Home

 We were supposed to be away until Friday but have come back early - not through anything drastic.  The cottage (wing of a farmhouse) was lovely, weather was just about perfect, location was fab - both the farm itself (so peaceful) and the proximity to all the places we wanted to go.  However, being an old cottage the stairs were steep with narrow treads and the bathroom and loo were both upstairs - not ideal but we managed, although I certainly wouldn't want to live there with that setup.  The main reason for coming home early though was Betty - dogs weren't allowed upstairs, the owners were very strict about that and insisted we close the stairgate at all times to keep the dog downstairs.  Well, Betty, understandably, didn't like that at all.....she's even more clingy and anxious now and doesn't like being separated from me, she whined at the bottom of the stairs every time I even went up to go to the loo.  I knew she wouldn't settle if she was left downstairs on her own overnight, so I slept downstairs on the sofa for 3 nights, with husband reluctantly agreeing to do it twice.  The sofa wasn't very comfortable to sleep on, even lying on a thick duvet....it was ok for me (well, I was prepared to put up with the discomfort) but husband predictably moaned like hell, you'd think he was the only person to ever suffer with backache.  For the last two days though, Betty was quite unsettled and off her food, so I took the decision to come home, husband agreed with alacrity.  

The positives - we went everywhere we had wanted to go, I bought the saucepan set I wanted from the ProCook shop at Clarks Village (where my last pan set came from about 10 years ago) and got the showerproof jacket I wanted from the M&S outlet, husband bought another pair of his favourite Skechers shoes.  We went to Wells, my favourite little town with the lovely cathedral.  Had a drive through the village where we used to live, it doesn't appear to have changed at all since we moved from there in 2012.  I loved sitting in the cottage conservatory doing lots of reading and crochet, not a sound to be heard apart from birds in the trees and the chickens gently clucking in their run at the bottom of the cottage garden.  The first time Betty and the chickens saw each other, they made each other jump, very funny.....after that Betty kept her distance.  Husband spent his time as he does at home, dozing in front of the TV - not that I minded, I was happy reading in the conservatory with Betty lying at my feet.  So we had busy mornings out and about, and restful quiet afternoons.  And I did hardly any cooking - just cold meals, or something & chips, a Ploughmans one day, a really surprisingly nice Taste the Difference fish pie with - shock, horror - bought ready prepared green veggies another day.  

So here we are back home, Betty now seems fine and happy to be home, she quickly settled back down.  Although we've enjoyed it, it's nice to be home, there's nothing like your own bed.

And relax.....

 Betty seems fine now, back to her usual self, she's not been sick since early Tues morning so the antacids are obviously working, I hope they continue to keep her comfortable whilst we're away.  One good thing is that the vet surgery we used to go to before we moved here is just a couple of miles away from where we're staying, they were always really good so it's comforting to know there's somewhere we know and trust nearby.

The Alzheimer's lady didn't turn up yesterday, an hour and a half after the scheduled appointment time I rang and left a message on her answerphone.  About 40 mins later one of her colleagues rang to say she'd got flu and apologised profusely for not letting us know beforehand.  Bit annoying but these things happen, I've asked that she ring to make another appointment once we get back from holiday.

Is it just me, or is packing for a self catering holiday in this country a bit of a nightmare?  If we were flying abroad, we'd have one case and one carry-on bag each and that's it.  But for our week away here I've packed a holdall of clothes each, another bag with our dressing gowns, slippers and meds (they wouldn't fit in our clothes holdalls), a bag of dog stuff, another bag with husband's DVDs, my books and yarn, phone chargers, toiletries zipped bag, a notebook and pen.  Then there's 2 hessian shopping bags of non-fridge food, coffee & tea, toilet rolls, tea towels etc, and the cool bag which I'll pack just before we go.  Another hessian shopping bag will sit in the foot well with me as we'll be stopping off at an Aldi on the way to get my oat milk and some salad to go with our pizza tea tonight, plus a Sudoku puzzle book for husband.  I need this holiday!! 😂

I'd asked husband to get out his holiday clothes and lay them on his bed for me to pack yesterday.  For our holidays he either gets out too few things or too many, and odd tops that don't go with anything else - not that he would care about that!  It was too many clothes this time, enough for a fortnight at least, including a weird Hawaiian type shirt that I've never liked and he's hardly ever worn, and a couple of pairs of shorts that were dirty and creased and had clearly been worn several times and simply thrown back in his wardrobe without being washed. 😒  I just packed what I thought best out of his selection rather than asking him to come and whittle it down.

