Friday 20 May 2016

Frustrating February

Wow, 2 posts on 2 days, but I have a lot to catch up on. In some ways February continued much as January was, we coughed and coughed, we felt exhausted. There were some sunny days but as far as I can remember more rain than sun.
On one of our trips to Sainsbury's husband had found a cheap Fitbug, and spent so much time talking about it, and upping his exercise, that I decided I might quite like one. Sainsbury's had sold out,but he found me one online, so I started recording my activity too, Unfortunately the wrist straps were not very stable, so I started clipping mine on my waistband. Husband didn't and lost his, but eventually replaced it with a Garmin.
I still didn't cycle, really not up to it, too wheezy, but I did walk a lot, and to relax I used some of the colouring books I had bought. I also continued with the knitting of the baby jackets as the due date was about the middle of Feb. Suddenly the knitting was finished, but no sign of the baby.
On Shrove Tuesday we both managed to eat 3 pancakes, although the first 2 were quite thin.
One day, I was cleaning some condensation off the bedroom window, and wiped away a bit of mould. Then I remembered that when we decorated last year I hadn't had time to paint the windowsill, so made that my priority.
one of the colouring book pictures

Our neighbour informed us that some of the wooden fascia under the gutters was coming away. So I got someone out to look at it and asked for a quote to have it replaced with coated UPVC. We decided to have the gutters replaced too.  I forgot to mention, that just before we became ill with the virus, at New Year we went over to Furniture Village in Watford, to look for some new dining chairs. we found some really solid well made Nathan chairs, and whilst we were there, husband decided we may as well have a matching dining table, These arrived in the middle of February, but the new table isn't drop leaf, so takes up more room than the old. The old stuff was moved up to the spare garage which we rent, with the view to taking the chairs to the dump. The table we had no problems with, so we offered it to family, but no one has said that they want it yet.
There was still no sign of the baby, but I had requested that I be told, day or night, when anything happened. I got a text late on the 22nd to say things may be getting underway. I went to bed expecting to hear in the morning, but was awoken by a text at 3.24 am,announcing the arrival of Elise Naomi born at 12.56 am weighing 7lb 11 oz. so it was quite a quick delivery,and I discovered later that Daughter in Law had decided on a home birth, Obviously she was quite relaxed.
I had been filling in a Lasting Power of Attorney, online, and got that completed. It's a thing which I have been meaning to do for a while. If I were incapacitated by an illness, and couldn't make my wishes known, my husband would be unable to sell the house if he needed to. So it's a good thing to have as others can make decisions for me if necessary. Mum in law was doing one, but she changed her mind about the service provider and went to a local solicitor, but I don't think she has finished it yet.
We had decided to visit Chester for our anniversary this year, and do touristy things. Little did I know husband had additional plans! We booked a hotel, I don't know much about Chester hotels these days. We wouldn't normally travel on a Sunday, but we decided to. We had stuff for the family, gifts and a couple of meals, for when they didn't feel like cooking form scratch, so we met baby Elise when she was about 5 days old. Ethan was full of energy, stopping now and then to have a mini assisted cuddle with 'a leaf' as he called her. We spent a couple of hours with them, then made arrangements to call on the way back, as we had someone else to visit nearby.
We checked in at the hotel on the outskirts of Chester later. It seemed very busy, but our room was on the ground floor, Disappointingly, despite the high price, the room was no bigger than a premier inn room, although vastly more expensive.
Chester town hall

Thursday 19 May 2016

Joyless January


All my Phaeleonopsis  orchids were in flower, which brightened up the kitchen







Hmm, it's getting a bit hard to remember much of what happened, but here goes. The unexpected Christmas visitors departed on 27th Dec, and Grandma was taken home a couple of days later. She didn't seem to know when she wanted to go home, but as husband had no desire to travel at the busiest time, in the end he had the final say. He returned home the same day.
It's just as well that Mum in law went home, as a couple of days later husband had the sniffles, and developed a dry hacking cough. A few days later I also developed this dry hacking cough. we were both quite wheezy, and I had to up my inhaler use, which of course made my heart pound.
The weather remained mild and wet, and the radiators eventually came on and stayed on at the beginning of January. We managed to get out for a walk most days, but were exhausted when we got back, it was so mild that our first snowdrop appeared in the garden on Jan 4th, everything else looked as if it would flower early.
a walk along the canal


Husband slept downstairs in the armchair for several days, with  a blanket,and I had to find the right position to sleep so that I didn't cough all night. I went to my CBT session, I had been told we would look at how to apply the techniques I had learned, but when she saw from the weekly questionaire that I hadn't been anxious for a while, she decided to discharge me.
To cheer us up, I booked us a Summer holiday. The weather did go colder, and we actually had one frost, and on our Sons birthday, 17th Jan it actually snowed.
We also had a dental check up that month,and the dentist broke the news that he could not put a new crown on one of my upper molars, as the root of the tooth was split.
Husband carried on with his cooking experiments, filling my freezer with pies and meat puddings, and I ate the usual soups, but didn't have the energy to make my own.
I decided it was about time I went for my asthma check, and the nurse expressed concern at how low my peak flow had dropped. I explained about the Beta Blockers and she suggested seeing the GP and asking to come off them. I said it wasn't as simple as that,as I'd tried most remedies and had bad side effects. She also told me that the hacking cough was a virus, which could last up to 10 weeks, loads of people had it, including one of the other nurses, and in some cases it would subside then come back. Oh joy, as if January wasn't a bad enough month already!
I went to Watford, looking for a new handbag to spend some Christmas money on. No joy there. Most of the bag shops have disappeared, and the lady who had a stall in our shopping centre retired. So again I had to resort to shopping online, but I found a lovely bag, very roomy, loads of pockets for glasses, purse mobile etc. the only snag is I often struggle to find something that I know is in there!
We also went to two funerals in the latter half of January, both men from our old church in St Albans, both named John, but two very different characters. The first one was a larger than life character, full of fun and energy, quite outspoken, but lovely. His wife had died a few years ago, so I don't suppose he would be too unhappy at being reunited with her. The second John was a university professor before retiring, very intelligent, with a lovely nature, so it had been quite distressing for his wife and family when he descended into the fog of Alzheimer's. His wife and family were very welcoming at the reception after the service, and the radiance of their faith shone through. We were both just about recovered enough to sing the lovely rousing hymns at the services. It was good to have fellowship with old friends too and catch up with their news.
There were no bike rides in January, the towpath was full of muddy puddles, and we simply were not up to it, I was so glad to see January go.