Last working day of the year WOOHOO

Last day of work for the rest of the year today WOOHOO

I’m in the office and it’s a little like the Marie Celeste …. A few people here and there but it’s definitely not busy here today. It is surprising that there are so few people here because we have a celebrity visitor for the grand opening of the new office - Olympic gold medallist and sports personality of the year winner Mo Farah. I really don’t like taking selfies and thinking I’d probably look like a beached whale next to him because he is super skinny LOL I went for a head shot in the end!!

My car has to go into the Ford garage on Saturday so they can look at why the ‘oil change required’ notification is coming on every time I start the engine. We all agree that when it’s only 9 months old and has only done 6,200 miles this is not ‘normal’ behaviour for the car and that since I’m going to probably rack up 1,000 miles over the course of the next 10 days it needs to be looked at. They’re giving me a Transit Connect Van for the day so I can get around while they look at it.

Christmas shopping is nearly done – just like that a late concerted effort and we seem to have cracked it. We have a Christmas tree up, the house looks quite festive and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone.

K9 Pleasure Park is pretty swampy as it is at this time of year; the dogs are going to be renewing their acquaintance with the bath a lot more often over the next couple of months.

So this next bit might not make much sense at all but I’m having a workplace assessment for a nice orthopaedic chair done and the lady is taking photos of me which I’m sure are slightly less flattering than the one with Mo taken earlier and I’m certainly less picky about the quality of them or how many chins I have on them LOL

It would appear I’m getting another monitor for my desk too

Right I’m done for the year – I’m out of here J

4yrs 6mths 3wks - I passed the test YAY

4 years 6 months and 3 weeks

Apologies for the longer than advised absence, the training course was super intense, but I passed, I’m now a certified ‘Green Belt’ Six Sigma person – I need to pick a piece of work and put it all into practice and be assessed on it to be a practitioner but I’m certified or certifiable depending on your viewpoint I guess.

Our dishwasher randomly died on us a couple of weeks back, we had 10 days of having to do stuff by hand which was surprisingly not the ‘end of days’ scenario I had envisaged, but the novelty of a night time bonding session over suds and tea towels certainly didn’t last long. Fortunately the replacement has now arrived and been installed and harmony is now restored (apart from the bit where Gareth still walks past the dishwasher to put cups and glasses next to the sink – why do men do that??? I guess I should just be grateful that they mostly gravitate towards the kitchen LOL)

The office move has now happened, we are in our shiny new premises in Reading and despite being 1/3^rd of the distance from home of our old office – it takes twice as long to get to because I’m going in the same direction as pretty much the entire population of Berkshire each day now – I foresee getting out of bed earlier and earlier until I beat the worst of it.

We’ve ordered a new bed base which is being delivered on Friday, hopefully this will help with some of the back pain I’ve been having for the last few months – I don’t think it’s anything MS related (January MRI and Neuro review will confirm or deny this suspicion) It’s more likely to be that the old bed slats are too bendy and by big fat arse is sinking too low and making me into a ‘bed pretzel’

What else ….

Well honestly not a huge amount if I’m honest, certainly nothing exciting that makes my lifestyle look glamorous and sexy. I’m not attending any awesome Christmas parties; we have no family near us to visit with before the big Christmas drive around the country and we’ve been rubbish and not planned anything with friends. We suck so much at being social.

And then there’s the Christmas presents ….. still shooting a solid ZERO on that one ……

4 yrs 6mths - 'Dog-Art' and 4 day weeks

Ohhh but I’m liking this 4 day week game, it’s not sustainable throughout the year, but oh  my how nice is it to have a longer weekend. I wonder if I could get away with working 8-6 from home 2 days a week and 8-5 in the office for the other 2 days and do away with Fridays forever J

A fantasy, but an enjoyable one none the less.

So what has been going on in my world, well Hoops didn’t happen before the rainy season for Bella the dog field is a swamp and the course is cancelled until the British weather returns to being less ‘moist’

Apart from Work there’s really not been a whole lot of exciting stuff happening at all, we’re just bumbling along and enjoying life. Even our weekend visit to Costco didn’t happen this weekend just gone.

Lurking

Lots of Lurking and chilling out.

It was officially freezing this morning, properly freezing not a little bit of ice but sheets of it all over the car. The heated seats are on, the heated windscreen most appreciated (Gareth’s not so smug about his sunroof at this time of year when I can clear my windscreen and have a toasty warm bum and back with a touch of a couple of buttons)

Dog Stuff is all here, our epic life size lamp and mini Weagles have all arrived safely, Gareth thinks I possibly have more than one screw loose in my head for the number of custom dog things I order, especially after the thieving wood carving order a couple of years ago and the months of dealing with the police.

Still no big lottery win - £2.60 and a free lucky dip was somewhat smaller than I’d hoped for and certainly not going to fund my retirement plan.

I’m on a training course all week next week with work, Lean Six Sigma for 5 days straight with a big exam at the end. I’ll apologise in advance for no update next week, it’s unlikely when I get home in the evening that my thoughts will turn to updating here, I’m more likely to be snoozing until it’s time to sleep in the bed.

