A joke is only a joke when it's funny!

 We both need new glasses, following our eye tests yesterday.  Husband's 2 pairs only cost £30!  He's lucky in that virtually any kind of frames suit his face.....also he doesn't really care what they look like so it doesn't matter to him.  I'm definitely more fussy, some frames just don't suit my face shape, I'm not very keen on metal frames, the colour of the frames matters to me as well as frame shape and size - I'm of the view that I have to like my glasses, or I simply won't wear them.  So mine were £220 - but that's for 4 pairs (buy one get one free), 2 each of distance and close vision - I don't get on at all with bi- or varifocals.  So I actually think the price is quite reasonable.

When we came out of there, husband accused me of having zero sense of humour anymore - he's said that a few times now.  I guess the reason I rarely laugh at his 'jokes' anymore is partly because I've heard them all before, a thousand times, and after the 950th time the novelty wears off.  But nowadays quite often his so-called humour is anything but, frequently it's downright inappropriate or just plain silly.  An example - I went in for my eye test first, on my own......I stayed in the room for husband's tests though, as he sometimes needs help with answering questions.....e.g. the optician asked him how long he's had diabetic background retinopathy, husband said airily "oh years and years".  Erm no, he was first told about it just 2 years ago.  He also couldn't remember the name of the newest medication he's been prescribed, nor what it was for.  Anyway, husband has a couple of small fingertip sized bruises on his forearm, they look something like blood blisters under his skin, the optician commented on them.  Straight away husband replied, gesturing to me, "She did that, she's always hitting me!".  The optician immediately turned to me, with a querying look on his face....."He's kidding, they're caused by his heart meds" I said.  "Ah ok, that's more likely!" he replied with a smile.  I just glared at husband.  Sometimes I wish his mouth came with a zip.

He's gone on the free shoppers bus to Bridgwater again today, his choice.  Once again I get to enjoy the peace....on the subject of which, it's really noticeable just how peaceful it is around here again, now that the builders are no longer here.  We've not seen neighbour Mr X for a couple of days, so no idea whether he's looking around for more builders.  It would be a shame if the old barn, which is now in a partly demolished and sorry looking state, is just left to go to rack and ruin, it was actually a fine looking old building before they started mucking about with it.

Nothing planned for the next few days, just keeping out of the sun, windows wide open and curtains closed on the sunny sides, plenty of cold drinks, the fans going and salads for dinner.  Betty mostly sleeps in the hot weather - on my bed or on her cool mat in the lounge, only briefly going in the garden for a wee.  She gets a brief walk early in the morning and again mid evening....at her age she's not really a fan of long walks now anyway.

Well that's nice

 So now we know.  Neighbour Mr X told husband yesterday he's sacked his builders, he was very annoyed with the lack of progress, carelessness and unprofessionalism.  He's said he will be looking for new builders but will leave the work as it is for a while, to give himself a break and time to work out what he wants to do next.  So it looks like we'll be having a peaceful few weeks after all, which will be nice.  We'll be able to sit in and enjoy our garden, imagine that! 😁.  Although I won't be doing much sitting out there for the next few days, it'll be too blimmin hot 😂

Peace, ranting, then more peace and nature

 Yesterday was the quietest Monday we've had in ages, hardly any movement around here all day and no builders next door.  No builders again today, for the 4th day in a row (they've generally been working Saturday mornings as well as Mon-Fri up till now).  So it looks as if either neighbour Mr X has dispensed with their services, or they've refused to carry on with the job....possibly, we don't know.  It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, Mr X and his brother generally have Wednesdays off work so they can do labouring work for the builders.  If the builders aren't coming back, I wonder what will happen now?  Will the project be abandoned, or will Mr X try to get another firm of builders in at short notice?

Problem relative was ranting (and I do mean ranting) early this morning on our WhatsApp group about some load of conspiracy theory nonsense, when I read his first words of "You all need to hear this...." I thought - well, no we don't actually, and muted him.  I've just unmuted him and he's still going off on one so back to mute it is.  The problem is, he lives alone, is agoraphobic, paranoid and lives his life scouring the internet all the time, virtually 24/7.  He refuses all offers of help and has been extremely rude to mental health and social care workers in the past, so is his own worst enemy.  We've had several months of relative calm and quiet from him, so a blow up was bound to be imminent.  It'll pass over soon enough I expect, it usually does.

