Middle of Nowt

 So thats the event over with , usual anticlimax lol . Ended up with 6 for dinner a very manageable number .I got 3 little competition prizes xmas eve so that was the extent of my xmas other than a huge bar of chocolate and a chocolate orange . Daughter informs me that next year shes cooking and i can do buffet boxing day . Good job she mentioned it as i had been planning to donate all my buffet dish pyrex in the New Year as we dont have guests anymore .  We have pretty much lost the last of our friends through Covid , not through death mainly through divorce and our lack of risk taking . Society as a whole does seem to be changing . the visably crippled are expected to lock themselves away and be forgotten about , the same with the very elderly. The biggest risk in our lives is other halfs endless hospital visits , not a thing can be done about that , you cant do online MRIs and endless transfusions on line , though other half has mentioned hes more likely to die from sanitizer poisoning than Covid .

On the daughter front she should never mention she wanted a king sized quilt at short notice because this was the result all from jumble sale and family clothing 

 

Wanders In

 So i have a bit of time this morning while i wait for an overnight delivery of  something i need to finish a xmas present ..lol ..Well whats to do , Omnicron is among us , but then again so was Delta and doubtless there will be many more yet . Other half got his booster Sunday morning after umpteen cancelations and apart from an oddly swollen arm seems fine , done at the GPs who have suddenly become keen since they upped the payment for them doing them .  The huge surge in cases probably due to the fact that everybody panicked and did a test , i do think that it hasnt just suddenly erupted its just been here a while and been a basic nuisance winter cold cum flu that nobody thought much about and the Tory dead cat society has seized upon it to take the focus away from their endless parties and corruption .  Shant make a whole lot of difference to what goes on around here , still masks , sanitize avoid the human race . Rather wonder if the christmas grocery order will turn up , but its all storecupboard stuff so no big deal if it doesnt , Christmas has been in the freezer since the beginning of October so all i need is a bit of veg . We shant be sat here with the windows wide open despite that daft idea ffs its the middle of winter get a grip .  Though those of the tribe who turn up not prepared to wear a mask around himself will find their turkey poisoned!! 

So enjoy your xmas in whatever shape or form its delivereed in , i may be here again if not see you after the festival 

Treadle on

 Thankyou for all the supportive remarks on my last post , still bimbling on with stuff ,  not a lot of time just because i ve left a xmas gift till the last moment as usual , nothing changes . Im currently enjoying the puter being in the spare room. being tiny its quite warm in here , plus i can huddle in a duvet if it does get cold , other half is still wearing shorts and has his shirt off . Just debating putting a few tiny bids on at auction , nothing exciting theyre just big lots in a tender auction . Now there are the normal auctions where you just bid against each other , then theyre are my favourites box auctions . there will be a big pile of boxes maybe as many as 20 then you bid against each other and the highest bidder gets to pick how many boxes they want at that price . Then you start bidding from nil again and the winner gets second picks and on and on till the last few boxes are going for pennies. A tender auction is where you just put what youre prepared to pay for stuff online before the closing date and if you have the highest bid they email you a collection date . The one problem with this is that people bid on these big lots and want only a couple of items out of them ,so the auctioneer pops the stuff they dont want in with another buyers lots. I went to Grantham the other week to pick up  a shoebox of dolls house windows and came home with a big Triang dolls house in bits loads of dolls house furniture and parts and a second big dolls house that may be beyond repair , theres also a very old dolls high chair that i tried to give away on facebook  its not suitable as a kids toy these days but i was thinking it would make an interesting plant stand.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/golding-young-and-mawer/catalogue-id-ibgo10803.

Negative November

 This is the bit of the year that i hate when what little freedom i get is drying up , one last Jumble Sale next weekend i may well buy everything just for the sake of something to look at ...lol .. The whole world has gone xmas tat im afraid . Cherie your the only person for whom this is allowed , it is your reason for living ..lol                                                                                                                                                                     Meanwhile the mucking around with my tablets is proving fun although ive managed more than 4 hours of sleep several nights  , i even got an epic 6 hours a couple of times only to wake up to someone shouting me for his morning ablutions then spending the day with him griping that the house was a tip because their were two cups in the sink .AAARRRGGHHH Its back to the winter chores of endless condensation and mould cleaning everyday .  I also keep bursting into tears for weird random reasons , yesterday i ached so much that i burst into tears because i havent had a bath in years , it would be so amazing to just sink into the heat , we have a perfectly usable disabled wet room but heigh ho , i then remembered we couldnt afford to have a bath in the house due to the water meter , plus a bath goes cold very rapidly in a unheated bathroom.  Then i got up this morning and im weepy again because he asked me what i wanted for xmas and all i could think of was somebody to cook for me and just do a days chores which got me ...Bloody silly cow                                                                                                                                           Two weeks and i change my  medication again ...i can see this is going to be a fun xmas 

Never

 Yesterday i ventured into the depths of Lincoln , just needed a bit of bulk stuff and to get the things  missing from the fortnightly Morrisons order.  Well thats me not going back this year it was dreadful , every shop packed with coughing christmas heads , very few masks in sight , certainlly not a bit of social distancing anywhere , Covid must be over. hand sanitiser is a thing of the past its all either empty or hidden away in the depths somewhere. Theyve revamped B&N so theres now no frozen section just an aisle of tins and booze and a couple of chilled freezers , i did at least find some large yellow sticker pizzas for a £1 so that will keep the menfolk happy , theyre not in the shape of a xmas tree maybe thats why they are cheap ? It got to the stage i was ready to just chuck my basket and walk out, the shop had ground to a halt with just two tills . They have signs everywhere asking for staff , but theyre known for being a dreadful employer locally so im not surprised , Now the freezer shop has gone i cant see a reason to go back again .                                                                                                                                               Managed to get round Lidl and get a trolley full of bottled water that should last well into January and a few bits like a couple of packs of cooking bacon that can be split down for the freezer .     

  Its got to be bad when Farmfoods is a little haven of sanity on its own little carpark amid all the student housing , its huge and it wasnt busy at all . Other half however had given me a whole list of crap foodstuffs he required , Chinese Ribs , turkey Kievs , spicy god knows what and greasy god knows what basically it has filled the freezer with stuff i cant eat . Though it will cheer son up i managed to get apple juice which for some reason there appears to be a local famine of . Sometimes i think that the huge freezer contains only oven chips and frozen veg for me...lol

Then the purpose of the visit to Morrisons , they to have undergone a revamp , now Morrisons has always been where your mum and granny shopped , you park dad in the cafe  with a cup of tea and do your shopping . Other half had his heart set on his annual morrisons xmas dinner with a mug of tea its been advertised everywhere . the cafe looked curiously empty but there was a big queue , so i parked himself and joined it , i thought there was something odd when there was nothing i could drink, just overpriced bottled water, the drinks machines had gone all they had was overpriced slushies milkshakes and fresh orange.  They had now got a Barista bar just beyond the till with a huge queue again, with loads of baffled pensioners  and a very irate girl doing the serving ...errr most pensioners want a cup of tea or a coffee not a god knows what in a cup with half a cup of nasty coffee under it .  I finally got to the till to order his xmas dinner and shes doing the whole i cant understand you youre wearing a mask and the steam is coming out of my ears by now .  Sorry we havent got any of the xmas menu ...ffs  would we like half a breakfast because they have run out of most things . I just turned around and walked away , to get a right royal rollicking from himself who thought it was all my fault .  So i parked him back in the car and had to go do my last bit of shopping that was missed off the order this weekend , i didnt get any of my meat or veg this week .  They have installed a whole row of little kiosks selling hot food , none of which i would be interested in.  The meat section has shrunk but i got what i needed and some packs of yellow sticker mince . Got to the tills and theyd been revamped as well its nearly all self service now there were just 2 real tills with a girl trying to force you to use them , those of us queuing were blocking the aisles so she was a tad stressed , having a basket i was a prime target , but i had all yellow sticker items so no point even trying the self serve it just doesnt get it .  I do think the world is trying to do away with us oldies   

Busy

 Lifes always throwing you curveballs , daughter has been a tad poorly with Covid somewhat baffled as shes classed as vulnerable as shes currently on chemo , doesnt go out and works from home , suspected it was a gift from grandson who has had man flu for a few days but didnt test positive, but hed been here with us and we are all fine.  Shes over the worst of it but still seems pretty grim , she only has 80% lung function on a good day so it may be a while , good old 111 wanted her to go to hospital  but she wasnt having it and got her mate whos a nurse practioner to pop round in her hazmat gear and have a listen to her chest . She couldnt have the jabs because of her autoimmune problems . So she did say well at least thats my immunity now boosted up . I was doing nursy from home online nagging her to stay upright and keep walking a bit if you can , loads of fluids and gargle with that infamous concoction of Lemsip and whisky. Kids even adult ones are always a worry .  On the other end of Covid OH keeps getting emails from the doctor to book his booster , but on ringing theres no spaces , it would seem the third jab is being rationed out to GPS in this area , they get a llimited delivery  or nothing so even they have no idea whats going on .