As I said, I probably won't be blogging much, if at all.  Have a good week everyone, the weather for next week looks pretty good x

Dog food, losing inches

 It's getting light later now isn't it, the last 2 mornings I've had to put the light on when I've got up in order to check if Betty had been sick anywhere - thankfully not.  She slept all day yesterday, then came to life in the evening and ate her tea as normal, with no sickness after, the antacids seem to be working.  I've been doing some research after John the vet said she must have a very bland diet, he suggested a dry food specially for sensitive stomachs.  I did say she doesn't really like dry kibble, John replied that dogs aren't like humans - if they're really hungry they will eat anything.  Hmmm.  And anyway, the brand of food he suggested (Hill's Science) is very expensive - around £55 to £65 a bag 😮.  For the time being, I've bought her some commercial food trays for sensitive stomachs and have also made and frozen some plain poached (in water) chicken with minced carrot and squash to take with us.  I'm also still giving her one treat a day (a reduction from her usual half a dozen treats), a dried chicken fillet broken up and given throughout the day.  She has her antacid tablets wrapped in a small piece of wafer thin ham - John's suggestion.

Isn't it funny how we lose inches (in height) as we age.....would be lovely if we also lost pounds with ageing without even trying!  Husband was 5'8" when we met, although he absolutely insists he was 5'9" and the tallest out of him and his 4 brothers.  Erm, no, 2 of his brothers were taller than him, as evidenced in photos of them all lined up together in earlier years.  Now, he's lost 3" in height and in the evenings he's even shorter - I know our height shrinks during the day, although don't know why.  I thought I was much the same height (5'6"), but having been measured at the GP's during my last review, it seems I'm now 5'5".  It also means my BMI is now worse for my now height.  I've actually lost 6lbs over the past couple of weeks, but this morning it seems I've put back on a couple of pounds due to comfort eating whilst stressed over Betty and other things I should think.  I don't really want to eat too much 'bad' stuff whilst we're away but I think that's a bit unrealistic because - well - holiday!  But I will be making a big effort for us both to lose weight when we come back.  It is hard to control husband's eating though....making him good healthy meals is quite easy, but he does snack quite a lot between meals.  And no I don't buy him the snacks, he buys them himself when I'm not with him.

I'll be packing the clothes this morning, then it's just the food tomorrow - not loads, just enough for the first 2 days.  We've got the lady from the Alzheimer's Society coming this afternoon.  I've washed the fleece blankets I use to cover my bed and the sofa where Betty lays, just about to put them out on the line.....showers forecast but it's blowy and fleece blankets dry quickly.

I'm not taking my laptop as wifi at the cottage is said to be intermittent, so blogging next week may be sporadic or not at all.

Betty (Added)

 The vet still doesn't think Betty has anything serious such as liver disease or stomach cancer.....he thinks it's possible she may have colitis or even Crohn's (I hope not, my cousin's got that and is frequently very poorly).  He's given us 2 weeks' worth of antacids, which he says should keep her comfortable whilst we're away, I have to ring him Friday morning before we go to give him an update.  He also said to ensure she has a very bland diet, poached chicken, turkey or rabbit with some pumpkin and white rice, no dairy, high fibre or anything fatty.  At the end of the fortnight, if she's better, then he suggested one dose of the antacid per day instead of the two she's having for now.  If the D&V continues, however, he suggested he refers us to the big vet hospital and referral centre in Wellington, he doesn't have the facilities for in depth examinations and diagnosis.  Obviously that will be expensive, although our insurance should cover any initial costs (a 60 min consultation and scan will cost nearly £3,000).  If it's something major or ongoing, though, then we will have to think seriously about what to do.  Clearly, I hope it doesn't come to that, although I'm realistic about her age.  For the moment, though, I shall try and put that out of my mind (easily said!) and hope that the antacids keep her well enough during our holiday.

I'm in a pattern of bad nights, lying awake for a couple of hours and waking up exceptionally early and being unable to get back to sleep.  It's always like this when I've got lots on my mind and am stressed.  I've said to husband this morning he's got to help me more and not complain when I ask him to do something.  I've explained, again, that I cannot do everything and am very stressed at present.

ADDED

I just want to say how grateful I am for all your lovely comments, they're all much appreciated.  Sorry I forgot to mention it earlier x

One of those days(weeks, months)

 Betty's unwell again, having initially perked up yesterday afternoon she's now listless and restless again, has been sick and has the runs.  I really don't think it's just a sensitive stomach because of her age, these episodes of D&V are coming more and more often and I'm very worried about her.  We've got a vet appointment this afternoon.  Apart from anything else, as we're off on holiday on Friday, I really don't relish the prospect of her being unwell and possibly being sick all week in someone else's house, it wouldn't be much of a holiday for her or us.

Bad things always happen when you don't want them to - not that there's ever a good time.

Yesterday, a family member sent a message saying they were sorry to hear I'm a bit down (a bit down?!  Oh really??) and attached a photo of a sunset on a beautiful beach, clearly not in this country, saying they hoped it would cheer me up.  Turns out they're in Lake Garda, Italy, their 2nd holiday in as many months - I didn't even know they were going, either time.  Honestly, how they thought a photo of their lovely foreign holiday would 'cheer me up' I don't know, it's so absolutely tone deaf.  They've got zero conception of how our life is nowadays.  I could have cried.  I don't begrudge them their holidays or feel jealous, not at all, they've worked hard all their lives and deserve a nice retirement life.  But I honestly wish some people, family and friends who should know better, could live in our shoes for a couple of days.  I was also firmly put in my place by a long-standing friend the other day, which cut me to the quick.  