Meanwhile, we had a drive out this morning to another tea room we hadn't visited before, in a little village which has a pretty river running through it:-

Shallow but very clear, with a lovely old stone bridge across.  The journey there was longer than we thought it might be, took about 40 mins on narrow twisty roads in places, and quite steep in some areas so our poor old car was struggling a bit.  It was worth it though, we sat outside the tea room on benches with sunshades (welcome as the sun was very strong).  I had a (very naughty) slice of rum, raisin and pineapple cake which was delicious.  I was a bit disappointed with my latte - the taste was fine, the trouble was it was at least 50% froth so not much actual coffee to drink.  It was nice sitting on a bench watching the river flow though, with some grey wagtails bobbing up and down.  We might go there again if we're in the area for some reason, but probably wouldn't make a special trip to go back.

Eye tests for both of us tomorrow, nothing else planned for this week, thankfully as it's getting very hot again.

Peaceful Monday

 Well, this morning there are no builders next door, of course they may have taken the day off or be coming in later, due to watching the football last night.  Or they may have resigned following the almighty great row the other day!!  Whatever, we're enjoying the peace.

Actually, it's a lot quieter generally around here this morning - not that there's normally much noise anyway, apart from the building work.  There's less traffic and people, seems like most people here stayed up to watch England win - everyone except us 😂

I'll be glad of some respite from sport for a while, husband was watching some sport or other pretty much all day yesterday.  Each to their own of course, but it bores me rigid.

Since cutting back drastically on carbs over the past week, I'm pleased to say this morning that I've lost the few pounds I'd put on through eating too many carbs.  I'm making a seeded GF soda bread today, but will slice and freeze it when cool, my intention is to have just one slice perhaps every other day.  Hot weather again all this coming week, so back to salads most days.  We had a roast dinner yesterday, including our first home grown beetroot and carrots, along with the (ever present) courgettes, I roasted all the veggies.  Whilst it all tasted very nice, I wasn't really that hungry because of the warm weather so left some of mine - husband finished it off.  When it's hot weather, I prefer roasted veggies cold with mayo or a lemony herb dressing, with a sprinkle of grated cheese - favourite hot weather dinner meal for me.  I also like a wedge of room temperature tortilla with salad.

We had a nice morning yesterday, went to Blue Anchor for a long walk up and down the promenade, finishing up with an iced latte (tea for husband) and toasted teacake, we shared one as they are very big.  It was warm but there was quite a strong breeze, it would have been too hot without the breeze.

We've both got optician appointments on Wednesday, I'm fully expecting to have to have new glasses, especially reading ones, my close up sight in my right eye is getting much more blurry.

And we thought it was quiet round here

 We've been out this morning to the food & drink festival along the seafront - not very interesting actually and we didn't buy anything, we won't go again (they hold them regularly).  It's quite hot, very windy and humid again now, so I didn't fancy staying out long anyway.  Husband asked if I wanted to go to the big boot sale this afternoon, I said no but he's welcome to go if he wants....I think it depends what sports are on TV!

Yesterday evening neighbour Mr X and his chief builder had a massive row in the garden, about a foot away from our fence.  Ironically, I didn't hear it but husband heard some of it, he said there was much shouting and swearing and the gist of it seemed to be that Mr X was accusing the builders of working too slow and not keeping to schedule.  I know nothing about building work, and especially on ancient stone buildings, but it does seem as if little progress has been made as yet.  Apparently (so Mr X shouted), he'd arranged for another trade to come today and do a particular bit of work, at a cost of £900, which couldn't now go ahead as the appropriate prep work hadn't been done by the builders.  He was livid - having an aggressive foul mouthed argument with your builder doesn't seem a good way of resolving things though, does it?  Who knows what'll happen now?  Mr X, we've noticed in the past, has a very short temper and is prone to shouty fits of rage if someone upsets him - another reason why we don't want to make any complaints!

Seems like there's nothing but sport on TV today - tennis, rugby, F1 and cricket, which means husband will be glued to the TV all day....at least it keeps him occupied, I won't say quiet as he keeps up a running commentary on whichever sport he's watching 😒  Well, I'm going to be sitting in my bedroom comfy chair this afternoon, doing some crocheting, I'll shut the door and have my radio on.  Thankfully, there's no building noise from next door after last night's shouting match!

We finally got confirmation through yesterday that the POA for finance is now registered and in place - boy, that took a long time, about 3 months.  Just awaiting the health one now, having had to redo it because of a silly error I made.  

Another week of warm sunshine and no rain forecast, not as hot as a couple of weeks ago, thankfully.  It's very nice of course but does mean we'll have to do a lot of garden watering.

