How lucky was I to go away for a weekend at the seaside 😃
Among other things there was an evening walk on Sandbanks Beach.
And a visit to Lulworth Cove, one of my favourite places. A walk up the steep hill, it was a long climb, and along the coast path to Durdle Door – ‘The magnificent natural limestone arch was formed when the power of the waves eroded the rock and forged a hole through the middle. The name Durdle is derived from an old English word ‘thirl’ which means to pierce, bore or drill.’ I can’t remember if it was 2 or 3 miles there and back 🤔 Trust me to slip on the dry dusty gravel on the way down the other side of the hill, I fell straight onto my bum and side. Ouch 🥺
When I was back at home I was very tired, my body was hurting and aching from the fall, the pretty tough walk and the busy weekend. But I had a really great time 👍
And I was lucky enough to be invited along to the Cotswold Lodge Hotel in Oxford for a Summer Strawberry Cream Tea Party. The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had organised the party for all their volunteers to ‘recognise and thank you for your support, hard work and commitment’.
It was very lovely! 🥪🧁🍓
When I got home there was a very stormy sky 😱
On a little Sunday afternoon trip to the old disused Aerodrome in our town I think I saw the giant Grand Tour head of James May!
And here’s another great photo for you.
It’s the Great Britain Transplant Cyclists.
“250 years of extra life in this picture, thanks to organ donation. Heart, kidney, liver, bone marrow transplant recipients racing bikes to show you it really works. A truly remarkable cycling team.”
A new month and straight into now having a horrible cold 🤧 When’s it going to end?
We were lucky enough to have some nice warm sunshine for our Thursday evening walk.
Have a look at the website for LIVErNORTH which is a national liver patient support group. It is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. Earlier this year they celebrated their 25th birthday. During that time they have raised over £1 million, which has all been spent on patient support, £0 on wages 😱
Their newsletters are packed full of all kinds of information, even some fun jokes 🤣
It certainly looks like a very useful group to have around 🙂
And just because I thought these were really cool!!
‘creative cutlery displays for a special event’ 🍴🥄
I don’t seem to be doing very well on the illness front at the minute. I’m making myself go to work (I did have to give in and leave early one day) but I’m just not well enough to be able to do much else by the time I get home.
It is doing my head in now.
On Bank Holiday Monday it was 5 years since my lovely mum died. The day we call ‘Nanny’s Day’ and we always spend the day together and do something that she used to like to do. So off we went to Thirsty Meeples in Oxford, a board game cafe. We played Monopoly. We had a nice time but I really didn’t feel too good at all throughout the day, just spoils everything ☹️
Over the weekend there was also a little trip to the pub (but nothing alcoholic for me 👍)
The nice barman made my tonic water look all pretty for me! It tasted extra nice too with all that lovely fresh fruit in it.
Talking of pubs, when you go in your local this July maybe you could save someone’s life when you order your drink!
Annoyingly the date has passed for this one now, but also a London brewery was giving away free beer for donating blood 🍺💉
Fatigue is when the tiredness is overwhelming and isn’t relieved by sleep and rest.
I have them both!
Work is tough at the minute. But I did get a surprise present from one of my customers at work which cheered me up one day and then I served Kermit the Frog 🐸 (the local 6th formers were leaving school so were all dressed up)!
Despite all the tiredness whenever the sun appears I get myself outside, either gardening or walking, and always seem to end up taking some pics 📸
Have a little look at these amazing tattoos which have been worked around scars and birth marks.
Do you remember back in March I first told you about Ecobricks and how the shop where I work is aiming to collect about a thousand of them so that they can be used to build a garden bench and a turkey shed at a local children’s attraction.
Well I’ve finished mine!
You would be quite amazed at just how much plastic goes into these bottles to make them solid and therefore a good Ecobrick!
I hope to be able to post a picture of the bench and turkey shed when they have been built …
So off we go to the Park & Ride to get a bus to the John Radcliffe Hospital for Robyn’s brain scan (I think they were just checking if she has one in there!)
Not a good start. The traffic in the city was very bad apparently so two of the buses just didn’t turn up! Thankfully we had left ourselves enough time and it was a nice evening so we just sat in the sun until one decided to arrive 🚌
At the hospital we got in the lift to take us down to the very bottom floor and started to walk through the corridors. We passed a few porters pushing cage trolleys and I weirdly started to not like the look of things 😏 We found the waiting room. The man in there was sat behind a closed in desk all made of wood. He was talking to us about the earring that Robyn needed to take out of her ear for the scan but she couldn’t get it out, it was stuck! I felt very strange. I didn’t like being there one bit. We didn’t have to wait too long before Robyn was called in. I sat there for about a minute but then I couldn’t bear it any longer, I felt very upset and just needed to get out. Thankfully I found a little side door which led me outside somewhere, where I sat on the kerb and cried!
I don’t know what on earth was happening but it seemed to me that I was somehow being taken back to some of my hallucinations which I had after my transplants, which I was told afterwards was as a result of all the drugs and toxins in my body.
Maybe I was having one of these – a flashbackor involuntary recurrent memory, is a psychological phenomenon in which an individual has a sudden, usually powerful, re-experiencing of a past experience or elements of a past experience. These experiences can be happy, sad, exciting, or any other emotion one can consider. The term is used particularly when thememory is recalled involuntarily, and/or when it is so intense that the person “relives” the experience, unable to fully recognize it as memory and not something that is happening in “real time”
As you are reading this you are probably thinking what on earth is she on about, just pull yourself together and stop being silly, but it was all kind of out of my control.
I have made many hospital visits since having my transplants, for various clinic appointments and when I go up to the ward to volunteer and I have never had that feeling before. I didn’t like it one bit and I hope it doesn’t happen to me again.
While I was sat trying to calm myself down outside I was watching the ants at my feet. I then took this video!
At the time it just fascinated me! And by the way did you know, an ant can lift 20 times its own body weight 🐜🐜🐜
Robyn finished and I was still upset and shaky as we then had to make our way back through the same corridors. We finally made it back to the bus. I was glad to get home.
mylovelyliver 