On Eyes and Traumas

What a funny old week we have had yet again.  Last Friday, the 16th, was our wedding anniversary; 44 years of wedded bliss (well, sort of anyway!) We went to a local hostelry for our tea and a celebratory drink only to be interrupted several times by the ring of OH's mobile phone as he was covering for the manager who is on holiday.  Whatever did we all do before we had mobile phones? Relax obviously..lol....

For months now our computer chair has been playing up. I sit to type a blog post or to read my emails and the chair gently lowers itself until my chin is touching the desk.  I pump it up only for it to happen again ...and again... so in exasperation I went to Staples and chose a new chair, half price in the sale! Lovely!  Until we tried to assemble it and found something missing.... only the blooming castors GGRRR!  They handed us as set of castors while remarking "oh yes, that's the second one we know about". Fair enough but it's taken an extra journey and more fuel to return to the store. Whatever happened to quality control?

I have also had quite a worrying few days.  On Sunday, I noticed that there was something wrong with my left eye.  I was seeing 'flashes' and 'floaters' you know the kind of thing that is like a ghostly shadowy dot moving slowly around as you move your eye, but bearing no similarity to the direction your eye is moving in. Weird but very unsettling. I have had floaters before and they either disappear or the brain shuts them out (I don't know which) but these were new and I've not had flashes since my migraines ceased.  On Monday, I rang the optician and booked an appointment for today as they had nothing available until then.  A phone call to the GP received the same response, no appointment available, see your optician, so I waited.....

At my appointment today the Opthamologist put drops in my eye to dilate the pupil and had a good look around the back of the eye with a very bright light.  I am very squeamish regarding eyes, but she was very good, very kind and very thorough.  She took lots of retinal photos and assured me that she can see no signs of retinal tears or detachment at which I heaved a great sigh of relief.  To say I was petrified that I might need treatment would be an understatement.  At the moment, my left pupil is still enormous compared to the right one so I look a bit freakish but, I am assured, it will be back to normal by tomorrow.  I have to go back again on Sunday for a sight test and she will check my eye again.  God Bless good Opthamologists.

Does anyone else suffer with 'floaters'?  How do you cope with them?

Sorry about the lack of photos but I have been too worried to take any :(

Take care all of you and thanks everso for popping in x

On Sealed Pots and Christmas Gifts

It has been more than 2 weeks since my last post. How fast time seems to move the older you get :/

Dear Father in Law has been ill and at the age of 93 it's a particularly worrying time.  He has been given some antibiotics which have definitely worked and he is feeling much brighter but is becoming increasingly frail.  We know that it's inevitable, of course we do, but his quality of life is very poor.  We took him out to lunch yesterday but, although he enjoyed his lunch, I think he was glad to get home again.  It got me thinking that we seem hell bent on increasing our lifespan but do we really want to live to be a hundred if we end up dependent on others and housebound to boot?  I know I don't.  What do you think?

This morning has dawned bright, a little misty in the distance and cold.  At 7.30am the heating clicked on at 13 degrees and I am happy to let it warm up the house a little before we get out of bed.  Half an hour is just enough at the moment to allow us to get up without shivering.  We have a full tank of LPG which I have just paid for so we are ok for a while. It's the time of year when I review what we have spent and work out a Christmas budget.  Over the last year any savings from the food budget have been popped into my little pot.  If I have had a £5 Morrisons voucher, for instance, I have used it the following week and put the £5 cash equivalent into the pot.  With careful shopping any money left over at the end of the week has also gone in. It has produced a useful sum of money....

There is precisely £135 which I am really pleased with.  We are spending Christmas day with our daughter so we will buy the turkey and we'll also give her a contribution to the rest of the food she needs to feed 7 people for a whole day. Oh, and a bottle of something nice to say thank you for having us :) Whatever remains will buy us food for boxing day as they will probably come to us then.

Throughout the year I have also been putting loose change into my 'sealed pot'.....

Yes, I know it's not exactly sealed :)  but I have been doing this for several years and have the strength of mind not to keep peeking or dipping into it in lean times.  Whatever is in there will be used for Christmas gifts and it will be opened on 5th November just in time for my annual shopping trip with DD.  Hopefully, it will be enough to cover the gifts especially as I have already bought 4 of them, bargains snapped up when I saw them.  I don't buy as many gifts as I used to.  Now that nieces and nephews have grown up, there are no school friends to buy for and we have ceased to buy for other adults by mutual agreement, it is much easier and less costly. OH has refused to get involved in present buying ever since we married 43 years ago. If it was left to him nobody would get anything!  He doesn't buy me anything either so last year I finally gave up and didn't buy him a proper present either.  This year will be the same.  He has far more money than me, he just can't be bothered.

Are you cutting back on gifts this year? Does anyone else not buy gifts for a spouse? Looking back, I don't think my parents ever bought each other gifts.....

Anyway, have a lovely day whatever you have planned x