Ordinary Days

 So its been a busy week , lots of hospital with himself including yet another transfusion day when i drop him at the door and then pop to Tescos , but for a change i got a phone call to say he was going to be 5 hours . So what do you do, theres not the money for fuel to go home then come back to pick him up . So i trawled around the out of town shops in uphill Lincoln for something to do , it was wonderful to not be constantly clock watching or having the scowling presence tapping his foot at how long ive been in a shop . Did i spend loads ? Well i visited the barnardos toy shop and was horrified to see they had 4 grubby barbies in a bag for £20 , they could at least have cleaned them and brushed their hair for that price .   Tons of stuff but for the most part for a couple of quid more you could have bought new .  Giant Tesco for a tiddle and cat food , its increasingly hard to find the cheap and nasty own brand tins that old cat likes but did manage to get 3 packs it was all they had . I did kill a fair bit of time wandering round in the dry looking at xmas jumpers and sparkly frocks . Then on to The Lincolnshire Hospice Shop , sadly nothing i could afford in there plus it was all fat bird on a cruise type garments . For a giggle i even visited the Sue Ryder Temple in a huge retail unit , noxiously expensive but it does do some fairly decent furniture , among which they had a glorious 1930s bedroom suite veneered birdseye maple all curves made me wish i had a bigger house and a much bigger budget lol £150 . But the one plus on my day was good old B&N they were having a garden centre sale to make load for a lorry load of xmas trees , so i blew my budget on sad looking plants , christmas roses already sprouting , loads of grey untidy pinks at 10p each , all stuff that can overwinter and be planted in the spring . which i managed to smuggle home without him noticing ..When I finally picked him up , his grumpiness knew no bounds . So what have you being doing all day? Reading my book on the industrial estate . Hed given me £3 for dinner so its a good job he didnt hear my rattling stomach after all id sooner buy plants 

Dr Google

 Now im sure youre aware that we struggle with our GPs or rather our lack of GPs , suddenly they have turned into efficient GPs they have dragged themselves up to the level of normal GPs because they are undergoing a care standards inspection at the moment . Its announced on the Surgery website asking for comments from patients , shant bother i should imagine theres some interesting stories for them already . Anyway its not the fault of the actual Drs its the company that owns the practice , its only interest is farming money out of the patients . Before Covid there were obvious problems , during Covid it has been appalling . Our GPs are very honest with you if you can actually get to see them they admit that all they can do is work to the latest directive sent by the company . 6 thousand patients 4 doctors so they have reached the maximum patients at which point they opened another surgery round the corner same set up so they can milk another 6000 patients .  Anyway we can get some very dodgy locums at times but i actually talked to a sentient one the other day , not much of a conversation as she pointed out shes allocated 2 minutes per call , my annual blood tests are appalling, i promptly pointed out that i need B12 injections to function otherwise i cant think and keep falling over and my other medications dont work properly , but they stopped testing for this about 4 years ago so therefore i was cured because they lost my notes . She actually agreed to do further blood tests whoopee . Got a call back a few days later my B12  and vitamin D are through the floor pick the tablets up at the desk . retest in a couple of months . But the biggest giggle they also sent me another version of my regular medication , this is what i was put on by the hospital but it costs 12p to much so they stopped it and gave me the cheaper version and ive struggled ever since . Im sure this is all just because of the care standards investigation being ongoing ...but i can hope this is a longer term improvement  

Political Friday

 Lets have a giggle at the latest sea of shit our Glorious Leader has created . Not content with COP97 or whatever it was ,being the biggest show of hypocrites on tour ever .  How many private planes?  How many huge motorcades . Ocean liner hotels moored on the Clyde , beggars belief really doesnt it . All the little people getting fines for putting a crisp bag in the wrong bin , meanwhile the carbon footprint of these privileged idiots blackens the world . The Boris spokesman , pointing out his plane used eco fuel and they were paying a carbon offset for using it , bugger the offset does it make it better that they will plant a sapling in Scotland so his laziness could jet home for a dinner and jolly with his mates . He couldnt keep his eyes open and appeared pissed at one stage . If they all payed an offset for this fiasco Wee Jimmy Sturgen will be ruling the Great Northern Forest in a few years . im seriously thinking of running round on my travels with a bag of conkers and acorns and sycamore keys doing my own offset everywhere i go .

Then we get to the real elephant in the room , corruption .  A minor player in the Tory scheme of look over there has been caught with his hand in the till . Half a million of money for services rendered in his pocket , blatantly bribes taken for services rendered to a corporation he was a lobbyist for . then Boris decides to do away with the standards committee that caught him and replace them with a bunch of his mates, forces all his party to vote yes for this spiffing idea and then it went very viral and the smell of burning tyres on this  u turn created its own disaster . I think the fact that the MP involved was getting a mere 30 day suspension from Parliament  over the matter is more disgusting . He has now however fallen on his sword and resigned , causing a by election . 

Now if i look into my crystal ball , i wouldnt be surprised if Glorious Leader decides to chuck a General Election into the equation , his ego being what it is . His logic could be that he is up before the ethics committee , he has been dodging them for months over his gold plated decorating scandal , At most hes looking at a 30 day suspension , which means he could spend xmas in the Caribbean. The likely hood that his local party would deselect him is virtually nil  . So back in the New Year with an even bigger majority , business as usual .  I do think that Ego is the one thing that will bring him down in the end .  Though didnt we once execute a king and turn Puritan  over corruption , or has that part of History been cancelled in schools?

Winter Anyone

 Well its a look out the window day today , pelting with rain and a fine gale blowing , hung a couple of loads of towels out just because it softens them up nicely and i cant abide fabric softener plus its another one of those things you can live without if you have to.  On the subject of washing im still managing to line dry everything due to the howling gales it then needs a night in the airing cupboard folded and done . Fighting heating wars with himself , hes cold all the time because hes awaiting his next iron infusions , he just wont move about at all unless he has to , plus he insists in being in shorts for 90% of the year . he hasnt realised that ive turned down the thermostat to 10 degrees so the heating doesnt actually click on , i may get away with this for months if im careful.  Hes also getting at me for nipping to the loo in Sainsburys and coming out with a jumper and a pair of pyjamas from the sale rail , unusual to spot stuff in a big size , thats a gripe for another day .  Plus our plague visit to the jumble sales last week went quite well , 3 items of clothing , one to wear one needs altering and a third for the amazing fabric , a huge bag of craft stuff, includes Ehrman tapestry canvas , cross stitch kits loads of tapestry wool ,loads of canvas , basically a bag of happy . I got 3 rather nice 50s cookbooks theyre sat airing in the window . Daughter however is taking up the ugly ornament challenge , i was in the lead but she spent a whole 50p on a big lump of brownstone ware that resembles a huge policemans whistle , she gifted it to me and i havent had the heart to tell her its studio pottery and has a bit of value to it...lol  i will get round to adding a photo if it ever gets light .  So thats a week of happy , now the visitor season appears to be over . Just have to make it through to spring and gardening time

Shitstorm

 So in our latest bloody good idea  we have the jolly good wheeze of shoving all the overflow shit into the rivers and seas , this does have to happen from time to time in the event of severe flooding . but water companies will no longer have to be fined for it happening . So of course they will do it more and more for  profits.  Well if most of the public can see this then why the curious parliamentary blindness ? Could it possibly be the large donations made to a certain party ?  Then joy of joy we are importing human excrement from the netherlands to spray as fertilizer , well being a country dweller i can tell you that most anything is better than the chicken shit sprayed by Dyson farms , it makes your eyes sting your lungs burn and is like no other sprayed shit for lingering it can be smelt for miles . currently they spray it before they plant winter cover crops, they then spray with weed killer in the Spring then plant endless maize for bio fuel the maize leeches all the nutrients from the soil but its very profitable .  Yet another cracking green policy from our Leaders .  They do say that anything over one side of an A4 sheet is all Boris will read , but our Glorious Leader reader managed to read the Brexit stuff he signed didnt he?

Well

 This is exciting day two of lash with rain then blinding sunshine , global warming of course . Though back in the day they just called it autumn storm season . Still pleasantly warm , so no heating yet its just reached the crawl under the duvet at 3am wake up dripping with sweat and have to hang your limbs out of the duvet for the spiders to get you time of year . Still not going further than the doctors and its village full of tourists , though ive pencilled in Saturday for a jumble sale or two and picking up grandson for the school holidays . masked gloved and in my rain coat with a fetching aroma of sanitizer of course . Now we are the proud possessors of the latest variant which has some daft greek name but i think its fairer to just call it the Skegness variant because thats where its centered on ...ho hum here we go again .

Meanwhile in my daft thoughts on our poxy government , have you wondered why all the media is harping on about getting your xmas food early ? People dont seem to realise that we may have major difficulties come January when we go full on customs at our boarders and you just know that with our thousand year dispute with the French theyre going to enjoy this no end .  Meanwhile im just glad that Boris cant play a fiddle while we burn . At least with him just doing painting by numbers in the sunshine we have nobody quoting greek at the French just for fun .

Errrm A letter from Saj

 So Sajid  has sent other half a letter , pages of it because hes a clinically vulnerable . Incase your wondering Saj is our latest Health Minister . The replacement for Fondling Hancock , who isnt a hard act to follow . It would seem that any form of shielding has been abolished and you wont be asked to do it again . Now its all down to you !  Bless hes not to go near anyone whos not had the vaccine , all family and friends should take a lateral flow test before visiting him , all visitors must wear a mask and he musnt go into crowded spaces and social distance at all times .  OK fair enough . 

Then we get a whole lecture on mental health , we apparently have a lets talk loneliness web site , theres also Hub of Hope for serious matters you tap in your postcode and then you need to download an app. Your local council may be able to help ?  not ours . theres a whole list of online stuff .  But not everyone has online access and when youve got mental health problems its  government by iphone yet again . The biggest giggle is that you must ask your Consultant at your next regular appointment about having your booster jab , who the hell is managing to get a regular appointment with a Consultant unless you pay ?