I had my bloods done yesterday and the results are back, I’ll pick them up on the way home and update them later on today or perhaps tomorrow. They’ve even been checked already and are ‘as normal as expected’ LOL

So here we go ‘dog art’

 

4yrs 5 mths 3wks - long weekend and injury updates LOL

Today is ‘virtual Monday’ of my working week, I had Friday and Monday off so a lovely 4 day weekend for me.

Gareth started his new job yesterday and is no longer making claims of being ‘unemployed’ and bragging at me.

Christmas ‘planning’ has been completed with Aunty Kathy although I suspect Gareth hasn’t put the appropriate plans in place with his folks so it could all go to pieces at a later date.

Our work move to new premises is picking up speed and they’re planning a desk assessment for me which will hopefully result in my having an allocated desk at the new office which can be lowered and raised for those days when I’m using ‘Bob’ to allow me to pull up fully to my desk and not bash ‘Bob’s’ arms to pieces on the desk. (time has been spent this morning supergluing the 2 pieces on that have been bashed off in recent weeks)

Winston’s Xanax has been working pretty well on his anxiety at the fireworks being set off nightly (17 days continuous of fireworks every bloody night so far L)

The burn on my chest has now healed and the scar is pretty minimal, hopefully some sunshine next year and it will disappear completely. The bruising on my back and arse is slowly getting better although I still feel like my left butt cheek was kicked by an angry mule.

So the 4 day weeks until the end of the year

And today it’s Virtual Tuesday or Real Wednesday depending on your viewpoint. I haven’t got round to hitting post yet and I have no excuse other than ‘lazy’ I’ve really just come home and binge watched old episodes of Hawaii Five 0 with the occasional episode of MasterChef the Professionals thrown in.

After all this time and the worries with Winston and anxiety, yesterday because we were both at work I had Gareth spray an Adaptil Pheromone spray near Winston’s bed and on the blanket in Bella’s crate. Winston slept up stair in the back bedroom all day rather than by Bella’s crate and when doggy day care came, both times nobody was up and barking hysterically. I’d ordered a collar with the same stuff in it which was destined to go round Winston’s neck, but it’s now on Bella’s neck instead. We’re wondering if he’s stressing because she’s stressing and if the pheromone stuff calmed her down so he is less stressed ….

We might be quite mad, but heck we’ve tried everything else so what do we have to lose?

Apart from that it’s all pretty great here, hope you’re doing well xxx

4yrs 5 1/2 months - Being a human 'thundershirt'

Monday - ARGH ….. my blood results have been back at my doctors since last Tuesday and they can’t seem to give them to me. When I call the surgery and ask to be put through to ‘test results’ it’s now being answered by the reception team who keep telling me ‘we don’t have the training to just read them out’ EDIT at 15:30pm – they’ve thrown in the towel, they’ve printed it all out and asked me to pick it up on the way home as ‘you’ll understand it more than we do’ LOL

On a bright note – I’ve managed a whole week without injuring myself J

The work Christmas ‘doooooo’ has been announced – a Thames river cruise event. The perfect reason for me to decline. I’m not good with going to work ‘fun’ things at the best of times, I’ll turn up for a meal and leave before anyone has too much to drink. The thought of being trapped on a boat is my idea of hell. Don’t get me wrong I have some wonderful and lovely colleagues, but I don’t like going out with work people where there is a lot of drinking involved.

Firework season is now in full effect, poor Winston is getting Xanax again for the times when the ones being set off are continuous, so Halloween, Friday, Saturday (for the late halloweeners and early bonfire nighters) then the 5^th for bonfire night then next Friday and Saturday for the late bonfire nighters ….. a couple of weeks quite then the big corporate Christmas do fireworks will be going week nights for the first 2 weeks of December, another week off then new year – poor boy will be a gibbering wreck if we can’t keep him calm, as it is I just sit there hugging him to me, protecting him like a 'human thundershirt' L

It’s Thursday this is still sitting on my screen and I haven’t published it, but on a bright note I do now have my blood results – turns out they were right they make perfect sense to me and the printout was updated in a couple of minutes to my spreadsheet. After all the fuss getting them I was expecting there might be something weird … not so perfectly normal and dull with my neutrophils only a little over and my monocytes back in the normal range for the first time in a long time. Even my thyroid is behaving J

Last night was Gareth’s leaving drinks in London, an emotional affair because like me he works with some lovely people and he’s going to miss them. He finally made it home at 01:30am fairly sober all things considered (but then he did have to take the slow train from Paddington so he had a good hour and a half journey to soak some of it up) It’s going to be very different when he’s in the new role but in a good way I hope.

Gareth’s last day is Monday and then he has some time off until he starts the new job which he definitely needs, just some time to chill out and clear his head down, perhaps a visit up to his folks too.

