Nothing to report

I'm afraid life in the BOGOF household hasn't been that exciting hence the lack of blogs.

The side effects from my painkillers have worn off but not before it decided to set off my IBS for a few days. Thankfully that's settled down too.

So that's about the sum total of the news.

Marie

Less (Than) is More (Than)

Insurance renewal. It’s always a bit of an odd time, but this year was even odder.

My insurance renewal arrived from More Than and it was for £374. Given the kind of car I drive this wasn’t such a bad price. If you drive an Alfa Romeo, some companies won’t even quote.

Of course no-one would accept the offer without looking for a better price so off to the internet I went.

Marie decided that she didn’t want to drive my car anymore, so we decided to see what price I could get without her on the policy. Best price offering like for like was £250, from More Than …

Silly me thought that all I had to do was ring them and get Marie taken off the policy and all would be fine. How wrong I was.

I was informed that to get a policy for me only would cost £391, an increase of £17. You could have heard a pin drop when I told the “Customer Manager” in the call centre the price I had been quoted on his own companies web site. He went to consult with his manger and offered me a “loyalty bonus” of £45, reducing the cost to £339.

Eventually he had to admit that my best option was to cancel the existing policy and take out the new one.

Same company, some policy, £141 price difference.

I don’t know what’s worse…

…the pain in my knee or the side effects from the tablets.

The first lot started on Friday – and that was before I had anything to drink ! ! ! Shortly after taking my tablets I felt a bit ‘funny’. It was like I was on the outside looking down on things. Thankfully that only lasted about half an hour after taking the tablets.

That stopped on Sunday afternoon to be replaced by a constant feeling of wanting to throw up. Consequently I hardly ate anything that day.

Monday the sickness was still there and that was joined by bloating, stomach cramps and trapped wind pain.

Tuesday the sickness has gone but has been replaced by diarrhoea and eye wateringly strong smelling farts…

Today I’ve still got diarrhoea but it’s not as bad. The bloating is still there but the stomach cramps and trapped wind pain aren’t as severe.

I’ve had a look at my tablets to see which one of them is causing the side effects and two of them have the above symptoms.

I’ll perceiver for a few more days in the hope that things will eventually settle down.

As for pain relief, they’ve hardly made any difference ! ! !

Marie

Rattling

Yesterday morning I went to the doctors to get some painkillers for my knee. The pain is getting worse to the point where I simply can’t put up with the discomfort any longer.

I saw a lovely lady doctor, who hasn’t been working at the surgery long, and who must have only been in her twenties. Made me feel so old ! ! !

She’s given me three lots of tablets to take and spent ages explaining in great detail everything there was to know about each tablet, even down to when they were first introduced into the medical world.

To be honest I would have been quite happy if she had just said ‘I’m prescribing you X,Y and Z. Here’s the prescription’.

Don’t get me wrong I was quite happy with the full history of the tablets, but she did bamboozle me a bit, when all I wanted was something to stop the pain.

Given that each prescription item costs £7.10 it was cheaper to buy a pre-paid prescription certificate, especially as I’d only been given a one month supply of tablets, plus the doctor said I had to go back after two weeks for something else if they didn’t work.

I was a little concerned as one of the tablets had a warning on the box saying alcoholic drinks had to be avoided. To my great relief the pharmacist said that I could still drink alcohol but not to excess.

It’s bad enough being in pain, but it would have been too much to go without my wine ! ! !

Marie

There’s always one

This morning we took down the Christmas decorations.

Nearly every year we usually find a decoration or two that has been hiding in the kitchen dresser or on a bookshelf several weeks after they have been put away in the loft.

This year we double-checked all the usual hiding places and as we found no stray items, John put the decorations in the loft.

After lunch we did some house work and guess what I found – a jar of baubles that had been in the bathroom.

Before you say anything, I know it seems strange to have Christmas decorations in the bathroom. However we had some spare baubles and a nice looking jar and thought it was a shame not to put them to good use. We then realised there was nowhere downstairs for them so decided to put them in the bathroom.

Marie

Happy new year…

… and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too.

It’s customary to make New Years resolutions but as I’m not a resolutions person here’s my wish list.

1) I wish to win the jackpot lottery. The Euro would be preferable but I won’t look a gift lottery in the mouth if it’s the normal one.

2) I wish to lose weight.

3) I wish to complete the second draft of my novel and start writing my second one.

4) Santa very kindly brought me lots of books and as I’ve loads of half-read or never got round to reading them books, I wish to spend more time reading.