There will also be no priority access to online grocery deliveries .

So from an our family perspective how does this work out . Well other half only has contact with the unvaccinated . Vaccination is wonderful but with an auto immune condition and the chance of seeing a doctor to discuss this nonexistant errrrr.  Son has had severe mental health problems the last year his ocd and agrophobia have worsened to the point of life limiting he has been out 3 times in 2 years and its a struggle to get him to even go into the garden , he needs help there is none in this area .  i always wear a mask when going anywhere and gloves despite the comments and will continue to do so . As for the priority access to anything well we never saw any of it because my partner was missed off the list much as my mother was .  So we went out once a fortnight for groceries and medication and other halfs endless hospital trips on top , stalked by the neighbour with a notebook and the threat of the police .

Meanwhile the Covid rates go ever up, the death rates are still quite high but its just the elderly and disabled so it doesnt matter unless they are your elderly and disabled ! Most of the dying have been vaccinated . So here in Plague Island the government motto seems to be carry on regardless , then jump on a plane and spread it everywhere ...Thanks Saj 

Mumsie

 So lets talk about Mummy Dearest , im sure some of you remember her , now at 86 shes been locked up for 18 months in her bungalow getting fouler and fouler , she was missed off the vulnerable list and it has been a nightmare , if an elderly neighbour hadnt adopted her , she quite frankly would have been found when the pile of post was half way up the door , but shes just as stubborn as ever and hasnt run out of booze yet , though shes run out of friends as she tells me everybody is dead or been put in a care home .  Now before Covid she was awaiting cataract surgery and her eyesight has got to the stage where she cant even read the labels on her bottles , shes reduced to wiltshire farm foods or Parsley Box . Now she is due next week to go into hospital to have a cataract removed , but only if shes had her Covid booster and her flu jab , but she couldnt get them anywhere in her area theyre not doing them yet . Well she got a bit annoyed at this having rung her shut up shop GPs umpteen times and being told she must book online , in fact she got so annoyed she jumped in a taxi and went to the surgery . This in it self should have warned them , but she managed to get into the building when a delivery bloke was leaving and once she was in she wasnt leaving ..lol ..now she may appear a tiny little old lady who they can bully , but once shes on rant theres no stopping her .  So in no uncertain terms she told them she wasnt planning on dying just to oblige them ,  they could sort out her vaccine appointments now , at which point the receptionist started on the whole you need to book online , mother called her a fuckwit , im fairly sure she picked that phrase up from me and pointed out she lived alone saw nobody and is classed as blind how was she supposed to book these soddin appointments . The practice manager had to be called out to give her the whole you will need to leave because you are abusing the staff . She refused to leave and they said they would ring the police . Well she quite liked the idea of that because she hasnt seen them since she went into isolation but she also pointed out that she was going to the local press next stop . So in the end they sat her down in an office and gave her a cup of tea . They booked her vaccine appointments  30 miles away so now she can have her operation , then they asked her why she hadnt got a fall monitor which set her off on another rant because they may be free but they charge you to come and see whats going on if its set off . They eventually managed to get her back in the taxi by telling her that someone from the council would be coming to do a care assessment ....god help them ...lol  And the reason i know all this my cousin was hiding in the waiting room hoping she didnt spot him 

Mental Health

 Does anyone else think we have got to that perfect storm situation , everyday theres something else piled on to people by the bunch of incompetents in government , lets take £20 a week off struggling folk then tell them in the next breath that their fuel costs are going up £140 .  Fuel , if you have to drive to work youre adding hours to your day looking for it . Telling people to work more hours while the low paid get to keep a mere 63p of every hour worked . Im glad we are old and  decrepit, but for the kids generation its just knock after knock , everywhere they look , no light on the horizon .  Mental Health is getting hammered into the ground , best you will get is a packet of pills from your email to the GP , nobodies going to even ask whats the matter its just accepted that everybody's depressed . Latest one is interest rates the younger generation have no idea where this is leading, those of us who are older remember the interest spiral back in the day , where the repossessions were on every street.

So lets remember its women who suck it up and get on with it mainly ,but its men who end up hanging from trees because they dont ever like to admit theyre broken inside . So hug your bloke remind him your there and the problems are yours as well . Be there for your other half because you never know the life and soul off the party has often had enough 

Dont Panic

 Despite what the press are blathering on about we are not yet starving in the UK , some random grocery items are hard to find and shopping on friday and saturday empty shelves will feature on your trip .  Please support your local foodbank , mainly because our benefit system is a shambles , latest scandal which they are trying to shut down in the media ,is those who have reached pensionable age and the state hasnt started to pay them their pension , it seems there have been thousands of people left in this mess , why is nobody surprised ? did not enough people die due to Covid ?   Then theres the fun with fuel , hasnt affected us much we are rural and our fuel station seems to just have four vehicles in the queue , unless its the night before his delivery and he posts on facebook he has fuel then they come from miles away . I gather its pretty chaotic in the towns . Other half hasnt grasped as i have that we are reliant on oil heating which is delivered by the same drivers that theire is a shortage of , so that could be pretty interesting if the weather changes .  Reminds me of the Join the Fuel Club conversations we had during Covid  when they set it up , i had a whole conversation with some middle class prick from the council , who couldnt understand that we couldnt afford to pay £80 a month for our heating oil all year round and that the money we dont spend on fuel in a summer goes towards building up food for the winter months . Poverty blindness is real and thriving in Rural Lincolnshire . I sometimes wonder what extra they think the disabled are getting money wise . I know we get £27 pound PIP . I know i get £67 for being a carer , then my partner gets single person rate ESA  and they take  £30 a week ofF him for me claiming carers , i consider us lucky to get this and it means we are a little better off than some but it doesnt go far . Apparently theyre going to send us all on government zoom courses on how to manage our budgets better . Cant wait i suppose it may show me where were going wrong , you know in choosing eating instead of heating . I see the press have took up the people will have to make hard choices about heating and eating this winter , idiots some of us have been doing it for years the disabled in particular , we have been lucky in getting a couple of mild winters so it hasnt killed to many .   Anyway im off outside to fit a big motorbike chain and lock to our fuel oil tank , i can already see that theyre going to be targeted by the usual thieves this winter. 

Daft Ideas

 I know i do some daft things , but i snuck out for an hour on Sunday morning to the local car boot its just in the next village and if you get there before 8 theres just a nice amount of people pottering about . Himself had finally nodded off after nuking him with industrial painkillers so i figured he could be left . Anyway id pottered round the whole thing and bought nada , i was looking for cooking apples but they are like gold this year . Stopped to talk to one of the old guys whos always there and he says dont you like dolls?   And with that whips out a whole box full of Barbie type creatures £3 so i have a polite root among them and then he says thats the price for the box , so guess what they came home with me . I thought i could clean them up and brush their hair and charity them if nothing else , theres 30 dolls most are salvageable, the clothes have gone to the wash and im going to be brushing hair for a week . Then i started looking online . Have you seen the prices of teen dolls new ? scary.  Then i asked a mate who works with loads of local charities about where they could be donated . Same problem as usual , unless they are new and sealed in a box the big charities dont take toys , most just bin them . So i just have to find one of the small church or animal charities willing to take them , shouldnt be a problem theres a good few locally . If not i may bundle them up and sell them on facebook then give the money to foodbank . Anyway the point is this just gives me something to do thats different from endless medical matters . Plus the look of horror from himself and son when im sat humming to myself brushing dollys hair and wet wiping Snow Whites crotch is worth every penny ...lol 

   

Hoarders

 Its been a bitch of a week . Himself  decided we should go to Skegness for the day , i really dont like going unless its the middle of winter , to me its just a chore and the fact i have to lift that crippling buggy out of the car . Blinding sunshine , gorgeous day but  it wasnt for me . Hoards of crazed old grannies running you down on their buggies , fag in hand and chihuahua balanced in the basket on the front . Everywhere its like a bad Benidorm , so he scooted up one street and down the other , i get a whole rant about why im not going in the shops , but i see little point in going in places that sell nothing i would want . I made an effort to go in Yorkshire Trading because they had an end of season garden sale , got a fly screen for next year and a couple of new bird feeders , that was it .  Then he decides hes off to treat me to a Burger King , had to laugh its shut down , in fact it was the only empty property we saw .  I just wanted a cuppa by this stage but no chance he decides he wants Mc Donalds takeout ..UURRGGHHH

So by the time i got home , i wwas knackered from running after him on his buggy , then spent the night up being sick from the soddin tiny mcDonalds or lifting his shitting buggy not sure which . But it got better the next night his nose popped about 9pm and it wouldnt stop so rang for the ambulance they said it would be at least 2 hours but it came in 40 minutes , there was much umming and arring about taking him in but they decided to cart him off yet again . He spent 2 hours holding court in the back of an ambulance outside casualty then they found out why i had insisted they take him , he collapsed yet again . I still had to fetch him at 6am they have no beds and they decided to not top up his fluids this time just to see what will happen . They are once again reporting the GPs for failing to monitor him despite repeated requests from 3 consultants and casualty . But it still means that im left here on my own , with his collapse risk high and no means of moving him if he does blackout , plus a possible 2 hour wait for an ambulance . 