I’ve also discovered that I have 12 days of annual leave left this year to use. I can only carry over 5 days (apparently I can also ‘sell them back’ but I’ve looked through the guidelines at work on how to do it and honestly it seems slightly more complicated and have more loop holes than world peace or Brexit so I might not bother. In the interim the other days work out nicely to only doing a 4 day week for the rest of the year J (awaiting guidance from Gareth on how I should use them)

EDIT – nuts it’s now Tuesday (again) and I still haven’t hit post for this

Weekend was quiet, work is – well – work, Gareth is now bragging up a storm about being ‘unemployed’ and he can stay in bed – Only for 4 days dearest and then you’re gainfully employed again.

Look out for some pictures next week I’ve been ordering customised art of our pets again and I’m hoping to have the dog models arrive today / tomorrow and the 2ft tall Bella sculpture holding a working lamp arrives at the weekend ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Blood results (finally) for your enjoyment xxx

4yrs 5mths - accidents and injuries I'm such a clutz

Hi peeps

So what’s been happening, why has Tracy been so crap at updating of late?

Well true to my usual form I’ve been injuring myself again – repeatedly!!!!

·        The right ankle injury is something I simply can’t explain, I went to bed (sober) and woke up and it’s massive …. Almost twice the size of the other one and really sore to walk on especially anything resembling stairs. I have asked Gareth did he dangle me out of the bedroom window in my sleep and he’s denied it ….. so I have no idea how or what I did to it.

·        The fall …. I managed to fall between the dining table and the window sills in the extension (this did involve some wine) I have bruises up my back and to both shoulders.

·        The 2^nd degree burn to my chest this morning involving me being very clumsy and splashing myself with the red hot cup of tea I’d just made myself is the latest one.

I’m a disaster zone of self wounding. I can’t blame the MS for this, I’ve been like this my whole life as I’ve said before the broken bones the landing on my head, it’s really good and valid that Gareth holds his breath each time I use a big sharp kitchen knife when preparing food.

I’ve come home and am alternating antibacterial gel (because we all have about 50 of them in various places around the home, in our pockets, bag and cars) and some Solarcaine on the burn – Solarcaine stuff is amazing for burns, sunburn, chicken pox scabs (I kid you not takes way the itch and no scratchy means no scars) and YES it worked on my infusion rash when I had rounds 1 and 2 as well. I keep it in the fridge so it’s always awesomely cooling especially on burns J

Apart from that life has been pretty relaxed and enjoyable having sampled the Just Fresh grocery delivery we’ve now also given Gusto a chance – helped by massive new customer discounts. It’s been enlightening, there’s nothing new or ground breaking in what we’ve had, it’s just been really different and it has given us some new options on things to add to our evening meals. Sometimes you just get into a ‘rut’ doing the same things over and over again and it’s given us some new ideas, just new things to try and to do.

Gareth and the furry ones are all great and life is great (if somewhat ouchie)

I’ve made no progress whatsoever towards the C-word preparations but this weekend looms and I can always get started then

Hope you’re well xxx

4 yrs 4mths 2 wks - ARGH ..... 3 weeks no updates BAD TRACY

I’ve had a couple of migraines over the course of the last couple of weeks (hence me missing updating the blog last week) which hasn’t been fun. I get them when I’ve been stressed for an extended period of time and to be fair with the recent scare for me and Amber’s stroke, I think it’s all been a bit much. There’s also an outside possibility that it could be new glasses related so I’m experimenting a little with when I wear them.

The weekend birthday celebrations with lovely Polish food were awesome, we only knew 2 people attending, but by the end of the evening we knew everyone and they were lovely people.

The dogs are doing great (it’s Bella the Whoppets 2^nd birthday today – doggie birthday cake later) and Amber whilst still looking a little like she’s been on the Gin is loving her walks and her food and smiling.

The Rugby world cup has kicked off and I’m looking forward to lots of the matches, hopefully the England Team will be better this time (we didn’t make it out of the group stage in the last world cup which was here in the UK L) the opening game against Tonga was a good start.

Oh dear and another week has passed, and now I’ve missed 2 weeks of updates. I’m really sorry about that. I even missed my monthly bloods after turning the alarm off with a migraine in progress.

Things are getting interesting in our house, after 6 years Gareth is moving on to a new role which he’s very excited about. I’m still pinning my hopes of early retirement on winning the euro millions and becoming an animal rescuer.

Tomorrow it will be 6 years since I lost my mum, my head is trying to play the ‘time lapse’ thing where as the minutes and hours tick by I remember everything that happened in the lead up and afterwards, but I’m remembering the good things to drown it out. So far so good.

Oops … now it’s the day after tomorrow.

Yesterday was okay, a teary read through my Facebook memories and then just getting on with it. The time lapse stopped on Tuesday and left me alone.  A couple of days of takeaways have done nothing positive for me other than let me chill out and relax a little.

The weekend is looming, I’m waiting for the postman to deliver me a nice cheque which I have plans for (that work that Gareth promised to do in our en-suite back in January hasn’t started yet and I did the ‘nag at 6 months’ thing and it didn’t work either so it’s time to call in a professional) and I’m thoroughly over having to shower in the other bathroom down the hall each day.

So that’s all really life is good and normal and MS is an afterthought – the way it should be xx

EDIT and sadly Gareths 'baking bug' seems to have died of neglect :-(