Saturday 6th to Sunday 7th August

We were all up reasonably early on Saturday morning as we had to pack all our things back into the car and vacate our caravan before 9.00am! I don’t know why on earth it has to be quite so early 😖

We stopped in nearby Perranporth to have a look around the shops and do a bit of last minute present buying. Gary and me also got a nice cooked breakfast 🍳

Then we set off for our long journey home. We actually did really well. The traffic wasn’t too horrendous, which it sometimes can be. We stopped for a comfort break and a stretch of the legs. I think we made it back home around 5.30 ish. 

I popped home briefly but Leah had gone away for the weekend to USC (Ultimate Street Car) festival and Robyn was going out for the evening, I didn’t really know what to do with myself, it’s weird when you first get back from a holiday isn’t it?! and I didn’t really feel like straight away getting on with some jobs! so I just went back to Gary’s. My back had recently become painful for some reason so the journey home had been a bit uncomfortable at times. So I was looking forward to relaxing – and there was Wifi 😃

Would you dare to walk on this Coiling Dragon Cliff walkway? I know that I would definitely be scared, but I would like to have a go! You really must have a look. Quite amazing.

And also have a look at these incredible balloon sculptures 🐍

On Sunday I went back home for a while as I knew there were certain things that needed to be done – the girls had very kindly still left me some jobs around the house welcome back mum! It was a lovely sunny day, they were both out, I guess I was maybe still in holiday mode and I really didn’t want to spend any more time stuck in the house on my own, so I went back to sit in Gary’s garden and did some blogging. That always seems to take my mind off of things. 

Then in the evening we went down to Bitter & Twisted for a nice meal. Sweet potato, haloumi and red onion flatbread for me 😋

Wednesday 3rd to Friday 5th August

Wednesday – Another beach day. I think the beach we went to first was called Porthgwidden. Then we had a bit of a walk to find some lunch, Gary saw someone from his work to have a chat to (funny how you seem to unexpectedly bump into people that you know when on holiday far from home!) and then we joined his mum and dad who were stood near the harbour beach. The others eventually joined us and we all went down and sat on that beach for a while.

You can see that Gary had come prepared for any rain showers that we might have today!

In the evening we went to a local Domino’s for pizzas. I had a nice vegetarian one!

Thursday – A lovely sunny day but for some reason when I first woke up I felt a bit weak and wobbly and wasn’t quite with it! I don’t know why Gary and me went over to the cafe on the site to join his mum and dad while the others were down on the private beach that belongs to the caravan site. I had a coffee and a croissant sat out on the bench in the sunshine 😋 I eventually started to feel a little better. Then we went for a short drive along the coast road. We got out and peered over the edge at this lovely place, which is actually called Hell’s Mouth!

As it was still a lovely evening we then went back and joined the others who were still on the beach, for a little while. A barbecue for us all after that.

Friday – We went into Hayle this morning to have a look in the shops there. Well all two of them! Not a good place to buy any ‘holiday presents’ for the people back home! Then we drove on into Carbis Bay for our last afternoon on the beach  

I was quietly sat enjoying my ice cream when suddenly a seagull came from nowhere behind me, swooped down and just took it out of my hand. It happened so quickly that none of us could quite believe it 😫

Then it was time to go back and get ready for our final family meal out at a local restaurant. I chose a Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach lasagne which was lovely.

 And tomorrow we have to travel home 😏🚗

Saturday 30th July to Tuesday 2nd August

Holiday ‘near St Ives in Cornwall’ time!!! 🤗

Saturday – Up at 4.30am to get ready, leave to pick up Emma and Jamie and off we go! We stopped at a service station near Bristol to get a coffee and meet up with the others. Gary’s mum and dad. And his sister Ali, husband Tim and their girls, Lily, Molly and Katy. All of Gary’s family! After a stop on the side of the road for tea and to cook bacon rolls!, a further stop for yet another drink for those that wanted it and big long traffic queues, we finally arrived at the caravan site. And the sun was shining 🌤 Unpacked the car, a trip to the shop and then an evening meal with everyone over in the club conservatory.