Beggers belief 

Winter is Coming

 So as we head into Autumn , we are greated with media stuffed full of your going to starve or your going to freeze . Good choices ?  Yes its annoying having to shop around to get what you want or waiting for the lucky dip that is your supermarket home delivery . But theres still plenty of food out there at the moment , its a tad disquieting to visit Farmfoods for your teabag multipack and a winters worth of wash powder amd find theres folks going full on doomsday apocalypse shopper but if you have a large family whats the alternatives , i think if your kids have left the nest its very easy to forget just how much teenagers eat if youve two or three its nightmare levels of consumption . Realistically making sure you have a couple of gallons of cooking oil and two or three sacks of spuds on stock isnt a bad idea also enough pasta for a small army and dont forget vacuum packed rice is near bloody immortal . I admit to having pack ratted a good few chicken UN ration packs , pre cooked and just chuck in with what ever sauce you can devise . Daughter came the other day and she couldnt find sugar to make jam . Im not jam making this year unless the urge takes me , the younger generation can learn ...lol  I think what im trying to say is that the older generation are less panicked by what goes on around us , we have the knowledge to make do and adapt and get by that we need to pass on to the younger generation so they dont become so stressed by our idiot media ...............Oh and on the no heat front , dont forget to buy half a dozen hot water bottles , fingerless gloves for everyone , lots of wooly slipper boots and rechargeable lighting or wind up torches ...ffs no candles , get your inner boy scout on , because winter is coming 

Waddling Along

 Im still here !!! but when you both end up with a nasty stomach bug at the same time in a house with only one loo its fun , plus you have to care for your other half while wanting to crawl into a ball and die yourself . Of course , i then manage to pick up a nasty skin infection on top , which had to be home doctored and sort of ran me into the ground . But dont worry about us Mr BH has a telephone appointment with our latest GP today 7 days after it was requested !!  even better our new GP is the strange bloke with a dicky bow and the name with no vowels we had a few years ago .  He repeatedly screamed at My OH that he was an alcoholic and needed to admit it at which point he found out that his patient could be just as loud back at him . it ended up in a complaint being lodged . But saying that it has taken 10 years for them to find that my OH actually has a genetic condition that mimics alcoholism so ho hum life goes on . i  think i may hide down the garden .

On the garden front im officially way behind , most of the fruit went to waste , still tons of raspberries coming ready . Apples dire , tiny and full of worm . But the fact that nobody seems to have apples at the gates this year means its just a bad apple year .  Grandson dug the potatoes this weekend and they have been a pleasant surprise , ive mountains of them , celery is doing well . leeks are small but thriving among the weeds , my pumpkins all shrivelled and vanished during the sunshine which is somewhat baffling , cabbages look good in their cage so not too bad a year veg wise . The hedgehogs im feeding seem to be doing a good pest control job . The just grow what we like ethos does seem to have worked quite well though im going to miss my winter squashes for soups and stews . Must get my seeds ordered soon ..lol

Bimbling On

 Ive had a good week , disabled fishing Thursday so a day of peace until i spotted a £10 TV unit on facebook in the next village . quick pop down to collect and then one of those jobs you wish you never started .  The old Tv unit didnt want to move and i had to move so much stuff to get it out and then get my whinging slave to help me lift it out , it hadnt been moved in years it was so heavy and dated from the days of huge TVs . Why is their a plague this year of spiders that are a dot of a body with thin legs you can barely see ? they seem to make webs everywhere in no time as fast as you hoover them theres 10 more . So we eventually got the new one in its higher and smaller which is what i was after plus its nice boring pine instead of a grey and glass monstrosity. i also with no witnesses threw all the old game consoles into the dustbin , the kids just abandoned them here for Mr BH to try and fix which never happened . saved the toughened glass shelves from the unit for shed glass repair . The screws went into the screw jar and im afraid the wood is compressed chipboard so will have to go to the new bonfire pile . waste not , want not and all that . It took till bedtime for Mr BH to notice what id done , his first question was what i had done with all the consoles?  I told him they were in the box behind the unit , the empty box he cant get to . You even have to be crafty throwing stuff out these days since he got the security cameras put up , so that he can watch us when hes out on his phone . Joy ..Today hes going to a car show with useful son and daughter and grandson are hopefully coming to help fill the bin some more .   

Tedium Tuesday

 Im informed we have to venture to civilisation tomorrow , just because i need some cheap roof felt for my garden swing and another project im working on . Nobody delivers within my price range , either that or theres none of the cheap stuff available , not that theres many places to try in lincoln . Im currently in the dog house for using his Dremmel to do the hard skin on my feet , im feeling a bit rebellious due to the arival of this odd three wheeled scooter that has arrived its not a trike exactly thank god ,he did have to sell his big trike when he got bad , im not sure how hes going to ride it but his minions are all egging him on . Im merely the tea lady whos opinions count for nothing . 

 Last week i had my first daughter day out for 18 months , we thought we would risk our lives with a trip out to Boston on market day . Well Boston is now practically a ghost town the center has been decimated with closures over the Covid period , the charity shops seem to be thriving however , though theres about half the amount there was . The market is just hanging on , most of the stalls that have been there for years seem to have gone . However the second hand auction looks to be thriving, didnt get into the scrum i dont do crowds these days . I was dragged into the British Heart Foundation , i wouldnt normally bother its so overpriced , however they now have a £1 shop upstairs that is better than the overpriced downstairs , i came away with a couple of studio pottery bits , something ive not bought for years . I managed to resist all the pyrex .  Its strange pyrex is sought of in the USA but you can still pick good vintage bits up here for next to nothing . Ive developed an online interest in watching locker buyers in the States and their online auctions . The prices stun me . Its the postal prices here that kill the trade with the US and Canada . Wish me luck  tomorrow im planning on springing a few charity shops on him 

Why

 So lets talk about the shocking shit show that is Afghanistan ...where to begin ? im sick of finding that people that i think of as online friends are ranting on that we cant take more refugees , we should look after our own first , yes we should but they dont want to look after anybody so whats new . Maybe a few of the vast number of MPs of all parties who own rental properties and second homes could find a bit of space? Mr Blair being one of the worst offenders . They forget thats there is a whole wedge of the population who have served in Afghanistan at some point in the last 20 years, they dont forget their debts to the Afghans who helped them survive out there .  I dont care whos fault this war is bloody politicians are just into wars for the vast profits they make for the people who slip them a backhander , maybe somebody should compile a list of who has been paid by armaments companies or worked for them before they became MPs?  Then we have the MP for Israel , whos parents came here from Uganda , she hasnt a ounce of empathy for any member of the human race . The Taliban may make a credible government eventually , there is that heavy religious cult element  but among them is a younger generation who like decent trainers and the latest AK47 ,they haven t all been holed up in a cave for 20 years , theres a lot  of internet savvy younger folks .  When you think we have spent 20 years and many lives interfering in a country that is famous for beating the Russians and now us and the USA , just because of its vast mineral wealth alone they will have to drag themselves onto the world stage with some resemblance of democracy. They have what everyone wants , they want trainers and AK47s so time will tell . 

AAARRRGHH

 The petty annoyances of life , waddling about doing chores last night and im in a heap on the floor , bane of my life ive twanged the tendons in my good leg and im squealing on the floor , ive had this since i was a kid , nobody has ever managed to find anything wrong with it , its just another bleedin nuisance ailment to add to my list . AAARRGGHHH  it is much better this morning now ive got moving . So long as i dont rest for more than 10 minutes i can walk and get on with my jobs , then it twangs again and i cant move till it releases . I can remember being a kid and getting one hell of a slapping for being a drama queen as i was screaming and rolling around on the floor outside Finefare  back in the 70s . Getting the hissed under her breath bollocking from Mummy Dearest about embarrassing her in public yet again. I suppose she trained me well , i dont scream but i do epic swearing when this happens once in a blue moon . Im still getting reminded by my mother that i was such an embarrassment to her as a child in fact i think she mentioned that i still owe her the bus fair home because kicking me up the street hadnt got me to walk on that leg .  Once happened in the middle of a hockey match and i got put in the back of an ambulance and taken to hospital where they informed me there was nothing wrong with it on the x rays  therefore i must as a fat kid be faking it to get out of games . Ho hum 50 odd years later it does this every once in a while must be a couple of years since the last time . I suppose i could Ask GP but its just taken 5 weeks for other half to get on to it to ask for a medication review , it now comes online at 8.30 am and by 8.45 the system is full and thats it for the day beggers belief .

Sunday

 What to do on a Sunday ? Well im currently praying for rain , in the vain hope im not carted off to the car show that useful son and Mr BH wish to attend . I would much sooner potter round the garden and sort through my hidden heaps of fabric  with a view to the quilt daughter wants for xmas ..aaarrggghhh i need to get started with my hands playing up it will take time . Daughter came to pick munchkin up on Friday becuase he didnt want to miss gym and park run on Saturday morning , we will collect him after hospital on Monday , hes useful for all manor of garden tasks though ive had to put of getting the big shredder i had saved for due to himself and his buying a trike antics.  Ive also found out because he carelessly left the letter lying around , that despite claiming that the vascular surgeon says there is nothing up with him , he is in fact somewhat up shit creak without a paddle and this is why himself has stopped me dealing with the medical side of stuff and is behaving like a desperate teenager with a lottery win . In my urge to be pleasant and due to the fact that im not feeling particularly supportive at the moment , i pointed out that i would be getting a very big skip if he snuffs it and every bit of radio equipment and rusty crap would be gone in days , because he shouldnt keep kidding himself that the kids are the slightest bit interested in the shit he hoards , they would just do the same with everything of mine ive no illusions .  Ive also ordered a new much bigger freezer just to empty the bank account , the seal is going rapidly on our old one and for the cost of a new seal for it i might as well get a new frost free one and bankrupt us , there is a stunning silence on the subject , usually hed be desperately searching the small ads and auctions for a cheap replacement . not a word , not sure if this is because he thinks he would fit in the freezer . In all the years we have been together i have never been so annoyed with him as i am at the moment .

