The 29th & 30th; More details coming soon.

The 29th of November.

It has been a productive day but not a very interesting one. Started off with a blog post, then some Cats Protection admin so Amanda could come to pick up paperwork and fees from me. I also made part of Daddy’s Christmas present before lunch.

Amanda came about half past one, and wanted to meet our current kittens, so we spent some time with them and she told me how Hugo and Harvey are getting on.

When she left, I went upstairs to work on the computer for a few hours. Making a promotional image for this Anthony Nolan event I’m going to be doing (more details coming soon) while I listened to a Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre podcast. I was forced to stop by eye and back pain, and I have the base of it done, just need a bit more information.

That is all, really. In happy news, I got a Christmas jumper on today that I didn’t expect to fit. The compression garment does at least squeeze my arm down while it’s on.

The 30th of November.

I feel like today has been one of those days where I’ve spent lots of time on things for not a huge amount of reward.

This morning, I washed my hair, then rang Lydon’s to book the kittens in for neutering and chipping next week, and Black Sheep to see if Michaela could squeeze me in for a fringe trim this afternoon, which she could. Had a long chat with Mommy and wrote another email about this Anthony Nolan thing, now waiting on a reply on that as well as the one I wrote yesterday.

After lunch, I was back upstairs on the computer, working on the same thing while I half-watched Riverdale and listened out for the DPD man bringing a delivery for Mommy. Then I had a phone call from Irregular Choice because they got my Christmas shoes in! Thankfully, I had already had an email from them so they are on their way! Festive feet.
On the way to Black Sheep, I talked to Christine on the phone, mainly about how cold it is and how young people don’t wear enough clothes.

I will be wearing many clothes this evening, as I will be out seeing No Such Thing As A Fish Live!

The 27th & 28th; Sitting and crocheting.

The 27th of November.

Another rather festive day for me!

Got up a little earlier than usual because Mommy and I were going into town so she could give blood and we could do a little bit of Christmas shopping. Her appointment wasn’t until quarter past eleven, but we went in early to return some Zara dresses and the queue in there can be very slow. We escaped with a bit of time to spare, and my plan was to go to the Hotel Chocolat café to have a salted caramel and clementine hot chocolate while I waited, so she came too for a few minutes.

While I drank, I perused the Pandora catalogue for the right charms for my two December anniversaries. I eventually settled upon the two owls for the 19th and the reindeer at night for the 21st. When she came back, we went to buy them, then to Irregular Choice. They have some shoes that I want for Christmas but I’m not sure what size I am, so I wanted to try some on. The girl working there was very helpful, and she found similar shoes in what we thought were the right size for me to try. They were good, so I have an email alert set up and they’ll call me if they get any stock in. Next was Selfridges for me to get something for Daddy, and to check if Huda have changed their drawers. They haven’t, but I spoke to the woman in charge and she was hoping a delivery downstairs was new drawers! But if it wasn’t, they’re aware of the issue and are trying to fix it. Our last stop was John Lewis because I wanted to check if their haberdashery had any chain for a necklace but no luck.

Then home! I had some cheese on toast as the weather demanded it while we sped through the X Factor (hooray for Kevin! Although we don’t want him to win as that rarely ends well). After that, more crochet, although that was limited by my left eye being excruciating for most of the day.

The 28th of November.

I have a feeling that many entries from now until Christmas will involve me sitting and crocheting. I have so much to do! Making at least four different things and some are quite intricate so I have much more work ahead of me.

Today has been rather productive on several counts – I got a blog post done, spoke to both the secretaries I needed to, and had a fairly long conversation with Emma from Anthony Nolan about a cool thing that I am planning but can’t talk about just yet.

This afternoon I have been crocheting – mainly working on a present for Grandma but switching to the one for Mommy when she went out. I was also composing an email about this Anthony Nolan thing and working on some other stuff to go alongside it.

My eye has been much less problematic today, thankfully. I think not having any make up on has helped. Got to wear as little as possible.

