Mixed Week and a busy one too.

Monday saw Debs (ex work colleague and pretend friend (private joke)) come over. kp had made her some soup, Debs brought the bread.

Tuesday – a bloke came to service the bath hoist. We don’t really use it any more at the expense of my back. One of the problems with it is that when you are lowered into the bath fully, you are still 2 to 3 inches higher than you normally would be, so kp doesn’t get a good soaking. So, we have this new routine now. I help kp climb into the bath. She stands at the tap end, facing the taps. I stand in the bath facing her back. I grab her under her pits and she then falls backward, trusting me to lower her in. Going down is easy (pardon the expression). It’s the lift up, which really knacks, but it is much more beneficial for kp if she can have a good soaking.

The afternoon saw Adele and the kids (Abbie (10), Louisa (3)) come over (it was half term). I had them believing that the garage door worked on voice commands and they really enjoyed shouting “Open” and “Close” at the garage. Of course, when I got sick of pushing the button, I had to shout “Stay closed until I speak” at the garage, but they still kept shouting ! Was a good laff.

Abbie stayed over and accompanied Karen to the shops the following day (taxi). Karen had her contact lens in. She is using it daily to get used to it for the driving assessment in May. But she loses some peripheral vision by having it in, and apparently Karen knocked a display over in a shop and Abbie had to rebuild it.

We took her back on Wednesday and we went over to Marge’s to see Tracey, Mark and Megan who had come up for the week (from Southampton). It was lovely to see them. Here is a foto of kp and megan.

It turned out to be a late night. I think it was about 10.30pm when we left – after midnight, by the time we retired.

I have started feeding some swans and ducks at work before I have a fag. One day this week, the strangest bird appeared with very weird feet. Anyone got a clue what this is ?

Bad night’s sleep on Thursday for kp. Don’t think  she came to bed at all until 5am. Up with me at 7am and then had some catch up sleep during the day.

We got some Wimbledon Tickets through which is good.

Saturday morning – I got all the tiles off in the kitchen ready for the kitchen work starting this week. Here’s the kitchen minus tiles.

In the afternoon, we went to Redworth Hall with Nigel and Terry and Julie and Paul. (Nigel and Julie being work colleagues). It was a treat from work because we were unable (all of us) to go to the yearly financial-end management bash last November.

Redworth Hall is a lovely building. We arrived at about 3.30pm, just in time for the massage that kp had booked. I went in the pool and sauna while kp had her treatment. It was £26 and not half as good as Diane’s massage (the lady who normally does kp). Diane only charges £8 !

kp joined me in the pool. There was a cracking chair hoist to get kp in the pool. The water was a little too cold for kp but it was fine for everyone else. I bounced her round the pool twice before she wanted to get out and go in the jacuzzi, which was gorgeous. We retired for a cream tea.

Here’s kp at Redworth Hall.

We met up with the others for drinks and chat. The meal was “ok”. The steaks were overcooked. The service was poor. We had tea/coffee in the bar area. Karen was the only one on tea. They sent a small pot (enough for 2 cups of tea). It had FIVE teabags in it !! Julie had to wait an age for her baileys coffee. Everything was overpriced and the quality of service really let them down. Our reservation wasn’t ready on time. The staff left dirty dishes and glasses on the table. But, it didn’t stop us having a good time.

Paul and Karen retired early. Nige, Terry, Julie and I stayed up until 1am. I was bladdered and retired at 1am leaving the hard core drunks (Nige, Terry and Julie) to stay up another hour.

Cracking night.

Breakfast was great. The service was top notch and everything was cooked to perfection.

That’s pretty much this week summed up.

Healthwise, kp is taking a big downer. She described her mindset as “realising that her body was not only NOT going to get any better, but was in fact going to get worse.” Her body has been a wreck this week, her hip seems to really be packing in. Her pain is up. Normally, that would cause a big mood change in kp, and she feels like she should be going on a downer, but she couldn’t understand why she wasn’t (mentally). We both think it could be the anti-depressants stopping the low mood swing.

Thankfully, we have a visit next week with an independent orthopedic consultant (as part of the claim for damages), so we might be able to gleam from him why it is getting worse.

That’s enough for now.

This week, Karen is seeing a doctor about her industrial injury benefit (Monday) and has a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday.