Things are looking up

 I had a brainwave (doesn't happen very often) the other day and had a look on the Age UK website...well, we are of the age, after all!  It seems they can help with all sorts of things - I'd only ever thought of them in terms of charity shops and meals on wheels before, but they really do help in countless different ways.  I emailed them giving a brief outline of our problem, they gave a very kind and helpful reply in general terms.  However, they said to ring them Monday am and leave my contact details on the answer phone and they will get a specialist adviser to ring me back and go through everything with me.  How nice.  So now I have two useful phone consultations this coming week, progress at last, after a week of head banging and getting nowhere.

And some really good news....Husband is booked to have his first covid jab this afternoon!  We're so pleased.  Mine won't be for some weeks yet (I'm in Group 6 or possibly even 7, as far as I can make out), but things are moving.  He has to go to the big central hub at Taunton Racecourse, a 40 min or so drive away, but he doesn't mind, it's worth it to be able to get covid protection.

I'm giving up on the blimmin tablet husband's daughter gave me as a replacement for my Amazon fire....the more of my stuff I put on it, the slower it gets, and the internet keeps dropping out every few minutes, which it doesn't nearly as much on my Fire or phone.  It was nice of her, but I can see why she wanted rid of it for a better model 😉.  I'll get a new laptop one day, at the moment it's not really a priority.  Hardly a problem with the current situation and the real problems others have!

Nephew is still in hospital, a week now.  He's had loads of tests, things like an MRI, lumbar puncture, electrical nerve conduction tests.  No firm diagnosis forthcoming, but lots of quite serious things ruled out, which is good.  He's due to see another specialist tomorrow.  He's regaining strength and didn't need morphine yesterday, as was in less pain, so is hopeful of being able to go home soon.  He's found it very hard not being able to have visits from his fiancee or family....that's one of the really big downsides of this bloody Covid situation isn't it, must be awful being in hospital and not allowed visitors.  Equally hard for his fiancee, as her family live many miles away so she's on her own.

Thanks all for comments, and I'm sorry I haven't commented much on your blogs lately...been a bit snowed under.  Hopefully things will settle down a bit in a week or 2.  (Until the next crisis in our roller coaster life 😂😒).

A bit of hope

 I got nowhere yesterday either, more banging my head against brick walls.  I gave up in tears in the end.  However....I have now managed to book a 45 minute telephone consultation for next Thursday, with a qualified impartial adviser, so hopefully I might finally get the answers I need.  Or at least further information and some advice as to what to do next.  I just feel totally drained now, why does everything have to be so bleeding hard?

This morning I've made bread dough, so at least I got to thump something!  I've also made curry sauce for a king prawn curry I'll be doing for our dinner tonight.

And this afternoon I shall go upstairs with the dog, lie on the bed and read.

WARNING language alert

 If you don't like bad language, look away now.

I've had to deal with officialdom today, both on the phone and online....it's taken several hours, is nowhere near resolved and I'm fed up to the back teeth with the absolute shittyness of it all.  I've been passed from pillar to post on the phone, given several different numbers to ring, kept on hold for ages until I gave up in sheer frustration.  The recorded message kept saying every few minutes that one could try the website....well I did, and guess what, the thing I needed can't bloody well be done online, because our situation didn't conform to the set protocol in the online form.  So was told that you have to do it by phone!  Or in person....only face to face appointments aren't taking place right now because of covid restrictions....so use the website or phone!

I just wanted to smash both the damn computer and phone to bits and scream my head off.

I know it's not my husband's fault, he's severely dyslexic and can't deal with forms and paperwork, so I've always had to do it.  But as I've got older I find it more difficult, my head feels more woolly and it just gives me a king size bloody headache, especially when it's not straightforward and everything seems designed to kick me in the shins.

And I've got to go through it all again tomorrow!

This is connected to the 'good news' I mentioned a few posts back, which is turning out to be nothing of the sort.

There are times when it feels like absolutely bloody nothing goes right for us, and I'm so sodding sick and tired of it.

Poor customer service

 A week ago I ordered some flowers for a relative, arranging for them to be delivered today.  Late yesterday afternoon I had an email from the online flowers company, apologising for the fact that my order could not be fulfilled.  They cited difficulties with their supplier and asked if I wanted to wait until their next delivery of these particular flowers next week, or choose a different bouquet to be delivered 'within the next few days'!  It took them until late afternoon, just minutes before their Customer Services desk closed, before they told me they wouldn't be delivering my order...really?!?!

When I quickly rang to ask what else they'd got for delivery for today as requested, they'd got hardly anything, certainly nothing like the flowers I'd ordered, and said they probably wouldn't be able to deliver today anyway.  So I asked for a refund....which they said would take 3-5 days!  Disgraceful.  I've emailed and complained.

Meanwhile, I googled and found a local florist in the town where my relative lives, I've rung them this morning and ordered a lovely bouquet which they will deliver this afternoon.  Good for them 👏

Rain, rain go away

 Firstly, I need to welcome a few new readers...hello, I can't think why anybody would find what I write interesting, I lead a pretty dull life actually, especially during a lockdown and in winter!  But welcome anyway, hope I don't bore you to tears.

