Not such a good week that was!

Well  I didn't manage to get out to get the tyres checked as I had intended, I think I fell asleep after lunch. I did make a few pancakes and had one with lemon juice and Stevia, a bit too sweet, and the other with agave syrup, which is 0 propoints for one teaspoon. We spent the evening watching the final Garrow's law, and then a bit of the antiques road trip.
On Wednesday at WW I had only shed half a pound, still it was the right direction. I trawled around Sainsbury's  and when I got home, forgot to unpack some of the shopping. Daughter came round to collect something which has been hanging in the wardrobe in her old room for getting on for 6 years.
She stayed for a while chatting. and Nathaniel played with some of the toys I have here. He also watched some 'in the Night garden' on iplayer. I told Daughter that I must go out to get the tyres checked, but just then husband arrived back from his monthly trip to Bristol, so she stayed chatting to him whilst I took the Fiesta in. The tyres were all fine, but they discovered that something had come loose under the car, and there was a hole in part of the exhaust, so I got those fixed instead.
I came home and Daughter was still here, but after a while Nathaniel became fractious and nothing would please him. he hadn't had much of a nap, so daughter took him home and reported he was fast asleep on returning home. During the course of the evening I discovered there was still one item of cold stuff lurking in a shopping bag, so without further ado opened the fridge door and tossed it in.
I picked Nat up at 8 am on Thursday,and during the course of the morning he showed me that he knows which button turns on the TV.  He then handed me the remote, pulled my legs apart and attempted to climb on my lap! Talk about determined! I took him for a walk in the buggy, and he ate a good lunch. I had a jacket potato with Coronation chicken, bought in Sainsbury's.
After his nap, I let him watch 'in the Night Garden'

engrossed

Much later that evening whilst talking to Mum in Law, I began to feel odd. Then I had to dash to the bathroom. Husband went to bed and I sat on the sofa hoping that the nausea I was feeling would go away. It didn't. I just about made it to the kitchen sink. I sent Daughter a text to warn her I was unwell, then retired to bed where I lay awake till I needed to rush to the bathroom again. It felt like the Norovirus we had had several years ago when staying with my Mum one Christmas. I dozed fitfully till 6.30, then came down to phone Daughter and tell her no way could I take Nathaniel that day. If it was a bug, then everyone would go down with it, and quickly too. I spent Friday alternating between the sofa and bed, sipping boiled water. Sometimes I dozed, sometimes slept, I had a slight fever too. I had a bath and got dressed at about 4pm
When husband came home I offered to try and sort a meal out for him, I could just about stand the sight of food but he wasn't hungry and later he did himself  sardines on toast. He did bring me a hot water bottle for my icy feet. I slept better on Friday night, slept late. The family had managed to get Nat into a nursery for the day as an emergency and he appears to have enjoyed the experience, although it was quite pricey, and by no means the most expensive.

I managed a quick car trip into town on Saturday, but soon wanted to come home. Sadly Saturday night  was back to not sleeping, must have slept too much on Friday. We were at Daughter's for lunch on Sunday, after an encouraging sermon from our pastor, who had returned form teaching abroad. I managed a small lunch. Nathaniel was quite tetchy he may be teething again, but after a while we managed to coax smiles out of him. I couldn't stop yawning, so we decided to skip the evening service, and Mum in Law phoned me for a change.

Nathaniel drains Daddy's tea mug

No on else has been ill, so it has caused me to think, what did I eat which no one else ate? The Coronation chicken. What was the item I took out of the bag late in the evening on Wednesday? The Coronation chicken  I think that the lack of refrigeration just caused me a problem. Having eaten out of date yoghurts before now with no ill effects, I must be more careful to make sure the cold stuff goes into the fridge first without delay. Oh well, we live and learn.