The 25th & 26th; Going to be so Christmassy!

The 25th of November.

I think this will be a short one – not a huge amount of activity to report.

The festive period is certainly upon us! This morning, I wrote up a blog post, and got an email from Biscuiteers saying my advent calendar biscuits were going to be delivered today. I had actually changed the delivery date to Tuesday, but today is also fine. Now I have my biscuits and coffee, all I need is for the Mach countdown to begin and it’ll really be Christmas!

I also received the wool and one of the presents I ordered yesterday, so I can make all the gifts! The rest of my day was taken up doing different crochet things – mainly the snood, but while Mommy was out, I started on a present for her. Will have to take every opportunity I have because she, like me, is here all the time!

Eeee going to be so Christmassy!

The 26th of November.

No Sunday Brunch today. I can’t bear Fearne Cotton, no matter how much I enjoy Richard Osman. Instead, I watched a bunch of Bones episodes while working on the snood. Grandma came towards the end of the morning, so I switched to some more appropriate viewing for her. Bit of sport.

We had some tasty beef for lunch, then lemon posset with shortbread because we are fancy. I then went upstairs to lie down for some back rest with Gardener’s Question Time, but I couldn’t stay up there for too long because I had to be back downstairs when Christine left. I think she will be glad to not have to have me pulling threads through on her jeans that the kittens have caught any more.

Grandma left about six, then I had a cinnabon for dinner before watching Susan get eliminated from Strictly. Sob!

The 23rd & 24th; The substitute is a moron.

The 23rd of November.

Much quieter day today.

This morning, I tried Dr. Blaney’s secretary, but she wasn’t there, and only works Monday to Thursday so I’ll have to try again next week. Sigh. Then we had an interesting time with a Zara delivery – I’d ordered a couple of dresses, and I got an email saying my Hermes delivery person had left my order in a safe place. I checked the porch but there was nothing there, and no card had been put through our letterbox.

I phoned Zara to see if they could talk to Hermes, but first we had to go through everything that had or hadn’t happened multiple times. Then he went into another system where it said my parcel was left in a blue bin, but there aren’t any in the vicinity of my house. Once the Zara chap was satisfied I didn’t have it, he emailed Hermes and will get back to me when they reply. However, it has since transpired that it was in a blue bin, just on a completely different road. It clearly wasn’t our usual Hermes man, and the substitute is a moron.

After lunch was crochet, no Riverdale because it’s Thanksgiving, so I started watching The Punisher instead. I think I need some back story; will do some Wikipedia research. And we’ve just been doing the kittens’ panacur again – they have remembered how much they hate it and my hands have suffered because of it.

Ed Gamble tonight!

The 24th of November.

I am very tired today. I wasn’t out too late at Ed Gamble, who was very good, but maybe my sleep quality wasn’t very good? Bleah.

So I actually started doing some Christmas shopping this morning. I looked at many of the Black Friday offers but there wasn’t anything that really jumped out at me. I did get some things that were cheaper than they might normally have been, but nothing ridiculous. It took me ages to find anything that I really want to give to anyone – there are lots of things to buy, but that doesn’t mean they’re good presents.

This afternoon, I was on the hunt for more wool for crocheted gifts because if I can’t find stuff to buy, I will make people things I think they will like. Once I’d got that sorted, I started on another snood, but had barely got going when Tom and Ann came to visit the kittens. It seems only reasonable as they can’t have them until Clarrie/Molly gains more weight. They didn’t stay very long, so then I got back to my snood, and Daddy came home with Christine!

Family fun time weekend!

The 21st & 22nd; I knew it was bad, but not that bad.

The 21st of November.

Well I had a great start to my day, securing tickets for Sadie and I to go and see My Dad Wrote A Porno Live! Super excited for that, and we have great seats too.

I was at the chiro at 10:45, and that was surprisingly painful. The angry tendon that runs up the whole right side of my spine was very unhappy as soon as Trine touched it. Still, I am seeing Dr. Blaney tomorrow. Pray for steroid injections.