Tad Slack

 I feel as if im rather neglecting you all at the moment , endless bother with himself , yesterday he was screaming at me because he had run out of his prescription  and i had hidden or lost it , didnt make a deal of difference as it was the one tablet we have in common so he could use them till we sorted the matter . It turned out he had ordered them three weeks ago but not told me so they hadnt been collected ...ho hum do i get an apology ?  nope its all my fault .  Every day is like this at the moment , its like a war of attrition and its damned hard work . Im not sure if its the extra stress of our latest dealings with the DWP or if he may have had another mini stroke , i cant even get in touch with the doctors on his behalf  because hes gone online and cancelled my access ..AARRGGHHHH plus our doctors is online only still or the witch at the window , who just repeats her mantra i cant do anything you must use ask GP . Grandson is staying and he just looks on in disbelief as the ranting at me starts , it is specifically all aimed at me at least thats one thing . Im trying to be more proactive and have posted a big list of useful phone numbers on the fridge , which started another rant .  There are still no support workers in this area and social services arent interested till they have to pick up the pieces .  i just really need a break from it all and theres nothing on the horizon .

Dodged

 I was tipped off by sarcastic son that Mr BH was up to something the other day , he had seen my dearly beloved counting a big stack of notes while i was out . Not saying anything i checked the safe only to find it empty . This is the emergency rent fund for when they stop all our funds yet again which we have been awaiting since March , this has took some saving all through Covid . So i made a few enquiring calls to his usual suspect mates and BIL . I wasnt surprised to find that he was organising the troops to pick up a trike this weekend !!  Why does he convince himself  he can ride again ? His health isnt getting better we are at various hospitals every week yet again , what the hell is he thinking ? We live in a scrapyard of scooters and bikes he thinks are valuable now, what the fuck was he doing ?  I had pencilled in this weekend for a major argument and major sulk only to find him chucking stuff about yesterday and cussing . It would seem somebody beat him there with the cash . Oh dear what a shame.  Then i got the whole saga of how if he fixed this trike he could have made a huge profit on it ...really ? he cant even walk to his workshop and the weeds are 6ft high around it.  So now i have to put up with a major sulk for weeks and he has informed me he will find a trike on the internet somewhere ...AAARRRGGHH 

Shingles

 Im so bored at the moment , lacking motivation , yet another minor league batch of shingles . Just nuisance ones, tiny rash , bit of pain, leg keeps giving way and need sleep . Ho hum only another 12 years till i am eligible for the vaccine ..lol ...But my mother says its a fat lot of good shes had shingles more since she had her jab . Oddly both my parents had bad shingles from their 40s so i guess ive been genetically gifted . My dad always got them in his eyes which is serious , my mothers much like mine is on both sides , one side minor the other side shit i need antivirals .  Things you didnt know about shingles . Their have found 30 different variants , yes you can get it on both sides . yes you can get it without a skin rash , internal shingles is hell on earth . You cant give it to other people unless they want to scratch off your scabs and rub themselves against you hence genital herpes getting such a bad press . You can only get shingles if you have had chicken pox .  Doctors and shingles dont really mix  , most dont give a fig, to them its just a petty annoyance that they consider to be just a nuisance for old folks.  Then their are the doctors who have had shingles , they will be flinging antivirals and heavy duty painkillers like smarties at you .  But if youre a long hauler you learn that the painkillers really arent a lot of good and the antivirals are very hit and miss with there own wonderful side effects . I suppose that with all the fuss over Long Covid we can hope that they come up with something a bit more effective for a treatment ...Oh and joy of joys the latest conspiracy theory is that shingles are a sympton of Covid !!   nope covid can trigger shingles because your immune system goes gung ho after any viral sympton even a sore throat .

So now your experts on the worst annoyance on the planet  

Hotter

 So the heat continues , with a whole afternoon of biblical thunder followed by 10 minutes of hail and 10 minutes of deluge . Sat and looked out the window on my birthday and today we have been together 16 years and are hoping to go out for an icecream . 

So heres my wildlife post for you , water your hedgehogs folks they are struggling , they need lots of shallow water and plenty of cat kibble in this weather . If you see them in the daytime they are in difficulties and a cardboard box in the shade with a saucer of cat food is the way to go , just release them at dusk . We have a pair of sex maniacs grunting under the living room window  every evening at the moment plus im not sure how many tiny babies are coming for food and water , i did have one actually swimming and rolling round in the water dish the other night . Snakes need water as well so dont panic if you see them , they have no interest in you . They swim in the empty wheelbarrow sometimes, an empty wheelbarrow filled with water with a pile of bricks or stones at the shallow end makes an excellent temporary bird lido . plus the benefit of caring for your wildlife is you have a virtually slug and snail free garden . 

It must be nearly school time as next door is slaughtering her kids , brings back memories...lol 

Hot

 Theres that point where heat becomes unpleasant and a chore , so it was up at 5am to get all my chores done prior to himself and his morning routine . 4 loads of laundry into todays mountain , sweaty weather in itself just creates mountains of laundry at least its dried like carboard in an hour ..lol

So himself decided yesterday that we should go on a tropical trip to the huge auto jumble , grandson and useful son included  , I knew i would struggle with the heat so packed a cool bag full of drinks and covered up well , even with factor 50 cream i still burn and looking round there was a lot of awful crispy people walking round , normally this would be a treat for me i just lose them and look for stuff for the garden , but it was just to hot to look so i kept losing them and going to sit under a tree . The moral of the story is never believe your other half when he tells you , its going to be cloudy with a chance of showers .  im now looking for a parasol just so i can poke folks eyes out . Being an outdoor event the masking only applied to the toilets and they were well managed and organised though it made a pleasant change to see men having to queue , then getting a strop on because they got to the front and didnt have a mask and needed to buy one . 

 Useful son seems to have dropped into yet another contract at the council hes learning how to operate the CCTV room for the town center , hes hoping he gets put through to take the course that gives him the magic bit of paper that ups his wages. Time will tell .

So thats it not a very exciting week on the edge of the fen  

Lazy

 Well i sort of went into the garden and lost a week thats my only excuse for not being here , between that and the endless hospital and dr stuff we are mixed up in at the moment , then theres yet more fun with the DWP ...ho hum  yeah i guess im just a lazy blogger at the moment . So being up since 3am ive managed to fit this in . The motto of the story is dont let yourself be bullyed into eating a slice of pizza by your partner . I have to say its been a beautiful sunrise , our very noisy magpie family are cackling happily they have just one young one this year and its now fledged and very hungry . I can say it likes liver and onion gravy very much and the endless vermin the cats dump around the front door for my joyful inspection .  Though Miss Penny and her bring a mouse in for company routine is a little taxing , im sure shes just a frustrated mother , she doesnt kill them, just tries to mother them , shes so upset when i retrieve them and pop them over the road into the field . I gather himself has ordered a webcam of some kind so he doesnt have to crane his neck to watch the birds .  He plans to tell me its for my birthday ...lol  ..Getting the magpies to accept me is my new hobby i can now get within 5 feet of them and they just talk to me , their love of cat stars is winning them over slowly .

Change of topic , daft shortages . Whats the weird stuff you cant find at the moment . mine is tinned mushrooms and cat stars . I order sacks of cat stars from Amazon and its just took 2 weeks to get the order accepted , i await with interest it turning up . Tinned mushrooms is a mystery , the ever shrinking selection of tins in Lidl is a tad worrying as it will soon be stock up for winter time . I think a trip out to the tin factory may be called for 

Health

 Im feeling very lazy , i think ive just dodged the shingles bullet this time , all the usual is it isnt it symptons except the rash im really hoping that boosting my B12 with milk keffir is doing the trick . On the subject of milk keffir heres what triggered the idea .  Now my mother guzzles those little bottles of Actimal like theres no tommorrow she has diverticulat and ibs  , meanwhile like most things they give me terrible gut pain and the runs , so being bored i did a bit of research and found milk keffir something that is basically fermented milk , now it would seem this is one of those trendy items you get in the supermarket with weird fruit flavours and a big dent in your pocket , so at £4 a tiny bottle i tried one , disliked the ghastly weird fruit flavour but it did seem to calm my ever irritable bowel . So back to research , and i found a fermented food seller on ebay that had a good write up that sold the starter to make it at home and my little pack  wasnt long in coming , so now i have Kevin the kilner jar sat on the draining board , growing a mug of milk keffir every day , you can make it with skimmed milk and it turns to a yogurt like drink that you strain out and leave the curds to fester in fresh milk for tomorrow. Now it is notorious for bunging people up, but for those of us with the opposite problem this stuff is rather wonderful so long as you eat before taking it in the morning and never take it before bed ???  not sure if you turn into a gremlin if you do  , couldnt find the answer to that one anywhere . It can be made with nut milks if you have lactose intolerance. and there is even a different strain that can be made with plain water. There are all sorts of odd and unusual health claims all over the net , its supposed to help with diabetes control , help with weight loss etc etc , not sure about this but it has helped with the post viral lethargy symptoms so might be worth a try if  you need a vitamin boost    

