Well, 2-week gap in the blog as we went darn sarth to see family and friends for a week and didn’t get back until late Sunday night.

The big news is that I divorced Karen last week and remarried. Younger woman. Read on….

On the first Sunday, we took a train to London Kings Cross, taxi’ed to Waterloo (kp can’t do tubes anymore), and then a train to Surbiton, where we met up with Ronnie. Here is kp on the train……..this was as exciting as the journey got.

Ronnie took us to our hotel. It was the Holiday Inn Chessington and very nice it was too, apart from the fact that they could only accommodate us for 4 of the 5 nights.

I was down there on a course for work. kp came to spend the week with Ronnie. The course was great and Ronnie and kp had a great time. On the monday, kp and Ronnie went to be part of the audience of Loose Women. When kp relayed the events of the day to me, all she talked about (instead of the show itself) was that the audience were mental. It sounded like they were professional (albeit not paid) TV show attendees, and not a full shilling amongst them.

Tuesday, after my course, we all went to London to see Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Adelphi. It was a cracking show with a super Joseph mix at the end which earned a standing ovation. Everyone in the house was up on the feet, apart from the chap next to me. He didn’t clap once.

On one of the days, Ronnie and kp went to see Keith and Irene (VD’s mum/dad who she knew from being a kid). They had a nice afternoon with them.

kp’s pain is starting to get a bit out of control at the moment. A walk round some shops, or steps, can take it out of her, and we are currently using TWICE as much morphine patches as is currently allowed. We are seeing the doctor tomorrow to beg them to up it beyond the maximum allowed dosage, but I don’t hold out much hope. kp is focussed on the Dorsal Column Stimulation as the solution and me too !

On the thursday, we checked out, and slept at Ronnie’s on the night. vd did us a lovely roast meal. All the local hotels were booked up for a big conference. vd took me to the last day of the course, and picked me up with kp in the car, dropping us at the station to take the train to So’ton.

It was great to see the Maffey’s again. They have got a new addition to the family since our last visit (Thomas). Here he is with Megan.

We had a lovely weekend with them. Very relaxed, and lots of good chat.

Megan (5 years old) and I get on great. A few months ago, when she knew I was coming down, she had said that she wanted to marry me. So, on the Sunday, we had the ceremony. I divorced Karen moments before Megan walked in. She had her fairy dress on. She walked up the aisle (front room between the 11 jigsaws she had done) with her Dad to give her away. Marge was my best man, and Tracey was the vicar. It was a good laugh.

On the Sunday, we had another good chatting day with a super Sunday lunch at the Lone Barn before flying home on the Sunday night.

I think I recorded in the blog that we had changed solicitors recently, because of the lack of communications between our old one and the incumbent. So far, so good. The new solicitor could NOT have been more proactive and communicative. When we returned from the trip darn sarth, we had 3 letters from her. She has now received all the files relating to Karen’s case and we were flabbergasted to learn that the old solicitor (Watson Ramsbottom, from Blackburn, Lanacashre) had known about the Case Manager for 18 (EIGHTEEN) months without saying a word about it !!!!! Karen is so angry about this and I can’t blame her. Already with the new solicitor, we have lots of appointments lined up with consultants. More physio starts on Tuesday, photos to be taken of all her scars, support worker, occupational therapist, neuropsychologist etc etc….Things are starting to move !!

My work has been quite eventful for the last 2 weeks (even the week I was away). My best mate and my boss (in the Datacentre), Nigel, had resigned. He didn’t want to leave, but his position had been made untenable by the MD. Part of the reason I had offered to step down from my previous management post was that I found the MD incredibly hard to work for. Moving goalposts, micro-management, acting on tittle-tattle from other managers without getting the full facts, saying one thing, doing another – it was unlike any other management post I had been in etc etc etc…..

Conversation inevitably turned to who was going to take his role. I made it clear to the MD that I couldn’t work for him again (in a management context). Lots of VERY frank discussions occurred between all parties involved and the upshot of them all is that I am going to take the role on a 6-month trial with someone else between me and the MD. Fingers crossed on that front…..

This week, Karen’s pain has remained the main issue. The sleeping is still all to pot, but compared to the pain, it’s something she can cope with.