This afternoon, I planned to do a bit of looking at Christmas present ideas, but I got started on some crochet and just haven’t put it down. I’ve also been waiting for the pharmacist at Boots to ring, but they haven’t. They were supposed to be calling because my spare compression garments have arrived after waiting for two weeks, only to find the person on duty ordered the wrong thing. They have the code of the product but are apparently incompetent at using the information provided. Bad enough when the GP prescribes the wrong thing but when they have all the information and still fuck up…I don’t know. Gah.

The 22nd of November.

A slightly less productive day at hospital than I had hoped for, but that was more due to a misunderstanding on my part rather than anything that happened there. It emerged that the appointment with the anaesthetic team that had appeared on myhealth was not with the pain team, it was the one I had as part of the pre-assessment clinic. And having checked again, I don’t actually have another appointment booked in with Dr. Blaney, so we’ll be ringing his secretary tomorrow.

This did mean my visit was rather more straightforward. First I saw one nurse who did my height, weight and blood pressure. Then a sister called Kat, and we had to talk through my whole history, all my medications, what I’m allergic to, what I’m having done, and she gave me the pre-surgery checklist of things I have to do or not do in the hours preceding the procedure. I then went for bloods, but my veins didn’t want to cooperate, so I went to see the anaesthetist and drink a lot of water to pump up my veins. Had a very long conversation with him, mainly about my lung function, the pneumothorax and the pneumonia. He mentioned that my lung function is only 23% of what it ought to be, which was a surprise. I knew it was bad, but not that bad. Wow. Anyway, my lung function is not important because I’m having a regional block, which is like an epidural but it’s just one injection. I had to try to explain why I need to be examined in this situation but I’m not sure how much it made sense. That was all fine, so then I returned to the phlebotomist and she got some blood out of the side of my wrist. Then home!

 

The 19th & 20th;A lovely festive time!

The 19th of November.

Argh oh god the back pain. I cannot wait to see Dr. Blaney on Wednesday, hopefully he will be happy to organise a date for steroid injections and soon.

This morning was the usual – Sunday Brunch, blog post, coffee, then worked on the crochet until lunchtime. I need to start thinking about Christmas shopping, spending some time looking at what’s available.

After lunch, I went upstairs to brush up on some classic scrapes before this evening, put on my face, and take a lot of selfies while listening to Sia’s Christmas album.

Once I’d decided I’d done enough, I was back to work on Hank’s fleece. Irritatingly, I have run out of wool from the kit before he is finished, so I’m going to have to buy some more to complete his head. Maybe I’ll ask my instagram friend who works at Toft if she gets a discount on scraps.

The 20th of November.

Last night was much fun. I saw Paul and James before the show and they’ve been all over the place, must be exhausted. I know I was knackered by the time I got home. We heard about Al Porter resigning from comedy before it started and ended up having a chat about how some people are terrible. The show was hilarious – I do love a classic scrape.

This morning, we took the kittens to the vet for their first jabs. They were very screamy and scrabbly, but tolerated the injections. Carlton had to have his twice, because Katie went in his skin and out the other side. Whoops! He didn’t seem to notice, though. We will give them lots of treats tonight, especially Clarrie, because she’s 200g less than Carlton!

After bringing them home, we picked up Grandma and went into town. I went off on my own and had a lovely festive time! I got two pretzels from the German market – one salty, one with cinnamon sugar. My favourite. I bought two glass animals to go with my collection; a little grey cat and a black Scottie dog. Then I went to Paperchase to get some Christmas cards, and I had a nice chat with a girl about my glasses so I recommended Piccadilly to her. Then I went to Selfridges to see the Huda Beauty counter, and I bought a lipstick. While there, I saw a teenage girl opening the drawers, opening new lipsticks, trying them on her hand, and putting them back, which I thought was disgusting and rude. I couldn’t say anything to the staff at the time because she was right by me, but I have tweeted them and they were suitably horrified. I’m sure they will get lockable drawers quicksharp.