Crap

So im sat here listening to stereo snoring . Useful son is here for the weekend and im not sure who snores the loudest him or his dad . So for a change i got to watch the rather misty sunrise as the rain has finally stopped , day of garden chores it would seem, as the green lushness can get a bit out of hand. So yesterday i set out on a mission to get rid of tons of stuff dumped here by daughter in the vain hope i would car boot it all , So i got sarcastic son to load the car and i was in Morrisons having breakfast by 8.30 with other half , trying to figure how to get the mounds to a charity shop . It may not sound hard but i have to find one that will actually take stock , has vehicle access where i can park right outside the shop and doesnt want to go through everything to pick and choose . It was all good clothing a lot of it tagged or never worn . But there was a vast amount of it . I had managed to get rid of 8 bags of books the previous week at another shop . So other half pointed out theres now a Cat Protection shop inside Morrisons , so as he ate his greasy breakfast i toddled across and asked the manager if she wanted a lot of laundry bags of clothes , she said they arent allowed to take books or DVDs at the moment , she has no idea why .  So i loaded a trolley up with difficulty and struggled  into the store , but i made it , so thats another load gone .  Thought id get my fresh shopping as that was the main reason for even going into town only to find that due to a power fault they couldnt open any of the chillers ..ho hum  i get my online shop but getting fresh stuff or chiller items is no good because the dates are always the next day . So I had to go somewhere else that was quiet ended up at M&S yet again .  Then i was changing the bed in the spare room and decided to rake through the cupboards and it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare , so that was another 8 bags into the back of the car , along with an even bigger pile for the bin . It will take weeks to get rid of the bin rubbish , still cant use the skip without an appointment and only one type of waste at a time , plus they are not allowed to help you and you must go alone .  Hope it doesnt rain and trap me in the house again this week its amazing what i achieve when im bored 

Garden of Delights

 Well the never ending rain has reduced me to cleaning the oven for amusement , yesterday i started putting the washing yurt away and then ended up raking through the mountains of clothes i own , i dont think anyone would grasp quite how i have so many . But because im not a small girl and i have on average a 4 different sizes wardrobe depending on whether im swollen or not swollen thats a lot of clothes theres even two suitcases of jeans complete with a selection of belts depending on size range . It does get annoying it can vary two sizes from one day to the next .  I have weakened and bought a denim dress this year just because it was huge and i figured id live in it .  But most of my clothes are from pre 2017 in the days before everything went wrong, in fact an awful lot of stuff is over 20 years old . So ive figured that once again all i actually need this year is underwear and a couple of pairs of leggings due to what i have been only fit for gardening. Cant see us going anywhere much this year , his walking is dire and with the DWP hounding us yet again we darent spend a penny , not a peep have we heard and its been 2 weeks since i sent them the parcel and it was signed for at their building .  We await the verdict with interest as im not sure i can cope with all the shit they cause yet again . I did notice as i trawled through the job adverts on line that the local hospice is looking for someone to deal with the DWP for the terminally ill at 20k per annum , a thankless job as most die before they receive a penny from the gits . Someone did tell me that they are having to do this because of bed blocking they are not allowed to send people home who have no income . 

 On a garden plus note , the rain has caused my clematis to go mental and totally hide the line of "valuable" pile of scrap scooters outside the window . Mr Bah Humbug pointed out it needed pruning , dont think so mate you havent touched them in years and on to your funeral pire they will be going ..........im such a ray of sunshine...lol 

Drippady Doo Dah

 Another 3am wake up , despite earplugs and blackout curtains im still awake at the first crack of dawn . id acheived a freezer defrost and my second cuppa by 6 .  Read all the wonderful factual internet content i could find . it was a tad drizzly when i got up but now it bucketing it down . Ive a cat doing laps because shes convinced that one of the windows or doors has an alternate dimension with sunshine and mice . I had planned to pop the leeks in today but unless it brightens up thats a none starter along with loads of other garden chores i had lined up . I will still venture down for some strawberries before the slugs beat me to them . So now i have to find something to kill the rest of the rainy weather with ...ho hum household chores i suppose , the most despised chores on the planet ...ive a shower room needs scrubbing out and a washing yurt to put away , lifes so exciting these days...lol 

Fun

So in my role as trip advisor on the regions hospitals off we toddled to Louth  yesterday , ermm on a plus point the carpark has been resurfaced and the parkings currently free .  Id deposited Mr Bah Humbug  on a chair near the door , even getting in the building had been fun , he was on his crutches . im so glad he wasnt on his wheels because the ramp going down into the building was so steep he would have gone straight down it in through the automatic door and the toilet and demolished reception like a giant bowling ball !!  I went to the desk and booked him in and explained that he is on the fall register as the woman looked at me gone out .  We have been told that our hospital group has a fall protocol now , in fact hes flagged up on their systems he was redlined just last week at Emergency no problems . She then launched in to the whole Covid speech could i please leave the building etc , i pointed out he would need a wheelchair and a porter to get into the building and abandoned him .  So im sat in the carpark in the sunshine nattering to another woman whos just abandoned her elderly mother with dementia at reception as well , she pointed out that she had parked near the door so she could keep an eye on it because mother is a wanderer and fast on her feet . Two hours later im still sat there and theres only half a dozen cars left in the carpark . So i texted him and just got a load of abuse , so i gathered it was going well . I finally got the phonecall to pick him up and managed to get the car to the top of the ramp . He emerges on his crutches , staggering and swaying and manages to get up the bleedin ramp and into the car at which point his head exploded .  He does a good rant and was calling me allsorts as passers by swivel their heads in astonishment and i just wait for him to run out of breath , it happens much faster these days and the ramp had nearly killed him .  Best line was that the staff are incompetent sexist bastards.  I did eventually get the whole story out of him .  It seems the receptionist didnt press enter when i booked him in . He couldnt get up being wedged in a small plastic chair .and because hes a bloke theyd parked him right in front of the large screen telly with football on . He hates football with a vengence so after 2 hours of it his head exploded , hed ended up having to shout down the waiting area asking what the hold up was . Turns out hed been marked as a no show at the clinic and the doctor was just packing up to go home , their were no available wheelchairs as they were all in use . The big sign saying there would be a two hour wait didnt apply to his clinic . So it was all his fault for not asking sooner .  His 2 minute appointment consisted off the doctor telling him that he doesnt see anything wrong on his scans and ordering more scans .  Im so glad his brother has taken him fishing today as hes still ranting on 

indifference

 So this is one of those weird thoughts that come up at 3am posts .  What is happening to us as a race?  Has Covid caused us all to become selfish and uncaring . I know this is happening all over the world . Will the ever scarcer resources just make us all meaner and meaner to each other?  The eugenics policies of our current government are becoming more and more obvious , the care home fiasco when they quite blatently sacrificed so many elderly parents and grandparents ? They were doing there best . Im no anti vaxer  but they do seem to be pushing an agenda rather than its benefits , just to get the older generation to go out and spend loads of money to boost the economy . Everything that is questioned , its nothing to see here folks .  After listening to the ranting of elderly men yesterday , publicly and loudly going on about sending all the foreigners home in front of groups of our local Romanian fieldworkers i was horrified . They come each year , they work in the fields they go home for the winter . Mr Bah humbug pointed out nobody was moaning about foreigners when he was in A&E the staff were every nationality under the sun. So do we now have worthy foreigners and unworthy ones ?    Am I one of the only ones who can see we are heading into a huge famine this winter , crops havent been planted or maintained  in so many countries .  As we hoard our vaccines and cut down on foreign aid  what will the consequence be . Millions more foreigners heading north to safety and food . Will Patel be mining the beaches and sending in the gunboats ?  Just think on what the next year may be like 

Blood

 So i had a heavy days gardening planned yesterday but Mr BH had other plans for us .  Now he has a nosebleed problem always has had , his dad had it his grandad has it the sons have it , its just one blood vessel , his nosebleeds are epic and legendary with no warning far worse than the rest of the family . So id plopped him in the bathroom yesterday morning for his ablutions and pop goes his nose , annoying but nothing unusual , hes quite content to sit there with a jug and a towel and deal with it , then shout me when he needs me . Only he didnt shout for an hour , when i went to him hed lost over a pint but it was steadying down another half an hour and he was down for breakfast and a cuppa . gets to 11.00 and his nose pops again , hes in the bathroom and im getting a tad worried hes filled another jug that hes trying to hide . So i tell him im ringing 111 and he goes mad because he can deal with it , hes very grey and sweating and with a view to his heart problems he needed to see someone . Ring 111 theyre sending paremedics if he gets worse just dial 999 , being very rural they were a while by this time its gushing and were into pint number 3 . ive managed to get him out of the bathroom and on to the bed because he says he doesnt feel well and it has to be bad for him to admit this . The paramedics turn up and an ambulance and he flakes out . I have to say their very efficient and got him hooked up and stuff going into him etc , his blood pressure is through the floor and theyre having a risk assessment deciding whether they need the fire brigade to get him down the stairs but he perked up once the fluids started going in and he managed to get down the stairs and be stretchered out . The whole street is out doing something in the garden by then and hes shouting across to his mate telling him not to panic fishings still on for Monday , as they cart him off into the sunset . Bloody men , nothing but a worry, i had to fetch him home late last night  hes a bit quiet they cant repair the blood vessel again, he needs more minor surgery they just filled him full of fluids and monitored his heart and have told him just ring 999 if it starts again ...guess what he isnt driving and hes not going fishing whether he likes it or not !!!

