Could you be in 'The Race Across the World?'

 I am loving Race Across the World this year again.  Although some people complain there are too many sob stories I think its those that make it the interesting programme it is. 

Fin and Sioned a Welsh couple are doing well, altho she felt over whelmed with the crowds and noise in China. Their openness makes one realise, its ok if you don't have everything worked out, no matter what your age. you can get through it and thrive.

I love Caroline and Tom, mother and son, she age 61 has thrown herself into it and disclosed to him that her only value she felt was,  if she was useful at home. Taking part has shown her that she had strengths she didn't know she had. I 'd like these to win!

The sisters Elizabeth 33 and Letitia  26 are so serious, but have opened up that they have only ever had a surface relationship. They obviously care a lot about each other, but there is a lot left unsaid.

Brian 62 and Mervyn 65 spent a great deal of their childhood apart in a not too happy a home.  It made it all the more emotional when they had their first photograph together in years and vowed to go on more holidays together.

Without the sob stories The Race Across the World, would still be entertaining to watch, but this extra layer serves as a reminder that every single person you cross paths with in life. has struggles you may not know about. 

The emotional parts of the show are thought inspiring, and the show wouldn't have the same impact for me without them. Its not a travel programme, its a show of lives and relationships and I love it.  

Chrisxx

Blue cleaning??

Dh and I have a cleaning order, I do 'tops' he does 'bottoms'!

So in the bathroom I clean the sink and the surround and he does the shower, which is a large walk in one. I also do the toilet.. neither one of us mind cleaning the room that a lot of people don't like to do. We both had jobs where we were shown how to clean.. me, my student nursing, Dh, the Navy. Our very first jobs too!

We bought this to clean in the shower, because its very easy to get a discoloration in the grouting.

I'm not advertising this, altho' it does work, but to say, when we were in town yesterday, there was one just like it in a charity shop window for a fraction of the price we paid only last week! 

Altho truth be told we wouldn't have known what it was if we hadn't bought one.. I had never seen anything like it before!

Dh uses it and says it does the job a treat! But then we wondered why someone would have abandoned it, as from the box  it looked as new as ours?

Rather disconcerting and why has my blog writing gone blue??

Chrisxx

Oh no!!

 Monday morning Dh took his first cuppa of the day and sat on the new bench, while I was still getting showered and dressed; the sun was glorious. We have our on line Welsh session at 9:30am and we're both often bleary eyed, even going to bed earlier the night before. I would have joined him,  but I love that first cup of tea sitting comfy in my chair with a quick flick at the news of the day. He is determined we use the new bench! 'I will sit there tomorrow,'  I said

Yesterday early it rained, much needed again for the garden, so no sitting outside. When it had stopped, off Dh went to do the peering, that gardeners do over the plants and shrubs.. I heard him call out, and went to see what the shout was about. He was standing by the Buddleia.. 'you'll never believe what I've just witnessed'.. he said. Evidently a sparrow had snatched a caterpillar, yes the one that's a good one, bashed it on the ground and then ate it!!! So that's the end of that, because when we looked there wasn't one caterpillar left. All gobbled by sparrows and they have the very best seeds, sunflower seed hearts and a peanut butter thingy to feed on, so why did they take those caterpillars, we feel cheated!!

Nature can be so cruel!

Chrisxx

Dr Appointment.

 Yesterday afternoon I had a Dr's appointment, I had been asked to attend, so the Dr could talk over with me, that letter from the consultant Urologist at the hospital.

Very nice Dr, new to me, the umpteenth one I've seen! Anyway surprise, surprise the proposed Cystoscopy date had come and gone! So the strong antibiotics I had taken was in vain.. yes they worked and killed off all the bad guys, but they also killed off some of the good ones too, so I had some uncomfortable side effects, but hey ho I survived. 

So this Dr is writing back to the Urologist to arrange for me to have the cystoscopy and I will be given anti-biotics to cover me against an infection. Beats me why an investigation that can infect a patient is deemed ok? 

He said it is important to remove the possibility of a growth. I asked what will happen when it shows NAD.. No abnormality detected? His answer, it will determine that it is not a tumour.. So it may have the same results as before and I'll just go on from one infection to the next.. not great but at least I'm having something done and if I get an UTI I'll get treatment!! But it doesn't fill me with joy, I think I'll just be one of 100s of women who have recurrent infections for no apparent reason.

Chrisxx

A good one or a bad one?

 You never know what is good or bad in a garden  Dh's mother used to stay with us, at different places over the years. She was not a gardener, and she couldn't understand why people had go out into their gardens every morning. And what were they peering at!

Last year our gooseberries were decimated by the Gooseberry Saw Fly Caterpillar before we even realised. So this year we have been vigilant and checked our two bushes every morning without fail.. no destruction of our bushes, lovely leaves but very few berries, awww!

So when Dh saw this on our Buddleia bush we looked it up. Looks nasty we thought, not a cabbage white they're bright green.. does bright colours mean its poisonous we wondered?

It is in fact the caterpillar of the Mullein moth and its quite common to find it on Buddleia leaves, but not so common where we live.

So we feel quite pleased it has decided to chose our garden and are watching now. for it to pupate and develop into this beautiful moth.

