Back on the road

... the road to recovery that is!  Whatever this bug was it really took a hold of me and I can only hope that if it comes my way again, my immune system will remember I already had it and send it packing.

But the good news is that 

1 - I managed to finish the other traffic light hat

Being modelled by our old Cabbage Patch doll

2 - I had the energy to help build and play in a rather elaborate den

 The entrance to it is via a path of cushion stepping stones so that the crocodiles don't get you on the way in

3 - We all managed to get out in the fresh air for a nice dog walk, until someone's legs started aching and he needed a piggy back ride

4 - I had the energy to go into town for a browse.  Went into Marks and Spencer to get a loaf of their delicious mature cheddar and Red Leicester bread and also came out with a snowsuit for Max, some leggings for Rosie, a fox shaped gingerbread biscuit for Leo and these rather lovely loafers

5 - I am well enough to go with Paul to my cousin's for Sunday lunch along with my sister and brother in law.  She is such a character, I know it will be a fun afternoon with lots of laughs.  

Fingers crossed that the coming week sees even more improvement - I hope everyone else is keeping well and that no germs have been shared by visiting my blog!

On the mend

I'm not saying that it's been a very long time since I left the house, but when as I reversed my car off the drive this morning, I noticed that a spider had spun a web over the lens of my reversing camera lens!  That gave me a bit of a shock when it showed up on the screen.

🕸🕷🕸🕷🕸

Boy did it feel good to be out.  Who knew that a grocery trip to Waitrose could be a highlight to a day?  So it seems the second batch of antibiotics like me more than the first ones did and I can finally see progress.  Hooray!

One good thing to come out of my enforced home confinement was that I have finished another of the traffic light hats

and have today started on the yellow one

With thanks to Snapchat for giving me a bit of colour to my poor washed out complexion!

Hair cut day on Wednesday and I cannot wait - I really need a bit of self care and a hair cut and a few highlights should make me look a bit better too. The trouble is that I've felt so poorly that I am now feeling 'Right, I am fed up with looking and feeling like this, let's do something different' which could go very wrong or it could be just the boost I need.  What do you think?

Watch this space ...

What came next

'What's next?' I asked in my last post.  There were a lot of negative things going on and we were all hopeful that things would start to get better.

We were wrong.

My cough and cold got worse so I went to the doctors and he said I had a bad chest infection and sinusitis.  He prescribed antibiotics. Surely now I would start to get better?

Wrong.  The side effects of the antibiotics were far worse than the symptoms I had gone to see the doctor with.  So much so that after two days of taking them I had to call the surgery to ask for a call back appointment.  The doctor who called said I should stop taking them, give my body 24 hours for them to get out my system and she faxed across a new prescription to the pharmacy.  I must be honest and say I've given myself 48 hours before starting the new ones today - fingers crossed.  I don't often have antibiotics (last time was 2014 apparently) but I have had these ones before so I'm hoping I'll be ok with them.

Mother in law stayed in hospital until yesterday.  Apart from old age, there really is very little wrong with her, she's had CT scans and daily blood tests and all seem ok.  So Paul went to pick her up and take her home, she has a care package set up so will have carers pop in three times a day so he waited for the carer to arrive and then came home.  Within an hour of him arriving home she called to say she'd had a fall and couldn't get up.  Back he went.  Turns out the carer washed up a mug and plate and left it draining on the side.  MIL could not bear the thought of her kitchen being 'cluttered up' with all that washing up not put away and had gone in to dry it up.  She's been in bed for the last 2 weeks, hardly getting up at all and her legs simply don't have the strength to stand up unaided for any amount of time.  Let's see what today brings ...

On Tuesday we were woken by Coco running up and downstairs at 2am so I went down to let her out and guess what?  She's got an upset stomach too!  Scrambled egg and poached chicken for her for a couple of days.  Then yesterday I had Rosie and Leo for the day and Leo had decorated some Minnion cupcakes, left one too close to the side of the table, Coco thought it was her birthday and swallowed the little cake in one gulp.  Quickly escorted outside as it was obvious that the cupcake was never going to be digested and sure enough, back it came, still in one piece.

Let's just say that looking after these two munchkins at times this week have been the one thing guaranteed to make me smile

This young chap went to his first fancy dress party last weekend

And this young lady enjoyed discovering Snapchat with me

Right- it's a new day, and let's see if I can find anything TGIF to mention.


Trusting that these new antibiotics will kill the germs in my body and not try to poison me like the first ones did

Grateful for the care shown to MIL in hospital and the speedy way in which the NHS have been able to sort out a package of care in the hope that she can remain in her own home as long as possible.

Inspired to just sit, relax, get the wool out and start on my next traffic light hat

Fun this one's harder, I think the most fun I can anticipate in the next few days is watching this weekend's Strictly Come Dancing.  What a good bunch of celebrities they have this year.

What's next?

In the last 10 days I have had a cough, a cold, conjunctivitis in both eyes, my 92 year old Mother in law had 3 falls and is now admitted to our local hospital and just to top things off ...

On Tuesday a warning message came up on my car to say that the tyre pressure in the back passenger tyre was low.  When we checked it on Wednesday, instead of being up to 2.2 bar pressure, it was 0.8.  So today I took the car down to the local tyre company ...

This nail eventually cost me £168.  😭

Who needs aerobic classes?

Every Tuesday afternoon Rosie takes me to her Baby Sensory class.