5) I wish to get back to playing the piano and clarinet.

6) I wish to complete all unfinished bits of needlework and sewing.

7) I wish to blog more as we’ve been pretty poor in keeping things up-to-date.

Marie

PS regular readers to this blog will probably have realised that 1, 2, 3 and 5 come up every year….

Merry Christmas

Here’s wishing everyone a very merry Christmas.

Marie and John

Eye eye again

While I was in the bathroom this morning I noticed that my left eye looked a little bloodshot. On closer inspection I found out why – my old friends the colds sores had once again made an appearance.

So it was yet another trip to the A&E department of the Eye Infirmary. Even though the A&E is open 24 hours, people must have been putting off from going over the weekend as the place was crammed.

However true to the assessment nurses word I was seen well within the hour as they had at least four consultants dealing with patients.

As this appears to be happening quite regularly I asked the consultant, if instead of going to A&E each time, could I just go to my GP for the usual ointment. Sadly it has to be a trip to the A&E every time just in case the virus spreads further into the eye.

A bit of an annoyance but still it’s better than losing an eye.

Marie

Only something your mother would say

While I was at my mam’s yesterday she mentioned she’d bought some stocking fillers when she was shopping in Newcastle.

“One of them was for you”, she said “but as it doesn’t have a sun factor of 15 in it, I’ve decided to keep it for myself”.

“Oh what is it”, I asked.

“Some anti-wrinkle cream”, she replied….

I know I’ve just turned 40 but there’s no need to rub it in ! ! ! !

Marie

We really are still here…

…honest ! ! !

Things have been very quiet in the BOGOF household. Ok when I mean quiet I mean not much happening, not no sound quiet.

The past few weeks have been any thing but quiet, sound wise.

We’re both still suffering from the flu* lergy so the house is (and has been) pretty deafening with sounds of coughing, sneezing and nose blowing…

Normal service will resume shortly.

Marie


* it wasn’t man flu, it was the real thing…

We’re still here

Sorry for the lack of blogs these past few weeks. Things have been a little manic in the BOGOF household.

John’s computer decided to die on him. Thankfully he managed to bring it back to life. Pity the same couldn’t be said for mine which too decided to die earlier last week. Sadly it couldn’t be revived so John had to completely rebuild it.

Still on the subject of computers. Our internet network is playing up so getting a connection is extremely hit or mostly miss.

Last weekend John got the lergy so spent most of the time either in bed or curled up on the sofa, being kept warm under the blanket I finally finished crocheting – it only took me 2 ½ years to complete…

John being the lovely husband that he is passed on his lergy to me so since Tuesday it was my turn to be in bed or on the sofa.

Monday was my appointment with the knee specialist. Having had eight lots of x-rays taken, I now know what the problem is. It’s not what we thought, damage to the cartridge. Instead it’s Arthur and his Ritis in both knee and right hip. The solution to this problem is practically the same as the solution to my computer problem… So it’s on the waiting list for a new hip and new knee – in that order.

The medical ailments continue. On Thursday morning my eye was itchy, which usually isn’t good news, and it wasn’t. Sure enough, a family of cold sores had moved in, and as cold sores on the eye can cause blindness, a trip to the A&E department of the eye infirmary was call for.

So not only do I feel like death warmed up I’m now the proud owner of a lovely black eye…

Marie

In Flanders Fields

Some of you may know that my grandfather, Harry Hayhurst was a soldier. He was a Yorkshire man and in 1911 joined the York & Lancaster Regiment.

In 1914 he was serving in Jubbulpore (Bengal) and when war was declared the army reduced their presence to a skeleton staff and handed most jobs over to Indian troops. Harry landed back in England on Christmas Eve 1914 and was shipped to France in January 1915.

The 1st York & Lancs were positioned around Ypres and on the 8th of May they defended a ridge at Frezenberg. At the start of the day they were 950 strong, and by the end just 83 were left unwounded, the most senior being a sergeant. Harry was himself seriously wounded and cut off from his battalion. After staggering down a railway line Harry found himself in a dressing station run by the Canadian Army.

The officer in charge of the Canadian dressing station was a Major, by the name of John McRae. The following year, while serving in the Somme region the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel John McRae was moved to write these famous words :

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

For those who want to know such things, Harry was shipped back to Britain and was sent, first to a hospital in Nottingham and then to Sunderland. There are no records of which hospital but it likely that the Sunderland hospital was a wartime rehab centre for gas victims. During his time there, Harry met and married one Mahala Primrose Francis and made Sunderland his home. Sadly he died in 1956, aged just 66. Lt. Colonel McRae died from pneumonia in 1917.

