Finally I began on the bedroom...

 This morning at 7:20 am, a skip was delivered to the bungalow, so now the clear-out has begun. Underneath my bed, where there used to be boxes and bags of clutter, are now two small boxes containing printer paper and envelopes. When installed, these will be moved to shelving units above my desk.

Hopefully, Richard Tony's son will be visiting tomorrow, and he will take some bags of clothes and books to a charity shop for me. That will clear out a significant area of the room.

 I want to dismantle the double bed, which is going to Lynsey's. I am going to buy a single bed for myself. This will give me more room in the bedroom for a chair at the desk, which will be comfier than the one I have now. 

I also want to make room for a small table for the sewing machine to stay out on so I can use it more. I plan to make more clothes and covers instead of buying them. My weight fluctuates a lot, so being able to alter my clothes would be a big help. I have done this in the past, so there is no reason I cannot do it again once I have the room.

Not A Lot But A Start...

Well, I have started, at least now. I just have to keep going. The bedroom doesn't look any different because all that has come from under the bed. I am surprised it touched the floor. My Mum would tell you I was the same growing up; everything went under the bed. Mum would ask if I had tidied my room, and I would say yes; when she went to look, I would have just pushed it all under the bed and pulled the cover down so you couldn't see it. Job done. Things don't change much, eh, Mum! I can only do so much before my hands swell and are too painful to carry on, so today, I paced myself so more can be done tomorrow. I have the skip for seven days; let's see how I go.

Until the next time...

Someone hacked my bank on Monday...

 I spent all day on the phone with the bank. Someone has used my account to pay for goods, and it was not me. Apparently, they have used a phone to pay contactless. I don't know how they did it, but the bank knows it wasn't me, and they have reported it as fraud. I will get my money back, but it could take a while. I wouldn't mind if I had lots to spare; I am guessing the people who took it have a lot more than I have. It was all the messing about ringing Action fraud, phone calls from the bank, texts from the bank, and going into the bank with a photo ID; I don't leave the house or talk to people most of the time. I think I spoke to more people in one day than in the last 6 months. Now my card has been stopped, I have to wait for a new one so I can't buy anything or use it anywhere; I am going to be wary about using it online now anyway. 2024 is beginning to be a pain in the proverbial.

Until the next time

Just my luck...

 I ordered new clothes airer to be delivered today, I was really happy because the washing has been piling up. However, I should have known, I opened the parcel and this is what I found,

What use is a clothes airer with three and a half legs?

I contacted them straight away to tell them what I thought, I have to send it back for a refund😂😂

The bedroom has been put on hold again, online shopping, the daughter that never stops ringing and the after-effects of knee injections from yesterday just meant it never got off the ground. Tomorrow won't be spent in there either because said daughter needs help with her home office. 

Tony hopefully will have the company of his son Richard at some point over the weekend, who is coming to do some more work in the back garden. Our garden should be the best in the neighbourhood by summer let's just hope we get the weather to go with it.

Christopher has a bar in Cleckheaton called The Chain Bar, and he seems to be doing very well with it. He holds different theme nights to pull in the punters who all seem to enjoy themselves. One of his latest nights is Clairvoyant Nights which seems to be sellouts every time. 

Emma is enjoying her new role as a carer to Janet, she certainly keeps her entertained. Janet has severe learning difficulties with the mind of a child. She is 74 years old and has a Yorkshire terrier called Sugar.

Sugar & Janet.

Janet needed help after Ken died she had no one to look after her. Emma gave up her job and became her full-time carer. They are very rarely apart now. Janet goes to Emma's house most days and Emma goes to Janet's bungalow every day.

Lynsey is still getting on with life she is being inundated with follow-up appointments for the hospitals after everything that happened last year. We will find out soon how much if any her spinal tumour has grown amongst other things. Biscuit one of her cats also has a tumour, it is on the top of his head, thankfully it is benign which is good because for eight years she has been told by several different vets that it was "only a skin tag". He still needs it removed it fills up with fluid and appears to cause him headaches and a dislike of bright light.

Lynsey is taking part in a walk for charity, Royal British Legion Industries. She is walking 10k steps a day or attempting to, you can find her under the name of mysinglestatus on Instagram or Facebook to donate there you can read about her story.

I think I need to go and find a hot water bottle and a cup of tea now.

Until the next time...

The first Doctors appointment of 2024

 Today's visit to the doctor was for my steroid injection into my knee. It should have been my left knee however, because my right knee was so painful and swollen he agreed to inject my right knee. He has also referred me to hydrotherapy. I know this will take a while I am not expecting miracles, I just hope it won't be too long. 

My latest pair of DM's fur-lined it says Dark Grey but they are shiny black, the laces are courtesy of the youngest daughter makes them a bit more in your face.

Until the next time...

The bedroom is looking no better...

 The bedroom is a mess...

I have been trying to sort out the bedroom since we moved in here! No matter how much I throw out it never looks any better. I am going to get a skip, I did send some stuff to Emma's when she had one, I sent some up to Janets and she has had two. It hasn't helped. The bedroom is still a mess. I am being brutal but it looks like I am going to just have to be more so. The trouble is I have things that I have had from my childhood, my teenage years and years in between. That is a lot of stuff. However, that is all it is stuff. Clothes I will never fit in again, memories I would probably be better off forgetting, I realised today that the things I really want to remember I could photograph and make into a memory book, that way I can then throw away the bulky stuff and still look at the things I want to remember. So on Friday, my camera is coming out, a photoshoot will take place and next week I am ordering that skip.

Until the next time...

The year is off to a slow start...

 Today was a quiet day, I spent it with Mum. Tuesday is Mum's day, so a small amount of normality is creeping back into the daily routine if there is such a thing.

We have new neighbours getting ready to move into the bungalow where Ken used to live, who died in August 2023. Then Mo who lives in a bungalow on the same side will be leaving us soon to exchange to an address in Ossett, Nancy who lives in the remaining bungalow on that side is waiting to go into sheltered accommodation as she is finding it increasingly difficult to live alone. It will all change over that side come summer, hopefully, we and Anne will carry on as usual Adele will fit in wherever she can as she usually does.

Tony has been asking the WDH about the garage that Ken had because we have been on the waiting list since we moved into the bungalow, even though we no longer have a car we need one for the mobility scooters these are our main means of transport now. We are not supposed to keep them inside our property so we need somewhere else to keep them, Tony has a scooter shed but it is only big enough for one. We are hoping to buy bigger ones for longer trips out so the shed might not be big enough for one. They were supposed to phone him straight back but he is still waiting for a callback.

The squirrels are growing in numbers we have 5 visiting the garden, we have a variety of birds and overnight we have foxes and tawny owls.

All enjoying the garden over the year 2023.

Until the next time...

Well here we are 2024...

I had a play liked what I saw so I played some more.

Two of my favourite things, are squirrels and sunflowers.

You can expect to see more of both in the coming months.

 

Until the next time...