Saturday 6th to Sunday 7th February

An afternoon trip to Banbury for some shopping. Managed to get Gary to agree to do the drive back today so I could get myself a lovely latte from Costa 😀 Home to see what was happening in my house with Robyn and Leah for a while and then back to Gary’s for the evening.

☕️ Drinking coffee every day is linked to a reduced risk of liver cirrhosis …

I knew there was a reason why I like to go to Costa when I’m out and about. And now I have even more of an excuse to go 😀

Interesting read

There also are many other articles about the liver in the link above from Medical News Today which are well worth a read when you have a spare few minutes!

Sunday was a relaxing morning, a lot of it being spent on my iPad researching for my post on the Chinese New Year. I got quite interested in it all but it is very time consuming. I had to make myself stop, get off the sofa and get on with the day! So this was followed by an afternoon of odd jobs at home to make me feel a bit better. And then I returned back to my blogging later 😏

Gary popped round at some point during the afternoon to put up my lovely cuckoo clock that Julie had given me for Christmas! I have fancied getting one for ages, and now I’ve got one! I fancied putting it in the kitchen but Leah and Jack were dead against this as their bedroom is right next door!! I wouldn’t really get to see it myself too often anyway if it was down there so I decided it could go above the tv in the living room.

 

So now it can keep me and Robyn awake instead!!!

I do love it 😍 But I do have a bit of a problem which IS quite annoying. It is cuckooing at 10 minutes past the hour and it is not doing the right number of cuckoos for the time showing!! So now I have another little job to do in trying to work out how to reset it 🤔

Wednesday 3rd to Friday 5th February 

Well my headache had gone this morning thank goodness. But I still was very tired at work. 

When I got home I had a lengthy phone call with the Co-op’s Occupational Health lady about how I’ve been getting on at work and if I thought I would be able to increase my hours anymore and if so, when. All those kinds of things.

During the afternoon I also found out that my hospital friend Marina was extremely poorly now in Critical Care, so I got very upset 😢  Then Marina very sadly died later in the evening. So I got very upset again 😥 Marina has been having a rough time but she seemed to be getting a little better and her family were hoping that she would soon be back on the transplant list. But she became ill again at home, then had a stroke while she was in hospital and then caught pneumonia. Some things are just NOT fair.

On Thursday I got up still thinking about Marina and her family and feeling sad. But I had previously told myself that I was giving the bathroom a clean today. So that’s what I still did, along with loads of washing and other odd jobs about the house. I had a busy day, up and down the stairs countless times (as I have a staircase from the kitchen to the living room and bathroom). By the end of the day my back was killing me again, it has been so much better up until now 😦 Think I had done too much for one day.

In the afternoon I had an appointment at the GP’s surgery to have a full body skin check. As my immunosuppression tablets make me more at risk now of getting skin cancer (among other things!) my Horton Hospital consultant had advised me to go and get this done. Everything seemed okay. I just have one mole on the back of my shoulder that I need to keep a closer eye on, the others are all okay so far. I was advised to go back every 3-6 months so my skin can be monitored. I didn’t realise I was going to have to go quite so regularly, does this mean that the risk of me getting skin cancer is really quite high now? 

I went for my walk with friends in the evening.

Friday morning and back to work again. At home in the afternoon, always doing much needed housework. And I think I tried to set aside a few minutes between jobs so I could get on with the course I am doing. I have finished my course on Liver Transplantation now and I’m doing a small course on the Abdomen!! No idea why particularly, I just saw that it was starting when I was looking on the website and I thought it might be quite interesting – which it is 🙂

Tuesday 2nd February

Up early for my treat day 😵 I was being taken for a day in the spa at Fawsley Hall. My Christmas present from Robyn and Leah.

As it was Tuesday it was Leah’s weigh in day. So on the way me and Robyn waited in the car while Leah popped in quickly. A lady was coming back to her car in front of us and I said to Robyn ‘I used to go to school with her’, then ‘do I look as old as she does? :/’ So my lovely daughter Robyn says ‘well you’ve got more wrinkles than she has …’ 😱 And I’ve now got to spend the rest of the day with her!!!!!  We did have a nice time. A big hot tub outside, sauna, steam room, swimming pool inside 🏊 that we could use whenever we wanted throughout the day. We all had a back, neck and shoulder massage in the morning. A bit painful for me at times though.

When it was time for lunch we had to walk back over to the main hotel which was a bit strange. In the other spas I’ve been to, you can just stay in your robe but we obviously had to get dressed. Well me and Leah did. Robyn seemed to think it would be fine to go over in her tights and a top 😂

Lunch was good though.

 Lovely breads with Parmesan and olive oil with balsamic vinegar for dipping. Leah had sea bass. And me and Robyn had lemon chargrilled chicken. Dee-licious 😋

After lunch Robyn and Leah had a facial. I had a tired eye treatment! which basically was a facial too but with a bit more attention around the eyes. That was lovely. 

