It’s been a while…

Anyone still out there I wonder?

The last few weeks seem to have flown by and god knows what I’ve been doing but I’ve not seemed to have time to write on here and keep you all up to date.

With what? I hear you ask. Well, moaning about lack of customer service seems to still be the topic, haha.

Firstly I’d like to share the good news that my blood pressure seems to have stabilised at normal. No medication required, just some excellent acupuncture and my own attempts at trying to relax more. My shoulders are up by my ears most of the time and just recognising that I think has helped.

My laptop is still with Samsung, in fact I need to phone the shop today and moan. And I’m in just the mood because…

I dropped my mobile yesterday. Not for the first time might I add, as I’ve had this particular one for 17 months and I can be a real butterfingers at times. But I dropped it on the floor in Tesco and it didn’t bounce or anything, it just went ’slap’. I picked it up and watched my screen slowly fade to black whilst howling ‘nooooooooo’. Too late, it was dead. Well, not strictly true because I received a text at some point a bit later and heard the message tone and the keys all lit up, but my screen remained as black as a black thing in a very dark sky.

I called my network and explained that suddenly and without any idea as to why, my screen had died (well, it happens!) but that I still have exactly a month to go before my contract runs out and I can upgrade. Therefore what would she suggest? I can’t go without a phone for a month so can I upgrade early. No. Apparently an 18 month contract is exactly that, not 17 months, not for any reason. I then said that I could go to another provider and get a new phone by Tuesday and they would have lost me as a customer even though I’ve been with them for about 8 years. She still wasn’t interested. Cow.

So this morning I went straight into town and to the network shop, wearing a low cut top and perfume and ready to thrust my heaving bosom at whatever lovely man was going to help me. I got the gay geek.

He re-iterated what the woman on the phone had said and regardless of my long standing as a customer, an 18 month contract cannot be changed to a 17 month one because my phone is broken. To add insult to injury, he then said ‘it’s water damage’. What? He kept peering at the screen and turning the phone into the light and said again ‘yep, water damage.’ I insisted it wasn’t, I told him I’d turned my phone off yesterday for a while and when I turned it back on the screen was blank but that the phone seems to still be working fine. I LOVED the look on his face when he said ‘we’ll see’ and took the back off, obviously expecting there to be signs of water damage but it was dry as a bone (even with a collection of dust and crumbs in the corners).

My only option was to walk away and go get another phone/contract from someone else but still have to pay another month on my current contract or to send my phone away for repair (which apparently was still under warranty). I opted for the repair and felt a little deflated. My memory card shot out of my phone when he pressed it and landed in my cleavage, which made me laugh but didn’t seem to amuse gay gordon one little bit. He then offered me a loan phone. I accepted, signed the forms and wandered off. Only to wander back in again 10 minutes later after trying to figure out the loan phone (which had a screen the size of my thumb nail, didn’t offer predictive text and only had one ringtone).

I’m now the proud owner of a £9.99 phone that I can use on my current contract for the next month, that lets me text and call and which will eventually be owned by my 8yr old when all this is done. I also still have the stupid loan phone as I’d signed for it but that’s in a kitchen drawer.

Just you wait until my month is up, they better offer me some fantastic kind of deal or I’m off to a rival company (although I’m really not sure they’ll give a damn).

Whilst typing this, someone knocked on the front door. There was a florist van outside so I figured it was for a neighbour. Nope, for me. A huge bouquet of pink lillies, cala lillies, pink roses and foliage from toyboy. I’ve no idea why but who cares, it’s been a very very long time since a man sent me flowers just because he loves me. That’s good enough reason for me.

I have a relaxation class this afternoon, in a community centre. Not my sort of thing usually but I figure it might be a good idea.

I’ve yet to finish making my sideboard, I’ve still got all the drawers to put together so I better make a start. I’ll try not to complain to anyone about anything for, ooh, at least an hour or so

Toodles x

 

I really should get into the habit of checking my last post before writing a new one, because I’m in serious danger of repeating myself. Or is that just dementia?

