Blimey, what a day. In the last 12 and half hours I :

Got upset by seeing a cat in the road (deceased) and because of the traffic, wasn’t able to stop. I hope its owners found it, nothing worse than never knowing what happened to a pet

Had a mad day at work, which nearly culminated in my being sent to Hong Kong to collect some urgent goods (another, more flexible volunteer got there first) :-s

Got a pay rise (which I wasn’t even vaguely expecting until later in the year)

Got Mum to agree to go into resite care when we go on holiday :-) 

Oh yeah, and got some rubbish passport photos done, which apart from being rubbish, I think are actually no good anyway having read the guidlines in the renewal form notes - bah! >:-(

 Definitely one of those mixed days..!!

No medicine man could have prescribed a better tonic than yesterday’s Mongmeet.

I like driving - great run there and back.

I like eating - yummy food, especially the pudding!!

And most importantly - I like spending time with people I like - yes, that’s you lot - and just chatting away. There was plently of that, and I had a ball. Thanks everyone!

Today has been tremendously lazy; I didn’t surface til late morning, didn’t dress until nearly midday, and have been loafing around pretty much ever since. Bliss! Chris and I spent an hour at Mum’s doing her tablets and a bit of a tidy up, and tonight we’re off to the quiz in Looga Barooga with Stu. Really, the weekend couldn’t have been much better.

Oh yes it could! - I forgot - remember I said we’d been thinking about a holiday? Well, thanks to Merman, we now know where we’re going (it was on the shortlist, but now we have a personal recommendation too). More details soon!

OK, I’ve always meant to do one of these, so here goes : 

A - AVAILABLE: Nope! And don’t intend to be again. Third time lucky!

B - BIRTHDAY: In August. I’ll be 38. Oh God…

C - CRUSHING: Eh? Non capisco.

D - DRINK YOU LAST HAD: some illicit slurps of Chris’ glass of coke while he was out of the room (couldn’t be arsed to get up and fetch my own drink)

E - EASIEST PERSON TO TALK TO: Most of my realy good, long standing friends : Paul, Sarah & Jan stand out 

F - FAVOURITE BANDS: Too many! Most 80’s stuff especially Duran Duran and all sorts of different styles since 

G - GUMMY BEARS OR GUMMY WORMS: Never had worms (!) so would have to say bears 

H - HOME TOWN: Long Eaton (just outside gun toting Nottingham) UK 

I - INSTRUMENT(s): In my time, I have tried to learn to play the piano, recorder and drums. I was rubbish at all of them! 

J - JUGGLE: Time yes, balls never! 

K - KILLED SOMEONE: Thought about it, joked abut it…you have read about my Mother haven’t you?! 

L - LONGEST CAR RIDE: Once drove from Nottingham to Glasgow through the night - it seemed to take FOREVER

M - MILKSHAKE FLAVOUR: Strawberry McDonalds thick shake. I don’t care if it has a zillion calories or is made from god knows what, they taste Gorgeous 

N - NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: No biological ones, 1 adopted brother (Paul) and 1 as good as sister (Sarah) 

O - ONE WISH: That my Dad was still alive

P - PLACES YOU’VE HAD A CAMERA INSERTED: My internal lady bits via my tummy button. There’s many a story there for a drunken evening!

Q - QUIET?: Yes I can be - honest! Especially when I have a migraine

R - REASON TO SMILE: Realising that I’m reasonably healthy, got a roof over my head, a job, a damn fine husband (don’t tell him I said that!)and three lovely, funny cats (even if they do cost me a fortune at the vets)

S- SONG YOU LAST HEARD: It wasn’t the last song I heard, but radio 1 played Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy when I as driving into work this morning - I hadn’t heard it for aaaaages, and was bopping away merrily at the wheel (quite safely though officer…) 

T - TIME YOU WOKE UP: 06.55, got up about 10 minutes later 

U- UNDERWEAR YOU’RE WEARING? Boring white knickers and a slightly grey bra (but it’s *so* comfortable..) 