Then we went through to our last treatments together. Me and Leah had our finger nails shaped and polished 💅🏻 and Robyn had the same but on her toes!

Then we were a bit stuck as obviously we needed to wait for the polish to dry! So we had a cup of tea while waiting, then eventually all had a lovely shower and headed for home.

I had a bit of a headache throughout the day. When I got back I started to not feel too good My headache had got a bit worse and I was completely exhausted. I just sat on the sofa for a while but in the end I just had to go to bed 😴 

I’m not sure my spa day was supposed to have made me feel like this …

Happy #ChineseNewYear to you all.

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar (which means time is based on the movements of both the moon and the sun) so the exact date for Chinese New Year varies every year. The Chinese zodiac is divided into 12 years (whereas ours is 12 months). Each year is associated with an animal: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig (people are said to be influenced by the personality of the animal that rules their birth year). Also one of the five vital elements: gold, water, wood, fire or earth.

It’s a time when many Chinese people think about building up good luck for the coming year. Some families will avoid doing certain things. Like not wearing old, damaged clothes so you don’t carry bad luck into the new year. Some will not wash laundry, handle knives, or take out the rubbish on this day to make sure they don’t throw their good fortune away.

It’s customary for adult children to travel home to be with their families. Around this time it is expected 2.9 billion trips will be made. There is a week long public holiday in China to give people the chance to do this.

The New Year’s Eve meal is very important. They will eat traditional foods like rice cakes, tangerines, fish, long noodles and dumplings. Parents give their unmarried children red envelopes filled with money. The colour red is a symbol of good luck.

The celebrations end on the 15th day of the New Year with the Festival of Lanterns.

This year it’s the year of the Fire Monkey.

Gary. Robyn. Born 1968 and 1992. This is you! It’s your year.

Quick witted, charming, lucky, adaptable, bright, versatile, lively, smart.

But sorry it’s not going to be a good one! You need to be very cautious with your finances and not make investments. You also need to rest more and pay more attention to your health. You need to put effort into existing relationships and try to control your temper so that you don’t scare potential partners away!!!

Your lucky numbers are 1 and 6. Your compatible zodiac signs are Rat and Snake.

Let’s have a little look and see who you’re compatible with then.

Well what do you know. Julie and Hannah are Rats!! Born 1960 and 1996.

Intelligent, adaptable, quick witted, charming, artistic, sociable.

You have good business and career opportunities this year. Be careful who you trust as those with ulterior motives lurk around you. Try not to overwork yourself!!!! Be careful when signing contracts. Romance luck is good if you put in effort this year!

Your lucky number is 2. Your compatible zodiac signs are Ox, Rabbit and Dragon.

I’m a Sheep! So no compatibility with me. Born 1967.

Tasteful, crafty, warm, elegant, charming, intuitive, sensitive, calm.

Apparently I can look forward to much better luck than last year (I don’t think it is possible for me to get any luckier than I did last year is it?) I have strong windfall and romance luck, so long term investments should be considered. But uh oh, here comes the bad bit. I need to take extra caution with my health and safety as I might have accidents and illnesses 😫

My lucky numbers are 4 and 12. My compatible zodiac signs are Rabbit and Pig.

Emma your a Pig!!! Born 1995.

Honourable, philanthropic, determined, optimistic, sincere, sociable.

You are going to have a slight improvement in luck from last year. Wealth luck is stable and you may get occasional windfalls. It is important to control your emotions. Love entanglements could also be stumbling blocks so try to avoid them or you will have trouble. Potential mates are all unsuitable this year.

Your lucky number is 4. Your compatible zodiac sign is Rabbit.

Lynda and Leah are Dogs!!! Born 1958 and 1994.

Loyal, sociable, courageous, diligent, steady, lively, adaptable, smart.

You both will have a challenging period this year. Be cautious in all matters, particularly wealth and business. Trust your instincts – if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. You may find yourself too preoccupied with other issues in your life to have much time for romance, so make sure you put in effort to keep existing relationships alive.

Your lucky number is 4. Your compatible zodiac sign is Rabbit. Exactly the same as Emma!

There doesn’t seem to be much compatibility between us all does there? It seems we need to all find some Rabbits!!!

Why not have a look and see which animal you are and how your year ahead is going to be.

Your horoscope

Saturday 30th January to Monday 1st February

So my mini got another trip out to Banbury today. I was going to collect my phone, back from the menders! I also bought myself some new jeans, I’m fed up of all of the ones I’ve got that just keep falling down all the time  

And I bought Robyn and Leah a tee shirt each, just because. Just a few days ago I had already bought Leah some special balsamic vinegar and Robyn some ‘new flavour’ Heinz soup! Their certainly spoilt having me as a mum 😝

I was quite surprised when I opened my food rubbish bin to this!

