Hello again, I had to take a break from the Blog for a few days whilst it changed hands and had some maintenance and updates done. So what have you all been up to then? It has not been too busy with me, quite slow in fact. So let me fill you in on what has been going on.
So I wrote about the fireworks display we went to on the Saturday. Sunday was a chillaxing day, I did some more to my models after the whole family had a LONG lay in. I think we got up just before midday which was really nice. My Brother came over in the afternoon to have a look at the old Chucklebus for me, there are a couple of things that I need to do on it before I can advertise it, and he came to have a look so he can try to arrange time to do it for me. None of us felt full of life, in fact we felt a bit under the weather hence the lay in, but the lazy day did help to a degree. Mother in Law came round in the evening bless her, bringing roast for us. There is only her to cook for at her house so occasionally she will do a roast and bring some round for us. Other times wwe will go to hers for a roast dinner and others she will come to us, nice for her to be able to enjoy a Sunday meal with the kids. After tea we all went back to chillaxing in front of the television, as I said, a very lazy day that made a nice change. My Cousin came round in the evening to see me for a catch up and then it was off to bed.
Monday should have been the kids returning to school but there was another day off for a teachers training day and so `Pickle` missed nursery for the day and we went to Taunton for a look round. There were a few places we needed to go to, but other than that it was just a general `walk` round. I couldn’t help but notice the amount of shops that were closing. It seems to be that there are now more charity shops than the regular shops. I guess that this is what they call progress, sitting at home and looking for things on the internet. Pay for it on line and have it delivered to your door, then return it if it doesn’t fit. Progress, really? How long do we think it will be before people have the option of going to the shops taken from them? My thoughts turn to the film WALL E, where every one moved around on bed type loungers, with a screen in front of their faces talking to people next to them. Far fetched? Is it? I was at a place a couple of weeks ago sat with other people, and every couple of minutes a lady would call her son, again and again, trying to get him to return to her, telling him that she had something in her handbag for him and then, when he would not return to her she would go and get him. He would moan and throw a tantrum and so she would let him go. The process would then repeat itself. The point of me writing this? She did not put her mobile phone down the whole time. Did she not think that if she actually talked to her son, played with his toy cars with him or sat him on her knee and read him a book that he then may not play up and try to escape? Had she just turned the damn phone Internet off for the half hour or so that she was there, then myself and the other people there would not have to have endured her frankly bloody annoying voice calling for her son to come back to her. This is becoming more and more common, people texting each other rather than just calling and speaking to the people. They send a text and get a reply, to which they reply, then they receive another reply and so on and so forth. If they had just called, it would have taken half the time it took to text, am I old before my time or am I missing the point? The WALL E film may not be as far fetched as people think!
After Our visit to Taunton we returned home and after we had eaten our tea I did a little more to the Liberator and the Sea Hawk and after watching a little television while the older two kids got themselves ready for school with showers and sorting their school bags out, my wife came home and we got in to bed for a reasonably early night. Needless to say, I watched an episode of NCIS from the Sky + and then got my head down for the night. Oh yeah, Wifey bought me a present from the model shop where we got the filler and clear paint on glue, got a few to finish before this one though!
And from this I will try to make a really good one of these.
Thank you Wifey
Tuesday then. My wife took the kids to school and while she was doing that Maralyn arrived for my acupuncture. On my Wife’s return, `Pickle` came up to the bedroom and paid Maralyn a visit, said “Hello” and then ran off, it’s the usual thing she does. We chatted about general stuff and once the treatment had finished she made Fridays appointment with my Wife and then she set off for her very busy day. My day was a lot less hectic. I did some bits and bobs that I had to do and then to relax my legs and in readiness for my going to the T A Centre in the evening, I had a bath. Later on in the afternoon we went for a drive in the Chucklebus and then went to collect the kids from school. After tea my friend came to collect me. Once I was strapped in, he drove my Chucklkebus over to Taunton and I spent the evening at T A. It was quite late by the time we had got me strapped in the van again, but once strapped in we left for the bungalow. On arriving at the bungalow, he got me out and I went to get Wifey so that she put the bus on the drive after my friend had driven off. Inside for a cuppa and then in to bed for a couple of episodes of NCIS.
Wednesday. Normal day of doing bits and bobs, `Pickle` went to nursery for her usual half day and because the weather was not fantastic, instead of taking the cycle path to Ilminster for a drink, I called my friend and she came over for coffee. We chatted about different stuff and she bought over a dog cuddly toy that she had started making around seven years ago. It came to a stop because of the unclear instructions. She said that because I was able to build the Airfix models, following instructions, she had bought me a challenge. That challenge being not to sew and construct the bear, but to try to figure out what the instructions were telling you to do. I had a look and read for about fifteen minutes while she was here and I although I said, “Yeah, I’ll have a look. How hard can it be?”, with hindsight, I should probably have just admitted defeat. It has clearly been written by someone who is either a professor in Quantum Physics or a Nuclear Physicist. `Put x and y together and then sew through from t to z on both sides`. Now I know that you are reading this and thinking that it means nothing without the drawings and plans but you are wrong…it makes exactly the same sense as if you have the plans…NONE!
