Medical day.....

Yesterday I had physio on my knee again in the morning. Felt really daft going out in shorts and a mac as it was pouring with rain. Not really sure if her deep massages and the exercises I'm (mostly) doing twice a day are helping at all. But we will persevere as I'm seriously hoping it's not cartilage damage.

In the afternoon I'd been booked to have a follow up ultrasound on a long forgotten lump found in/on my kidney back in 2007. Actually this was another amazing quick response from the NHS as my doctor only requested this a week ago!

So in the hour after getting home from physio I needed to have lunch and drink at least 2pints of water so as to have a full bladder for the scan an hour after that. By the time I left home I was wriggling quite a bit and I have to say the 20min drive was so full of speed humps and potholes and heavy rain with wipers going front and back windows that it wasn't surprising that no sooner I'd parked and ran through the rain to the medical centre I carried on running straight for the loo ahhhh ;-)  Then back out in the rain to the car to retrieve another bottle of water which I downed while waiting my turn. The lovely lady I saw (are they called radiographers like those that do xrays?) said not to worry, she'll manage. A relief to get it over with in so many ways!
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New trousers are a sew-n-sew.....

Three new pairs of trousers for this lovely summer we are having but I actually haven't worn any of them yet as they need huge chunks lopped off the bottoms as always for me.

I've managed to pin the length on them all now, which isn't easy when I like jeans to hit the ground to cater for the times I feel like wearing a higher shoe, but summer trousers with flaties need to be off the ground (especially the white ones) although I also need to have my fat swollen summer ankles and feet hidden too.....bit of a challenge eh?

Then there is always the period of procrastination,  reluctant to actually take scissors to excess fabric but it has to be done and today I'm on the pair that needs hemming by hand.

This pair are so lovely and thin, silky, floaty and cool to wear,  but I suspect will also fray easily so I've cut them with pinking sheers and I'm hemming with a close herring bone stitch,  but on this pattern I can't see where I'm sewing or where I've been and it's taking ages  urgghhh. Guess the consolation is my stitches can't be seen on the outside either .

The white pair and the combats will be machine hemmed :-)
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I may talk junk but not SPAM....

Some time ago when I'd left various comments on one of my favourite blogs they would disappear even though I'd gone through the hoops set to trick the autobots and my comments had looked published, come out, go back, gone! That site owner discovered stuff from me was filtered straight into her spam folder.  Very odd as I'd successfully commented many times before.

Since then I've been tossed aside as spam on two other blog sites and then I could at least nudge them to rescue me from their dustbins.  But why? I never log on as anonymous,  I never use foul language,  so what's causing the blog police to pick on me?

Well if that seems unfair and unreasonable then the latest case of internet auto-victimisation is beyond all justification....my own blog is putting my own comments and my own replies into my own spam folder!!!!

Has this happened to you? Please let me know I'm not alone! Any suggestions on possible boxes I need to tick gratefully received.  But most importantly check your own spam folder in case I'm talking to you and you just can't hear me.
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Tarzan....

We are always telling the children not to play with the curtains but O was obviously bored or showing off or both so he kept twisting himself in the long curtains to watch them unspin while being told not to, then just as Daughter told M to physically remove him O took a leap to climb one curtain. As his feet left the ground the pole pulled out of the wall and the whole lot came crashing down on top of him! Thankfully he only suffered a graze on his leg and a fright. Which is more than can be said for the wall and brackets which took Hubby filler, paint, umpteen rawplugs and extra drilling to repair.

All back to normal again now...

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The welcome wet...

Though not yet wet enough to revive the garden, the drizzle yesterday and today is certainly helping to make it all a little refreshed.

Not too sure if anything much more than sunbathing or going inside to cool off happened last week. I did do lots of washing while the sun was blaring and electricity was free. Daughter and the children were here lots of the time and Daughter brought her camper to open up and charge up and also took the opportunity to paint a few cupboard doors. E had also bought her own three-man pop-up tent which got set up in our garden on its test run.

Monday was a pub by the river lunch out with neighbours and friendsP&A. This was a free lunch courtesy of our solar panel company as they gave us £100 for recommending and actually lunch only spent half so we will do it again when they get back from France and us from Italy. Tuesday was physio (must remember to do my exercises). Wednesday night was my usual pub meal but just three of us this time as the whole crowd were meeting Thursday anyway.

As I said, whole crowd plus extras Thursday at the Truck Stop. My friendM's partner is a drummer and is now part of a new band (all seasoned musicians) and this was their first proper booking. They were great, had everyone up and dancing and we had a laughter filled fun night.

FriendsL&K came on Friday (they loved the new kitchen) and we went out for lunch and then a lovely stroll along the waterfront with the hot sun bouncing off the water and the boats along the marina, we could have been at any marina along the med! Back home for a sit in the garden and our non stop chatter punctuated by cold drinks and tea and cakes......I love being retired hahaha

Did I ever mention how I love being a grandma too? Yesterday Daughter had driven the 150ish mile round trip to take the girls to meet their dad then when she was home took O out for a bike ride and play in the park (he sits on the back of her bike). While at the park O insisted that he wanted to come to see us so Daughter dialled then gave him the phone so he could check that we were in and then they cycled over, the last bit is uphill. He was so pleased to see us and jumped into my arms for the longest cuddle :-)  Tea and cake refuel and then Daughter reluctantly headed home, the first bit thankfully downhill then all the rest uphill, so usually takes her 15mins to get here but 30mins to get home.