 

I guess this means Leah has been cooking again = lots of extra washing up for me 😏

 Later in the evening Gary made a risotto for me. It was nice, but I did miss my curry Sorry.

On Sunday morning Gary reloaded my phone from the back up on his laptop. I was a tiny bit excited that I would now have a normal working phone again like everyone else.

A bit later after I had gone back home for a while Leah said to me ‘what’s your phone doing?’ I couldn’t believe it. It was restarting itself 😖 I don’t know what they had done while they had it for the week, but whatever it was they hadn’t fixed the problem. Now I still had more horrible phone calls to make to try and sort it all out again. SO annoying.

Robyn was doing Leah’s hair for her this afternoon. I had to get in on the act

  
She was having lots of different shades of blonde highlights put in again and then a trim. Leah has masses of hair! so it’s quite a big lengthy job. Even when she was very young she always had lots of hair. Lovely to look at and do things with, but a bit of a nightmare for me to comb sometimes if she wasn’t in the mood for sitting still!!!

Leah’s payment for this was to wash up the saucepans that Robyn had used to cook her dinner 😂

Monday was a bit of a waste of a day really. I couldn’t concentrate and couldn’t seem to get stuck into any of the many jobs that I needed to do. I was quite frustrated and cross with myself. Do you ever get days like that?

So in the afternoon I went with Robyn to Caffe Nero and had a mug of tea and a berry muffin (which was actually really fresh and tasty 😋) and I sat and did a bit of blogging! Always a good bit of stress relief for me.

A bit of food shopping and then home to get myself ready for my special treat day tomorrow 😀

Oh and I was taxi driver for Gary to his Riverside meeting in Charlbury 🚗

Thursday 28th to Friday 29th January

My alarm went off at 4am. Yes 4am!!

I was going up north today!

It was for a sad occasion, Gary’s cousin’s cremation. But afterwards I thought I might get a chance to have a little look around. 

Gary had offered to take his mum and dad as its a long long drive. So we were also going to call in to see Gary’s dad’s sister and brothers while we were up there. I got a nice bit of chocolate cake while there!! It was nice to sit and listen to them chatting and remembering things from the past. I really miss those kind of things now with my mum and dad and their families 😦

Then we had a drive around the places where they used to live when they were younger. I have already posted the pictures of their actual houses in an earlier post.

 

On the way back we stopped at a services to get some dinner 🍽 A nice pot of Yorkshire Tea with Harry Ramsden’s fish and chips. They were so nice, I really enjoyed mine.

 

I didn’t quite get back in time for my walk this evening 😦 Back to it next week.
Considering I had been up since 4am I wasn’t feeling completely exhausted like I thought maybe I would have done, I thought I did pretty well.

I thought it might catch up with me and I might struggle to get up for work Friday morning, but I was okay. And work was fine. An afternoon of tidying the kitchen among other things and waiting for Robyn to finish work, she was making my dinner for me tonight 😋

Monday 25th to Wednesday 27th January

She turned up! Good job as I had got up very early to be ready for 7 😏 

A trip to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford today. She’s getting as bad as me with all these hospital appointments!! 

Robyn has Polycystic Kidney Disease. This is where cysts develop and grow in both kidneys.  It usually doesn’t normally start to affect people until around middle age. This is a hereditary disease which she has got from her dad. He has already had a kidney transplant as a result of that!! We don’t seem to be very healthy in our family do we?

We had left early this morning because of the terrible traffic in Oxford. I decided it was quite worth it as I got to see this.

 

I had heard over the weekend that my hospital friend Marina had become very ill and had been admitted to Critical Care. I was extremely upset to hear this news and I have been thinking about her. She helped me such a lot in many different ways during my stay on the liver ward. I remember thinking to myself as we were driving along, poor Marina’s not waking up to this view this morning like I am lucky enough to be doing. It’s just not fair. Appreciate the simple things everyone.

As we were early I got tea and a croissant from the hospital cafe and Robyn had brought her cereal and yogurt with her!!

It was just Robyn’s yearly check up appointment so we weren’t in there for too long. It’s just a chat to see how things are going really at this stage. And then her bloods were taken.

When we got back Robyn swanned off to the gym, swimming with her friend and then yoga! and I was left to attack the mountains of washing and the task of trying to hoover up Jake’s dog hairs among other things.

You could say I had a busy afternoon.

I did struggle a little on Tuesday morning at work. I have been feeling a lot better since my sinusitis and shingles have gone, but I have been having busy times. I started my extra hours at work last week. And I had an early start yesterday morning followed by a busy physical afternoon yesterday with all the housework. So I think I was mainly just very very tired. I finished my shift though.

Last week of my liver transplant course this week. Think I spent some of the afternoon finding out a few more interesting things. I am really enjoying it, if even just tiny bits of it actually stick in my head I will be happy 🤗

On Wednesday morning I was back to work again. The afternoon I spent just doing all kinds of things at home.