Then I was pretty much done, as were the others, so we came home and I have had a very restful afternoon.

The 17th & 18th; Unable to find a position that is comfortable.

The 17th of November.

Most of today, I have stayed sat in the armchair in fear, because twice when I got up, my chest hurt. I did not enjoy that, so I decided to avoid moving unless absolutely necessary. Thankfully, I have just tested myself and it felt alright.

So this morning, I fell back to sleep after my alarm went off, then I was woken up by some Bach on Desert Island Discs. Got downstairs and had to write up yesterday because I didn’t have time last night. Once that was done, I settled down in my chair to get working on Hank the Dorset Down Sheep.

And he has been my activity of the day! I left my chair to give the kittens lunch and go to the bathroom once, then I stayed put with my wool. I have made his head, body and two legs! Now my eyes are hurting but I only have prednisolone eye drops which don’t work as well as the dexamethasone, which I have run out of (unless I want to induce more agony with preservative). Not sure what I’m going to do until Monday.

The 18th of November.

Another day of much the same, but for slightly different reasons.

I got up when my alarm went off, and already my back was clunking. It has not improved as the day’s gone on, so I have stayed in my chair, trying to not be in pain. However, that hasn’t done me much good, and this evening I am unable to find a position that is comfortable.

I couldn’t watch Saturday Kitchen because Pixie Lott was on it, and I simply can’t bear her. So I put Bones on instead and got through two of those while I wrote up a late blog post, then made Hank’s other two legs. Plus I had tweets from Heidi that the crocheted item I made for her has arrived and she is very pleased, so I feel good about that.

After lunch, I made his ears and tail, then it was time to assemble him. Without his coat though, he is not cute. The rest of my afternoon, once he was put together, has been spent creating his woolly jacket. He’s not done, but I finished a ball of wool and that seemed like a natural place to have a rest. Currently it looks like he has a lovely vest on. I shall complete him tomorrow!

The 15th & 16th; Now I’m the vice-chairman.

The 15th of November.

Oooh I am very tired this evening. I think it is a caffeine crash, after having two flat whites with Vicky this afternoon.

Quiet morning – wrote up a blog post, and used a different brand of dexamethasone eye drops (the ones that came from the GP instead of hospital) only to find that there is preservative in them and it was really bloody painful. This is why I don’t go to the GP about things.

After lunch, I met up with Vicky at 200 degrees in town for coffee, cake and chat. I pretty much had a massive moan about all the things wrong with my body – my eyes, my arm, my lungs, my gynaecological issues. Mostly minor things but they all add up. And she offloaded about shit she is dealing with, then we talked about nice things like hanging out with Joe last night and stuff we have been watching on Netflix (mainly Stranger Things). We also enjoyed a funny coincidence of a chap at the table next to us mentioning Joe, so I sort of interrupted (in a polite way) and it turned out he was Joe’s friend Paul who is fairly pivotal to the show! What a small world.

The 16th of November.

Assembly day.

This morning was quiet – finished crocheting the remaining parts of the current project while I watched the new episode of Riverdale. Washed my hair. I suppose that is all.

After lunch, I put together the first little fellow, then didn’t have time to do any more before Ann and Tom arrived to see the kittens again. We’ve been letting them out to run around so this time they scampered up and down the room, gamboling and fighting.

Once they’d left, I put some shoes on and we had to get going to Hallfield for an OHS committee meeting and the AGM. Roshan, the GP in the group, arrived at the same time as me, and we hovered outside, ringing the bell until we were let in. Then we hung around until the Richards and Aman came out of the Head’s office so we could start the meeting. Although, first Richard (the Head) wanted to show me how he’s redecorated – he has got some very comfortable Chesterfields! Probably not conducive to a meeting though.

Speaking of which, it was pretty short and sweet, and now I’m the vice-chairman. Yeah.

The 13th & 14th; Distraction from life garbage.