Oh dear I am late blogging this week, I just felt that last week was so uninteresting that you would fall asleep after the first paragraph. Husband worked from home on Monday, as we had a dental appointment. Neither of us need any fillings, I had a clean, husband didn't. There was still a lot of snow around where we parked, it was obviously not the sunny side of the street! The rest of the week has been as normal, I've had trouble sleeping, causing me to fall asleep after lunch, and constantly felt I was not doing enough, and would never catch up.
I booked a short stay in a hotel for our wedding anniversary, they promised a confirmation e-mail, which didn't arrive, I had a phone call from someone presumably trying to sell me something, but I couldn't understand what she was saying, so told her I would hang up. The previous week I had ordered 4 items over the internet and only 3 had arrived, the 4th being a new cosytoes for the buggy as N has more or less outgrown his current one.
So I've been sending time sending e-mails and making phone calls. The hotel have agreed to send the confirmation by post, and the lady sending the cosytoes had me going round all the neighbours and contacting the sorting office.
That in itself was an experience. I found a phone number in the directory, rang it, and after listening to various messages, pressing various buttons and listening to more advice on which button to press, I realised that a) I had spoken to no one, b)that I had no chance of speaking to anyone, and c) that I had reached the end of the options. So I had to get in the car and drive down there. No they were not holding any parcels for me, so another e-mail to the supplier. She actually rang me yesterday to see if the missing parcel had turned up, and I'm awaiting a further phone call from her.
I can only report a half pound wight loss for last week, but at least it's a loss. We have spent part of our evenings watching Michael Portillo sitting on various trains and discovering fascinating facts about places,and 2 guys chasing around in circles haggling for antiques then selling them at auction. I was quite disappointed that one episode of Garrow's Law which I had for Christmas was almost unwatchable due to the subject matter, and was far from the 'whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are true and whatsoever things are lovely' that Christians should consider. I may not bother with the next series.
On Thursday I had Nathaniel. He was up to his usual mischief, and now he can climb on to the sofa, he has also worked out that he can make his way over the sofa and onto the chair which is too high for him to climb onto. Thus he has access to things which were Previously out of his reach. he got hold of my light box, I managed to get it sway from him, but he had somehow set the box to come on the next morning at 7.45 am, so on Friday I was left wondering what the eerie blue light was in the corner of the room!

On Thursday he fell sleep in the buggy, I had managed to fit him into the old cosytoes, and he slept for 2 and a half hours I woke him for lunch, hoping that I just might make it to Women's hour. I haven' been for weeks as he usually naps in the afternoon now. However he was a bit slow, and by the time I had changed his nappy, I realised that once again I would not make it.It was a prayer meeting, so I'm not sure he would have been quiet enough.

Nathaniel enjoys shepherd's pie

On Friday Daughter was due for half day, which was just as well because I was overtired and N was full of mischief as usual. I put him in the buggy in the cosytoes, but the weather had warmed up.and by the tiime we had reached the checkout in Sainsburys he had kicked off the cosytoes and showed no signs of napping in the buggy. he tucked into spag bol with gusto, and got into a real mess with that and the yoghurt which followed. daughter arrived and we sat and chatted for a while, but then a little person got somewhat fractious, and was overtired, so she took him home, then reported he was asleep before she got him home..
The weather changed again on Saturday, it pelted down with rain, then on Sunday it was cold I went for a walk in the afternoon and was so cold that I dug out these for wearing to church in the evening.

I overdid the layers of clothing and had to take my coat off. We were  late home as we had communion, and I rang Mum in law. She seemed fairly bright, had had a parish Sunday lunch. so had enjoyed the company.

yesterday I had a bad experience, whilst transferring some money in a cash machine it chomped on the notes and then shut down. I had a similar experience a few years ago with the Woolwich, but Santander were better, as the machine was in their premises and the branch was open. I was told it would  be sorted out today, but yesterday afternoon got acall to sy it was sorted . Phew! Now I must go, I have to take my car to have the tyres checked at some time as I had aslow puncture fixed 2 weeks ago, and they said all the tyres were down a bit. Hey ho!