Best laugh he says is the junior doctor who asked him about his cocaine habit and would he like to be referred to the drug treatment center .

Quiet

 Have we all escaped to the garden ?  the blogging world is very quiet at the moment except for those of you on the opposite side of the world slipping into winter . Meanwhile ive dropped into the world of fishing and gardening . The veg is very late this year but thriving and ive had a couple of days of grandson on garden slave duties and despite there being snow on the ground when the plum was blossoming its looking like a bumper year . Outside in the real world im not sure im noticing  much difference to our lives from the Covid restrictions . We dont holiday we dont go to cafes or pubs in fact we can pretty much not go anywhere due to his dire walking and breathlessness . MR BH starts another round of hospital visits in a fortnight so hes trying to cram as much fishing in as he can so its fish one day, two days zonked on painkillers life at the moment plus BIL had a bit of bad news health wise so ive now got two of them planning their funerals , I expect they are both being a tad  over the top just yet . Its just wait and see time. I expect they will both fall into the latest government wheeze buzz phrase "managed decline "  which i think is government speak for hurry up and die before you get your pension !  or if you love them as much as i do translates to Die Pleb Die . I have just posted off 600 pages plus of medical records and supporting letters and forms to the cold planes of Hell known as the DWP , we await with interest which of their many ploys for losing it they will go for .  The usual its gone to the wrong department , this one had two different addresses to pick from to send it back to , you always pick the wrong one .  We also usually get we havent received it letters at which point they get a huff on because you have proof of postage and tracking information and announce  they will look for it , usually takes 2 weeks to find it . plus ive cunningly indexed it all stamped his National insurance onto every sheet and stuck pretty coloured tiny post it notes into the juicy bits . You never know i could be wrong they may just continue to pay him his state pittance without problems , but i cant see there has been any improvement in their behavior over the last year , theyre still killing the disabled on a regular basis.  You know lessons learned and the usual bullshit speeches it goes on and on .

Sleep

 Another 3.45 wake up this morning , im always a terrible sleeper no matter how exhausted and how busy i am its bed at 10am awake by 3 , until i get the one day i just zonk and fall asleep for hours ..lol  I sleep with earplugs to get that extra hour . Saying that i can sleep anywhere in any position if its a sleepy day . Im hoping for a sleepy day today as its fishing . Ive read the paper and done the quiet chores im on my second cuppa and the eggs are boiling for pack up . I await with interest what state Mr BH gets up in and the decision if he wants to go or not it shows signs of being a much drier and sunnier day today so i live in hopes .

So lets talk Cummings , its rather like a bad comedy at the moment .  The Lying cheating scum in charge can do as they like , theres no opposition theres nobody else in the Tory Party gagging for the job of being in charge . The UK is bobbing about like a rudderless ship while we laugh at the latest playground spat . I rather expected Wanksock to burst into "liar liar pants on fire " when he was corned by the press yesterday .  Boris merely slugs down another Chuck A Mucka organic cocktail enjoying his notoriety as Pleb Killer in Chief . Ive come to the conclusion that we have the government we deserve . Its all a bit fall of the roman empire without the empire existing except in the Tories minds .  What next Boris biting the heads off kittens in a live broadcast?  while the Britains got Talent watchers cheer him on . "Thats our Boris , one of the lads"  

For A Change

Another lush green morning with lots of rain , the gardens loving all the rain . The cats however are not , yesterday our very vocal elderly cat  could be heard getting closer and closer at speed , she ran in as if her tail was on fire, it was hailing icy bullets and she was having none of that . Giant hailstones anyone?

 You know the say nothing if youve nothing nice to say mantra ? Sod it . Lets talk Boris and the wedding. I gather we must save a date in July 2022. So mistress en titre Carrie is going to drag the git to the altar . Is it to give her a whole year to go Bridezilla ? or is she planning to spod out another kid shortly . I should imagine that most of the posh wedding folks are hiding cringing in the bushes hoping that the Wayne and Waynetta Slob of the moneyed classes dont call them . After all theyre hardly going to pay the bill are they , will it be a ticket only job  where you pay to attend?  Dyson providing the dress and JCB doing the catering. possibly Tony Blair on guitar ? 

 Well i suppose he an aging tomcat these days so she stands a chance of being his last wife though i wouldnt count on it , however shes supposedly a tad fiery so a vasectomy at dawn with a blunt bread knife is always a possibility and could be very entertaining for the rest of us . Cant wait and why do i keep thinking about My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding ? with of course environmental credentials and eco themed everything and Dilyn the dog in a matching tuxedo .   

Odd Day

 I was up at 5am after getting cramp and ending up on the bedroom floor in a heap , so now i have a bruised shoulder to add to my trivial woes . First thing on booting up the puter i find a wonderful email promising me 18 extra large African cocks and half asleep opened the chicken email that i thought my mate had sent me ....errr it wasnt chickens !!  I did exercise more caution with my other emails .

By 7am everybody was still snoring so i snuck out to the car boot , it was heaving and the wind was bitter , didnt buy a thing other than my veg for the week . Got home and took a look at the sore shoulder only to find ive a lump that Quasimodo would be proud of and its starting to throb nicely , this will cramp my style today as i had an appointment with my hedgetrimmers , but just to make me feel less guilty its now turning nice and black and spitting with rain . Oh joy ive 4 loads of washing out .

Maybe its just safer to take to my bed for the day after all its not even 10am yet 

Not Fishing

 Today was going to be my first days fishing this year , BIL has a full weeks work this week so MR BH had the major grumps .  But then he got worse when i said i would only go to the little pit locally , not feeling it, i didnt want to be miles from home if anything goes wrong . So this morning hes got up on toddler mode and has announced hes not going anywhere . No loss to me i can potter in the garden , plenty to be doing if it doesnt chuck biblical hailstones at us . Still tons of replanting to tackle , though i did laugh , i bought some Lidl seed strips for a scented border plopped them in the darkest corner of the garden , covered them in compost and then the heavens opened . Went back the following day and all the compost and seeds had gone , so now its going to be a mystery surprise where they appear ..lol  Gradually replanting all my tubs and pots hadnt realised i had so many so pottered down to Aldi with himself for some cheapy compost having used all that i had from the old compost heaps . Now i can only use the small trolleys because if i put the bags in a large one i cant get them out , so im laden up and i get to the tills and im struggling the trolley wont steer and the guy on the tills wasnt exactly much help and a very nice gentleman my own age came to give me a hand . To make it worse the ramp from the store is a tad steep so two of us struggled to hold it , the gentlemen said he would give me a hand to get them in my boot . When he got to the boot he looked a tad puzzled by other half not getting out or helping . When i opened the boot and he spotted the crutches and wheelchair i guess he twigged because he turned to me and said " well i guess he still makes a good cuppa" . When i thanked him and got in the car the steam was coming out of Mr BHs ears . All i got all the way home was sarky comments about Fwends . I did point out that how is it different that he has to have help ?

Bored

Im having a severely bored phase , despite the never ending gardening  which will start to lessen in the next couple of weeks , life is just tedium . I sometimes think i will go to my grave surrounded by shit and endless washing , Mr BH had a bit of a bad phase after his second jab . Today is my first freedom day for 3 weeks , you know hes not been well when he hasnt fished for 3 weeks . BIL has come to the rescue and off they have pottered to the fishing pit . Freedom day is to be spent trying to make head nor tale of the new DWP renewal of PIP form its not the condition report side of it everything has got worse , its his medical side of things , i have 5 years of medical records to go through to cross reference all the exact dates, umpteen medical letters from umpteen consultants to copy and link to the exact points in his medical notes , all because they now want exact dates at which each medical  condition started it would be easy if it was just one but ive realised that theres over 20 different things that are wrong with him ...AAARRRGGGHHH . 

Im also now a prisoner in the house because theyve upped one of my medications , this means i darent drive because it gives me blurred vision and dizzy spells , Ask  GP it would seem that cant be happening and it must be stress, funny read the leaflet in the box it warns about this.  I was in for blood tests last week and have had a load more this week only to have the health assistant going on about had i considered anxiety medication?  What to make me more compliant and not question every aspect of our medical care , musnt remind that theyve nearly killed my partner on a couple of occasions or that people who struggle to use their hands have a big problem with Ask GP ? . Im sorry i loath  health professionals who judge and the bleedin have you considered online mindfulness classes types . You just know they have a house painted white with inspirational quotes everywhere and a yoga mat in the corner gathering dust 

Spuds

 So finally into the ground my pink fir apples and orkney blue spuds have gone 6 weeks later than usual but it wont hurt them , nature doesnt care what day i plant them and the rain meant that i could get the shovel into the ground , i have bent the shovel however , today i will be mainly hobbling and getting on with Mr BHs new improved DWP forms , its the new PIP renewal form that there is no help with , we cant find a single help agency that has tackled this one and after a read through ive realised that yet again every question is to try and trip you up . It has the usual threatening tone that the disabled look forward to . In normal times this would have to be returned within 28 days which wouldnt give you time to collect all the medical paperwork required .  Ho hum does anything change , it appears that they are only sending these out at the moment to those who had to drag them to a tribunal to even get PIP in the first place.  Its not helped by the fact that i know Mr BH will make my life a living hell if i dont fill it in correctly , im not sure what part of degenerative condition the DWP dont get and once again theyre harping on about what treatment and surgeries you have had to improve your condition . I wish there were treatments and surgeries that would help him but at the moment their isnt until they can do something about his vascular problem , the one they asked him to consider palliative care for!! 

