Home again and back to reality

 We're home now, unloaded the car, I've put some things away and loaded the washing machine.  We've had a nice week catching up with our caravan neighbour friends, we'll be seeing them again towards the end of the month.  Actually, we'll probably see them one day next week before they go home for Easter, we're going to have a day at the van on Tuesday or Wednesday, whichever day the weather is good.  It's a pity the weather hasn't been better, it was showery on and off all week, with a freezing cold wind and the occasional (very brief) sunny spell - yesterday the wind was gale force and bitingly cold.  So we haven't gone out much, but on the bright side I've read 1 and a half books and done some more crocheting, and hardly thought about the bloody car at all.  (Since getting home an hour ago, whilst I've been unpacking etc, husband immediately put his computer on and started car searching again....ho hum, we have to get another car sooner or later!  Preferably sooner).

I've just rung the surgery for my x-ray results.....apparently there's no sign of arthritis.  Good, I suppose, but it doesn't answer the question of what the hell is going on with my knee then?  There's got to be a reason for the constant sharp pain and the knee collapsing, which it does every day, several times a day.  The GP wasn't there.....like seemingly a lot of GPs nowadays, he only works part time, so I have to wait till Monday to see or speak to him.

It was so easy at the beginning of the week to make a snap decision to gather a few things together and go to the caravan for a few days.  What made it easier is that when we were there last month, we'd taken over all the toiletries etc we needed, spare towels and bedding, some tinned and packet food (including tea and coffee), and a complete change of clothes.  And all the batch cooking I'd done and frozen last month meant that I could just grab a few of the ready meals out of the freezer and throw them in the cool box, along with the fresh veggies, bread and milk I'd bought last weekend.  So we were pretty much ready to go in an hour on Monday morning, we didn't have to go shopping when we got there, and I was done unpacking within half an hour of arriving.  Easy peasy.

Before we left just after lunch, I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen whilst husband was loading the car, then finally I vacuumed through - it's always the last thing I do before leaving.

I shall do some more batch cooking this coming week, I'm going to make sure I always have a good stock of ready cooked meals in the freezer to take with us whenever we decide to go to the van for a few days.  Being able to decide on a whim to go to the van is brilliant, and having not much to pack and knowing we don't have to go shopping for a few days makes it even better.

Mad or brave?

 There's a lady tent camper, who apparently is a regular visitor, who turned up here at the park a couple of days ago - I can't quite decide whether she's totally bonkers or very, very brave and resilient!  She's certainly very friendly.....introduced herself and told us a bit (quite a lot actually!) about herself.  She's around my age I should think, perhaps a few years younger, is alone but has a dog with her.  She's disabled and uses a wheelchair most of the time, but is able to walk a short distance.  She comes from Falmouth (way down in Cornwall) and drives a fair distance before stopping to camp in various places along the way.  She has a car identical to ours which is packed to the gunnels with all her camping equipment, wheelchair, dog etc.  She sets up her tent - yes a tent, in this weather! - entirely by herself, she's clearly well practised at it.  So she's a lady on her own, getting on in years, disabled, with a dog to look after and walk, who loves camping seemingly whatever the weather - it's been blimmin cold and rainy and very windy here, interspersed with brief periods (and I mean just minutes) of fairly warm sunshine, but still with a very cold breeze.  I don't know whether to admire her for her total resilience and spirit, or be filled with horror at her choice of a tent - a tent!! - in a typical British spring that's throwing all kinds of weather at us.  Admiration wins out, I think.  

The weather is supposed to be better today, so we're off out this morning.  We need to get some dog supplies, there's a pet store in an area we're not familiar with not far from here, which has an out of town shopping area with several stores that we don't have near home, so we're going for a look round.  It means I get to look on my own (which is something that doesn't happen very often) as husband will stay in the car with Betty whilst I look, and then we'll swap over and I'll stay with Betty whilst he goes off for a look.  We were thinking of going to the beach but, although it's forecast to be sunny, the wind (which has been present all week) is due to be even stronger today, and I don't much fancy being on a beach getting sand blasted.  We might perhaps go for a walk round Cheddar Reservoir, depending on just how windy it is.

We're going home tomorrow afternoon, as we need to collect our prescriptions from the surgery and apparently my x ray results are in.  Our lovely van neighbours are going home on Saturday, we'll meet up with them again later in the month I expect, they won't be here for Easter as they have a family birthday.

Changeable

 We've been having a lovely catch up with our van neighbours C & J, we're so lucky, we couldn't have chosen better neighbours, they're such a lovely couple.  One of the other van owners, an elderly lady on her own (well, with a labrador) has had a bit of a disaster - it was her first time back here last weekend and she discovered her van had had a really bad roof leak which has caused extensive water damage inside her van....the walls, floor, fitted cupboards and lounge seating are saturated.  Fortunately, she has family members who also have vans here and they were helping her out, taking out the ruined fittings and making (I assume temporary) repairs to the roof.  They've since all gone back home so we don't know what else will happen, or whether her van is even repairable, or if she has insurance (we're all supposed to have insurance, we've got it).  Her van is newer than ours, considering just how old ours is, we really are lucky that it appears (touch wood) to be in such remarkably good structural condition and we've had (as yet!) no real problems with it.  I don't expect that to last forever though, but we will have had our money's worth hopefully by the time we do have problems.

The weather is a bit of a nuisance, it's so blimmin changeable - one minute it's chucking it down with a freezing cold wind, the next it's sunny for 10 minutes.  Obviously, I would rather it stayed sunny, but it would be good if it just stayed in one weather mode for a good while, so that if I nip out to have a chat with someone or take the rubbish over to the recycling point in the sunshine, I don't suddenly get wet when the weather decides to change in the blink of an eye!

