Wednesday 18th March

I suddenly realised that the link to my video which I posted before wasn’t working!

Let’s hope I’ve sorted it now 🤞

Click here to watch It’s called #socialdistancing Robyn 🤣

Tuesday 17th March

As I have had two liver transplants and I take medication every day to suppress my immune system so that my body doesn’t attack and reject my new liver, I am now at even higher risk of severe illness from Coronavirus (COVID-19).

I work on the checkouts in a busy supermarket. Not a great place for me to be right now I would say. I was also under strict instructions from my two daughters last night that I WAS DEFINITELY NOT allowed to go into work today.

So following government advice, today is my first day of social distancing measures.

Since first hearing about this dreaded virus I have been doing my best not to worry and to get on with my normal life. But now things are changing and yes I am scared.

This is going to be a very tough time for me to cope with, my family too and as time goes on I think all the population are going to find things getting even tougher for a while.

As it’s not recommended for me to go out myself to the shops and other public places I cannot offer my services to get people’s shopping or run other errands for them.

So I will try to help anyone that needs it through my blog, by posting information and advice, any tips I see or do myself to keep motivated and hopefully just some light-hearted fun stuff!

Or if you just need someone different to have a little chat with – then contact me 😃

And just to let you know how my very first day is going so far, I made myself a nice mug of tea earlier, sat down to drink it and it was stone cold. It seems I hadn’t even boiled the kettle first!

That might explain to you my state of mind right now 🤯

Thursday 5th to Monday 16th March

I didn’t feel well for a few days. Was a bit dizzy and wobbly!

I couldn’t seem to sleep at night at all either.

But then I had a trip to London to look forward to. Think i was running on adrenaline for that.

We arrived at Paddington Station.

‘Paddington Bear was found at the railway station by the Brown family, sitting on his suitcase with a note attached to his coat that read “Please look after this bear. Thank you.” He was sent from Peru by his Aunt Lucy.’

I used to love reading Paddington Bear when I was younger.

My very special friend Nina was taking me to see Mamma Mia! The Party 🎤💃

It was set in the courtyard of a Greek taverna and the singers and musicians performed the show all around the tables while you ate a four course Mediterranean meal and also joined in with the singing and dancing. It was such fun.

A look around the O2 and then a boat trip up the Thames to get back to catch our train.

A great day.

I think you could say I was pretty tired out by the end of it 😖

And no, I still didn’t sleep that night.

Then it seems that the dreaded COVID-19 (a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways which is caused by a virus called Coronavirus) started to take hold of the country.

Even the ‘zookeeper’ on Kidlington roundabout started to protect himself 😷

Friday 28th February to Wednesday 4th March

I had a visit to the doctor to get my arm checked out.

You can see some redness around the area of where I had cryotherapy (freezing with liquid nitrogen) to remove my solar keratoses. This is basically skin damage but does need to be checked as it can sometimes turn cancerous. Especially important for me due to the medication I have to take.

I’ve just been given some steroid cream for now. Hopefully all will be okay 🤞

I do miss my mum and dad 💔

Have a read of these 11 things about you that will change when you lose your parents.

I think as time goes on, in some ways it gets much harder.

I often wonder what on earth they would think about all that I have been through 🤔

I also wonder what advice my mum and dad would have given if they were asked to do this …

 ‘The best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person ❤️’

Friday 21st to Thursday 27th February

So this time 5 years ago my liver transplant journey started.

I got the call, I had the transplant, the liver failed, I very luckily had the second transplant.

And now 5 years have passed.

To celebrate my five years I made a little photo slideshow 📽

The consultants think that my illness, Primary Biliary Cholangitis, may already be back in my new liver 🤔 I do have times when I just don’t feel well and I still get very tired. But I have had no major setbacks during this time. I have been so very lucky and have been able to do many fun things, all thanks to my two donors and their families agreeing to organ donation.

Also to celebrate reaching 5 years I decided that I would arrange to do an organ donation awareness stand on the 27th, the anniversary of my second transplant. I did this at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where I go to volunteer. My friend Annie came down from the ward to help me. We got a few people to sign up and explained the changes that are coming up in the Spring to others that were interested. We had a successful morning.

Then it was time to go out for some yummy food 😋 with Robyn and Leah. And later there was cake!

