Saturday 5th to Sunday 6th September

A boring day for a Saturday but I didn’t mind too much as I didn’t feel well. My head felt a bit like it was full of pressure! I wondered if because of the cold I had all last week, I had now got sinusitis 😦 I also just felt a bit weak and wobbly and I didn’t really feel like eating too much.

So I had a lazy morning and then made myself do a few jobs around the house in the afternoon. A bit later I received a text from Hannah asking if I wanted to go along there for a cup of tea and cake! What is wrong with that girl lately? She wanted to see me twice in two days? Is it something to do with the fact that her birthday is coming up soon? 😜

I had a couple of vanilla cupcakes with my cup of tea. Yum!

Then in comes Robyn with a handful of dry leaves and throws them on Julie’s carpet. Funny! It seems like Julie has a bit of a thing about the leaves in her garden and outside her front door. She has to keep raking them up 🍃🍂 so it’s coming up to a very busy time for her!!!

Sunday was a trip to IKEA with Gary and his daughter Emma. I really wasn’t sure whether to go or not when I first got up as I was still feeling pretty awful. It seemed that this awful headache I had wasn’t going to give up 😦 But I also didn’t really want to spend another day at home on my own as both Robyn and Leah were out all day doing other things. So I got myself together and off we went. Emma has just decorated her bedroom so she wanted some new bits and pieces to put in there too. We then went to the massive Asda that is next door to IKEA and got a few more things. I think the shopping trip was successful.

It was a bit of an effort for me to get round those shops today. I kept finding myself little places to sit while I waited for the others. I don’t mind doing things like that though, I just did a bit of people watching! 👀

Chaser (a local band) were playing in the Blue Boar this evening. I was exhausted but again I made the effort and me and Gary went down to watch them. Actually had quite a fun time there. And we shared some cheesy chips 😃

Friday 4th September

I wanted to get out of the house today as I had mainly just been at home for the last two days. I wasn’t feeling that great but I thought a trip out would do me good.

I needed to sort some money out at the bank and TSB and needed a bit of shopping so I decided I would walk to town, do my jobs there and then go for a coffee. 

It was hard work walking into town and I was getting a bit breathless. I know I had a cold but it felt like a chest infection by the way I was feeling. Noooo, I don’t want to get anything else, I don’t want to end up in hospital again.

As I got into town I met Hannah my niece. She was on her lunch break. Believe it or not, this time, she actually said she would come to Cafe Nero with me 😀 

Walked back home, got something to eat and was glad to just sit on Gary’s sofa later, with a runny nose and feeling shattered.

Wednesday 2nd to Thursday 3rd September

Back to being home alone again after the last few days. What was I going to do? Catch up with some washing that’s for sure. And other boring housework jobs. I even cooked a meal on Wednesday evening and ALL three of us had the same food at the same time! Most unheard of in our house because Robyn and Leah finish work at different times.

Leah did make me laugh with tales of her day at work. They were a bit short staffed through illness, so she was needed in three places! She was running between rooms, ‘Leah can you do this’ ‘Yes just one minute’ ‘Leah I’m the new dentist’ ‘Hello, nice to meet you, I’ve got to go’ as she was halfway out the door and as she trotted off to another room. ‘Leah can you come to reception?’ ‘I’m just coming’ Up and down, up and down, two flights of stairs. Sounds like a very busy day 🏃

Thursday a repeat of Wednesday really

Quiet days. My cold started at this time too and I wasn’t feeling 100%. My whole body was aching, I think even more than normal. I carried on with my jobs but did keep sitting down, then getting back up and starting again.

I get very frustrated when I can’t do all the things I want to do.

I went for my weekly walk! 👣 For an hour and twenty minutes this time. And blimey I suffered when I got home. Probably because I wasn’t feeling that great anyway. My legs and especially my feet were very painful. 

My legs and my feet hurt when I first get out of bed in the morning too. What is this? Old age? 😦

Monday 31st August to Tuesday 1st September

Thought I would have a bit of a Bank Holiday lie in this morning, but not sleeping, I was blogging and messing around on my iPad. Didn’t feel 100% either, so that was probably another reason why I was happy to just lie there.

Then me and Gary went down to Cafe Nero and waited to meet Hannah and my sister. Julie had decided she was going to become a blood donor, yay well done, so that’s where they had been this morning.

  
It was busy up there (good, lots of people donating blood) but this meant they were late getting to Cafe Nero. Robyn was also late. She had to do her nails and have a shower before she could leave the house! And she was hungover again. Her weekend had been spent at The Big Feastival.

So we sat with them for literally only about 10 minutes as we then had to go to Charlbury as Gary’s sister Ali and family were over visiting. Lily, the oldest daughter who’s 13, had made a big lasagne. I managed to have a bit and it was really nice. She had done a really good job. I don’t think I could make one anything like that. Well done Lily 🙂

Tuesday was Kate’s funeral. A day we had all been dreading. Robyn, Leah and me all went. She had asked for everyone to wear something yellow. We were also all given a yellow bracelet to wear. And most of the flowers were yellow too, she loved sunflowers. A VERY sad day.

Sunday 30th August

On Sunday me and Gary went car hunting. Sometimes I think its time for me to get a car again now. Mine was a bit of a wreck and the tax had run out while I was in hospital, so I sold it to Jack (Leah’s boyfriend), as he likes messing about with old cars. I haven’t driven for ages. I can’t make my mind up what to do though. I don’t use a car very much, I can walk to and from work when I go back, so does it justify all the costs of the MOT, tax, insurance, petrol, any repairs etc. There are also no parking spaces where we live so we just have to try and find a space on the side of the road near to the house, which sometimes is virtually impossible. That also puts me off. So sometimes I think I won’t bother!

