Saturday 28th to Tuesday 31st January

Just a trip into Banbury and then later a Chinese takeaway to celebrate Chinese New Year was how Saturday was spent!

A horrible wet Sunday 🌧 But me and Gary went out for a 3 mile walk in it!

We walked through our town, around the back of the church, through Pool Meadow, across The Common and then back through the town to finish.

A very wet and muddy walk, but I really quite enjoyed it. Just the very simple idea of wearing waterproof trousers makes such a difference, so much more comfortable and bearable. I would have been absolutely soaked otherwise.

Back for a shower and then we went out to listen to some music in the Blue Boar. It was just a young man singing on his own but quite unusually he was singing some different, older songs that you don’t usually hear anymore. I was quite happy sat in this comfy chair (which seemed to match my jumper!)

listening to the singing and watching a family – a few ladies and even the men! and two little girls in their pretty ‘party’ dresses, dancing.

Monday and Tuesday were just fairly quiet days. I made sure I got a little bit of walking done though, a walk into and around our town yet again! followed by my usual walk to work and back.

Even during my ‘quiet’ times I am usually doing something. Their just not very exciting to blog about maybe!  Normal everyday things. But like I have already said I am still trying to sort my bedroom out, I am a member of a few online groups made up of people suffering with PBC or who maybe have had their own transplants etc. so I like to to get involved with some of these and try to leave some helpful comments when I can! I’m trying to arrange a suitable time to meet a lady who is doing some research into PBC. I always like to take part in those things. I’m in the process of arranging to make my volunteer time at the JR last a bit longer throughout the day. Lots of little odd things like this. And I’m also trying to fit little extra walks in wherever I can now. Thank goodness I am feeling well at the moment so that I am able to do all of these things. I have lots of different stresses on me mentally at the moment, but physically (apart from the usual aches and pains that I just have to live with now) I seem to be doing okay 👌

One quite major thing I am trying to do at the moment is to think of a way I can celebrate my special birthday which is coming up in February, but I just seem to be coming up against lots of brick walls. How can you find an activity/day out that lots of different people are prepared to do? It’s almost impossible and it’s driving me mad! 😖

Thursday 26th to Friday 27th January

I didn’t go volunteering this Thursday as Robyn had a doctor’s appointment and I went along with her. Robyn went back to work and I spent the rest of the day at home. I think I was fiddling about in my bedroom quite a lot as I still have stuff to sort out in there and a few more boxes still to unpack. I have too many clothes! I know its taking me a long time to do but I am trying to have a good sort out at the same time, rather than just stacking everything away in just whatever space I can find.

Leah has been waiting to get a new bed for I dont know how long 😖 Her old bed was not much use and finally broke last year sometime. She decided to postpone looking until we had moved into our new house – a nice new bed for a nice new bedroom!

Unfortunately she hasn’t been able to find one that she likes anywhere, so as Jack’s brother is a carpenter it was agreed that he could make one for her, a real nice chunky solid one, but this would need to be fitted around his regular work. Eventually it was done and it arrived in the house a few weeks ago but then – it didnt fit!!!!! Another wait for the ‘brother’ to have the time to come over and make the alterations, so meanwhile the bits of the bed were stored behind our sofa in the living room and behind the dining room table. But finally this evening, the time had come. It was all going up to the bedroom to be altered and fixed together. 

But it was time for my evening walk. I was kind of dreading coming back, as I thought something was bound to have gone wrong 😳 But thankfully it was all good 😆 So now for the varnishing …

Think I’d like to go and stay here while that’s going on! Don’t these Atlantic Surfpods look great? You could even stay in a treehouse 🙂

After that Friday was just a normal work day followed by jobs at home.