I'm just feeling very sorry for myself at the moment, and worried sick.  Sometimes I just feel like saying 'sod the lot of you' and going off to live on a desert island.

Is there something going round?

Both Betty and I have stomach upsets today, all 3 of us seem to be coming down with gut problems recently, but on different days, it's happened several times in the past few weeks.  None of these episodes have been serious or prolonged, only lasting a day or two, although husband's problems a week or so ago were the worst of the lot.  As husband and I quite often eat different meals, and we hardly ever give Betty bits of our food, it's difficult to pin down if it's a food that's causing the problems.  We do all drink the water (mine is filtered through a cartridge filter jug, husband is happy to drink his out of the tap, as does Betty) but I wouldn't have thought it could be that - our water system here on our sheltered housing estate is blasted through with something or other every Friday night to prevent legionella or other water borne nasties, the water from our hot tap is always boiling hot on a Saturday.  Who knows?!  I know there have been problems with bacteria in bagged salads, eggs and chicken from other countries, and now jars of olives, but we've not eaten any of that.

I had a text earlier from our landlords to 'remind' me that operatives are coming this Friday a.m. to 'do our repairs'.  Problem is, this is the first we've heard of it so I'm not sure what repairs, I'll have to ring them tomorrow to find out what it is.  They can't come then anyway, that's the day we go off on holiday.

Husband is today wearing quite a nice outfit that he rarely wears at home and wants to take with him on holiday - which I expressly asked him not to do this week.  I'm sure he thinks I'll be doing washing right up to the morning we go away.  As it happens, I do have 2 more loads of washing to do, tomorrow and Tuesday, but that will be it for this week.  He's got plenty of old clothes he could have worn.

I didn't sleep at all well last night so might have a nap this afternoon, I was going to pack toiletries and the dog's bag but that can wait till tomorrow.  I've got physio tomorrow morning.  I've done this week's menu plan and a small shopping list for holiday things, we'll do that on Thursday morning, we're just taking food for Friday and Saturday as I want to just relax for the first couple of days.

Thurs afternoon we've got the lady from the Alzheimer's Society coming, I don't know what they can do but no doubt we'll find out.

Blogger's still not showing updated blogs on the reading list, I wonder whether they're closing it down?  I hope they tell us!

 

Preparations

 No blogs have shown up on my daily reading list for several days now, their new posts only show up when I go to each individual blog.  I have notified Blogger a couple of days ago but they don't seem to be in a hurry to do anything about it.

We've got 2 appointments next week, and I've got all the holiday stuff to gather together and pack, washing of stuff we want to take with us to do, and remind husband not to wear anything he wants to wear on holiday, as he's often done in the past.  I'll have to give him a couple of jobs to do, like packing his clothes, although I'll have to suggest what he should take - holidays to husband, even though we only ever go in this country and usually later in the year, mean basically 2 t-shirts and a pair of shorts....one year he even forgot to pack any underwear!  He did offer to pack Betty's things, but I wouldn't trust him with that, it's highly unlikely he'd remember everything like her tablets, couple of towels, food and water bowls, toys, lead, collar and harness.

I'm on the home run with my jumper, just the assembly, cuffs and edging to do (and the dreaded sewing in of ends.....I know I should do it as I go along but rarely do).

All the 25th anniversary of 9/11 coverage was very poignant, it's one of those terrible events that we never forget.  We'd recently put our then house on the market and on that day I was working in town and popped into the estate agents after lunch to ask them to rectify an error in the sales particulars.  The estate agent was listening to the radio looking shocked and told me what had just happened, we both listened for a few minutes more, neither of us could quite believe it.  On the day that Princess Diana died, I remember it was a Sunday morning and we'd just got up, our neighbour (who knew I was a Royalist) came over to ask if we'd heard the news, I actually burst into tears when he told me.

I've started up an emergency supplies box, I'm not panic buying anything but am getting a couple of extra things when I go shopping, things like bottles of water, tins of beans, tomatoes, peas and fruit, pasta and rice, dried milk, coffee, dog food, toilet rolls and toiletries will all be going in it.  We've got a camping stove that runs on camping gas, we did have a pack of 10 gas bottles but husband has just informed me we only have 1 left....apparently he's been using them to power his flame thrower/weedkiller thing 😒 so I've told him he'd better buy some more and stop using them all up!  I'll also need to put in matches or a lighter, torches and batteries.  Apparently, we're supposed to have enough emergency supplies for 3 days, if it comes to some kind of disaster.  Just think, our grandparents would have thought nothing of it, they'd have just rolled up their sleeves and got on with it.