Sunday – A day at Carbis Bay beach as the weather was hot and sunny ☀️ The sea was still freezing cold though, but I did manage to have a paddle!

The evening was spent over at Ali and Tim’s caravan having an elaborate barbecue.

Monday – How could the weather be SO different so quickly? The rain never stopped all day or all evening 🌧 We didn’t really know what to do so we basically just went out for a drive to nowhere! and ended up getting stuck in lots of traffic, so on the way back we stopped off to get a massive Cornish pasty for Gary, Jamie and Emma and a nice sausage roll for me, a much needed late lunch 😏

Tuesday – There was a bit of an improvement in the weather today, rain showers but there was also some bright spells. We spent the day in St Ives. Emma and Jamie went off to do their own thing so me and Gary walked amongst the boats in the harbour while the tide was out, had a look in the little seaside gift shops and had a great lunch – gourmet fish and chips for Gary and just chips with fresh bread and butter and a good old mug of tea for me. Simply delicious 😋

We noticed that the tide had come back in then along with the seals! that like to come into the harbour and wait for the fishing boats to return after their day’s fishing 🐟 It was lovely to stand and watch them. They always attract quite a crowd and they seem to love the attention and pose for the photos that everyone likes to take.

In the evenings we usually met up with all the others for a drink over in the caravan site bar/conservatory so we could all get the chance to connect up to the free Wifi! and see what was going on in the outside world. This just goes to show how much this is a part of everyone’s lives now and just how much we all miss it when it’s not readily available to us. I must admit that it was very frustrating to me, as I couldn’t research things for my blog easily or receive the emails I knew Robyn and Leah had sent to me concerning the house purchase, without being able to connect to the Internet 😩

On one of my trips over to the conservatory I did manage to find these photos though! 

The beaches in Cornwall are beautiful when the sun is shining but look at this Hidden Beach in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Or this lovely place in Tuscany. 

Could be worth a visit!!!

Thursday 28th to Friday 29th July

Even the regular parking attendant man at the Park & Ride said I looked tired when I arrived there this morning! And I was incredibly tired. I felt as if there was just nothing left in my body. I think everything must have caught up with me 😖

But I think my volunteering visit to the John Radcliffe was successful this Thursday morning. I went to visit a man that wasn’t keen to talk at first and then it ended up with him saying to me ‘I’ve told you more about my life than I’ve told anyone and in a very short space of time!’ His story was heartbreaking at times really. I do hope he will be okay and I hope that my visit was of some use to him. I then went to find Mark and while we were chatting the other men on the ward started to join in too. 

I didn’t really have the time to spare but I drove into Banbury afterwards to do a bit of shopping and I also needed to return some things I had previously bought, as I knew I wasnt going to be able to do it at the weekend.

I went for my walk in the evening. I did notice when I got back that my feet and toes were particularly painful this week. 

And then even though I was tired I thought I had better make a start on getting some packing underway for my holiday. It was a bit of an effort but I made myself go up to my bedroom to sort out some clothes!

The British Transplant Games have started today until 31st July. 

‘They have been in existence for over 30 years. Developed by the Transplant Surgeon Maurice Slapack in 1978 the Games was originally an international event welcoming teams from France, Greece and even the USA, today the British Transplant Games see teams from hospitals across the UK come together to compete. Many athletes also go on to take part at the World Transplant Games.

The Games help deliver Transplant Sport’s aim to demonstrate the benefits of transplantation whilst increasing public awareness of the need for more people to join the NHS Organ Donation Register and discuss their wishes with their families.
They have been staged annually since 1978 in cities across the UK and this year’s Games will be held in Liverpool’.
So over the four days there are over 25 different sporting events, over 700 recipients take part and it is watched by over 1,250 supporters.

I wish everyone taking part the best of luck. Maybe one day I will be one of those people! But goodness knows what event I would take part in 😂

On Friday I went to work as normal and then spent the rest of the day and evening doing final packing and tidying up the house a bit so at least I left it in a half decent state before I went away.