Apparently it's the best place to go to get to know people by poking them in the eye.  This seems to be the main method of greeting other small children, crawl towards them, push yourself into sitting position, reach out - and poke them in the eye.  They all seem to do it and hopefully it's something she will grow out of before she gets into trouble.

I am the only grandparent there.  All the rest are much, much younger than me (by about 30 years!) but are very friendly and welcoming.  Rosie is in the upper limit of the age group - it's aimed at 6 - 13 months old.  The younger ones who can't yet sit up are sitting targets for finger poking as they lay prone on the floor and I'm getting quite fast at crawling across the floor to retrieve Rosie before finger meets eye ball.  

It really is good exercise for everyone and I'm sure I use up as many calories as Rosie does.  Yesterday, however I think I was pushed to my limit.

"Today we are going to stimulate our babies' senses by swinging them through the air"

I looked at Rosie, and wondered a) how much she weighed and b) how much swinging was going to be involved.  Oh she loved it alright.  Picked her up, got her into a Superman position, swing to the right, swing to the left, now up in the sky, now down to the ground, right, left, up, down ...

"Wasn't that fun?  Shall we do it again?"

What?  Again?  I was just congratulating myself on surviving what was probably the most difficult work out I've done in years, and now she wants me to do it again?  Rosie's endorphins may have been flowing but poor nanny was feeling knackered.  Oldest adult there + chunkiest baby = I'm going to ache tomorrow.

It'll take me six days to recover just in time for the next session - wish me luck!

One photo Twenty words

Give a small boy a torch and he will happily locate every spider web and dead fly in your house

A sentence a day in September

Can't think about September without getting that Earth, Wind and Fire song going around in my brain

So how did September turn out for me?  Let's take a look and find out

Day 1 Cases out of the loft - packing list completed and clothes all washed and ironed.

Day 2 All packed up and ready to go for our holiday!

Day 3 Taxi booked for 3.30 am to take us to the airport for our flight to Dubrovnik

Day 4 Walked the City Walls - an hour and a half but well worth every minute

Day 5 Got the ferry across to the island of Lokrum - I've never watched Game of Thrones but that didn't stop me having a very touristy photo taken from the location that was used in the series.

Day 6 Our 39th wedding anniversary!  Got the local bus to during the day and then had a special meal out in the evening.

Day 7 Woke up to find a very impressive luxury yacht moored outside our hotel - a quick google search told us that it is owned by a Russian multi-millionaire - how the other half live eh?

Day 8 Weather was a bit 'iffy' today so made the most of any short spells of sunshine and sat and read our books under cover during a rather spectacular thunderstorm

Day 9 Wandered around the city making sure we had seen every place of interest the tourist guide recommended.

Day 10 Time to repack and get back on the plane to come home

Day 11 Our daughter's first day back at work after her maternity leave so we were on babysitting duties.

Day 12 Babysitting duties again today (the childminder is on holiday so instead of one day a week we are in charge for three) - they were both very good but boy were we exhausted by the time they went home!

Day 13 Friends round in the evening for drinks - they are off to Corfu on Monday so it was a good excuse to have a pre-holiday celebration

Day 14 Catching up on housework then friends over for an Indian takeaway in the evening

Day 15 Family Sunday with everyone here - oldest nearly 93 and youngest just 7 weeks old!

Day 16 Catching up with chores day in preparation for three full days of grandchildren sitting!

Day 17 Husband excited to pick up his new car - I had my first experience of Baby Sensory with Rosie

Day 18 Coco had her annual appointment at the vets - not her favourite place to spend the morning

Day 19 Babysitting both children today - enjoyed a well deserved gin and tonic with dinner after they had gone home ;-)

Day 20 A day off of childminding duties - finished sewing in all the ends of the zig zag blanket

Day 21 First Stictly Come Dancing programme - now it really feels like autumn is officially here.

Day 22 Lazy Sunday, egg and bacon breakfast, dog walk, roast pork Sunday lunch, relaxing evening.

Day 23 Getting prepared for three more full days of childminding, shopping done and chores up to date because nothing much will be getting done until Friday! Finished the new blanket for Rosie.

Day 24 Baby sensory class for me and Rosie - I think I enjoy it as much as she does, next week the theme is cowboys/cowgirls - I wonder if I can find a stetson to fit a 10 month old?

Day 25 Panic stations in the evening as mother in law rang to say she had had a fall and couldn't get up - emergency dash for Paul to go over to see if she was ok - fortunately she was, but makes us think that we need to start investigating care provision for her.

Day 26 Doc visited m-i-l and diagnosed water infection, I think she felt better just having the opportunity to have a chat with someone about how she is feeling.  Last day of childminding for this week, Coco is going to miss all those little bits of food that fall over the side of the high chair!

Day 27 An anxious day as Paul went into hospital for a gastroscopy and colonoscopy to investigate why his iron stores are low

Day 28 Leo woke up with a horribly swollen, painful eye so we looked after Rosie while he went to A&E where they diagnosed cellulitis of the eyelid - poor little boy.

Day 29 Turns out I have NOT escaped the colds that Paul, Leo and Rosie have had over the last couple of weeks - woke up with that horrible scratchy throat, headache and general feeling of bleugh

Day 30 Tomorrow's Baby Sensory has a cowboy theme and I didn't manage to find a stetson small enough for Rosie so today I found some colourful fabric with stars all over it in my box of remnants and I've made her a bandana to wear and hope we can style an outfit around that!

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