Had a rude awakening early this morning.  Husband had made a wood framed net cover for the ceiling vent in the kitchen, which he stuck on using (tiny!) pieces of double sided tape......I voiced my doubts that it would stay up, he assured me it would be alright.  Well, of course it wasn't - it fell off the ceiling with an almighty great clatter in the early hours, before it got light, giving both me and Betty a heart attack, Betty leapt off my bed and I followed her.  Husband didn't even stir (probably felt it safest to stay in bed and pretend to be asleep) 😡

And a little bit of good news....had an email to say we've won another £25 on our premium bonds.  Every little helps.

Something nice

 Well something nice after all.....had a text from our lovely caravan neighbours Charlie & Jean to say they're at the park for a week or more.  So we're going tomorrow to stay the week and have a good old catch up with them.  It'll do us both good to have a computer free week, with no stressing about the car or husband endlessly scouring car ads.  I'll hopefully be able to sleep better too, I'm certainly not sleeping well here at home.

And it will be just lovely to catch up with friends, something I'm sorely missing right now.  Especially my best friend who I haven't seen much of at all for ages (too busy!).

Laying low

 I'm taking a break for a few days, hopefully I'll have something nice to talk about when I post again.  The stress is all getting too much lately.  Thank you everyone for your kind comments and emails, I really appreciate it.  Take care everyone. xx

Back to square one

 I can't fault our GP surgery, they're now back to doing face to face appointments, we can choose whether we want a face to face or a phone appointment.  So husband saw the GP yesterday (a different one) who said it's almost certainly a muscular problem, she's given him different tablets to take as well as the ones he's already got, she said it's ok to take both together.  He takes numerous tablets as it is for all his heart and prostate/bladder problems, the joys of getting old.

Still no xray results for me though, that's over 3 weeks now.  But that's not the fault of the surgery.  One of you mentioned physio for husband - there's such a huge waiting list here it would be months before he got an appointment - and they're doing the appointments over the phone!  How the hell can you be properly assessed and then do physio over the phone?  I think husband would benefit from seeing my osteopath, but he's reluctant to go right now, he says he'd rather save his money for the car.  I think he ought to consider going to Felicity, but it's his decision.

The friendly mechanic asked us to check whether the reversing lights flicker when reversing, as he thought they may be shorting somewhere, causing the warning lights.....well they don't, so that's not the problem.  Back to square one then.

I asked husband if we could have a day off of anything to do with the car, or any new car, as I'm absolutely fed up to the back teeth with it all, and he's driving himself crazy trying to locate another car and work out the best thing to do.  So that's what we did, car stuff banned for yesterday.

It's no wonder we've both got thumping heads, as well as our normal everyday aches and pains....as for sleep, what's that?

We're not going back to the caravan just yet, we need to get the bloody car situation sorted first.  In any case, husband can't turn his head very much at the moment, so he's not really safe to drive, certainly not any great distance.

First world problems

 Well, one thing went right yesterday!  As it was so cold and we were both feeling downhearted, I decided to make comfort food for dinner - toad in the hole.  You know what, it was blimmin gorgeous - the batter rose beautifully, it was crunchy at the edges and pillow soft in the middle and tasted lovely, as did the sausages - plain pork which I wrapped in streaky bacon.  Husband said it was the best batter I'd ever made - I have no idea why it went so well, I did everything the same as normal.  Perhaps the oven felt sorry for me 😂

Husband's ringing the GP again today, he has a terribly painful neck which he's already been given pills for, but they're not doing anything for the pain, if anything it's getting worse.  GP said he thinks it's arthritis combined with muscle or nerve pain and should wear off....well it hasn't.  Husband also has a permanent headache, I guess partly due to the muscle pain in his neck and holding his head in a fixed position (he's unable to turn his head without pain) and partly due to tension about the car, I expect.  It's unusual for him, he rarely, if ever, gets headaches.

I was awake ridiculously early again this morning  (the car situation is affecting both of us) but instead of getting up a couple of hours before dawn, I lay in bed reading until 6 am when it was getting light.  It's nice to hear the birds singing early in the mornings.  We haven't had snow (I'd have been surprised if we did) but it's certainly got really cold again.

There is a glimmer of light about the car problems.....we'd noticed that the warning lights come on with a particular manoeuvre, husband discussed it with the mechanic who said that's good to know and gives him something to work on, he's come up with a new idea.  We're still probably going to get rid of the car though (somehow!!), enough is enough, we don't want to be constantly worrying about warning lights and throwing money at it.  The car's fulfilled the purpose that we bought it for, ferrying furniture old and new to and from the caravan, so at least it's done the job required.

We're both really fed up, the car problems have just worn us both down so much, and getting another car is simply not easy - certainly not with the amount we can afford to pay.  We just don't want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire, but unfortunately there are no guarantees that any second hand car will not be problem free.  And, quite frankly, looking for cars online and even going to see them for a good look and a test drive, absolutely bores the pants off me, as I have no interest in cars whatsoever - it's just a vehicle to transport us from A to B as far as I'm concerned.  I'd happily leave all of it up to husband, but the fact is he needs my help and input too, so that's not an option.

I think we both need a day off going out somewhere for a nice day out (with Betty of course), totally forgetting about the car problems.  I'm not keen on going out in freezing cold weather though, and there's fuel cost to consider, and the car behaving itself too of course.....with the warning lights flashing on and beeping all the time, it's not easy to forget about it!

I know it's all first world problems and we're bloody lucky to have a car, house and holiday home, plenty of food, etc.  But sometimes I'd give anything for an easy problem and pain free life for a while.  We both feel like we're sinking at the moment.