Big (ish) news

 Betty's foot seems better today, she's not limping anymore and isn't licking it as obsessively as she was yesterday.  The medication is helping, I guess.  I hate to think of her in pain or being unwell.

We got a lot done yesterday, took 2 old computers and a bag of rags (husband's old clothes!) to the tip, and 2 more bags of clothes and shoes and another full of books to the charity shop.  Did a small top-up shop as well - honestly, the prices never stop rising do they?  The price of this little top-up haul was about as much as we used to pay for a full week's shopping.  Husband was pleased to hear in the Chancellor's mini budget that his pension will be going up by 10.1% next April, a decent rise on the previous year, but I always think well every little helps anyway, regardless of the amount.  Of course, there's the Council tax going up, as well as everything else, so we may not see much of the rise.

The big news is......I've submitted the housing application forms, along with uploading the required documentation to prove our identities and address.  I checked through the forms again carefully, making a further couple of amendments, and decided that I'm happy with what I've put so may as well submit them, rather than waiting another week before I see the Age UK advisor.  It's going to be a long process anyway, the Council housing website states that there are many more applicants than there are properties available, so unless we have urgent requirements for housing (such as homelessness or urgent medical need), we could be waiting up to 5 years!  So I thought the sooner I submit the application, the better.  So I very much doubt we'll be moving anytime soon (I would prefer not to move in the winter anyway), but that's fine with me - it gives us more time to declutter and downsize all our belongings, and to save up for the moving costs.

I'm still going to see the Age Uk advisor next week, I'll take a copy of the housing application to see what they think (I can amend it online anytime), and perhaps find out some information about benefits.  We currently claim no benefits whatsoever as I don't think we're entitled - as far as I can see, we don't fit the criteria, but I can't say I understand the rules very well and a trained advisor may think differently, or know of some benefits that we may be eligible for.

Husband didn't have his telephone pre-op assessment yesterday, he had a call in the morning to say the person doing it was off sick, so it's been rearranged for next week.

I'm back to using my walking stick when we go out anywhere, hips are hurting so much and I'm so unsteady on my feet.