And then Robyn gave me this, before I left with my suitcase and bags to go to Gary’s.

She’s so kind 😊

Time for a recap on all my recent results just so that you are up to date with it all! 

The incision from having my mole removed has all healed nicely and the result from that was a ‘harmless non cancerous lesion’.

The ‘wart’ on my lip has gone, I have no scar there and thankfully there is no signs of it coming back at the minute. This apparently was ‘solar keratosis’ which is the most common skin condition resulting from skin damaged by the sun over many years. ‘Solar keratoses’ are usually rough, scaly patches on sun-exposed areas such as the head and face. They are common, especially in older people, many of whom have more than one. But thankfully so far I have only had this one!

The result from my ultrasound (because of my heavy bleeding) was that I have not got fibroids, so that was good news. I think maybe that must have been just one of those things as, thank goodness, I haven’t suffered with it again. 

I am still waiting for my blood results to get back to my doctor’s surgery to see if CMV was the cause of my recent illness.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that I recently got a call from my GP telling me that my uric acid (urate) level in my blood was too high so I needed to pick up a prescription for some tablets which I would need to take ☹️ This can cause Gout, which is a form of arthritis, so I guess I need to not be stubborn and take the medication. I have to get my blood taken again in a month’s time to re-check the level.

At least some of the results are good so far 😐

Monday 25th to Wednesday 27th July

A tough few days coming up this week! I was feeling stressed, fed up and tired!

I think Monday was just spent doing odd things about the house.

Tuesday was back to work. I hadn’t slept very well so I was very tired. I didn’t seem to have much concentration again either.

Wednesday was work again. I did my extra two hours too. My body was aching and I didn’t seem to have much energy.

I came across this article on healthy livers being grown which will I think be very useful in the future. Anything that can help to reduce the time people have to wait for a new liver is a very good thing in my opinion.

Here’s 9 essential facts so that you can read about how you can try to keep your own liver healthy.

A transplant of a different kind that has been in the news is that a man has received a hand transplant, in fact both of his hands, as they were injured in an accident at work. So the donated hands obviously have to be matched in the same ways as a kidney or liver for example, but then as they are always on show, the appearance of the hands also needs to be taken into consideration too.

It’s always good to hear about the amazing things that can now be done to help people live their otherwise difficult lives.

On a lighter note you really must have a look at this Miniature Calendar. Tatsuya Tanaka has posted a different picture every single day since 20th April 2011. That in itself is an amazing achievement 😀

This picture was posted on 27th February 2016, the first anniversary of my second liver transplant. And with me being a massive chocolate lover too!!!

Saturday 23rd to Sunday 24th July

So my weekend was spent at Riverside Festival in Charlbury. Saturday was really hot and sunny, Sunday was cooler and cloudier with rain showers.

There was a whole group of us there which made it much more enjoyable. My friend Lou, Rio, Robyn and her friends Yaz, Rochele, Sophie, then Leah, Julie and Hannah and her friend Chloe.

I also spotted some other, more unusual, visitors that seemed to be watching the main stage too! (They came from the Oxfordshire Mind ‘dog project‘)

On Sunday afternoon there was a man walking around doing card tricks. He came over to our group and showed us a few of them. He was very good I thought. None of us could work out how he had done them and we were close enough that we should have been able to see! Something different 😀

The festival ended with a bit of country dancing in the rain 🌧 Fun though.

And here’s just a random ‘fact’ for you –

This was sadly the year my lovely dad died, but also the year my lovely daughter Leah was born! So three life changing events for me during that year 😐

Monday 18th to Friday 22nd July

(I am actually writing this post while sat on Carbis Bay beach near St. Ives in Cornwall, where I am on holiday with Gary and his family. The annoying thing about it is that I then have to wait to go somewhere where I can get a good Wifi connection so that I can actually publish it to my blog for you to read 😶).