I got 61% for my assignment, which I feel isn’t bad at all seeing as I didn’t really do much apart from worry about my ability to do it. My tutor did say though that I don’t really delve deeply enough into these subjects. It’s true! The thing is, I find it all ridiculously pretentious when, for example, you’re reading a poem about cats and you’re supposed to go into detail about how the author relates what he’s written to politics/sexual repression/economic climate/religion etc. Don’t you think that sometimes it’s just about cats?

I still haven’t got my portable dvd player back yet from Comet. I had to take the cables in on Sunday in the end. Stupid people. I called yesterday and was told that yes, the cables were booked in but there’s been no update. So I still don’t know if it’s fixed or indeed fixable or when it’s likely to be sent back to the store for me to collect. Grrrr…

Oh and I had to take my laptop back to the shop on Monday too. Don’t even get me started on that one.

Ex-husband has agreed to lend me the money to buy a new car. Not a NEW car you understand, a used car that is new to me. I figured that a bank loan would charge me interest and he, hopefully, would not. He made a few noises and mumbled something about having to move money around (which was pointless because I know how much he earned when we were together 5 years ago and I’m damn sure it’s increased since then) and eventually said he’d lend me £2000 if I paid it back £50 a month. Sounds fairly reasonable I guess, although I’d rather I didn’t have to pay him back at all.

So, although I love Rolf unconditionally, he’s gonna have to go. My window not opening is driving me mad and I smacked my door into the ticket machine at a car park on Monday out of sheer annoyance that I couldn’t reach the damn thing.

Toyboy is coming here tonight, I’ll pick him up from the station once I’ve collected the kids from school. He’s only here until tomorrow morning as he’s in London tomorrow but still nice to see him (and the girls haven’t seen him since October either). Mind you, I think they’re more excited about having a take away pizza for tea which is what he’s promised them, haha.

I’m part way through making a sideboard. Yes, my other hobby is carpentry. No? Ok, I admit it, it’s a flatpack jobby I bought from Amazon. I’m quite pleased with the fact that it said it was a two man job and I’ve done all the hard stuff all by my ownsome and I’m only one woman! Just the drawers to make now and put the doors on the cupboards. I’ve 4 little screws missing though and I called the company I bought it from to tell them. I was told I’d get them in the post, but the next day was informed they no longer have them in stock and was refunded £5. Great, thanks, but £5 isn’t going to hold my drawer sliders in place is it! So I figure I’ll continue to make it until I get stuck and then see if I can find these screws elsewhere. I’m quietly confident. (Just ignore the little tic in the corner of my eye).

I had a fab massage yesterday from a woman who works in the same place as my acupuncturist. Neck and back and shoulders and it was wonderful and only £15! I’m still having trouble with all that area but I’m figuring it may just be my age and the fact that I’m top heavy and my posture is being pulled out of true and I’ll have to cope with it from now on. I think I need to start yoga.

I seem to moan a lot in these blogs don’t I. Maybe I’ll feel better when Spring finally gets here. On the other hand…

Oh by the way, if any of you watch Dancing On Ice, my ex-boyfriend’s (of 20 odd years ago and again about 4 years ago) daughter is taking part – Emily Atack. She didn’t get a great score on the first week and no-one really knows who she is (she was in the Inbetweeners) but thought I’d show some support.

Toodles x

 

I think it’s my age.

After my debacle yesterday with the intellectually challenged customer service girls, I eventually had a call from John. John is my hero and he works for the company I had ordered the heater/gas bottle from. I didn’t know John before yesterday and I’ll probably never speak to him again but for about an hour he was the best thing since sliced beetroot.

He apologised prefusely for no-one contacting me and also for no-one being able to help me. He took all the details and said he’d look into my order and call me back. I have to admit, I was sceptical. But, within 10 minutes he was back on the phone and said that indeed, my local depot was out of stock of heaters but they should have ordered some in to fulfil my requirement. Nevertheless, he was undaunted in his mission to please me and said he would send one from his depot (Liverpool) via UPS to me by the end of the week and my local depot would deliver the gas bottle hopefully on the same day.

