The Wedding !!!

Well the day finally arrived, glorious sunshine and a gentle breeze, perfect wedding weather.

Spent the morning titivating, nails, hair styled into a reckless curly bob all puffed up like a candyfloss. Left mum having her hair styled and set off on a 10 mile jaunt to pick up brother John. Well it was a lovely day so I thought I would go the pretty cross country way. This was mistake number one, as 20 miles later I found myself completely lost and about 15 miles the wrong side of where i should be !!! Forty five minutes later I eventually found a signpost to point me in the right general direction, and after reversing into several fields I arrived at my destination.

Headed back to mums to find her all ready and waiting and looking wonderful. Splashed some cold water on my rosy cheeks, trowelled on the polyfilla and make up, shoved my facinating facinator on my head and quickly got dressed. Mum was impressed, she actually liked the outfit, so off we went. After a quick fashion show for the neighbours who turned up to ohh and ahh we hit the road.

Norfolk Highways had decided to shove their spanner in the works by closing the main road into Norwich for 10 weeks so we took a round the houses route to arrive in good time at the hotel. After being buzzed into the locked carpark, we then negotiated a huge ramp with the wheelchair, thank goodness John was pushing, ( he also needs a crash course in wheelchair etiquette,) as I think mum moaned at every bump he found, and once into the hotel we encountered a maze of narrow corridors, and I think he scraped paint at every bend lol.

St Giles Hotel was featured on a TV makeover show and the amount they spent was quite extortionate. It was fascinating to see what they had done to it, beautiful mouldings, crystal chandeliers, wonderful original carvings had all been preserved. There was a beautiful central decking area full of colourful flowers outside where a lot of pics were taken. The photographer was extremely thorough and had a real knack for getting the best and most natural shots out of the few fractious toddlers, and an extrordinary girl mingled with the guests and produced amazing caricatures in two minutes flat. John had his done, and after much protesting we got mums done too, Johns was hilarious she really got him off to a tee, and mum had a regal air to hers, and despite her protests she really loved it..

We were allowed a quick peep at the bridal suite in all its opulence, the bathroom was huge with a king size roll top bath, and amazing tiles and furnishings, the lounge was lovely with comfy sofas, soft furnishings and mood lighting, and the bedroom !!!! well it was gorgeous.

The Pimms was on tap and we imbibed a few before making our way up to the ceremony room. Again all carved wood and crystal and beautiful white flowers. Mark and Alison each have a teenage son and daughter. It was incredible to see how these two families have come together, with all the youngsters showing a natural affection towards each other. Alisons son Danny gave the bride away, and Marks son Lewis was the best man. The two girls Charlie and Emma were stunning bridesmaids and little Amy was an exemplarary flower girl. (Her little brother handed out bags of fresh white rose petals for us to bombard the happy couple.

A lady was playing the harp and it was truly beautiful, after the ceremony she moved down to the bar and played for hours. She had an amazing repertoire from classical to modern, and she did a wonderful version of Chasing cars and other chart hits and movie soundtrack themes.

After the speeches which were perfect, short, funny and with a few tears thrown in for good measure (i did get my hanky out) we went back upstairs to eat. Food was a massive buffet of smoked salmon, prawns, thick hot rare roast beef, beautiful ham, curries rice salads and fresh baked rolls followed by white choc and raspberry cheesecake or lemon tart. It was yummy.

By 10 o clock we were flagging, and the party started to break up due to lots having work the next day, so we said our farewells and made our weary way home.

I cant say the day changed my view of weddings, and I certainly wouldnt want one of my own, but I just know that this little family will be OK second time around, and wish them every happiness from the bottom of my heart.

Now this is over, I can remove my nail extensions and continue with the Lemon fizz painting project ( well I will when my headache goes)

BEWARE !!!! I HAVE SHORT FUSE SYNDROME

This posh wedding is starting to affect my normal good humour. I have a hundred and one things to do, and really cannot afford to spend any more time on preparing for it ( its not as if anyone will be looking at frumpy old me anyway) but mum is now in overdrive. We had a trip out last week and bought feathery fascinaters (thats silly hat things for my male readers). Today I had to take mum to an out of town shopping centre because she needed a new lipstick.

We arrived at Boots the chemist, wheelchair in tow as usual, on a sweltering hot afternoon and the selection of make up was excellent. Mum picked a new foundation, and said she wanted a strawberry or raspberry shade of lippy for a change. I picked up a lovely one for me and shoved it in my basket, then tried helping her pick one, everything was either too pink, too purple, too frosted, apparently she wanted a matt lipstick. There must have been at least 500 shades and textures to chose from, but of course she couldnt find one she liked so she bought 2 packs of sticking plasters and decided she had had enough.