Fingers crossed for another five years …

Tuesday 18th to Thursday 20th February

Happy Birthday to me 🎁🎂

And what a great way to spend my day, on a very muddy and flooded five and a half mile walk in the very cold wind and heavy rain showers.

Then we came across this.

There was no other way round and we didn’t want to turn back, so we just had to wade through.

We got completely lost at one point when we were out in the fields 🤷‍♀️ Luckily for us we eventually saw some other people in the distance so we decided to follow them which thankfully got us back onto our track.

My wellies were really not much use, they have had holes in them for ages, so basically I was just walking round with soaking wet feet and I ended up like this!

When we finally finished the walk there was a bit of a reward. I did get to have a pot of tea and a really lovely doorstep granary bread ham and cheese sandwich with a salad for my lunch which was very much needed and later on I was lucky enough to be given a chocolate caterpillar birthday cake 😋

All of the uneven ground made it a very good workout, we were all exhausted. It really hurt my toe though (I have arthritis in my big toe joint). I could barely walk the next morning 😖

Despite the cold I still tried to take some of my artistic photos!

This walk would be great to do again on a warm sunny day, it takes you past some lovely big lakes, woodland and streams (unless it was just flooded from all this constant rain and storms we have been getting!)

Monday 10th to Monday 17th February

Happy Birthday to my brother 🍻

And Happy 60th Birthday to my sister 🥂

This means it was time for an adventure!

We were going on a Segway.

A bit scary at first, how on earth are we going to do this we all thought, but surprisingly after our training we all got used to it (some better than others!) and off we all went, down the lane, through the farm yard and across the fields, through very uneven and muddy ditches and big muddy puddles. As I got more used to it I absolutely loved it. I was frozen right through to the bone and shivering throughout as it was such a cold and windy day, especially out in the open fields, but it was such good fun.

There was time for fizz 🍾

We went to a casino in the evening. I’ve never been to one before, so that was an eye opener too. People were just throwing £50 notes on the table to change into chips then they were all just getting swept away by the croupier when their number didn’t turn up on the roulette wheel. All that money being lost in probably less than a minute 😱😖

Then back to our rented apartment for the night, where I basically had not much sleep at all due to the constant traffic noise I think and my sister noisily cleaning her coat at 5.30 in the morning 😱

Time for a quick visit to the sea during Storm Dennis

Then home.

As usual we had some disasters along the way but there were enjoyable times too 😀

Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th February

What a week this was!

I didn’t feel well at times. My car failed it’s MOT 😰

I found out on Friday that I had a kidney infection.

I still wasn’t feeling very well at all over the weekend 🤕

So Saturday teatime was spent curled up on the sofa on my own watching the rugby 🏉

Storm Ciara visited on Sunday. I wish I had been able to go to the coast and watch the sea 🌊 (from a safe distance of course!)

This is the stormy sea in Portreath. When I went there on holiday last Summer it was a little calmer!

Luckily we didn’t get any damage at home from the storm.

But in the evening the pipe under the kitchen sink decided to spring a leak. Definitely not what I needed.

What on earth else is going to go wrong? 🥴

Sunday 26th January to Sunday 2nd February

Two Sundays, two walks!

One just over 5 miles, one just under!

Love my long walks 👣

By the way, did you realise that we’ve had a very special occasion – 02/02/2020 – the first palindrome day in over 900 years (meaning the date is the same when read forwards and backwards).

It was February 2, 2020 or 02/02/2020. At just after 2am it was 02:02:20 on 02/02/2020.

This is the only time such a date will occur this century.

The previous palindrome date came 909 years ago on 11/11/1111. The next will come in 101 years on 12/12/2121 and after that there will not be another until 03/03/3030.

It was also a palindrome day of the year, 33, and there were a palindrome number of days left in the year, 333.

It was quite a unique day!

Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th January

‘Gong hei fat choy’ (wishing you great happiness and prosperity)

So I thought I’d have some shredded chicken chow mein with cashew nuts from our local takeaway!

It’s the year of the Metal Rat.

I was born in the year of the Fire Sheep.

“This is not a good year for you. Luck is down and you must also beware of getting sick and injured.”

Oh brilliant!

Read Chinese Horoscope to find your Chinese zodiac sign and to read your own horoscope for the year.