That’s all it needed, someone who knew their arse from their elbow and had a larger vocabulary than those two wonderful words ‘ don’t know’.

So today, with my faith in customer service departments renewed and feeling positive, I called Comet. The portable DVD player that the girls have in the car on long  journeys had a screen that refused to work. I’d taken out an extended warranty on it and so took it into Comet on the 1st of Jan to get it repaired. I have the job sheet which states the item will be back in the shop for me to collect on the 14th Jan. I didn’t want to go to Comet though, if it wasn’t back, so I thought I’d call and check.

I called the general number and got someone who was probably in the outer hebrides. She checked all my details and mumbled something about ‘well on the 9th they were having trouble because they didn’t have the power leads’. What? Aren’t they a repair centre? Shouldn’t they have all of that sort of gubbins? No-one wanted my power leads when I took it in to the shop, the girl at the desk said ‘oh no, just give us the screens and DVD player otherwise we may lose all the cables etc.’ A wise decision I’d felt.

She then said ‘I’ll call the shop and see if it’s back, but I don’t think it is.’ Oh what a surprise that was! (Am I sounding suitably cynical and pissed off?). Lo and behold, it wasn’t back. But… it may well turn up later today. She said that someone in the shop would call me when it’s back. I asked if that would be today, she said ‘it may not come back today, I’m not sure’. I then said ’so no-one really knows if it has been repaired or when it will come back?’ and she said ‘they’ll call you when it’s in’.

Most unsatisfactory.

What is it with customer service departments? They have no interest whatsoever in actually pleasing the customer or solving problems. I feel like one of those grumpy old women off the TV that complain about everything (that includes my mum, haha, sorry mum but you know it’s true).

I wonder if my heater/gas bottle will arrive by the end of the week? It’s already Thursday noon so there isn’t much time left. I wonder if anyone from Comet will phone me in the next few days to tell me my DVD player is back?

I think I should be taking bets again…

Toodles x

 

Is it just me?

I’m seething this morning.

Is it too much to expect that when you order something and it says ‘usually delivered within 48 hours. We will contact you by phone or email to confirm delivery’ that you actually expect that to happen?

I had a moment early last week when I realised that if we had a power cut during all this snow, I’d have no heating or microwave or kettle or cooker or anything. Nothing to heat water for hot water bottles, or a hot drink or hot food and no heating whatsoever because the gas boiler runs off electricity (daft but true). So I ordered a little gas stove and the bottles of gas and it arrived at the weekend. I now have something to cook on, excellent.

I also ordered (on the 5th Jan) a portable gas heater and a bottle of gas. It cost almost £100 but I figured it was worth it as it’ll last me years and no heating in this weather would be horrendous. It said on their website what I’ve quoted earlier about delivery so as I’d not heard anything (or received anything) and it was over a week later I gave them a call. Customer services put me through to another department and I was then told that my local depot hadn’t had any stock for a few weeks and she had no idea when they would have any stock.

Eh?

I asked why no-one had contacted me and got a ‘don’t know’ followed by silence. That’s when I started seething. I asked how on earth their website could allow me to order something that cost almost £100 and expect delivery in 48 hours if there was no stock and no sign of any stock. I got ‘don’t know, sorry.’ I then asked to be put through to the depot. It was engaged. The girl said ‘it’s engaged, sorry’. At this point I wanted to scream. I said I’d hold, so I did, for almost 10 minutes which is a bloody long time listening to the engaged tone. I hung up and rang the original customer services number. I explained the whole thing to another girl who said ‘I don’t know what to say’ followed by silence. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!! Do they have no idea what ‘customer service’ actually means?

I asked why the website didn’t say ‘out of stock’. I also, while talking to her, went back onto the website and tried ordering the same items again and it was still going to let me. Nothing about being out of stock. The girl eventually said she’d talk to someone and call me back. Anyone want to take a bet on whether she will call me back? No, didn’t think so.

I shall give them another hour or so, then I’ll call again. Hopefully try and speak to someone who has a little more to say than ‘don’t know’ and then probably cancel my order.