And so far today I've just bought a really lovely pair of silky black and white summer trousers, hope they fit.
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A system that works......

Well with everyone moaning about the NHS and cutbacks I just had to note for the record and as a reminder for when I next find fault, the new system for physio therapy referrals here in Ipswich is amazing!

I have been getting a painful right knee for some time now and it's definitely getting worse so off I trot/hobble (eventually) to the doctor. We did blood tests and xrays and repeat blood tests which has ruled out arthritis or bone damage (thought I might have chipped the knee cap or something when I took a tumble in France over a year ago, but thankfully not).

Then the doctor told me it was quicker if I did my own self-referral to physio than if she did it...seems odd eh?

In times gone by it could take something like 10 months or more than a year to get onto our Ipswich NHS physio system (probably much the same all over the country). However, we now have a dedicated company called Allied Health Professionals Suffolk who are on contract to the NHS.

I went to their website and completed the self-referral questionnaire, two days later I received an email back to say my case had been triaged and please do the attached exercises while I'm waiting for an appointment. I was seen this morning, just over a week from my original request!

So yes the system is truly amazing, now let's hope they can work some amazing magic on my knee. Tasha is my physio and today was a full on first consult and examination. She has given me another exercise to add and booked me in for next week and says she will do some deep massages.
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Peaks and troughs and peaks....

Last Thursday got a bit manic with needing to get E to her choir practice the other side of town by 4pm and this was culminating in the end of term concert for choir, percussion (E's in both) and guitars starting at 5pm and expected to last about an hour (often overrunns). I then needed to shoot back across town to pick up friendD at 6:45pm as we had booked to go out for dinner long before I knew I needed to do the choir run.......as if that wasn't tight enough my doctor wanted to see me and booked me in for a 3pm appointment (she's part time so it was then or wait quite a while). So hubby and I managed it with a two car dance!

From then to now has been so quiet and uneventful that there's little to blog about. I was left alone on Sunday and then again on Wednesday when Daughter took the children and Hubby to Duxford for a HomeEd event. Hubby has also disappeared at various times to help friendA with church maintenance, leaky toilet I believe.  Had my usual nights out with friends but this week they were quite quiet evenings too.

Today was much busier, Hubby and I went out early(ish) to do some clothes shopping and Daughter and children were already at mine when we got back. There was some computering and lots of outside playing and E is still very much into her wool work (she loved working in the wool shed at Kentwell) did some fleece washing and carding outside for a while too. Early dinner then they all left to take R to her dance lesson and this is my little bit of rest time before getting ready and heading out to a friend's 60th birthday bash.
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The mini sleepover....

Our recent lodger R was back for the weekend as Daughter, E, O and D did their final two days in 1559 at Kentwell Hall.

We only really had Saturday together as her dad was driving up to spend Sunday with her. This also gave her the opportunity to give him his belated father's day present so just enough time to make a card to go with it.

And along with lots of Minecraft and some Starwars watching there was also a bit of this...

 And we both played this (I won)...

And we both did some of this...

R was out with her dad most of today and Hubby was at a fundraising event with SERV so I had the day to myself and spent most of it reading, a bit in the sun but mostly in the shade as it got too hot for me.
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Ants in his pants....

It was a really warm sunny day here yesterday with very little breeze, so I cleared the laundry bin and pegged it out but did little else but finish my book while soaking up some much needed vitamin D.

Hubby had to find jobs to do...

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My thank you speech.......

Not exactly finished as we've bought the wall tiles but they are nowhere near the walls yet, however, after 21 weeks from the first bit of destruction to the old kitchen I'm going to declare this as my finished kitchen while I can still call it new!

Before the big reveal photos I would like to thank those that made this happen.

Firstly and mainly it was designed jointly by us both but built by my very clever Hubby :-)

With supplies and help from...
* M, daughter's partner, who thought he'd left plumbing behind long ago, his knowledge and skills were a big help.
* Town Kitchens  They not only supplied all our new units, handles, cooker hood and worktops but also fitted our worktops and were generally available for help and advice. They are a great family business and it's lovely that they are all our friends too.
* Jennings Electrical Another family business and Peter is another of Hubby's friends. We gave him a bit of a challenge with all the rewiring needed, and also decided that we needed a new consumer unit (fuse box) too as the old one often used to trip.
Isn't it great that we can support small local businesses and of course they can help us out with some 'mates-rates' :-)
* K M J Plastering Services, who don't appear to have a website. Replastered all ceilings and kitchen walls so you can't see the holes in the ceiling from fitting a cooker hood, or channels in the walls from the rewiring.
* Top-Floors their cute salesman Gary and lovely fitter made an excellent job of the floor, dinning room was easy but the kitchen was definitely not, so well done.
*Topps Tiles  For the tiles and trims and cement and grout that are all stacked ready.
* And of course I played my part with all the moving stuff out, getting pictures off walls and the moving it all back again afterwards.

So here are some "before" photos. This is the kitchen I designed and Hubby built more than 20 years ago.

And this is what it looks like today...

If you want to work your way through the full transformation in photos go to
 2013 kitchen rebuild
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