Let It Snow

Plagues of huge hailstones seem to be the latest weather weirdness, it looked like we had snowfall yesterday morning , today the sun is shining brightly on a really hard frost . Pottered out to vote in the local elections  yesterday not a soul did i see it was rather fun playing hopscotch over the dog turds spattered over the paths ....why cant folks just take their dog turds home ?

Garden work continues between showers , still reconstructing the garden swing . I was told to burn it and order a new one , till his lordship found out that it was £400 upwards for a new one . Its taking a lot of repairing , im really not safe on ladders ,. But hey ho needs must .

Had to venture into the dark cavern of Morrisons at Lincoln yesterday after the last miserable home delivery they provided , all my veg and salad was mouldy and out of date .  All of the frozen stuff was missing . i know they refund promptly but they have removed the messaging facility on the facebook pages and the website .  I hate the Lincoln store with its narrow aisles and way over your head shelves . The point on still ordering online is that i have to shop alone and i cant lift and reach stuff that is heavy plus i cant use a large trolley as i cant reach and lift stuff out of the bottom . I was on mission pigs liver yesterday one of the things you cant get online, the local butchers only have it now and then , so thats topped my supply up . I await the weekends morrisons delivery with interest . We are slowly turning into a food desert here in rural Lincolnshire. .Lots of glossy farm shops and organic wonder shops for the tourists but the locals cant afford to shop at them and the Coop is so expensive its scary   

Sunday

So i woke up as the sun came up this morning , then wandered down the garden with my camera to take some frost and mist shots accompanied by our ancient cat wowling for her breakfast , now im on my first cuppa trying to decide if its worth a trip to the car boot or not . 

Opened up the Daily Mail online , because i have to have something to talk about later with  mother and was spitting feathers immediately . Our esteemed leader has written a lead article about how the Tories are going to be tough on crime , think they may have had 10 years for that one .  Bragging how they have over 8000 recruits in training after cutting 20000 officers . One chief constable recently  pointed out that there is no actual gain in numbers because so many are walking away from policing . His lock them all up rhetoric rather falls flat , moaning at the courts for soft sentencing is laughable , you cant send people to prison if there is no room . You can wait years for a trial because of cuts to the court system , the CPS are laughable . The privately run probation service crashed and burned before Covid . Even forensics are on their knees due to cuts . 18 month waits to retrieve phone evidence . Meanwhile half the criminal fraternity is out on bail awaiting all this stuff . Covid can excuse a lot but systems are crumbling everywhere . Ive no doubt Boris will announce that they are building lots of new prisons , with American companies . Monetarising felons is a huge industry in the States . 

Then i started reading the comments , why  just why , this is gammon land on steroids . Is there anyone certain Tory voters dont hate and despise .  If we had enough police they could charge lots of the commentators with hate crime it really is that bad .

The fact that we are being governed by a bunch of thieves is irony in the extreme , hes more concerned with dog theft , than the fact that members of his party are involved in corruption on a massive scale ......just beggars belief  

For those of you with a strong stomach heres the link 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9533441/BORIS-JOHNSON-need-hammer-hard-criminals-causing-misery.html?login#comments

Whatever

With being so involved in the process of heavy gardening , im barely visiting the internet and im more reading then falling asleep at some early hour . This week the end is visible in sight one more big bonfire should do it . Then i can settle into mounds of replanting and just routine maintenance ..in theory .    Mr BH had his 80 something aunt and uncle staying in the area this week , they had rented a cottage , i was informed that the whole family was going to the pub to meet for lunch , Covid rules obviously dont apply , i wasnt told till the last minute , i literally had just took off my wellies and picked the leaves out of my hair and thought i was just popping to the coop for bread .  Anyway after a small discussion over this , with me getting the whole killjoy lecture from my other half  he discovered that because i dont have a smart phone to scan the QR code they had to summon the manager , the steam was visably rising from his ears by that stage , much discussion was had and they compromised by using the QR code of his niece who works at the pub in question .  So we got the pleasure of sitting outside in the pub garden as a party of nine on three separate tables .  I didnt want lunch as i had literally had it before we set off for the coop , so i just nursed a drink  and listened .  It was interesting to say the least .  Aunty Bountiful  was busy looking down on everyone and supplying her wisdom.  BIL had got his adult kids with him , i was getting the death stairs from his son  because i have grassed him up for drug dealing a couple of times , i was trying not to chuckle as Aunty Bountiful was complementing him on doing so well and working so hard and how he had a lovely car etc etc, shame hes never had a driving licence and used to be in the local paper court listings most weeks , gossip tells me hes got dozens of cases pending due to Covid and will be going away for a state sponsored holiday shortly. Then Aunty started on my Brother in Law , how if he had tried harder he wouldnt be stuck in a council house and taking her tax payer money , i was getting kicked in the shins by now , MR BH is well aware that i think the world of his brother , he does more for other people than anyone i know , he will help anyone and hes becoming more and more crippled by arthritis every year .  Hes recently gone back to work part time because hes bored if hes not doing something , he works with a couple of young lads who provide the muscle hes the brains as hes been in  the building trade all his life.  having minced and denigrated everyone else she turned to us .  

So your professionally disabled these day ? 

now my other half is very visibly disabled and hes on a bit of a rough patch at the moment where the right hand side of his body has visibly dropped and it looks as if hes had a stroke, hes on crutches all the time or his wheels more and more . So there is no missing the fact that hes disabled and thats just the visable side of it . 

So its because your fat is it ? 

Well hes looking at me for rescue and im thinking sod it theyre your aged relatives you deal with them .. So this went on and on about scroungers on disability benefits . Then she turned to me .

I shouldnt think youve ever worked what with all the kids and now being his carer .  

My Brother in Law staged an intervention at that point , because he said i was smiling at her and asked if we could us pop him to his doctors appointment............   

Sunshine

 Ive been up since sunrise , needed a cuppa im afraid so literally up with the birds , its given me a couple of hours to catch up on a weeks blog reading . Barely been online its officially heavy gardening season ,  so nursy duties and household chores of a morning , then out in the garden once himself has been fed and settled for his siesta or crap custom car TV  , we are building bonfire number 3.  Son has for a change being helpful and the munchkin has grafted his way through the school holidays . I do think that himself has threatened them that if i injure myself he will hold them responsible , dont know what he means , my problems are mainly that im short and cant reach stuff  and my shingles damaged arm is taking its time settling down , once you have them as many times as me you know that one day its like a switch has been flipped and the pain goes just like that , the trouble is that it can take months , 18 months is the record ...lol.  So  the garden is now a barren wasteland that will recover once we get some rain , taken out 2 huge rambling roses that i couldnt keep under control  , just need something to replace them . Took the brambles at the bottom down to the ground they will recover in no time and they are needed to keep the cattle in the meadow behind us , working on cutting a section of hedging out so the four huge wheelie bins can be near the gate and be accessed by the path , just to make my life easier and save me having to cross the grass to get to them .  Relocating the strawberry bed to somewhere where its easier to net it . Everything just leads to another job...lol  Found a huge block of foam in the old wendy house along with loads of pots and planters i had forgotton about , may try to salvage the foam for a knackered sofa cushion i need ,depends if i can fit it in the washer ...lol   Other half is getting very annoyed with me , im going to repair his workshop that he hasnt been in for 3 years , he wants a new one but we dont have the money , hes claiming he cant find the keys but it doesnt matter as im planning to replace the door so  i will just saw off the padlocks. 

   Oh and on a plus note we are going to be reassessed for his disability payments despite them saying it would be next year and nobody being available within the help industry because this isnt happening due to Covid ...ho hum here we go again yet more DWP Wars for the sin of living with a disibility for more than 3 years , two months since i finished paying off the debts from the last fiasco with them . 

The Great Escape

 So we are free!!!! well free to go for a pint and do a bit of none essential shopping ..lol  ..we celebrated by fetching a pint of maggots for other half to go fishing with his brother today , cant see that a visit to a pub or shopping will be on my calendar, the road to the coast had a good mile long tailback so had to come home via the scenic route .  managed to get the only parking spot in the little tourist town we live near when a huge camper van pulled out , so a trip to the butchers , he was saying the same as me , here we go again .  Dozens of visitors from the depths of the UK descending , lots from the local plague spot Mansfield , the latest jolly wheeze seems to be Lateral Flow testing for all and sundry three times a week , known for not being particularly reliable ive been supervising grandson doing his all week , his school has had a couple of year groups shut down with false positives a couple of weeks ago , had to chuckle that they come with a packing slip printed in Chinese . 

Good old Prince Phillip has popped off , hed had quite a rich and varied life . Just think of the thousands of times hes sat through endless displays of national dancing , walked three steps behind , personally think he was desperate to leave before his 100th birthday, he wouldnt have liked the fuss .  Its to be hoped the Queen stays around for a bit but with devoted elderly couples one often follows the other .  Most seem more bothered that Eastenders was cancelled , very sad for his family .  Even sadder that all the klingons and hangers on are coming out of the woodwork turning him into a saint