God it makes me mad though. What about the bit where it said ‘we’ll contact you by phone or email….’ If they’d have put ‘telepathy’ I could’ve accepted that and just thought that my own telepathic talents weren’t up to standard and I’d missed the message.

Grrrr….

Anyone know a good masseuse?

Toodles x

 

Birthday blues.

The assignment was finished and sent off in time for the ‘new and cruel’ deadline of Friday noon. I don’t think it’s that good and I’ll probably only scrape through but that’s acceptable seeing as this course is a compulsory one and I’m not finding it that good.

My worry is that I won’t really enjoy any of the other courses but I’m determined to try and get this bloody degree. Even if it turns me slightly doolally with boredom. Yes that is a word.

Toyboy made it here without any travel worries on Saturday morning. We played Trivial Pursuit in the afternoon, haha. Sounds weird but it kinda worked. It was good fun (I lost of course because he’s a fount of useless knowledge it seems). Then we went to the cinema to see Sherlock Holmes. If you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend it. The casting really works with Jude Law playing a well-to-do and slightly snobby Watson and the lovely Robert Downey Jnr playing a rather disturbed and tortured Holmes. The humour between the two of them (and chemistry) really works.

We then came home and ate pizzas and watched ‘Lesbian Vampire Killers’. A British film with Matthew Horne and James Cordon (Gavin and Stacey fame). It was funny and cheesy but I kept nodding off!

Oh he bought me a beautiful little Swarovski crystal mouse, a little honey pot with a bee on a stick (seems odd but private joke), a birthday cake complete with candles (and he sang), mini sparklers and party poppers. My main present, which is something he had booked for us to do, apparently had to be cancelled due to the weather so I’m still none the wiser. We are going to do it in a few weeks it seems (with the girls too this time). My mind boggles!

Time went really quickly as he caught the 2.20pm train home yesterday afternoon but it was a lovely weekend. I even slept ok which is unusual as whenever he and I spend the whole night together, I invariably have a crap night. I think that comes from having almost 4 years of sleeping on my own. Having to share a bed and not be able to spread out and having someone who occasionally puts their arm around you is ridiculously annoying if you have become un-used to it. (Yes that’s a word too!).

If ever he moved in, I think he’d have to have 8yr old’s bedroom and the girls would have to share. Hahahaha, you think I’m joking?

The birthday is over for another year. I don’t like it being so close to christmas and new year, it means I have to wait an awfully long time to get any presents. Plus  no-one ever has any money. Even my mum said to me last week ‘what do you want for your birthday, bearing in mind you’ve just had christmas presents’. How awful is that! Is it my fault? Should I say ‘oh don’t worry, I’ve just had christmas, I won’t bother with my birthday this year’? I remember my 40th being such a let down. I’d organised the barn of a local hotel for a big party, with food etc. Slowly over the 2 week christmas and new year period, about 90% of everyone I’d invited backed out. They had colds, they were broke, they didn’t want to go out drinking again so close to new year… I had all sorts of excuses. In the end it was 8 of us for a meal.

So, the grand old age of 45. It really does sound pretty old. The last 5 years seem to have gone fairly quickly which means before I know it I’ll be celebrating my 50th. Or running away to some remote corner of the world to avoid celebrating my 50th…

I’m having lunch with a friend today, a belated birthday lunch, and seeing as I’m meeting her in 50 minutes and I’m still in tracksuit bottoms and sweatshirt, sans make-up, I better get my sizeable arse into gear.

Toodles x

 

I’m back.

I’m not happy.

Ex-husband is having the girls tonight and so as of yesterday I had planned an otherwise unplanned trip to see toyboy. Unfortunately, he told me at 8.30am while I was driving the kids to school that it was snowing heavily where he was and had been for over an hour. I dropped the girls at their schools then drove most of the way to the M1 before stopping in a laybay and talking to toyboy on the phone. He was looking up weather forecasts and watching weather on the tv while I sat in my car and looked at a lovely blue sky.

