kp’s mood continues to be low, but me being off has definately helped her enjoy the odd moment. I have been regularly asking for her mood score (0-10). The most she has been has been a 4, and it has been between 1 to 4 since the last blog. Plenty to tell in this blog….just hope I can remember it all.

Saturday 23rd December saw my work’s xmas doo. Marie and Glenn kindly came over to stay the night and dogsit as we were stopping at the hotel. kp went to get her hair done plus a facial. She really enjoys being pampered and she came out looking great. We picked a work colleague of mine up in Durham (Helen) and headed to the Gateshead Marriot. The staff were very welcoming and the bedroom was gorgeous. London could learn a thing or two about hospitality from the North East.

Here is kp and I at the Xmas Doo.

kp had a good night, I had an excellent night. She was flagging by about 9.30pm and so retired. I helped her into bed and then returned back down for the rest of the night. Cracking night. ITPS are very good – the meal was paid for, as were the first £200 worth of drinks per table. That lasted the whole night for our table.

After a lovely breakfast at the hotel with Nigel and Terry, we headed home.

It was Xmas Eve and we did our usual presents run to Middlesbrough. First stop was to pick Michelle and Freddy up and go to Emma and ethan’s. Ethan was annoyed he couldn’t “play out” with his mates and that he had to come in to see “family”. But the opening of presents cheered him up. Then on to Adele, Abbie and Louisa’s. They were all in their pyjamas and in a very good Xmas mood. We had bought louisa a replica kids Dyson vacuum cleaner. She absolutely loved it and never stopped hoovering ! Her favourite bits were to tell us to “lift our feet up” and to push down on the front part with her foot to start it going. She has obviously watched her mam loads of times and it was comical to see her go round the room 10x.

Another funny came when they got the fishes game out. It was a strange contraption that blew little fishes out the top of an inflated chimney and the idea is Louisa had to catch them. She was hopeless and it made for lots of laughs. She didn’t watch the fishes at all, and instead focussed on the chimney. Was a good laugh.

Here is Louisa looking anywhere but at the fishes.

We then retired to Michelle and Freddy’s for some adult time before returning home. Xmas Day the following day and we had to be up early to get to mum and dad’s (in Lancashire) in good time.

We ended up getting up early (7.30am) and had time to walk the dogs, and open our presents before heading down South. I had got kp a handbag, and she had got me a fart machine (remote controlled).

2 hours 15 minutes worth of travel to Lancashire saw us arrive early. We were made feel very welcome and enjoyed a lovely roast Turkey, with Roasties cooked in Goose fat. (Lose the goose fat next time mum please, yeuch!). Here is a picture of us at the table. kp is on the end on the right (but you can only just see her hair).

Here is Jamie in the dog’s basket after the meal with his Bob the Builder hat on.

We left about 3.30pm and headed home through some awful fog where I had to crawl along at 20 mph on a 70 mph road. But still made it in 2 hours 30 mins. An early night followed ! Thanks to Eileen who let the dogs out twice for us during the day.

We had planned to go shopping on Boxing day, but thought better of it. Instead we went for a long dog walk ( 1/2 a mile, long for kp ). She does like getting out of the house. I think a lot of her problems stem from the feeling of being housebound. Watching films, programmes and eating sweets was the order of the day.

Wednesday 27th saw us go over to Middlesbrough for a big family get together. But, first, we went shopping in Middlesbrough, a first for me. Middlesbrough is an awesome shopping experience and coming from me (who hates shopping) that is a big compliment. The shops are well laid out, joined in a good way. Clothes shops next to gadget shops, marvellous. We shopped for about 3 hours and it flew past. I was able to gadget shop, while kp shopped for clothes. She was keen to get something that was like a swimming costume, but with a bra built in. She still can’t do bras, despite trying everything under the sun. She found what she was looking for (don’t know if they are called bodices ?), but imagine a woman’s swimming costume, but where the gusset is, it has popits to allow for toilet breaks. It also has a built-in bra. Anyway, it didn’t work (when we got it home). The tension the gusset was under meant she couldn’t hold it with her left while doing the popits with her right. It was worth a try though !

After the shopping we went on to Marie’s. Marie had done a lovely buffet, and we played games (like Family Fortunes, etc…). It was a cracking night. It’s good to get the family together once a year. Twice would be too much Here is Louisa giving kp a great hug.

We also went to the Doctors re kp’s depression. I had rung the psychiatry hospital to see if we could get an earlier appointment, the psychiatrist recommended seeing the doctor to rush things along which we did. The following morning the psychiatrist rang up and said he would get us in the week after next (home visit). He has also immediately changed kp’s anti-depressant from Citalopram, to Cyprolex, which is supposed to be more effective – fingers crossed.

Thursday saw us go to Homebase for 2 bulbs, but we ended up buying £10,000 worth of new kitchen and £1000 worth of dining room furniture. Jesus tonight ! To say I was a little dry in the throat would be an understatement. But, kp needs something to get her teeth into, and I think this will help her mood a great deal. To be fair, we do need a new kitchen. I have never liked our current one, but the oven being on the floor is a nightmare for karen. She can’t pick heavy things up from the floor-level oven, and the new kitchen will see a waist height oven, which will be much better for her. Similar improvements have been done with the fridge and freezer. So, it should be much more manageable for kp.

The chap came out to our house on the Thursday night and measure up for the new kitchen.

I can’t remember what we did on Friday, but we did something. I have made sure we have done something every day as the neuropsychologist suggested. I think we went to the tip. Hey, it might not sound like fun, but there is a certain pleasure in sitting in a mile-long queue of cars all getting rid of their xmas rubbish. We saw the queue, and thought bugger that. We ended up going to the pound shop for a rummage around and by the time we came out, the queue had gone down somewhat. We also got the car washed. Excitement all round !

Saturday (yesterday) saw us return to Homebase to see the new design kitchen and put the deposit down.

We watched loads of films this week – The Interpreter (very good), The Clearing (weirdly dull), Bewitched (only watched half, not brilliant), Shrek 2 (brilliant), Collateral (very good) and many others. One a night at least. kp enjoyed them too.

Today, Sunday, we have nothing planned, but given it is 1.30pm and kp is still fast asleep, I don’t think she will be bothered about that.

A good Xmas overall. kp’s mood has fluctuated peaking at 4. Guy had suggested getting a new dog to better kp’s mood. It is something I had already considered and attempted to sell to kp, but she wasn’t having it. Too much work, she can barely cope with 2 etc…. Well, I tried again Guy. Got a bit further, but its still a “no” for now. She says if she feels physically more able to cope with the work involved, we may go down that route.

I would love another pup, but it would be kp doing most of the toilet training and clearing up, and I don’t think she is quite up for that at the moment.

It’s the start of the New Year tomorrow, so fingers crossed, it is a better year than 2006. Here’s hoping !! Merry Xmas everyone and a Happy New Year to all blog readers !