V - VEGETABLE YOU HATE: Most of them. Apart from peas, corn, carrots and spuds, I don’t DO vegetables 

W - WORST HABIT: Picking my lips and pulling out my eyebrows when stressed. I once pulled so many I had a bald spot which I had to fill in each morning with eyeliner so I didn’t look weird 

X - X-RAYS YOU’VE HAD: Oooh loads. Wisdom teeth, shoulder, ankles, a wrist once if I remember rightly…I’m quite accident prone!

Y - YOUR NUMBER OF FRIENDS ON MYSPACE: loads probably, but seeing as I don’t even do MSN, how the hell would I know?! 

Z- ZODIAC SIGN: Leo. Grrrrrrrrr!

I toddled into town today - just a 5 minute walk from home - with the sole intention of runnng a couple of errands before needing to be home by lunchtime.

I did all I needed to do, and then accidenally bought a washing machine.

I say accidentally - we have been talking about this for some time, just never got around to it, funds etc. Well, we have some funds coming through shortly, and our local independant get-better-service-there-than-at-Currys-&-Co electrical shop was having a sale. In short, a nice new sparkly washer will shortly be delivered, plumbed in (remember I am incapable) and the old one taken away for the princely sum of £253, which I thought was pretty damn good.

So, feeling quite pleased with myself, I toddled back home, had some lunch, and waited for my firemen.

I’d better explain that hadn’t I? Some weeks ago, we were accosted by some nice firemen handing out leaflets for free home safety checks and fire alarm fitting. Well, we did have a couple of fire alarms, but they were taken down when we decorated the hall, and we’d never got around to putting them back up. Rubbish, I know. I think they’re both a tad archaic anyway, but still. Back to the firemen. We took a leaflet, and on closer inspection, discovered that they were Notts and we are Derbys, but they assured us that all brigades were doing the same thing.

The long and short of this is that loads of hunky firemen were due at 2.15 this afternoon - but didn’t turn up. No hunky ones, no less than fit ones, not even a butch female one. Nada. And no phone call either. I know they’re probably awfully busy after the efforts of Mother Nature over the last few days, but if they have somene who can telephone to make an appointment, you’d think they’d be able to tell you if they couldn’t make it.

Finally, to cap the end of a day that started so promisingly, I get a distress call from Mum (the sitting room’s in a bit of a state - blimey, if she thinks that, it MUST be bad - it was), and had to go over there to sort her out, and then Eric’s gammy eye went gammy again, so it’s back to the drops and a trip to the vet’s on Monday. One of them also has a dicky tummy, I suspect Button, and will have to keep an eye on her too.

One glimmer of niceness on my horizon - I’ve been looking at holiday brochures. Watch this space!! 

Ooh by gum it’s been a long week. What with Christmas, emergency Mother sorting out leave and snotsville, this is the most consecutive days I’ve worked for aaaaaages. Roll on the weekend…

I’m home alone this weekend, as Chris has gone down to Swansea to do some last minute tidying and tarting up of his house down there before it goes on the market on Monday. But I am not slacking, I have taken Eric to the vet’s tonight for his worming & flea treatment (he wasn’t too appreciative…) and had a friend over for tea. Said friend, who happens to double as my IT Guru (sorry Paul, RobTV, you’re not my only saviours..!), has sorted out my email, with the result that I can now receive ones in my married name which BT had FINALLY got around to changing for me. So, quite constructive really.

I have decided that 2007, particularly the early months, will be my Year of Getting Things Done, and am making pretty good progress so far. I have kicked BT up the ostrich, and got that sorted. I have sorted out my mortgage before the old fixed rate deal runs out. I have had a very constructive meeting with Mum’s Community Psychiatric Nurse, and have a slightly clearer idea of exra help available, and possible future options, and I have caught up with a couple of other outstanding name changes. All I have to do now is box up the two fake Christmas trees, and I might be getting somewhere at last…

I took advantage of being off work last week to introduce Eric to the outside world. Wrapped up in about 15 layers including a blue hoodie, I must have looked like a fat smurf, but at least I kept warm! Eric quite liked outside, and trotted happily in and out of the kitchen door, and didn’t seem to be too hindered by his disability. He finds jumping down much easier than jumping up, as he doesn’t have much in the way of oomph in his back legs, but he managed to find ways of getting up into the tree, on the shed roof, in next door’s garden, etc etc

This weekend, we decided to move to Phase 2 : Cat Flap Training. And here, we encountered the one problem we hadn’t thought of.