Monday 23rd to Wednesday 25th January

An early start this Monday morning. I went to the Churchill Hospital with Robyn for her yearly check up appointment for her kidneys. I don’t know if you will remember that Robyn has Polycystic Kidney Disease which she has inherited from her dad (Leah also has it too. So I think we are now in competition to see who grows the biggest cysts! 😏)

This disease will hopefully not affect Robyn (or Leah) until she is much older and she is well at the moment, as far as this illness is concerned. While you can put everything to the back of your mind most of the time and carry on with your daily life, I know from my own experience that when you have your clinic appointments everything becomes a little bit more ‘real’ for a while, so I like to go along to all the appointments that I can to give my support 😐

I decided I liked yoga 🙏 and went back again this evening.

I went for a lovely walk with Kate and Dougal after work on Tuesday. It was very squelchy and slippy in places, I wasn’t sure that we would complete the walk without either of us falling into the mud, but we managed it! Also isn’t it amazing how you can live in a place for 49 years and still not know where a footpath that I have already walked many times before can actually take you, if only I had ever just thought to carry on walking a bit further! Now I know where to go (well I think I do) I will definitely be doing this walk again.

And then I saw this when I was walking home 🌅

Wednesday was SO cold. And when you are sat on the tills in Co-op I think you may just as well be sat outside! I was absolutely frozen. A colleague on the till in front of me gave me her fingerless gloves and her blanket to wrap around me while she was on her lunch break, because she knew how cold I was. So kind of her to do that! It did help a bit 😀

I was glad to get home. But then after about an hour, I went back out into the cold again for a walk with my friend and her dog 🐶 I must be mad!

Saturday 21st to Sunday 22nd January

I went shopping with Leah on Saturday. When on earth did that last happen?!

The dreaded food shopping, but Leah also needed to get some new glasses so I went along to try and help her decide on the frames. Of course I had to have a little ‘try on’ too 😂

Sunday was a lovely sunny, but very cold, day.

Gary drove us into Oxford in the afternoon, we parked up, I set my tracker going and we set off walking. We went through Christ Church Meadow and down to the River Thames. The rowers were out in force! I don’t know if there was a race going on or whether Sunday is just a normal practice day, but the teams from the various Universities were all in their boats rowing on the Thames. So we stood and watched them for a while, quite fascinating, then we turned around and carried on walking alongside the river, eventually winding our way back through the streets of Oxford. A very enjoyable 4 mile walk 👣

Hope you like my pictures!

Have a look at this story. Colleagues of a man waiting for a heart transplant have stripped off to promote organ donation 😂 Great idea! I hope Michael gets a telephone call real soon.

Wednesday 18th to Friday 20th January

Bit of a rubbish three days really!

My beloved car went in for its MOT on Wednesday – and failed 😱 Over £400 to have four new discs and brake pads. I do love you little car 🚗 but did you really need to make me spend all that money on you!!!

Thankfully I already had a nice walk planned in the afternoon with a friend, a bit of stress relief.

I couldn’t volunteer on Thursday as my car was still being repaired 😖 So boring old housework for me. A trip to Caffè Nero and an evening walk.

And my Friday was changed about too. I had the morning free and then had to go into work later from 3pm to 8pm as there was stocktaking going on.

On a nicer note have a look at these wonderful things I found.

They are so cool! You can find other ‘Easy after school snacks’ here.

Or how about a rainbow pizza.

 Looks great doesn’t it? 😋 I really fancy eating a piece of this right now!!!

Saturday 14th to Tuesday 17th January

I was about to set off for a walk on Saturday afternoon when I thought to myself ‘I wonder if my friend is going out with her dog’. I managed to get hold of her, she was, and so off we both went. We had a nice long walk around what is locally known as the ‘park walls’.

Dougal (the dog!) did really well to keep going with his little legs, he was starting to tire a bit by the end of it though 🐾

Sunday was a quick trip into Banbury. I did manage to buy a new hoover though in the short time we were there. I really didn’t know what kind of hoover I wanted and I’m still not sure that I’ve got the right thing 🤔 Guess I’ll just have to give it a try.

https://twitter.com/scienmag/status/820335182964228096

Isn’t this quite amazing and fascinating! 🤗

Monday and Tuesday (I had the day off from work) were spent doing things about the house.

