Saturday 20th to Sunday 28th October

Happy Birthday to my biggest brother on the 21st 🍻

Some time off from work this week because of the anaemia.

I definitely DO NOT want to take iron tablets so when I spoke to my doctor he agreed to let me try and get my iron level back up by eating iron rich foods. Robyn was a bit cross that the doctor had agreed to me doing this. She knows me too well … !

Look at my arm after the blood test I mentioned last week that really hurt and came up into a big hard lump. It’s still quite tender to touch too.

I did meet my friend for a cuppa ☕️

When I was very ill in hospital she laid out some crystals for me and also bought me a crystal bracelet.

She had messaged me earlier in the week telling me to place my crystals overnight on a windowsill which catches the moonlight and then wear it on my right side the following day. This was to recharge the crystals and then while I was wearing the bracelet the energy would be transferred to me.

Just what I need 🙂 Any extra energy would be much appreciated.

I thought I’d share this website with you as it seems to have a lot of information about all the different crystals and their meanings. Some of them may work for you.

Monday 15th to Friday 19th October

A week of blood tests 😫

Monday was a trip to Birmingham for my clinic appointment. I was having an ultrasound scan too, to check on the fluid that they found last time. This time the fluid had gone so that was good news.

The nurse took 2 attempts to find my blood. I don’t know what she did on the second one but it was very painful. It came up in a big hard lump and my whole arm was hurting.

Because I had mentioned that I was getting some aches and pains in my liver area, I then had to go for a chest and back X-ray to see if that would show any problems up. So I wait to see what those results are …

Wednesday was a trip to my doctor to get the results of the blood tests that I had taken last Friday to see about my anaemia. It turned out to be a wasted trip as apparently my blood samples had clotted and they weren’t able to do any of the tests on them. So my doctor tried himself to take some more, 3 times! My veins were giving him nothing.

So he then decided that I should make another appointment with the nurse for her to have a try. This was arranged for Friday morning, which meant I had to leave work for a while and walk up to the surgery again. Thankfully it was a lovely warm sunny day, not like last Friday when I got soaked 🌧 And another bonus, the nurse was very good and understanding to my veins! She used a smaller needle which she inserted very slowly into my vein rather than just stabbing it straight in! and she got blood the very first time. A miracle 🙂

At work in the afternoon, after a bit of a chaotic morning, I found myself literally yawning my head off while sat on my checkout.

This tiredness frustrates me 😖

PS Look what Robyn bought me for National Chocolate Week 👍😃

Saturday 13th to Sunday 14th October

It seemed to end up being a weekend of eating out! Lucky old me.

Handy really as I haven’t really been feeling too much like eating! It’s horrible when you have no appetite and you’re just making yourself eat things because you know you should have something. I did really enjoy both of these meals though 😋

On Saturday there was a nice walk around the city of Oxford.

Where I think I worked up a bit of an appetite and I had some of my favourite noodles. When I’ve been to Noodle Nation before I was able to have an extra portion of cashew nuts stirred into the noodles too but when I looked this time they were nowhere to be seen on the menu and when I asked the waiter he said that they couldn’t do that! I really missed them ☹️

And then on Sunday I ended up going into Banbury with Robyn and met Leah after she had done an extra shift at work.

We went to The Old Auctioneer pub.

The Old Auctioneer is the third oldest building in Banbury, built in 1596 and surviving the great fire of 1628. The site dates back to medieval times and was originally known as Groupcunt Lane in 1333 reflecting the economic activity and function of the street before being renamed Parsons Street in 1410. The pub became known as The Flying Horse and in the 1830’s as many as 53 coaches left the pub for London weekly, taking seven and a half hours to make the journey. The floor boards at the front of the building by the fireplace are believed to be the original boards as are the beams above, which reputedly were sourced during the original construction from a wrecked Spanish Galleon. The bar panelling was constructed from old French fort doors sourced from Fort Saint-Andre just outside Avignon. The foreign exchange sign over the reception came originally from Coutts bank (the Queen’s bank) in the Strand. The wood panelling in the centre section was salvaged from American World War 1 ammunition crates.

A tiny bit of history for you.

I do recommend the place, the food was freshly cooked and very nice 👍

A very tasty chicken burger for me!

Saturday 6th to Friday 12th October

Still SO tired.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve started to go swimming now 🏊‍♀️ Leah is on one of her fitness kicks and has joined the gym again. When she’s not in the gym she goes swimming so I’ve decided to join her. It’s a bit tough getting my body into the mood for it. As it’s getting colder now that puts me off a bit too as the pool is not the warmest of places! But once I’m in there I really enjoy it and I do feel in a much better frame of mind when I’ve finished 🙂

I told my doctor a few weeks ago that I was finding things a bit of a struggle. He told me to book a blood test. Well as usual, naughty old me didn’t book it straight away. But on Tuesday I went to have it done. Three attempts for the nurse to get my veins to give out some blood 💉💉💉

On Thursday night I got a message to contact the doctors so early on Friday morning, while walking to work, I rang to be told that from my blood results the other day they could see that I had become anaemic again and that my doctor wanted me to have some extra blood taken so that the results would be back for an already booked appointment that I have with him next week. Sorry work, not much I can do about that 😏 Thankfully my boss agreed to let me go. So in the middle of my shift I left to walk up to our health centre, which is on the outskirts of the town. Trust it to be a cold, wet, very windy and miserable day 🌧 💨 Not a pleasant walk. Two attempts for the nurse to get my blood this time 💉💉, then back out into the cold and wet and straight back to work I go, with soggy trousers and feet. Not really what you need to be doing when you’re already cold and tired out.

And just because I think these little pasta people are very cute! 😍

🤣

Monday 1st to Friday 5th October

National Cake Week (This was founded by Lynn Hill in 2011, with the sole purpose of celebrating and sharing a whole cake together with family and friends.) What a good idea she had! But trust me, usually the biggest lover of cake, to not feel like actually eating any cake until Thursday, when I treated myself to a bit of carrot cake after volunteering. Then Robyn, who had been teasing me all week by sending me pictures every morning of delicious looking cakes, surprised me with actually buying me a piece of carrot cake on Friday! Double yum 😋 😋

I’ve just been SO tired at times again. Getting up, ready and out the door for a certain time in the morning, and then walking three quarters of a mile to work is pretty tough going for me sometimes. My body just doesn’t want to do it! And it’s SO frustrating 😖 I have so much that I need and want to do. Usually I fight against myself to keep on going, but just lately sometimes I have no choice but to give in and leave it all. My head and body just won’t seem to work.

Volunteering was a bit tough on the emotions this week ☹️ As it was another nice day I went for a walk in a local park afterwards to try and help my head a little. I watched this squirrel, collecting his conker, nibbling through the shell until he actually found the conker and then burying it. I was so close to him and he really didn’t seem to mind. It was quite fascinating really. I hope he remembers where he’s buried it and goes back to it before the Spring, when it will start to sprout and it will no longer be good enough for him to eat 😏

Hello Rosie the elephant 🐘

I saw you on my journey back from volunteering today 🚗

Saturday 29th to Sunday 30th September

A lovely Saturday afternoon, walking by the river in Stratford-upon-Avon.

PS Look at my chocolate – #footballpitch! ⚽️👍😋

Monday 24th to Friday 28th September

Some lovely weather this week.

So I made sure that I spent some time pottering about doing little odd jobs in the garden so that I was able to enjoy some of the warm sunshine ☀️

There were also some lovely walks

and some lovely sunsets

Photographer Pinny! 👍📸

By the way Happy Birthday to Hannah on the 25th! 🎁🎂