My sensible side prevailed in the end and I decided not to drive the 130 miles up there into snow-land. So I’m sitting here, at a time when I should have been in a cosy country pub with him having lunch, still looking at a lovely blue sky and sunshine! Mind you, I’ve checked the motorway information online and apparently there’s adverse weather conditions caused by snow from Northampton northwards on the M1 to where I was heading. It’s just that from my window, it’s a lovely winter’s day.

Big sigh.

Still, he’s coming here at the weekend for my birthday so as long as the trains aren’t all ballsed up because of bad weather, I’ll see him then. (Fingers crossed everyone please… )

So how were the holidays? Mine were lovely. In fact my sister came to stay for a week which was unexpected. She came back with us after we visited my dad.

The girls got loads of presents and were totally spoiled of course. I had some nice things too and I’m always amazed at how blase I am about receiving presents. I remember being  a kid and presents were what made christmas. I used to think my parents were mad saying that as you get older, you don’t really need presents for christmas to be good. But they were right. As long as my girls are happy and I’ve bought nice things for the people I have to buy things for (have to? well, you know what I mean) then I’m happy.

I’ve an assignment due in by Friday and I’ve only done 300 words of the expected 1200. Oops. I’m fairly confident I can do another 300 words on the reputation of the Dalai Lama, its whether I can find 600 words (that make sense and aren’t just randomly picked out of thin air) to discuss the comparisons and contrasts between two poems about cats. BORING! I so wish I was doing another creative writing course, I loved those, but there are no more.

I was going to start (re-start) my diet today. But I figure if I can’t have sex (due to adverse sodding weather conditions) I  can at least have food. So far that’s meant a trip to Sainsburys and then bacon, poached eggs, grilled toms and toast with a large coffee. Not too bad I guess but I’ve 3 chocolate oranges in the fridge and about 10 chocolate baubles left on the tree…

I’m having trouble with my neck still. Did I mention that before? I think I did, with trips to the osteopath etc. Well I’ve not been to see him for a few weeks and although my virus/conjunctivitis/sore throat has now gone (thank god) I’ve still got a really tender and painful neck and shoulders. I need a massage, a good one.

So, time to get the decorations boxed up for another 11 months. I wonder what life will be like come December? Will toyboy have left his wife? Will I have lost 5 stone? Will I have finished this course without shredding the books in a fit of pique? Will I still be eating my body weight in chocolate every month? Will I still be horribly broke? Will Rolf’s water problem have turned him into a mobile paddling pool? (It’s ok at the moment, it’s all frozen).

Right, time to virtually re-visit Tibet and meditate on Buddhist philosophy followed by some scabby poems about scabby felines. Humbug.

Toodles x

 

Could’ve done with a sleigh (or snow plough).

I was so annoyed with the snow on Friday. Not only was 11yr old’s school closed so she was at home, even though we had to drive past it to get 8yr old to school, but it also meant the possibility of not being able to go and see toyboy.

So I was on the drive at 7am saturday morning, pouring warm water into the keyhole of Rolf because I couldn’t get the key in, let alone turn it. I scraped all the ice off and eventually skidded off down the road 15 minutes later. I arrived to a warm toyboy in a cafe with hot toast and tea waiting for me at just after 10am. Not bad huh?

We drove up to York which looks gorgeous any time of year. Imagine it with its christmas market in full swing, trees wrapped in fairy lights, old cobbled alleys and the addition of sparkling snow in the sunshine. It was beautiful. Toyboy bought me posh chocolates from a shop in the Shambles, then a very tasty pie lunch in an old timbered pub.

I won’t go into detail about the rest of the afternoon once we’d checked into my usual little hotel just in case my mother reads it, haha. About 6pm I dropped him off for him to go to his work’s christmas do. I went back to the hotel, showered, and then lounged on the bed watching a film, thoroughly relaxed and enjoying not being a mum for a while. Toyboy came back just before 10pm after giving his colleagues some excuse of another party he had to be at. Oh the tangled web we weave…

He got a taxi home around 2.30am but I saw him briefly this morning to say goodbye. He popped to the local shop and I met him at the bus stop for 10mins. So cloak and dagger!