Monday. Another hot day ☀️ So Robyn and me headed off to Banbury, met up with Tom, and we went for a picnic in the park! Then when we got back it was time for my appointment at the doctors. (I had rung earlier in the morning to see if I could speak to a doctor as I was getting fed up with feeling unwell. He had then said that he thought I should be checked over, hence the appointment). I had my blood taken and just had to wait for the results.

It was a lovely evening. Leah even did some of her ‘dental nurse’ studying in the garden!

On Tuesday I had a day off  from work as I have some holiday to use. I spent a busy day around the house. In the afternoon Hannah came to visit me and she brought her friend’s little boy Harley with her. It was another hot and sunny day, too hot at times in fact, so we spent the afternoon in the garden.

Hannah even brought me a present 😀 A giant sized custard cream! Yum yum.

A busy day on Wednesday. I was back to work and stayed to work overtime. When I had finished I discovered I had a missed call from the doctors, so I returned the call. My GP told me that some of the results from my blood test were not good and did I have a number for my consultant in Birmingham so that she could talk to them for some advice. She rang me back later to say that the doctor there was not too worried about them, that I just needed to have my blood taken again to test for CMV, which is a virus that can be quite common in people that have a weakened immune system.

Then it was time to walk along to the salon where Robyn was going to colour and cut my hair for me. I was looking forward to a lovely hair wash and head massage too 💆💇 

We eventually finished there around 9pm and then we went straight down to the graveyard. It would have been my mums birthday today 😧 (We all miss her terribly). Robyn had bought some flowers so we paid a visit to put them on the grave.

On Thursday I went to the JR as normal but thought I had better check with one of the doctors there first to see if it would be okay for me to visit the patients. He advised me to give it another week, which I thought might be the case. As I was at the hospital already I asked if they could take my blood so that I could be tested for this CMV virus, which they did. So I just have to wait for those results now.

I was feeling a bit fed up about a few different things, so I bought myself a coffee, my friend had very kindly made me a cake and I had brought a piece along with me, and I went and sat in the sun in the lovely hospital garden. I did a bit of blogging too 🙂

I think many of us sabotage happiness without even thinking sometimes. I know that I am guilty of some of the things mentioned in this article! It’s definitely worth a read. I find this kind of thing very interesting and I do agree with a lot of it and can see how it does make sense – but that doesn’t mean I can easily change things does it?

In the evening I went for my walk as usual.

Friday was a day off from work – but there’s always jobs to be done at home 😕 It was going to be Riverside Festival in Charlbury this weekend and Gary was over there helping to set it all up, so later in the afternoon I decided to go over and have a look at what was happening there. Later we had a drink in the local pub and then came back to get some things ready as we would be spending the rest of the weekend there.

Saturday 16th to Sunday 17th July 

A trip into Banbury for a spot of shopping with Gary is what Saturday started off with! I wasn’t especially looking forward to this as I still wasn’t feeling that great but Gary wanted to get a few things for the upcoming holiday and in the end even I treated myself to some new trousers and a couple of tops 👖👚 We will look smart!!!

When we eventually got back it was immediately time to go to a barbecue at my brother’s house, which he had invited us to earlier (think he had heard that the weather was going to be good 🌞) Unusually BOTH Robyn and Leah were able to make it too, Julie and Hannah came and my two niece’s, one husband and children! A nice gang of us 😀

Much later in the evening when I was back at Gary’s we came across a programme on the TV which was playing music and videos from the 70’s including The Carpenters, John Denver and 10cc. I really enjoyed listening and watching, mainly because it was songs I remembered hearing as a child. Sometimes I love to think back, other times it makes me too sad and emotional 😕

A beautiful Sunday morning so I sat in Gary’s garden, he had very kindly made me a bacon sandwich, and I did some work on my blog. A nice way to start the day.

And then the diarrhoea started 😟 I went home to try and get a few jobs done but obviously that couldn’t happen very easily! Eventually I went back to Gary’s as Robyn had gone out with a friend and Leah went out with Jack in his buggy. I just wasn’t in the mood to be left alone 😖

I spent the rest of the day on and off sorting and downloading photos for my ‘Cornbury in pictures’ post on here and lying about in the garden, as I was feeling quite weak and tired. The diarrhoea had now stopped but I hadn’t been able to face eating anything since breakfast.
I just want to share this silly photo with you.