John

The not so missing black box

For one reason or another our green rubbish bin and black recycle box always seem to go missing.

Two weeks ago we put our black box* out for the kerb recycle little men to empty and when we came to bring it in, it had disappeared. The next day we noticed that our next door neighbours upwards now had three black boxes, one more than they did the day before…

As the kerb recycle little men come round once a fortnight, John put out the recycle rubbish last night, and as we didn’t have a box, just put the bottles and tins in a cardboard box – like we’ve done many times before.

This morning when I was getting the car out of the garage I noticed next to the garage door was a black box and the cardboard box, which was extremely soggy and damp, and still full of the bottles and tins. Some Jobsworth at the council must have decided that as the items weren’t in a black box they wouldn’t take them.

As we have an old battered and damaged black box in the garage, I assumed John must have brought it out of retirement and put the newspapers and magazines in there. I emptied the bottles and tins out of the cardboard box, put them in the black box, and dragged it into the garage.

When I got home this evening from my mams I told John what had happened and he looked a bit bemused. He never put the old black box out last night, it was still in the garage, and our neighbours still had three boxes so it wasn’t them having a guilt trip and returned it. We don’t know where it came from as all the other boxes in the street are accounted for.

Spooky ! ! !

Marie


*our third one in twelve months. The first was stolen by our next door neighbours upwards, the second one (a brand new one courtesy of the council) was only six weeks old when it was abducted and the third was an abandoned one so we decided to give it a good home.

I’m in the wrong business

Yesterday afternoon while finishing off our lunch, I flitted through the TV channels on Sky and ended up on QVC. Normally I only watch QVC when I’m having trouble sleeping as it’s a great way of curing insomnia – five minutes watching the programme and I’m in the land of nod…

However this time I stayed awake, as I couldn’t believe what they were selling. For £25 + plus £5 p&p you could purchase six four inch by six inch fruit pies. Yes I did say fruit pies ! ! !

They were also flogging a festive special – a Christmas pudding, four large mince pies and some brandy sauce for £30 (plus £5p&p). For the same price you could also buy six cakes or six savoury pies.

What astounded me was the company had 900 of each package to sell and everyone sold out almost instantly.

There’s money to be made in baking. I wonder how much I can sell my Christmas cakes for…

Marie

Back in the land of the living

***Wrote this yesterday but Blogger wouldn’t let me post it for some reason so just pretend it’s Thursday….***

This time last week we were nicely stuffed with a take-away pizza and looking at a dining room full of stuff for conference.

We were to have set off for Solihull at 11am but several telephone calls amounting to an hours worth of time set us back a little. John had to take his car as my knee wasn’t up to driving such a long distance. We only just managed to get all the bits and pieces in the back of his car. Thank goodness it wasn’t a Spring conference as we have to take three times as much stuff…

The weekend went ok, though my knee was giving me major jip. My body is getting used to the painkillers so they’re not working as good as they used to.

We normally stay over until the Monday but my uncles funeral was Monday so had to come back Sunday afternoon.

As expected my mam was off the planet and into La La Land. I think we’re going to have some fun times ahead with her especially with the run up to Christmas. Still she and my aunt found it a comfort to grieve together at the funeral.

Yesterday, as we always do the Tuesday after conference, we went to the Chinese for lunch. Except they were closed ! !! ! !!! ! They were on holiday for two weeks. If conference had been at it’s normal time of late October this wouldn’t have happened…

So instead we went to the Wessington pub and have pleasant lunch of ham, chips and two fried eggs, followed by apple crumble and ice-cream, and lemon and blackcurrant sponge and custard.

Marie

This and that

Just a quick blog as we’re pretty busy sorting out for next weeks conference. The printing party for the conference packs is well underway.

Had a phone call from my mam this morning. Her brother died in the early hours of this morning so she was really upset. I’m praying that this doesn’t undo the last four years of her getting over the death of my dad.

Seeing as there has to be a post-mortem I’m hoping this will delay the funeral until after conference. There’s no way my sister will be able to cope with my mam on her own.

My knee is still giving me grief and that’s with taking the painkillers. Thank goodness I go and see the specialist on 24th November.

Marie

It’s knee good

My right knee is giving me quite a bit of grief. It’s pretty swollen, aches constantly like a really bad toothache and the muscles are extremely painful.