    So its a good one to have.

Chrisxx

Bikini polka dot melyn bychan

We always used to go to the library every Saturday morning, but here its not in the main street of the town, and its up stairs with a ramp for people like me, so we don't go as often. I don't understand why disabled people have to walk so much further with these U shaped ramps! I've missed going to town, so yesterday we made the effort and were in town in our favourite coffee shop by 10:00 am. There were a lot of people around, holiday makers? And white whiskery old dogs in push chairs; they always look so comfy!

Dh wanted to go to get his after shave moisturizer and I needed a card so we walked down the main street, me avoiding the broken blocks, I've seen two people trip over them so I'm very careful. I keep hearing that physio's voice saying, 'Lift your foot higher than you think!' My legs are struggling at the moment, I walked too far the other day and they keep telling me I did!.

We did sit for a while and listened to a band performing in the Band Stand, singing summer type pop songs in Welsh! It was very pleasant in the sun and enjoying the music. 

We were busy in the afternoon, Dh cut the grass and I potted up some foxglove seedlings ready for planting out in the autumn. I already have lupins and aquilegia so we should have good size plants by then.

And we are benefitting from the garden, as we're eating our own lettuce and we have sprouting broccoli all growing really well and if you need rhubarb or garlic come to us!.

A rather pleasant Saturday for us.

Chrisxx

What a shock!

My Friday started badly, I've  had a horrible weight gain, how??

 Last weekend we really pushed the boat out, extra treats on the Friday after leaving the SW group with a minimum gain, which I was ok about. Then I had a cheese toasty and chocolate tiffin at our favourite coffee shop, why? Well, we had acquired some free coffee points so had to use them! 

And Dh suggested rib of beef for Sunday dinner, which we had with 

all the trimmings which included several Yorkshire puds and Monday we had ice cream plus, plus, well it was Bank Holiday|! So easy to gain and so so difficult to get it off..so this extra weight gain is the shock I needed. The rainy days haven't helped as we only went walking one afternoon.

I know other women my age who are over weight too and think trying to lose weight at our age is silly and you should enjoy all treats at our age.. do you agree with them or do you think at any age you should attempt to lose weight?

Chrisxx

Let the light in... Liz Newman

 

Such lovely words

Chrisxx

Ellie Simmonds OBE

 We saw Ellie Simmonds win a gold medal in the 2012 Paralympics, so when I saw she was doing a documentary on her birth mother, I wanted to watch it.

She was very emotional at times, so was I watching, as she finds out why her birth mother gave her up for adoption, when she was just ten  days old. Born November 11th 1994, her mother had been told quite brutally that her baby had achondroplasia, a common form of dwarfism and that her child would be disabled.  She was led to believe that Ellie would be like a circus dwarf, short of stature, flat face, bowed legs and muscular. A single mum on her own, she decided she wouldn't be able to cope.

She was adopted by a couple, who also adopted other children with disabilities and has had a wonderful up bringing in a very happy family unit.

While Ellie was talking on the subject of her birth mother, she never once blamed her for the decision to give her up. In fact when you listen to Ellie talking, she comes over as a really lovely person with a heart of gold. 

I loved the programme and then watched the second one, where she is trying to come to the decision if she should have children of her own. She is so honest and open it was very difficult not to weep a few tears with her. The option to have a child via sperm donation, where the donor sperm was normal height was an option explained to her, even that the embryo could be checked, so the implanted embryo does not have any genetic faults.. She decided she wasn't ready to go ahead at the moment. A sad time for her and too difficult a decision and tears fell. 

I shed quite a few tears myself watching her. If you haven't seen it, do, its so worth watching. (ITVX)

Chrisxx

What a palaver!!

 When I had to have a bladder catheter, it was very uncomfortable sitting, so I bought this ring, December 7th 2024.

I thought having the hole in it would be ok for the catheter,, well it was awful, it was hard and uncomfortable. So that's what I wrote in the review and so did other people write that it was hard. . It was £19.59 so I just decided to forget the money wasted.. Just another bad buy!

Anyway April this year I had an email offering me my money back plus £5.00  I thought it was a scam so forwarded the email to paypal, and their advice was not to change my review, just because the firm had offered me money. So I ignored the emails, which were now arriving every day. 

Then last week Paypal contacted me about an issue they said, where I had sold something and the recipient hadn't received it, although they had paid via paypal!! The cushion firm had complained that I hadn't given them what they had paid for! What??

It has taken me all these last few days, via chatting to an AI chat bot to convince Paypal, that its this cushion firm, who have put £25 minus £2.70 transaction fee in my paypal account and emailed me they had!

But when I did check it was  a 'pending' amount, so they hadn't actually given me anything.. their emails now were begging ones, along the lines of, 'We're being nice to you and giving you money, you could be nice to us with your review!' I just forwarded all the emails to Paypal.

Eventually Paypal have apologized for the inconvenience of all the messages,  as I have been a valued customer for 17 years! And offered me £20 as I will not be getting the refund from the cushion firm. I said no need and refused it.

What a palaver.. lesson learnt, Do not buy anything from China!!

Chrisxx