I then popped in to see some old friends who live nearby for a couple of hours. We had a damn good gossip about the world in general until we noticed that it was snowing, and snowing a lot. I said my goodbyes and left but within 10 mins of driving on the country roads to get to the A1, I was seriously contemplating checking back into the hotel and staying another night. The only things stopping me were the certainty that toyboy wouldn’t be able to come and see me for another night and that I’d still have to drive home tomorrow regardless of the weather.

I have to say in all the years I’ve been driving, I’ve never driven in conditions like that. The A1 then M18 then M1 for the first hour and a half were atrocious. The snow was thick and coming straight at the car so although I had the wipers on double fast I could barely see. Ice began to build up on the windscreen and I realised that the space the wipers were clearing was getting smaller and smaller. Everyone was doing around 40mph and the slow and fast lanes were covered in snow so we were all driving in the slush of the middle lane. I had the heater up full blast and just kept thinking how wonderful it would be to get home.

Well I did, eventually. It took me almost 4 hours and the last hour was actually fine as the roads were clear south of Leicester. It was bloody stressful though and for all that Rolf has been through this year,  he coped wonderfully with really dreadful conditions, my hero

Even though he seems to be cultivating a paddling pool in the passenger side footwell…

So I’m home, the kids are with their dad until the morning and all is well. Except I miss toyboy and I’m gutted really that I won’t see him again now for 3 weeks. Still, he’s promised me that next christmas will be OUR christmas. We’ll see.

Hope you all stay safe on the icy roads.

Toodles x

 

Dashing through the snow.

Well the needles did something that’s for sure.

My migraine which was pretty awful for most of Tuesday, faded and was gone by Tuesday night. That never happens! I can guarantee that they’ll last for at least 48 hours if not longer. I then, yesterday, ended up with face ache. Yeah, yeah I know, haha it’s funny. I figured whatever gunge that had stored itself up behind my dodgy eye giving me the conjunctivitus and migraine and had been attacking my throat, was on the move. Today, my eye is back to normal, I’ve no headache, my throat is loads better but I’ve a streaming cold! I’m convincing myself that this is a good thing.

I had to go to 11yr old’s school this morning for a presentation assembly. BORING. Today it was years 7 and 8 and every single child goes up to collect a certificate for merits awarded in specific subjects. It took just over an hour and it’s bum-numbingly tedious. Thank god that by the time 8yr old goes up to that school, 11yr old will have left so I won’t be subjected to 2 hours of it.

Of course, ex-husband could go instead. Except he hasn’t been to one for about a year and a half. He’s usually away or, as is the case today, makes an excuse that there’s a meeting or something. I think I’ll have to try that one.

I’m off to see toyboy on Saturday. It’s been just over 4 weeks since I last saw him and it feels like ages. In fact it’s the longest period of time that we’ve not seen each other all year! All together now ‘Ahhhhh’   I have warned him that I’ve got tissues stuffed up my left nostril and I’m likely to be snotty but apparently he doesn’t care. Oh how wonderful young love is. Wait until we’ve been together 5 years and instead I’ll get ‘ew, go away. I don’t want to catch your germs…’ etc.

That’s if we don’t get snowed in by Saturday of course.

Toodles x

 

Should’ve gone to specsavers…

My vision has been compromised.

Well actually it’s almost back to normal now but on Friday, what began as a bit of a watery eye ended up on Saturday morning being a severe case of viral conjunctivitus!

I woke up unable to open my left eye and once I’d un-gunged it (yes that is a word) realised that not only was it huge and swollen but also the white was completely red. It was lovely, NOT. My right eye was beginning to feel odd too so I went straight to the pharmacist down the road. Coupled with the fact that my throat still wasn’t back to normal and I was sounding like I’d had a rather unsuccessful sex change, she diagnosed it to be viral rather than bacterial.

So I spent a weekend doing a good impression of Quasimodo.

It’s much better now, although I’ve still got another 2 days of putting drops into it. My throat though, unfortunately, isn’t back to normal and everyone I speak to seems to think I’m thick with cold. Which isn’t the case! Bloody virus thingy whatever it is, seems to have taken hold of all my facial/neckal/headal tubes and bunged them up. That’s the technical term.