Normally my aches and pains usually settle down but as this has been going on for four weeks, I thought it best to go and get it checked out.

Which is what I did this afternoon. The good news is I haven’t damaged the ligaments, the bad news is the doctor doesn’t know what the problem is so is referring me as an urgent case to see a knee specialist.

He’s prescribed me some painkillers and said I should get an appointment to see the specialist within the next four weeks. Non-urgent cases have to wait at least six months so it’s not as bad as it could have been.

The doctor did ask if I could think of anything that could have caused the problem. I said we have been fitting a new kitchen. He replied that we were brave to attempt such a project and hoped it was worth it. Not having to do wash the dishes – you bet it was worth it ! ! ! !

Marie

Exorcism

I’m afraid the phantom doorbell is no more.

We usually take no notice of it when it rings and it can be quite a party piece when we have guests.

However it’s been misbehaving. Instead of ringing once, it’s started to ring every three minutes, and this is even when there are no cars around to set it off.

After an hour of the Westminster chimes it does start to get on your nerves a little. It’ll then have a break and start up again a couple of hours later.

We decided enough was enough so sadly took the decision to have it exorcised – or rather take the batteries out and buy a new one.

This afternoon while we were in B&Q we bought a replacement. We are slightly worried though in case the exorcism hasn’t worked and the phantom doorbell ghost takes up residents again.

Having the Westminster chimes go off is fine, having to put with ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’, ‘it’s a small world’ or worse an electric dog barking that sounds more like someone sawing wood – no way ! ! !

Marie

Back to normal

Things in the BOGOF household are slowly getting back to normal following the new kitchen and the frantic finishing off before our party at the weekend. And yes we are still suffering the aches and pains…

Monday (8th) was spent, with my mam who had very kindly offered her help, giving the new kitchen a good clean. We had the huge task of bringing everything that we’d put in storage from the old kitchen, into the new kitchen. I still can’t find anything ! ! ! Once that was done we then tackled cleaning the downstairs.

Tuesday (9th). My 40th birthday - which was spent doing housework, then having a long soak in the bath to ease the aches and pains. Is it really all down hill when you reach 40…

The birthday bunny was extremely generous. I got loads of books and DVD’s. Can’t wait to try the sing-a-long triple DVD box set of ‘The Young One’s, Summer Holiday and It’s a Wonderful life’. My main present from the birthday bunny was a clarinet. I used to play it at school and really enjoyed it so thought now was a good time to rekindle my youth ! ! !

Wednesday and Thursday (10th/11th) was spent catching up on things which had been put to one side while we were fitting the kitchen. Even got to try my clarinet. I’m a bit rusty but managed never the less to get a note or two out of it…

Friday (12th). Instead of going to the childminders*, the childminder came to ours. John took a half day off work so we could all get the house ready for tomorrows party.

Saturday (13th). My 40th birthday party. It was a lovely day and thanks to everyone for coming, especially those who had to travel long distances to get there. I was really touched by my present/s so thank you again.

Sunday (14th). We held yet another party. This time it was a Turkey and Tinsel lunch time party. It was all Jan’s fault. She mentioned a while ago that we never get to go out for a Christmas meal so we decided to hold a turkey and tinsel party.

There was a turkey and all the trimmings, Christmas pudding, mince pies, crackers, Christmas music – and even presents.

I wonder what theme our party will have next year. We are threatening to hold a Eurovision party ! ! !

Marie

*my mams

New kitchen – day 16

Day 16. 9.30am. The Housemates are still in bed… As this is the final day of the kitchen fitting they decided to have a bit of a lie in.

11.30am. The Housemates having been to B&Q for some bits and pieces set to work on finishing off the pelmet.

12.30pm. The Housemates make a start on the putting together the remainder of the drawers. They stop to have lunch and watch the start of the Grand Prix.

2.15pm. Having fitted the drawers, the Housemates then start building the dresser unit.

4.pm. The Housemates finish attaching the front to the pulley-out unit.

4.45pm. The Housemates fit the final end panel.

5.15pm. Housemate John tries to fit the sink waste pipe to the Belfast sink but it won’t grip. Housemate John say’s ‘oh dear’….

6.pm. Housemate John gets to work on fitting some of the decorative stripping while Housemates Marie finishes off the grouting.

6.45pm. The Housemates bring back into the kitchen the dresser.

7.pm. The Housemates start clearing up the kitchen.

7.45pm. Other than a couple of cosmetic bits and pieces to do, the Housemates have finished the kitchen…