I made sure I went out for a walk into town on Monday and then I went to … YOGA 👌 !!! Something I have wanted to try for a long time but never got round to because of ill health or always having something else that I needed to do 😏 I decided not to make any more excuses and as I am feeling well right now I thought I should give it a try.  I’m hoping it will start to help my whole body, which hurts and aches all over so much right now. Although there were a few times when I didn’t have a clue about what to do, I did quite enjoy it. I think I did reasonably well. I will be going back again to give it another try.

And Tuesday was another walk into town but this time I met a friend for coffee and a chat 😄

Thursday 12th to Friday 13th January

There wasn’t much going on with my volunteering role on Thursday. I was feeling a bit fed up about this. So I thought rather than just waste my time I would go for a walk! It was a horrible damp, cold day and there was the possibility of a bit of snow later, I had a feeling that we wouldn’t be going out for our weekly walk this evening. It wouldn’t matter quite so much maybe if I had already got out and had a walk today.

Off I went following a path around the outside of the hospital. I didn’t know where this would take me. Then I seemed to venture off into a residential area, I didn’t have a clue where I was going or where I would end up 🙃 I just kept on walking and thankfully eventually I joined up with a road I recognised. So then I just carried on walking a bit more. I ended up doing 5.38 miles!

I then decided to treat myself to a coffee and I thought that after all that walking maybe I should eat something too. I had come across ‘Pret A Manger’ in a different part of the hospital during my walk today, I have never been in there before, so I called back into there. I found myself a ‘Posh Cheddar and Pickle’ baguette. It was really quite nice 😋

I was right about the evening walk. It didn’t happen. It was SO cold and horrible out there.

Friday the 13th! 😳 I just went to work. Apart from the awful weather when I was walking there, freezing cold, a bitter wind, and sleet (I felt completely battered when I arrived) thankfully nothing too awful or unlucky happened to me!

By the way, have a look at my new Page ‘1000 miles’ which I have just added.  I will be logging my walks on here so that you can keep up with my progress! 🤗


Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th January

On Monday I was at home pottering. It was cold and wet but I was determined to get some miles in today so off I went in the afternoon for a short walk, just into town. Every little bit will help I guess!

Tuesday was just a work day but I did visit my friend Jackie after we had both got home.

A bit of Internet browsing and found this – The Roast Burger Fancy that?

I had a day off from work on Wednesday. I spent a lot of my time doing little odd jobs about the house and then I went to meet another friend Nina on her lunch break and she took me to a nearby garden centre for a quick cup of tea. How lucky was I to see two friends in two days! 😃

Monday 2nd to Friday 6th January

A walk around Oxford and a meal at Bill’s restaurant then back to see Leah at my sister’s house for a bit of a bizarre New Year’s Eve, a wet and cold but very enjoyable New Year’s Day walk in the grounds of Blenheim Palace and we were into the first week of 2017 …

which started with a silly video chat!

A trip into Banbury to return some things to the shops, work, a day off which was spent on starting to pack away Christmas from the house and a walk on a Wednesday evening for a change, just to see what it was like! 🤗

It soon got round to Thursday and my usual volunteering day. I haven’t been for SO long for various reasons. I must say that I really wasn’t looking forward to it that much (knowing that Mark wasn’t going to be there for our usual weekly chat is not nice at all 😰) but I was determined to make myself try and get back into the swing of things.

And after work on Friday I decided it was time to have a bit of a sort out and clean of the kitchen after all the Christmas goings on!

I have felt well this week but have been SO extremely tired (which annoys me so much. I have so many different things that I need to be getting on with, including lots of things that I would like to do for my blog, but when I eventually sit down I just want to fall asleep 😖) and my poor old body is hurting me a lot. Especially my back, this has been very painful this week.

A tired, aching and frustrated Pinny 😴😣😖