Today I have the beginnings of a migraine, which I always get on the left. Also, it’s my left eye that is still recovering. Hmmm, I wonder if I stuck a straw in my left ear and got someone to suck really hard…

I’m off to acupuncture shortly so I think rather than concentrating on the blood pressure (which actually was down to almost normal at the end of last week) I’ll get her to do something about whatever it is that’s going on with me and me bonce.

Like use a big straw perhaps.

Rolf is still wet. The garage yesterday cleared a load of leaves out of my engine where the rain runs off and changed my pollen filter. Apparently that may get rid of the problem. I’m not so sure. I have piles of newspaper in the footwell front and back on the passenger side in the  hope that I can dry it out and then see what happens.

As for the diet, I’ve actually put a pound on! But that’s cos I was feeling sorry for myself over the weekend and ate anything I wanted to. Why can’t I lose a pound that easily?

Right, gotta dash, I’ve needles waiting with my name on them. I’ll let you all know if it works at making me feel better.

Toodles x

 

Who’s a hypochondriac?

Guess what happened on Saturday? No? I’ll tell you, a bloomin’ miracle.

The girls were doing their end of term drama show on saturday morning, this is the same club that ex-husband’s girlfriend’s middle son goes to, so of course all the parents were invited to go and watch. I turn up late and slip into an empty seat at the back only to see ex-husband gesturing at me on the other side of the hall. I snuck over and he’d saved me a seat at the end of the row – a row that included his girlfriend, her youngest son, her sister, her mum, her brother and the dad of her middle son who was in the show!

Bugger me!

The show was good fun and at the end, girlfriend and I exchanged a few pleasantries then her mum came over and introduced herself and shook my hand. A very nice thing to do I thought. Now why couldn’t all this have happened a year ago when I originally started to try and forge some kind of ‘friendlyness’ between us? Because I left it to a man to organise…

I’m still not sure that girlfriend likes me, but it was a big step in the right direction.

This morning I had acupuncture, in the hope that it would temporarily lower my blood pressure a little before going back to the nurse. It was very relaxing and I had a good chat at the same time. I had some time to kill before my nurse appointment so wandered around Sainsburys and went for a coffee. By the time I was at the surgery, I was really anxious again.

Anyway, blood pressure is still up although not hugely. She also weighed me (hahahaha), measured my waist and hips (hahahahahaha) and then asked me whether my parents suffered from heart problems and or high blood pressure (no longer funny, now just waiting for my death sentence). My cholesterol was very good (grateful for small mercies). The fact that I don’t smoke or drink was definitely in my favour. All this information was entered into the computer to give a percentage reading of my risk of imminent demise by heart attack and or stroke. Guess what? 4.9%

4.9%!!!

Yay! Perhaps I will make it to my 45th in a few weeks time after all.

So the upshot of it all is, lose weight, exercise more and cut down on salt. The nurse did say she could refer me to a dietician and for supervised exercise regime at a gym. Which basically means ‘cut out the junk food lardy arse and do some bloody exercise before your bottom reaches the size of a small country’.

Too late…

I then took Rolf (the golf) to the garage as my odd patch of damp carpet in the passenger footwell is now threatening to become a small paddling pool. We discovered the footwell in the back was soaking too (and the seat belt on that side). The service manager looked at me all sympathetically. Yes my car is dying, slowly and expensively.

I have to take it in next Monday for them to take bits of it apart and blast it with a hose to find out where the leak is.

So if anyone knows anyone who is giving away a car, I am definitely a worthy cause. I’ll even pay up to 75p!

To top all of that, I’m not well. My throat is really painful and my neck is sore (like whiplash but without the whip, or lash) and I feel generally a bit under the weather.

Plus, it’s still another 11 days before I see toyboy and I’m in need of a hug

Still, I can sit here and look wistfully at my christmas tree, although in all honesty it looks as if the tinsel fairy has thrown up on it

Where’s me paracetamol…

Toodles x