Eric is Stupid.

Open doors - fine. Cat flaps held open - fine. Expecting him to gently push cat flap with his head - big no no. Still, we persevered, and finally - after 48 hours, multiple wounds, copious quantities of tuna and poking toys through at him, he has managed to do it - twice. We have taped a spare magnet to the cat flap so it is permanently unlocked - just until he gets used to having to headbang his way in and out - but he can now be left during the day, which seeing as it’s Monday tomorrow, and I have to go back to work (still hacking like a good ‘un mind you) is just as well.

Cats!!

Today, I went to the doctors. Again.

Unlike the last two times, this was a planned appointment, which I made two weeks ago, when Mum was at her (then) wappiest), and I’d gone so far beyond the end of my tether I needed binoculars to see it.

As I thought, everything physical I’ve been feeling over the last couple of months is stress related. The two suspected bouts of gastro enteritis? Stress related. The bad indigestion problems? Stress related. Irregular sleep patterns? Stress related. Even the extent to which this cold/sinus thing has hit me - yup, stress related. And I already knew I was geting badly mentally wound up and overwrought at the slightest thing.

The executive summary is that I’m seriously stressed, and am now the proud owner of a small bottle of tranquillisers for when the urge to strangle a certain person gets too much. He offered me time off work, which for now I have declined, but may have to reconsider if things don’t get any better.

On the Mum front, I spoke to her CPN (Community Psychiatric Nurse) today, and have arranged to see her -without Mum - next week to try and work out how we/me/Mum will go forward.

Remeber that quote from Rachael in Friends? There’s rock bottom, then there’s several layers of crap, then there’s me. Budge up Rachael.

Er, grotty cold did I say? Make that full blown (every pun intended) sinusitis, and a very thorough tour of the entire Green spectrum. I took myself to the doc’s on Tuesday as things were not getting any better, and with not being able to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time without needing to breathe properly, de-snot or move away from the dribble on my pillow (pleasant reading this isn’t it?!), I’d had enough. She gave me antibiotics and instructions to stay warm. Npower are going to love me, I may need to remortgage for the fuell bill!

So, I’m been off for the week, am currently half way down my sixth, yes, SIXTH box of tissues, and managed to regain something resembling a voice this morning. Oh, and my ears have had enough too, and are now popping everytime I blow by dose (for once not a Jenny typo), so violently the first couple of times that the sick and dizzy feeling lasted hours and we ended up calling NHS Direct. They finally rang back at 4am (I’d rung at 9pm) so unless I’m actually dead, I shan’t be doing THAT again.

2007 had better pull its socks up, or I may have to kick some serious ass…

Hi chums, Paul here…

Poor old Jenny’s not well. Sneezing and wibbling and generally not having a very nice time. I’m sure bloggy goodness will return soon

Hmmm. Let’s NOT have another holidays like that again, eh? As some of you already know, Mum went totally wappy, and we had quite a tough time dealing with her. Suffice to say it warranted an extra day off work to speak to various professionals and compile a 2 page email for her consultant outlining exactly what had gone on. AND I had a go of gastro enteritis. AND I now have a rather grotty cold, and am snotting, coughing and hacking for England. Not exactly the best Christmas/New Year on record…

But onto more jolly things, else this blog will have black dogs crashing their way through it. Eric is getting on much better with Pickle and Button, there are still growls (from P&B) but on the whole a vast improvement, and getting better by the day. He’s learnt to climb up the loft ladder, and watchs us on the computer, but sometimes needs a little assistance getting down again!

Work is - well, work, and I hope to soon be able to rearrange my hours so they suit me/Mum/work better. Don’t want to jinx things by going into any detail, and nothing will probably happen for a couple of months anyway, but watch this space.

Mum has now thankfully calmed down a bit, but still needs a lot of keeping an eye on. Chris, bless him, is sharing the load, meanng I only have to stiffle murderous tendancies every other day, which helps!

Enough if a catch up for now I think, I’m off to open another box of Kleenex…