A tiny bit of progress

 Husband's key worker rang yesterday, it was quite an interesting conversation.  She initially asks how we both are, how we're coping and if there are any new problems.  She then asked husband how his short term memory is right now.....he answered that it's fine, no problems!  So I said no it isn't, it's terrible, he's in denial about it just as he is about a lot of things.  She asked what else I thought he was in denial about, I answered well for a start he drives too fast and refuses to admit it.....although I can't see the speedo from my seat, I'm not stupid, I can tell when he's speeding.  The other day we were going somewhere we hadn't been before (the scanner place in Taunton where husband was having his brain scan) so I switched on the satnav on my phone, which also shows the speed we're travelling at.  Surprise, surprise - husband was speeding on several occasions, I showed him on my phone so he had to accept it, which he wasn't pleased about.  He then brushed it off as 'only' being a few miles over the limit, as if the rules don't apply to him.  I also said he often refuses to accept things I'm saying - e.g. the shower stopping because he starts running the taps in the kitchen (incidentally, it's happened twice more this week 😒).  Because he insists that it 'can't' or 'shouldn't' happen, he refuses to believe me, as if I'm telling lies.  He's pointed out that it never happens when he's having a shower.....well no dear, that's because I make a point of not running the taps whilst he's in the shower!  Perhaps I should....he can't deny it then!

I asked about husband's brain scan results - they're not in yet, the key worker said they don't generally even tell the patient about the results.  Why not?  I asked, we (or at least I) would like to know!  After all, it has a bearing on husband's mental abilities and should make any diagnosis a bit clearer.  She said she's not comfortable herself with withholding information from the patient or their carer, so said she would try and find a way to let us know the results - without getting herself into trouble.  As for the backlog/waiting list of appointments for the further in depth cognitive testing - she said realistically it's likely to be December before we get an appointment 😡.  So I said that's a pity, because if it turns out husband does have some form of dementia, we're missing out on him possibly getting medication for it for months to come.  I know not all forms of dementia can be treated with medication but some can, the meds either help with symptoms or help to slow the advancement.  Well, it turns out that husband is unlikely to be prescribed any medication for it anyway, because the current meds slow the heart rate down and lower BP - neither of which would be suitable in husband's case due to his heart failure.  So that was a bit of a blow.  It seems it would be a case of helping to manage the symptoms in other ways, e.g. by having physical or memory aids, or encouraging the patient to attend day centres.  Well, I know for certain husband won't attend any day centres, he views it as sitting with a load of bonkers old people - and he doesn't class himself as one of them!  To be fair, I don't think he's at that stage either.  I did actually visit a local ForgetMeNot day centre just to see what it was like - I went on my own, to check it out first.  There were about a dozen elderly women, mostly quite a bit older than husband, and just 2 men, they all had carers or relatives with them.  They were all sitting round tables facing each other in a circle, having a sing song of Vera Lynn type songs - husband would have absolutely hated it.

The keyworker did, however, suggest she refers him to the local Alzheimer's Society representative, who will come and see us at home.  Ok, husband's not been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, or any other form of dementia, as yet, but she said they are very good at helping people with memory problems, suggesting ways to cope, signposting to other local organisations who could help in other ways - and they help the carers too.  Yes please, I said.

So at the moment there's a little advancement, but still a lot of waiting!

A peaceful day - hopefully

 The Blogger problems seem to be getting worse, I've had several regular readers emailing me to say they haven't seen any posts from me recently.  I do post most days but, as seems to be a regular occurrence lately, they don't appear on the reading list until hours or even days later.  Ho hum.  

Husband has gone on the free shoppers bus to Bridgwater, so I have 4 or 5 hours to myself at home - lovely.  I did briefly consider going with him, but it's too long to leave Betty on her own nowadays.  I'm not doing much, just sitting in my bedroom chair crocheting and reading, with the radio on my favourite station, Greatest Hits.  I've been feeling quite tired recently, so a day of rest - peaceful rest at that - is just what I need.  I'm going to try and get the shades of purple warm cardi I started a few weeks ago finished in time for our holiday, I may even start another one, I could do with a plain navy one.  If I don't finish that, I'll take it with me.

I've just bought the final 3 of Jilly Cooper's Rutshire Chronicles series of books, I've read all the previous 8 but not the last 3 published, in fact I didn't even realise she'd written more.  I'll save them to take away with me, they're long books (she generally writes about 6-800 pages) so will have plenty of reading matter.

I'm not doing a load of food shopping and cooking before we go, we'll just take enough food for the first couple of days - there are supermarkets not far away so we'll go shopping once we're there.

There's not a great amount of noise next door (so far) today - it's not continuous and ear piercing like it was yesterday, just intermittent.  There only seems to be 2 builders there, so a lot less shouting too.  Our next door neighbours, whose garden also backs onto the building site, were also complaining about the noise to us yesterday evening, they had visitors and said it was impossible to sit in their garden, which they'd normally do, because of the racket going on.