The car I like at the minute is the Fiat 500. I think their quite funky. I saw a lovely bright red one, very smart, brand new though, but I don’t want to be spending that kind of money. Guess I’ll keep looking …

Then we carried on into Oxford and did a bit of shopping. I found another bag I thought I liked, so decided I would get it and see what the kids think of it when I get it home. I like to get their advice (sometimes!)

On the way home we called in to a nearby pub and had some dinner 😀

Back in time for X Factor! It made me cry tonight though (along with Simon Cowell!) A young man sang Jealous by Labrinth. This was my song in hospital. I used to listen to it lots, especially when I got scared, agitated, frustrated, lonely. It seemed to sort me out and calm me down, well sometimes maybe Or when the kids had to go and I was upset they would leave me listening to it. I got to know all the words and used to sing them out loud 🎶 Then when I first came out of hospital and was staying at my sisters I used to go back for a sleep in the morning and I used to play it and it helped me drop off to sleep. I can still so clearly remember everything and hearing that song again, the first time for a while, brought a whole lot of memories back and upset me 😰

But this will ALWAYS be one of my special songs. I love it.

Friday 28th to Saturday 29th August

Friday morning and Robyn and Tom went off to Jamie Oliver and Alex James’ The Big Feastival. A festival of music and food. It’s on Alex James’ farm which is in a village just a couple of miles from us. I wanted to go too but all the tickets were sold, organised Robyn had bought hers months ago!!

So I met my sister Lynda in Cafe Nero instead! She had come over from Hook Norton on her bike 🚲 She brought with her two pieces of cake that her husband John had made. Lemon Drizzle and Fruit. They were both delicious. Thank you. We sat for quite a while chatting and then I showed her how to get a jigsaw puzzle app on her iPad. Apparently she’s now addicted to it, a bit like me My nan and my mum both used to do jigsaw puzzles all the time (not on a computer obviously), seems like we’ve caught the bug from them.

On my way home I saw a family friend who hadn’t seen me since before transplant. We were chatting and he said I was looking well and stuff like that. He told me that when he saw me last he didn’t think I had that long left to live, he thought I looked that bad! Blimey I didn’t know I had looked that ill Made me think a bit when I got home and upset me a little.

On Saturday we went in to Banbury so Gary could pick up his new glasses. He was very excited, he would be able to see again!!! 👀

Did a bit of other shopping too. When I was away with Robyn I bought a bag as I had a gift card to use. I really wasn’t sure about it at the time and still wasn’t when I got it home, so I took it back. I want a bit of a ‘special’ looking bag and one which my precious iPad can fit into, as I take it everywhere with me. I have a bit of a thing about bags and I’m always teased by my family about this. I’ll keep on looking though 👜

Then we went over to the ‘little Feastival’ which a local hotel puts on in their grounds which are very close to The Big Feastival. It’s free, there’s just a few local bands playing and you can sit and have a drink in their garden. Luckily it wasn’t raining.

I was recognised there from the article and photo in the local newspaper. I knew the man years ago but we hadn’t really seen each other for a long while. He waved me over and said ‘I saw you in the paper. I thought I recognised the face’!! So we had a bit of a chat with him and his partner.

Back to Gary’s for pizza and X Factor 🙂

Thursday 27th August

So 6 MONTHS ago today, I was in a very different place. I know I’ve done well, the difference between me then and now are quite amazing when I think about it. But how well have I done, have I done enough? Should I be stronger than I am? Should my body still be aching and sore? Should I be back at work again? It does my head in not knowing the answers

None of my family remembered either. Naughty! But I guess their not going to as time moves on.

Anyway, back to our trip to Brighton, and I had a bacon sandwich for breakfast this morning. And still have an upset tummy 😦

We were going to Brighton Marina today as the weather was supposed to be dry. Really? It was still raining when we got there, but it did dry up later, and we even saw the sun for a while! ⛅️

There was a marina (obviously!), residential flats, a few little shops, lots of places to eat and drink, bowling, cinema, kids things etc. It was nice.

It was here that I read a text from Leah telling me I was on the NHS Organ Donation Campaign Facebook page. I got 3,531 likes and 170 comments. I would like to thank everyone for their good wishes 🙂 I hope this will help to get a few more people to sign the Organ Donor Register.

After that bit of exciting news me and Robyn got some food shopping, and then our little break was over, it was time for us to head for home. And that was another story …
  
We had a terrible journey back. The traffic was horrendous (and the rain too at times actually!!). We were stuck in queues for an hour and a half on the M25 coming up to Heathrow airport. We were watching the continuous planes taking off from there. Because we were there for so long and we were so close I was counting the gap in between planes for something to do! They were taking off every 30-45 seconds. It was quite amazing actually. The traffic eventually started to move but we saw a big warning sign overhead saying there was an accident. Robyn was refusing to drive any longer if we got stuck in that too! Luckily we turned off the motorway just in time. Only to get to Oxford, then be stuck in traffic there for half an hour. And this was at 8.30 in the evening! 

A journey lasting four and three quarter hours and we were home 😩

Frazzled. But what a lovely ‘summer’ break we had 😂
PS Don’t forget to look at more photos of our boat trip which I have now     loaded on my Photos page 😊