Driving home, she said "what i really want is a nice CORAL LIPSTICK !!!!!!! wonder if the courts are lenient in cases of matricide ? Dont get me wrong, I think its great that at 83 she is taking pride in her appearance, but I am so wishing I had the nerve to do what my sister in law did, she said she didnt like weddings and would not go lol.

Anyway I have ended up buying very fine loose linen cullotte trousers and a very pale pink polka dot tunic new shoes (thank goodness Brantano had a sale on) and a small leather handbag which is a totally inpractical size for all the junk I have to carry (blood testing kit, insulin, GTN spray, glucose, money, fags, keys etc etc. I also bought a lovely sheer wrap to cover my shoulders in case of snow !!!!!!!! Now mum seems to think we need a dress rehearsal so I can be tweaked, and to make sure my hat matches my top. Hairdresser is booked for Monday morning, and I still need to get my nails done. Maybe this was not the week to start decorating the lounge.

So far I have washed one wall, and matt is washing the ceiling, but he has decided to go visiting today, so I have a mop and a bucket of cold murky water sitting in the middle of the floor and no inclination to do anything, its just too hot. Still I expect to report that Lemon Fizz is the in colour, and it may be done by christmas.

Enough for now its gone 1 a.m. and I am hoping to fall into bed.

Remembering My Daddy

Spent a quiet day yesterday lost in thoughts of my dad, as not only was it Fathers Day, it was also the anniversary of the day I lost my precious dad, so today I will try and write a tribute to him.

Dad was a self made man, after his stint at National Service in the RAF where he learned to play the accordian with great aplomb, (his claim to fame was that he fell out of a Lancaster Aeroplane without a parachute. It was on the ground at the time, thankfully). He then was employed as a cabinet maker, as everyone had a trade in those days, he hated it with a vengance and made it his ambition to never work for an employer again.

Dad loved dogs and sport, so the obvious combination was greyhounds. He managed with a natural eye and lots of studying of bloodlines to buy, breed and train many winners in his lifetime, making trips to southern ireland to buy puppies for training. All the dogs and pups lived with us as family pets and they are wonderful gentle creatures.

Both dad and grandad had a flair for bowls, first outdoor green bowling, and then indoor bowling too, and between them they won many championships and trophys over the years, my display cabinet still has several of his trophies in pride of place.

I can remember as a child that my brothers and I never got pocket money as such, but there was always a ritual on a Saturday morning of dad sitting us down, emptying his pockets of all his silver and with great ceremony picking up each coin and getting us to guess the date !!! This was done in strict rotation till one of us got it right and won the coin, the process was then repeated till the pile was doled out.

When I was about ten dad opened his first betting shop, it was in Great Yarmouth, and had a flat above the shop where we spent all our holidays. I can remember that the tannoy was clearly aubible upstairs, and that we used to giggle when the commentator said "they are running at Bath" which we thought meant the jockeys were having their ablutions lol (well we were young).
As I got older it was my job to sort the winning tickets into numerical order ready for payout, it was my first "real" job and I got real wages for it too, but dreaded Grand National and Derby days as there were so many boxes to be sorted. Over the years further shops materialised, another in Yarmouth, then one in Lowestoft, Bungay and finally Norwich.

Presents from dad were always slightly bizzare too, on my brothers 10th birthday dad arrived home from a trip to London with an african bateleur eagle it had a 8ft wingspan and ate chicks and rats and mice ( and any neighbourhood cats if it had its way ) It had leather straps attached to its legs for tethering, and when it flapped its wings, it almost lifted my brother off his feet.

We went to see someone to get a pair of rats so that we could breed them to feed the beast, but on getting them home, the first night one had a litter of 12 and the second night the other had a litter of 14. They were chinese hooded rats, and so cute that we couldnt possibly feed them to the beast, so we kept the rats and donated Fred the Eagle to a local wildlife park, as feeding him best chuck steak was getting expensive.

On my birthday I wanted a rabbit, dad bought me a white angora one, and he then visited a neighbours shed with my bunny to introduce her to his buck, a few weeks later i had lots of bunnies !!! Over the years one of my bunnies got out, now it is not unusual to see very fluffy wild rabbits in the area some of them still showing white patches lol.

So dad i had a good day yesterday, hope you did too, I smiled and reminesced about the good times, and also about my other dad, father in law Leslie, you were two of the best, and I miss you every day. Sleep in peace xxxxxx

THE HANDBAGS AND THE GLADRAGS

We have a "posh" wedding coming up in July, so our mission this week was to find wedding finery for mum and myself. The corsages have already been ordered, mine is Ivory and mums is orange and yellow.