Snow had fallen, snow on snow

So on Monday, I was still coughing, and not up to much, However I put on the snow boots and set off to trudge down to the hairdresser. It felt good having my hair cut,  and afterwards I walked into town to move some money between bank accounts. I've tried doing it online, but whereas I can transfer money from Nationwide in a couple of hours, Santander take days. The town centre was almost deserted again, I did a bit of shopping, and then got the bus back up. I felt pretty tired with the effort and the boots were quite unyielding and were rubbing my heels, so I was glad to get indoors and take them off.
Soup was the order of the day again for lunch, I also made some cauliflower and bacon soup to freeze as I had lots of cauli sitting in the fridge.  I'm afraid I dozed again after lunch. The cough hasn't eased much.
On Tuesday, I again didn't feel up to much, but went out for walk, wrapping up well as it was so cold. Some nights our garden thermometer has gone down to -13c! This time I wore my walking boots, with thick socks and they were a tad more comfortable.  I had a shock, there were actually 5 council men by the canal bridge, some just standing by their van, but two, actually doing something. One was chipping at the solid snow with a snow shovel, not putting much effort in, but the other actually wheeled a barrow across the bridge and put some grit down . Mind you I have said before that the canal bridge is lethal when the snow impacts. Most people seem to have cleared the snow from their paths, and the sun had helped, but there were patches outside some Housing association homes that were a bit iffy. We spent part of the evening watching another of my Christmas DVDs
On Wednesday I piled on the layers to go to Weghtwatchers. The class is held in a 'village' hall, which has a car park at the side. The car park in parts was like an ice rink. I managed to get inside the hall safely, and discovered I had lost a further pound which takes me to one and a half stone. Slow but sure, and considering I was reluctant to start back in August, I don't think I'm doing too badly. Off to Sainsbury's where I was tempted to buy Spring flowers to cheer myself up. I didn't achieve much for the rest of the day, stayed in and kept warm really.
One thing I did discover though was that my blood pressure had gone down from last week, and my heart was no longer pounding as it had been last week. Because I had been coughing a lot, I had increased my intake of Bricanyl. I read through the Bricanyl leaflet, and yes, it causes a pounding heart. I looked it up online, and yes it can raise blood pressure, great so I take one thing that brings my BP down, and another which sends it up. I have a review of my meds coming up, so I will ask if it can be changed for something else. I can't take Ventolin, that causes a rapid heartbeat and cramps so bad that my fingers actually contract backwards.
Just out of curiosity, I checked my blog for 2 years ago, when I was sent to the cardiologist to investigate a pounding heart. I had had a cold just before then and increased inhaler use. So I reckon that was the cause then . The Bricanyl inhaler was changed a few years ago, when they were getting rid of CFCs and the newer one seems to be a higher strength.
I collected Nathaniel on Thursday and brought him home. We have been trying to get him used to sitting on a potty, because he is showing certain signs of awareness of a full nappy. However no results yet, but he seems quite happy to sit there so may as well get used to it. I took him for a walk well wrapped up to Sainsbury;s and we came the long way home, but he didn't fall asleep. He enjoyed cottage pie and veg then a yoghurt, and later was happy to nap for just over 2 hours. I closed my eyes for a bit then played cathchee uppee, with some housework.
On Thursday evening it began to snow again, but we only had about 2 inches. this is what the garden looked like.

Christmas tree

Back garden Thursday night

Neighbour's trees

our japonica out front

Part of our road

I collected Nat on Friday, and had some hairy moments as I parked in a side road, and seemed to slide a lot. Later we walked into town and I managed to fit him in the foot muff (just).  For the second time this week the town centre seemed deserted. Nat must have been comfy, as he fell asleep, I left him in the buggy in the hall when I got home, and total nap time was 2 hours. I had an Amazon delivery, and even the doorbell didn't waken him. It was a new large size table mat to help stop the mess he makes of the tablecloth. He seemed to enjoy chicken stew, then yoghurt, and afterwards he played quite happily. He rediscovered his xylophone whilst I was on the phone to my elder sister who had rung. She was highly amused at the bash bash bash plinky plonk. Later I let him watch some 'In the Night garden' on iplayer, in fact I was dozing off sitting with him on my lap! Husband came home early, so he looked after Nathaniel whilst I made eggybread, and later he helped me get him in the car seat.

Yesterday I overslept, it was so nice having a good night's sleep, but hard to catch up. We went to town by car, did the usual shopping, but didn't hang around as it was still below freezing. The rest of the day was quite lazy. I made spag bol after chatting to the other sister. We haven't had that for while. Today we had another visiting speaker, our pastor is still away lecturing abroad. The service ended at 12 noon, unusual for us, so we had lunch earlier. It has got warmer today, in fact it rained as we went to the evening service, so maybe the snow will soon be gone. It's half term this week, that means kids everywhere. When I was at school half term was long weekend! Don't the weeks fly by? Hope you have a good week.

A house of Plague, (well lurgy perhaps!)