An unusual way to be just led looking up at the beautiful blue sky!

I also spent some time on the Internet and came across these two articles which I found quite interesting and relevant.

I hope this idea sleep is good medicine catches on over here very soon! Sometimes when you’re led in that hospital bed with lots of people buzzing around and machines bleeping, it takes an absolute age to drop off to sleep. Then they come and wake you up about two hours later to set up a drip to give you some fluid for example. Eventually you drop back off to sleep. Then it’s back awake at 6am to have your blood taken even before you’ve had a drink or breakfast so it’s impossible to find a vein that will give them anything!! I know their all busy and have a lot of patients to get round but if you’ve had a good nights sleep I think that makes you feel a tiny bit better in itself! Hospital stays, I don’t really recommend it 😩 

Hoarders. Of course I’m not one of those!!! Oh alright then, maybe I am! But I do think I have got a tiny bit better. I have got rid of quite a bit of stuff lately as I have been sorting at every chance I get in preparation for our house move. Loads of bags have gone to the charity shop, as one thing I won’t do is just throw something away in the rubbish bin. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing is it?

Thursday 14th to Friday 15th July

I couldn’t go and do my volunteering duties this morning. I really wasn’t well, I had so much ‘congestion’ in my head and my whole body was aching. Flu like symptoms really  I still managed to have quite a busy day at home though as I had things I needed to get on with. I just sat down in between them for a little rest every now and again! 

And, stupidly I know, I still went for a walk in the evening. It was a nice evening and we walked for an hour and a half. I enjoyed being out but I did struggle towards the end, was glad to get back, and then I did feel pretty awful for the rest of the evening 😖 Guess I shouldn’t really have gone.

I came across these photos when I was having a look at Facebook ‘Dad and baby alone when mum went out!’ They made me smile so I thought I would share them with you.

The Final Gift, just another story that shows how important it is to sign up to that organ donor register and just as importantly, to make sure your family members all know your wishes.
When I woke up on Friday morning I soon realised that I wasn’t going to be able to manage a day at work so I had to phone in and say I wouldn’t be able to make it. (I really don’t like doing that). So I just pottered about around the house, still made myself give the kitchen a bit of an extra clean, and then made a pasta dish for us all for our evening meal! but with constant stops to use a tissue for my non stop runny nose and much needed rest breaks every now and again for my poor body 😖

Monday 11th to Wednesday 13th July

So I spent a long weekend at Cornbury. Hope you enjoyed the slideshow!!!

I wasn’t feeling 100% while there. I had a very sore throat, a headache at times, a very runny nose and I do think that maybe I might have been suffering from hay fever too as my eyes were just SO sore. Add this to very late nights and early mornings and lots of things going on, you could say I was a bit tired! 😲

As we had camped over again Sunday night we were obviously still at Cornbury this morning. But the festival was over, it was now time to clear the Riverside stage and backstage area away. I did some of the things that I was able to do to help, but I now had a cough to go with all my other symptoms and I felt pretty rough!

Home to do pretty much nothing!!!

I made myself go off to work both Tuesday and Wednesday (even staying to work an extra hour on Wednesday) but I really wasn’t feeling too great. 

Back at home, we had received a whole load of forms to fill in from the solicitor regarding the house purchase so I needed to find some of the information out for that, and we all had to arrange to get photocopies of various things to send back off with the forms. Lots of paperwork, but at least it all seems to be moving along now and getting sorted. Fingers crossed 🤔

Let’s all talk to our ‘young people‘ and get them to understand the importance of organ donation from a young age – I think this is a great idea. Like it says in the report, if organ donation is talked about amongst families it then makes it so much easier for people to make a decision if the situation ever arises in your own family.

#orgamites is Live Life Give Life’s new campaign to help promote organ donation in younger people and to try and make it easier for people to talk about. Here’s ‘Liver’ –

Check out the other Orgamites at www.orgamites.com