I was sent out on Saturday morning to do a recce of various ladies modes in the area and do a risk assessment on wheelchair access, floor space between rails etc. this is important, as one establishment we went in recently there was so little space that we ended up with allsorts attached to the wheelchair as we brushed past things in impossibly narrow spaces !!

We are fortunate enough to have in our village a ladies boutique (Big and Beautiful, sizes 14 to 36!!) so off we went on Monday to start our mission. First thing mum saw was a lovely greeny bronze silk 3 piece trouser suit. it really was exquisite with a price tag to match its raw silk quality.

The staff were excellent, allowing mum to try it on in the store room which had loads of room for manoeuvers . Unfortunately there was no room for mum to manoeuver into the suit, 3 years of sitting in a wheelchair have spread her derrierre somewhat, and no way was it going to fit. Meanwhile i had another wander round, and found a beautiful soft buttermilk jacket and teamed it up with a silky camisole and trousers, she tried it on and hummed and harred, it really did look lovely, but she was not convinced.

So back and dressed again we perused about another 100 outfits, but she said she could not get over the disappointment of her favourite not fitting so we would go and look elsewhere.

Installed mother in the car again and headed another 10 miles down the road. Here the ladies department was on the first floor, and the lift was the size of a portaloo !! The clothes were hideous, I had visions of mother turning up to the wedding in acid Lime green or popsicle pink definitely not on for a white haired octogenarian.

After a quick cuppa to calm frazzled nerves we decided to head for home, 100 yards from home mother said "that buttermilk suit you sorted out really was nice, I think I would like it after all"
for once I didnt argue, I almost did a handbrake turn in the middle of the road, went back to the first shop, ran in and bought it on the spot. Job done, now all I need to do is find something for me !!!

It is with regret that I have to report that Charlie, my punk rocker canary alas is no more. He passed away peacefully on Sunday at the grand age of 10+ years. The house is quiet without his cheerful singing, and I have already decided to replace him in the near future.

I went shopping for my outfit today, dodging the torrential thunderstorms. I was in and out in 5 minutes, outfit in the bag, plus a new "Up and At Em" bra that mother insisted I needed.

I still have to get new bag and sandals, but decided instead to stop off at the supermarket for a case of lager to celebrate instead, Happy days xxx

THERE MAY BE TROUBLE AHEAD !!

Happy June everyone, that is if anyone bothers to read this any more. Here I am another year older, having admitted to a birthday in late May, I am now a whole year older, and another year siller than before. Its been a constant stream of appointments finally got the new appointment for the MRI scan that I previously had missed, believe it or not, it was 10:30 am on Bank Holiday sunday. Still the parking situation was easy.

Went in on time, and had to lay flat on the trolley (i dont do laying flat, cos I cant breathe,) had to have a shield on my chest, so my stents didnt jump about, and some huge headphones, I was then shoved into the tunnel and exposed to the noise of 1000 jackhammers for 25 minutes while they scanned my neck. I had to force myself not to panic, I was having trouble breathing, the bed was agony on my spine, and i was so pleased when they rolled me out again, but by then I had seized solid and couldnt move at all. I sounds such a small procedure, but it seemed like a hard days work for me.

The previous week I was sent to Cardiology for an autonomic function test. This involved being wired up to an ECG machine while I did various tests which included blowing out for 15 seconds, five minutes at a time, with an ECG and blood pressure reading taken before, during and after, and squeezing a ball for different lengths of time for 9 minutes (harder than it sounds) Again I had a problem standing up after this silly little test, I felt sick and dizzy, not surprising as my blood pressure was by now down to 60/30. The technicians were not surprisingly quite concerned, and made me a cuppa and a packet of custard creams before allowing me to leave.

I got the results back from the consultant this morning, the tests show I do indeed have damage to the nerves that control heart rate and blood pressure, and this is also the cause of the gastric upsets and sweating I get after eating, anyway he says he will discuss this at my next appointment in July , but basically there is no treatment and the severity will increase with time.

Mum is doing well, she has had her last physio session and just has excercises to do at home. Her garden is looking good, tomatoes in the greenhouse, and we (I) have started digging the new potatoes from the garden, She is getting a dab hand at scooting herself round the garden in her wheelchair watering can or weedkiller at the ready lol. I started picking the Lily of the Valley in mid May, one of my favourite flowers, and so heavily perfumed, it cannot be reproduced synthetically. The strawberries are now making lovely fruits, and if this glorious weather continues, it wont be long before they are gracing our table too.

I had a lovely lunch and girlie natter with maudie today, first a chinese running buffet, then coffee in the garden by the river, I really must make the effort to get out more, but fear that my trips will have to be local, as I am not strong enough to travel as far as I would wish at the moment.