I must confess to having been fairly inactive this week, partly because of this horrible cold. I felt the familiar itching as the infection travelled down my trachea, and it seems to have settled on my chest. I was still sneezing up to a few days ago. Monday I had to go out to take my repeat prescription request in, then I walked to Dunelm Mill, then to Sainsbury's. I was tempted to call in at Homebase too, but it suddenly seemed a very long way, so I came home, had a soup lunch, and spent most of the rest of the day coughing and resting.  We watched 'Call the Midwife' on iplayer again. Daughter asked me later 'Mum is it true to life for the 50s' and I said 'Oh yes', Things were so much simpler then. we didn't have as much, but we were happy. Afterwards we watched another Michael Portillo railway journey.
On Tuesday I walked into town, I can't quite remember why, only that when I got back I felt exhausted, but at least I had called in at the hairdressers to make an appointment to have my somewhat straggly hair cut. Wearing hats in the cold weather doesn't help. On Tuesday evening we started to watch one of my Christmas videos, Garrow's law.. I pondered for a while whether to ask for this series, as Garrow was a fairly amoral man in his relationship, but having watched a recent episode on iplayer decided it would be ok. It is interesting to see what the law courts and the 'upholding of the law' was like in those days, the early 18th Century I believe. It was Garrow who coined the phrase 'innocent until proven guilty'. in fact he changed the way in which the courts operate.
When you consider that the penalty for fairly minor offences could be hanging or transportation, Garrow did a lot to remedy things.
Wednesday morning I was taking my very last thyroxine out of the packet when it shot through the air, and landed I knew not where. Great! Ok, I was getting some more, but I really had to try and find this one as I dread to think what it could do to a toddler if picked up and swallowed, so I grovelled on the floor a few times, went over with a dustpan and brush, no result. Late I examined a plastic bucket, and discovered it had landed in there. Phew! panic over.
On Wednesday it was bitterly cold, and I really  felt the Siberian wind round my legs as I went to Weightwatchers. I always wear the same clothes for weighing, just thicker tights, however I had managed to lose 2lb, and now have my 10% keyring. I am now at a weight with which I have struggled in the past, I seem to hit a plateau. We will have to see how I go, after all this time I had no 'event ' to lose weight for, so in  sense haven't lost my motivation. After a trip to Sainsbury's I put my feet up for a bit.  I was in a bit of a quandary, exhausted from coughing at night, so needing sleep, I have been trying various methods to stop the nighttime coughing.
Being asthmatic I'm not really suppose d to suppress a cough, but if I can't sleep I am like a zombie, so when I collected the prescription, I asked the advice of the pharmacist. I was told just to avoid pseudoephedrine.So the Benylin I had been taking was ok.
Husband arrived home sounding groggy, and announced he would not be going in on Thursday. He has got this lurgy too now, so I have competition in the coughing stakes. Actually, it was very handy having him home as I was looking after Nathaniel, so I could say, 'could you just watch him whilst I nip up to the bathroom?' .Nat still has a hacking cough himself, I suspect that is where mine came from. When I took him out for a walk, I made sure he was wrapped up well.

Snug as a bug

He fell asleep in the buggy before we even left the house, but as I got to the checkout in Sainsbury's he woke up. I came the long way back, and when we got in I reheated some cottage pie for him,and did some veg, which he seemed to enjoy? He followed this with a yoghurt. He had managed to wet his vest, which I'd had to remove and rinse, and put on a radiator. I tucked him up for a nap, with a blanket, and came down. He seemed to spend the nap time playing with a toy, and chatting to himself, eventually he cried, so I went up to find he had taken off his nappy and socks, thrown both out of the cot, plus the toy with which he had been playing. He played for a while, and we discovered he sure knows what to do with a camera.

We let him watch one episode of in the night garden, then eggybread, beans and fruit for tea before taking him home.

 On Friday husband went back to work, I went to collect N, he'd had a bad night and wasn't up, and his Dad came home as he couldn't get in to London, there was a derailment, so he saw to brekky, and let me go home and catch up on some housework, as he wouldn't be able to get on to the office system for a couple of hours. I came home, gave the kitchen a good clean, vacuumed, then took the filter out of the Dyson to wash it, and also washed out the cylinder of the Dyson. When I got back to collect N, his Dad was starting a conference call. I brought hm home, then later walked into town with him snug in the buggy. We missed a bus back, so I took him to M&S, where he dissected a ham sandwich, leaving the bread, and munched on fruit salad. He swigged most of the apple juice too. 

When we got home he quite happily napped for a couple of hours, but wasn't so keen on eating beef casserole, perhaps I should have chopped the meat as it may have been tough. He did eat a yoghurt, Grandad was home early, and after a while  informed me that Nat was back at the table obviously wanting more food. I quickly scrambled an egg, which he ate, and he gobbled down several blueberries. Husband came out to help me get him in the car seat, the modern seat catches need 2 hands,and it's horrible trying to do it in the dark. I deposited hm with Daddy and gave a quick resume of his day.

 Yesterday, we drove into town, it was bitter and I had dug out my walking thermals. we both seemed to be exhausted with the effort. Just after dusk as forecast it began to snow, and continued till at least 1 am.

 Husband didn't feel up to church as he would have coughed all through. He managed to clear the path, we had 4in of snow in total. I struggled to open the garage door, and then had a job getting out of the garage area, but the all weathers tyres seemed to do their work. It wasn't easy driving as I had my North Face Boots on. They were great for walking in the snow though. I arrived during the first hymn, having had a  problem with the ticket machine. It wasn't our pastor he is away, but I had to go and get a drink of water as I coughed so much. I stayed for communion, and had a reasonable journey home, but decided to stay put tonight, rather than cough through yet another sermon. We may download one from sermon audio later. Well I'll just post some snow pics, then be on my way. have a good week

Christmas tree decorated again!

Tree out at the back

Pots at front