The 13th of November.

Sleep was not actually that bad, although I did wake up so cold, I had to drag my blanket over myself. I have the double thickness duvet on my bed now for winter, so hopefully tonight I’ll be toasty.

This morning, I went out with Mommy to do some shopping errands. First, we went to Aldi, because they have some decent crackers (Christmas, not Jacob’s) and are selling a cheap version of wool I like. Next, M&S for a pretzel and chewing gum (this was really just a bonus rather than a necessary trip), then we went to Boots so I could get a body brush to try to help my skin, circulation and lymphatic system.

After lunch, I have been sat with the crochet. My back hurts more than usual today – it’s like I’m having a delayed reaction to all the driving on Saturday. Every time I get up, I groan, like I am ancient. So I’ve sat watching The Blacklist, and just had to undo and redo an entire section of crochet because I wasn’t paying enough attention.

The 14th of November.

I forgot how heavy the double duvet is. Took me ages to get comfortable underneath the weight. It’s super warm though.

Today has not involved a great deal of excitement. This morning I used my new body brush thing and all the unsupported sitting made my back unbearably painful, so much so that I couldn’t finish moisturising afterwards, and I had to get Mommy to help do my legs. I’m not sure it’s ever been so bad that I couldn’t do what I needed to. Found out today that Dr. Antrobus has actually left (not ideal), but he had written my letter before he did, so it can get sent on to Dr. Blaney who can do the bloody steroid injections!

Afternoon was more of the usual – Bones, The Blacklist, crochet. Made another irritating mistake by being distracted. Nearly finished this project now – might get the last bits done tomorrow, but I’m seeing Vicky for sick person chats so we’ll see.

I am seeing Joe at The Glee tonight, which is going to be much fun. Distraction from life garbage.

The 11th & 12th; I just want to curl up.

The 11th of November.

A long day of much driving but a lovely afternoon at our destination.

We set out early as it’s a good three hours to Wimbledon, where Hilary and Jeremy live. I took the opportunity to give the new Taylor Swift album a listen on the way – I like it, but I think I need time to love it. I also listened to the song from the trailer for The Greatest Showman multiple times – that, I love.

We arrived just after twelve, to find Christine had got there not long before us. We had a quick sit down in the living room, but before long, lunch was ready, so we went through to the table in the kitchen. It was a perfect day for cottage pie, and Jeremy was very appreciative when he joined us from his morning on the river.

After we’d finished, Peter and Sophie appeared with the twins! I was given Grace, who remained asleep for the entire visit, waking only to yawn and fart. Such a chilled baby. Henry was passed around everyone, I think – he likes to wriggle and gets uncomfortable, and he becomes tetchy when he is too warm. When he started to cry, they’ve learned that soon it is food time, so it was time for them to go home.

We stayed until about five, talking about Christine and Tilly’s Morocco trip, our current kittens, and I found out that Jeremy’s cousin is a Duke. Just casually drop that into conversation. We drove pretty much straight home, bar a stop for petrol, and the kittens were ready to climb the walls.

The 12th of November.

Good and bad night. Good, because I had a Zopiclone, so I had a pretty deep, unbroken sleep. Bad, because I dreamed that I was in hospital, my cancer had come back, I thought it was getting better when in fact it had spread everywhere and everyone had been lying to me about it.

Not a brilliant start to my day. Equally then not helped by me putting my leggings on inside out. Nitwit. Once they were on the right way round, I spent my morning typing up two blog posts. The second one was hard – to write, to edit, to share. I don’t want to elicit any specific reaction, I’m just saying how I feel.

For lunch, we replicated Nigella’s brie and parma ham toastie (minus the figs, ugh), then this afternoon, I sat and crocheted while watching The Blacklist. Then Mommy returned from Grandma’s, and we’ve caught up with X Factor, Only Connect and Masterchef.

I am looking forward to bedtime, despite knowing that post-Zopiclone sleep is very hit and miss. I just want to curl up.