but the other could potentially become very problematical, hence why it's supposed to be kept under review.

Right, must get on, have to pack everything we need to take home, change the beds and give the van a thorough clean.  It'll be a couple of weeks before we come back here again, and I do like the van to be clean and tidy when we come back to it.