Thanks for all the comments on my last post.  Not yet heard back from the dentist with an appointment, but thankfully my loose tooth seems to have bedded back in a bit - still wobbly but not as much and not so painful.  It's liveable with, which is just as well.  Funny how some dentists in some areas seem to be operating as normal, yet others - like mine - don't seem to be agreeable to seeing patients unless it's a dire emergency.

One of my nephews was admitted to hospital on Sunday morning in a state of collapse, he's been suffering various strange symptoms, including extreme muscle weakness and pains for a while.  He's had lots of tests in the past weeks, but there are long intervals between each set of tests due to covid restrictions, he's not seen a consultant yet and no diagnosis forthcoming thus far, other than a possible immune disorder.  He's only 30, bless him. He was due to see a neurologist....in several weeks.  Having been admitted, however, the neurologist has now agreed to see him as a matter of urgency.  He had a covid test in A&E before they would admit him to a ward, it came back negative (he did have Covid, thankfully mildly, very early on in the pandemic).  Last night he was told he'll have to isolate for 10 days (whilst he's in hospital!) as he was exposed to Covid - from one of the other patients in the ward!  How did that happen?  Bloody scary isn't it, go in hospital because of being very unwell, non-covid related, and get exposed to it whilst you're in there, just to add to your problems.  I'm so thankful my exploratory op was a quick in and out thing in a safe specialist day unit.

It's a horrible rainy day today, in fact the local forecast is for varying amounts of rain every day for the next 10 days.  So a good time to carry on with the decluttering, which has ground to a halt the past few days.  The trouble is, we now have several boxes and bags full of unwanted stuff and are running out of places to put it, seeing as the garage is still full, plus the roof leaks.  We did look into getting a skip - blimey, they're expensive!  So we will have to go to the tip a few times, despite the rain....well, once husband has got his finger out and sorted out his trailer, which is full of junk and in the full up garage! 😒

I do wish Spring (and the end of lockdown) would hurry up, had enough of this now.

Trying to get a dentist appointment

 I haven't been to the dentist for over a year, they were closed during the first lockdown when I should have been going for a check up.  I have a wobbly tooth, it's been wobbly for a while but wasn't causing me any problems, I just made sure not to crunch anything with it.  Well, unfortunately I did the other day and it's now a bit looser and a bit sore, so I had to bite the bullet (not with that tooth though 😂) and phone the dentist yesterday.  I didn't even know if they were open...I was almost wishing they're not, as I really hate going.  Well, turns out they are....sort of.  They are currently only doing emergency appointments, anything else gets added to a 'list', and they do 'a few' of those per week.  Apparently, my wobbly tooth isn't an emergency, unless it becomes infected or the pain becomes unbearable!  And they are only doing TWO emergencies per day, along with the occasional one or more off the 'list' - I presume to allow for the extra cleaning in between patients, and to restrict the numbers of people for social distancing purposes.  They won't give appointment dates for the non emergencies, just saying they'll ring when it gets nearer your turn!  So I guess we're supposed to just drop everything when we get a phone call 😒

And to make matters worse, apparently my lovely dentist Emma, who was so good with my nervousness, has left, so when I do eventually get seen, I shall have to get used to a new one.  Grrrr!

A stonking headache day

 Yesterday I had to do some financial stuff for husband, on his computer, both of which I dislike intensely.  His computer is slow, his desk is a mess (and I hate working in a mess) and the chair is uncomfortable and gives me backache.  I find sorting out financial stuff a strain anyway, more so the older I get, it just overloads my brain, especially if the stuff isn't straightforward, which this certainly wasn't.  By lunchtime, when I'd done as much as I could, I had a stonking headache and had to go and lie down for an hour, the headache persisted all afternoon, though did ease up a bit in the evening.

The new (to me) tablet which husband's daughter very kindly sent me to replace my Amazon Fire, which is limited in what it can do, has been giving me a few problems too.  Some of which I admit were driver error.... technology and me aren't really compatible!  I'd put all my favourites on the thing, then couldn't work out how to access them - I've done it now, but it seems a long winded way of getting to them, unlike the simple to use Fire...I expect there's an easier way, I just haven't worked it out yet.  Also, the internet kept dropping out on the tablet yesterday afternoon...at first I thought it was due to the weather, which does tend to play havoc with our broadband.  However, it transpired that it wasn't affecting husband's desktop or my phone, they were both still working fine, so the problem seems to be just with the new tablet.  Or me!  I gave up with it in the end, it was just adding to my headache.

I'm typing this blog post on it now, it seems alright at the moment, fingers crossed.

The other day when we did the top up shop, I bought a small cooked chicken.  I stripped the meat off, saving some for Betty, and made two chicken and ham cottage pies, using up some leftover gammon.  The topping was mashed ordinary and sweet potatoes.  We had one last night, the other went in the freezer, I boiled up the bones with a bit of chopped veg for stock and froze that too.  So one small £3 chicken made two dinners for us, three chicken dinners for Betty and a tub of stock for a future soup.

I slept very badly last night, unsurprisingly, and feel like death warmed up this morning.  So I won't be doing much today.