Anyway I hope everyone is as well as can be expected, keep smiling and be happy xxx

IT SEEMS MY MARBLES HAVE GONE MISSING

Well Hello again folks, Its been 4 weeks since my last confession, er I mean blog, and its been quite eventful. I got the date for my MRI scan, wrote it in my diary, and then managed to arrive a day late !!!! I seem to be getting dyslexic over dates too. They were very good about it, but I now have to wait for another appointment. Yesterday was my follow up appointment at the Diabetic Clinic, or so I thought. Arrived at 8:30 am went in, had blood test, endured the horror of sitting on the scales ! small mercies, I had only put on 1 lb, i felt it was more like 1 stone lol. Peed in an inappropriately small bottle, and then went back to waiting room till nurse was ready. One hour later, still sitting there, when the doctor came out, he said he had looked at my notes, and I should have been booked in for a full annual review, not just a follow up appointment, and did I mind waiting a bit. Of course I smiled nicely at him and said, no that was fine. So back in to see the nurse for the allotted armful of blood, she whispered in confidence that my pee sample showed both blood and leucocytes so could I do another one for the laboratory, I did a deal, and said if she kept me supplied with tea I would try lol. Next stop was to have the back of my eyes photographed, and an eye test. I dont know what his title was, but his name was Daniel, and he had the cutest bum (hard to concentrate on the eye chart) but oh so easy to gaze into HIS eyes, while fluttering my eyelashes at him, as the eyedrops he had administered were making me look like Bambi on speed ! huge dilated pupils very sexy lol. Back once more to the waiting room to to await the Consultant, 2 hours later still waiting, and watching the morning sunshine turn to grey drizzle, mind you that could have been the eyedrops, because everyone was looking a bit fuzzy by then, and actually it improved most of them. Finally got called in to the consultant, who apologised profusely and then started poking and prodding me. Apparently my body is now producing NO insulin, so I am now on two different kinds to see if that will help, my blood sugars are still poorly controlled, and the nerve damage is increasing. very little feeling now below the knees which is a tad worrying. he has arranged for another cardiology visit too and a visit to the respiratory clinic to blow in things, and squeeze balls (no I didnt understand that bit either) Anyway signed up for another 12 months at the Intensive Therapy clinic (oh joy) and back to the waiting room. Finally went in to see the diabetic nurse who explained the new insulin regime, and given instructions to phone her on Fridays with the results of my readings. Escaped at 2:15 and headed home to find 4 messages from mum wanting to know how I got on !!!!! So here I am, no further on than I was 12 months ago, still in intensive therapy, lets just hope things change this time. Loving this weather, managed to get mum out quite a bit, and been playing wheelchair hokey cokey more than I would wish, her wheelchair is a modern lightweight one, but still heavy for an old wreck like me to hump in and out of the boot. Last week she decided she needed to get a new gas fire, typical now that summer is coming (and she does have full central heating). We set off, first to Library (chair in and out) then to the garden centre (chair in and out) then to Argos (yes in and out again) then 20 yards down road to Sainsburys, (you getting the picture?) came out of Sainsburys and she said maybe she wouldnt bother with fire today, as SHE WAS TIRED !!! oh I love her so much.

SPRING IS SPRUNG

Now where do I start ? probably by hoping you all had a happy christmas and New year, as it has been that long since I posted. Several reasons for this, main one being that my health is deteriorating rapidly, all 7 of my cervical vertebrae have crumbled, causing a bone nodule to press on a nerve and giving me tremendous pain 24/7. I am now waiting for an MRI scan which they are wary of doing because i have metal stents in my heart, and the last thing i need is for them to move !!!

So what with this I have been stuck indoors, am losing my confidence for travelling any distance, I fear being taken ill in a strange town if I go too far. There are so many things need doing, the garden is a mess, the house needs decorating, but good news is I am getting a new bathroom soon. (hope its more straightforward than mums).

Still the warmer weather is just around the corner, and hopefully i will be able to go out in the sun and feel better for it. At the moment I am a facebook addict, and am busy farming and catching up with old friends from my schooldays, we all seem to be turning into old crocks.

Of course warm weather means more outings with mum and the hilarity that always provides. She is doing well really considering what she has gone through, only physio appointments now for the next 12 months, and is cooking gourmet meals for one, she is now back up to a decent weight, as i discovered when I had to pick her up off the floor on a few occasions recently but fortunately only her pride was bruised, no bones broken.

Tomorrow I will be off to the garden centre to get a few seeds to start off in the greenhouse, last years sweet pea display was glorious, I so love flowers indoors, and i hope to have a riot of colour in the bedding plants.

Time to go now, I really will try to get my mind back into blogging, as it is great therapy