My wife went off and collected the kids from school and then on her return, we loaded me in to the Chucklebus, my friend went home and we went up to the swimming pool for the two eldest kids to have their swimming lessons. They both did really quite well. My son still struggles a little but I think that his learning difficulties may play a big part in it, it is possible that he doesn’t quite understand what he is being told. Alternatively, he may just keep making the same mistakes and it will eventually just click that if he does it differently he will succeed. After swimming we were collected by my wife and we went back to the bungalow. Wifey finished doing tea and I got on to my bed ready for my leg massage. That went really well. I have dropped back to once a fortnight now as I have the bath with the jets. Before, I had to get helped in to and out of the bath, even using the hoist. Once in the bath I had to be supervised because I would keep sliding under the water, which is obviously quite an inconvenience if you wish to breath, unless you are a fish. Now however, for the most part, I can get myself undressed and hoisted in to the bath and manage to prevent myself from going under the water. To that end, I can use the bath now for what I bought it for, to massage my legs. I still have Paula come round to massage them though for the time being just to make sure that they don’t go tight.
After my massage, I got in to my wheelchair again and Wifey went off for her usual swim with her friend. I finished my first Airfix model as well. The Harrier is the first model I have done since I was twelve, that’s twenty five years ago! I am really quite pleased with the result, what do you think?
So that is the first one finished and ready to be suspended from ceiling of my Sons bedroom. My Daughter has finished painting and assembling the Spitfire she has been building and so now it is just the decals to do. My Sea Hawk is all together, only the paint and decals to do.
The liberator is getting there too.
And so as you can see I am slowly getting my models built. With hindsight I wish that I had maybe spent some of the time in the spinal unit building a model, it’s not like a did a lot else.
So after Wifey got home from swimming, it was in to bed and watch a couple of episodes of NCIS and then to the land of sleepy bo bo’s!
And that then brings us to today, Thursday. A bit difficult this morning. A personal admin cluster****, Wifey took the kids off to school and then returned to help me with my admin. Once that was sorted I got up and transferred in to the wheelchair. I’ve started doing transfers again now that my arm is healed a bit more, and it is incredible how much easier I am finding it to transfer. I hardly need to use the slidy board at the moment. Give it a little while longer and I will maybe be able to drop my bed off of its blocks and work a bit harder to get out of bed and on to my chair. I’m really pleased with how well I’m doing and I think that my physio may well be quite impressed tomorrow as well when she comes to visit. I did some to my Seahawk model and then checked my e mails. I had a mail from Cheltenham Media, this is the company that have taken over doing my website. I have been looking through some stuff on the internet this afternoon to try to answer some of the questions that they asked. I am really not good at the whole website media design thing, and they obviously want to try to get me to explain how I invisage my site to look, not an easy task, but I am sure that they will come up trumps. I had a conversation with my solicitor today which lasted three parts of an hour, I was a little worried about what he was going to say, not because I have done anything wrong, in fact just the opposite, but because I was a motorcycle rider, and so far I have seen that as a motorcyclist you are really not treated by anyone as an equal raod user, even by the Police. It was however a positive conversation from my point of view. I obviously can not disclose the content or subject of the call but it is safe to say that I felt better about the subject that we had been discussing at the close of the conversation than I had at the start of it. My case is by no means clever, although it should be easy, but I felt much better after talking to him today.
This evening we had my Granddaughter whilst my Son took his Girlfriend out for a meal for her Birthday, really nice to spend some time with her, although I have spent the best part of the evening doing this Blog entry. And so that is what has been happening in my world for the last few days. No low points as such which is good and achievments on a few levels. My model aircraft being finished and of course my transferring. I do believe that I have managed to lose some weight as well which is good, but better still, I KNOW I have lost a bit of circumference!
Well, I hope that you will keep supporting my Blog, and that along the way I may write something that makes you think or may even change something you may do. It may be that I write something that makes you think that actually, something that has happened which may have upset your day and made you feel that the world has ended, actually, compared to a really simple task for an able bodied person being a major and almost impossible task for me, makes you think that despite everything, your day was not as bad as you had first concluded.
My donation page is still running, and every so often another donation will be put on. If you have donated then please accept not just my thanks, but the thanks of anyone who has been helped by SSAFA. If you have not and feel that it is a cause worth supporting and you are able, then please visit my donation page and give as generously as you are able. You can get to my page via a link on my Home page entitled `Donate here`.